The Villa Review
Nora Roberts scores another hit with "The Villa". Love, crime, mystery, suspense, murder - who else but Roberts can combine all of these with the perfect balance of each? She presented strong, three-dimensional characters with powerful personalities. Even though she juggled a plethora of characters and scenarios, she managed to make each one memorable in his or her own way. The storyline was solid and thrilling. My only minor complaint about this book was the lack of romantic development between Sophia and Tyler - I was hoping to see more of that relationship develop.
Roberts creates stunning scenery and educates the reader about wine making and the wine industry, which I found fascinating. She manages to inform without boring the reader and kept the storyline from straying too far from its main intention. I was very pleased and delighted with the entire book.
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The Villa Feature
- ISBN13: 9780515132182
- Condition: New
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The Villa Overview
A proud family's deadly secrets are exposed in this passionate tale of two rivals who, while toiling in the Napa Valley vineyards, discover they have much to learn-from each other, and about themselves.
The Villa Specifications
Set in beautiful Napa Valley, California, Nora Roberts's latest novel portrays a rich world of family-owned wineries, complete with enough romance, sophisticated business intrigue, betrayal, and murder to cow the Medicis of Florence.
The Villa focuses on the merger of two prominent winemaking families, the Giambellis and MacMillans, and the incendiary combination of the two upcoming leaders of those dynasties, Sophia Giambelli and Tyler MacMillan. Tyler is the manager of the MacMillan vines and the distilling process, a job that suits his frank and no-frills personality. Creative and flashy, Sophia is head of Giambelli's public relations, and her job has been to put the best spin on whatever her family business produces--hard to do when the merger requires that she and Tyler switch jobs, and particularly hard to do when her own heart seems to spin out of control whenever they're together.
Soon after the merger goes through, Tyler and Sophia learn that they have bigger problems than their conflicting work styles. Tony Avano, a Giambelli executive and Sophia's father, is murdered, and threats surface against the Giambelli women. As a quiet woman, Sophia's mother, Pilar, has made few enemies, except for Tony's new wife, Rene. The matriarch of the family--known simply as La Signora--may have knocked some rivals aside as she clawed her way to the top, but few would have reason to threaten her now. When poison is discovered in Giambelli wine, Sophia and Tyler learn the killer is much closer than they thought.
In description, dialogue, and plot, Roberts's talent and control are as fine as ever. But while the relationship between Pilar and David, the new COO, feels complex and mature, Sophia and Tyler's romance can at times feel slightly forced. As Roberts explains repeatedly, Sophia approaches sex "as a man does," which apparently means with no strings attached. And while that does tend to take the "romance" out of the romance to some extent, the positive aspects to be found in The Villa outweigh this flaw, ensuring another hit for the talented and prolific Roberts. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien
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Customer Reviews
Not a bad read, but not a great book - kh -
Nora Roberts seems to be losing her edge, or at least getting tired. To qualify my following comments, I'm a big fan of hers, and I am a great admirer of her prolific production. However, the last three or four books of Roberts that I've read have fallen flat. The Villa was no exception.
Set in wine country, California and centering around the Giambellis, head of the newly merged Giambell-MacMillan wineries, The Villa is an epic tale of a sprawling empire, with all manner of nefarious business dealings and personal intrigue. Which was pleasant enough to read about, though at time the details about wine-making seemed thrown in for the reader's elucidation, rather than a provision of character background or setting. Do I really care why they head cut wood bearing grape vines? No, I don't, thanks.
My biggest grief was at the beginning, the second biggest at the end. I felt Roberts crammed too many extra players into this book, in such a fashion that I couldn't recall who was who. When Paulie is mentioned at a corporate meeting in some scene somewhere, I couldn't for the life of me recall who that was (one of Tyler MacMillian's employees). Yes, this is a sprawling empire, and yes, family is an important, if overstated, theme of the book. But draw us a damn family tree if you're going to populate it with so many extraneous people.
The ending left me confused and unhappy. Sophia goes from intelligent, motivated, determined, and "in fast-forward" to criminal in one misguided attempt at protecting family. And what is she doing in her bedroom when she's supposed to be at the burning winery? And what about Jeremy DeMorney's broken hand. He can't touch a woman's butt and hold a flashlight and open doors with one hand, and he certainly wouldn't be doing any of those with the broken one.
A better read than Black Hills or the Chesapeake Bay series, in my opinion, but not up to par with some of her other family-centric books (I like Blue Smoke, if you're going for the big Italian family thing, Montana Sky if you like farmers). Not quite worth a 4, but not yet dipping any lower on the scale.
One of Roberts' Best - Shamima Begum -
"The Villa" is one of my favorite Nora Roberts novel. The first time I've read it I got it from the library. It was time I bought my own copy. I got a good deal on it. If you are a Nora Roberts fan, this is one that you have to read.
Good Listen - Vanessa L. Nelson - Seattle, WA
This audio book was great for my drive from Seattle to Washington's growing wine industry in Walla Walla. The story flowed well and made the time fly.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 03, 2010 19:45:05
