A rich family epic of wine and music full of unexpected twists and lingering notes.
A scandal scatters friends, lovers, and family across the globe in Breece’s historical novel.
Audrey Dupré, a gifted teenage pianist from an unconventional French family, and Ted Grantham, her violinist classmate, make more than just beautiful music together—Audrey is pregnant. In 1930s Ohio, this is scandalous enough to prompt Audrey’s mother, Esther, to sell their house and flee with Audrey to New York City, telling Audrey’s cousin and au pair, Aimée, they’ll reunite in France. Mother and daughter stay in the U.S. just long enough for Audrey to give birth and privately place the baby with a Russian couple, who name him Sergei. Audrey’s and Ted’s lives further split during the Second World War: Audrey and Aimée hide as vineyard workers in Beaune, secretly helping their hosts hide the best wines from the Nazis. Ted returns from the war a heroic flying ace, finding new love while putting his passions for music and Audrey away (“He gently lowered the violin into the case, aware that the velvet lining also cradled a part of his soul, a part of himself he could never share with Evelyn; a part of him she would never understand”). Throughout the decades, their families collide in unexpected ways, first at the whims of historical coincidences, then via DNA tests as mail-in kits and genealogy websites dredge up secrets. The greatest strength of Breece’s novel is the marvelous, seemingly effortless scene-setting, drawing on smells and sounds to pull readers into its world, which is made remarkable in small, striking moments—like the heartbreak of a family dinner left only for the cook, or the miracle of a piano spared from destruction. The narrative’s sprawling ambition—the story crosses wars, continents, and generations—mostly succeeds, largely because it is anchored by the nearly ever-present character of Audrey. Most of the other characters also shine, though an unexpected half sister introduced late feels tacked on, despite her importance. Still, the tangled legacy of hidden parentage and the realistic ways in which the characters respond to family secrets ring true emotionally.
A rich family epic of wine and music full of unexpected twists and lingering notes.Pub Date: June 24, 2025
ISBN: 9781944887605
Page Count: 302
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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