It was May, and already the vines were awakening, their buds like tiny fists reaching for the sun.

The road snaked over the lush vineyards of Champagne as Inès Chauveau sped southwest out of Reims, clouds of dust ballooning in the wake of her glossy black Citroën, wind whipping ferociously through her chestnut hair. When past and present finally collide, Liv finds herself on a road to salvation that leads right to the caves of the Maison Chauveau. But the older woman has an ulterior motive-and a tragic, decades-old story to share. New York, 2019: Recently divorced, Liv Kent is at rock bottom when her feisty, eccentric French grandmother shows up unannounced, insisting on a trip to France. When Céline recklessly follows her heart in one desperate bid for happiness, and Inès makes a dangerous mistake with a Nazi collaborator, they risk the lives of those they love-and the vineyard that ties them together. Inès fears they’ll be exposed, but for Céline, the French-Jewish wife of Chauveau’s chef de cave, the risk is even greater-rumors abound of Jews being shipped east to an unspeakable fate. As the danger mounts, Michel turns his back on his marriage to begin hiding munitions for the Résistance. The author of the “engrossing” ( People) international bestseller The Room on Rue Amélie returns with a moving story set amid the champagne vineyards of France during the darkest days of World War II, perfect for fans of Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz.Ĭhampagne, 1940: Inès has just married Michel, the owner of storied champagne house Maison Chauveau, when the Germans invade.

The Winemaker's Wife by Kristin Harmel