My favourite flavour of ice cream and Book #12: The Vineyard

You know that feeling when you walk into an ice cream shop, confronted with all those new and delicious flavours, only to walk out again with your tried and true favourite? (It’s caramel ripple for me by the way!). Well, the same can be said about me and books. I can walk into a library, a bookstore, or a thrift shop and almost always walk out with an author I know, leaving behind so many new, unread, authors awaiting me on the shelves.

Couldn't decide which flavour!

However, on this particular day, I broke tradition, stepped out of my comfort zone, and reached for a new author – Barbara Delinksy! Why had I not sampled her goods earlier? She is fantastic! In The Vineyard, Delinksy gave me a love story, history, family saga, and a happy ending. The perfect combination!

Olivia is the focal point of this novel, a single mother to dyslexic daughter Tess, struggling to make ends meet and looking for a new job as a photo restorer. As summer approaches, Olivia finds herself writing the story of Natalie, a 70-year-old woman and matriarch of a vineyard on Rhode Island. No mean feat as Olivia overcame dyslexia herself. Yet, as Olivia uncovers Natalie’s family secrets, childhood love, and bridges the relationship between mother and daughter, she herself finds love and a new life for her and Tess.

It’s a simple story and could so easily have been rather dull, but Delinsky has added enough twists and turns, characters and plots within the book itself that it holds its own, and although the ending may be rather predictable, it’s what I was hoping for – so I wasn’t disappointed!

Now I know, that each time I step inside a bookshop or library I’ll be looking for work by an extra author, surname beginning with D.