The Villa

Title: The Villa

Author: Nora Roberts

Publisher: GP Putnam And Sons

Year: 2002



One of my favourite books by Nora Roberts, The Villa is a complex story with several sub-plots and strong characters. The Villa focuses on the merger of two prominent winemaking families, the Giambellis and MacMillans, and the the two upcoming leaders of those dynasties, Sophia Giambelli and Tyler MacMillan. Tyler is the manager of the MacMillan vines while Sophia heads up Giambelli's public relations department.

As part of the merge, Tereza and Eli require that Sophia and Tyler work together, each learning the other's job so when they assume control of the company, the both know the company inside out. They also bring in David Cutter, formerly of La Coeur, as COO, to ensure a smooth merger and to oversee operations of the newly formed company. Neither Tyler or Sophia are happy about working together but eventually sparks fly and romance blossoms.

The smooth transition doesn't last long as it is discovered that bottles of wine has been tampered with, resulting in at least two deaths. Added to that, Tony Avano, Sophia's father, is murdered. As the Giambelli's struggle to make sense of what is going on and to find the person(s) responsible, Sophia must deal with the death of her father and the bitter, jealous ex-wife who is doing everything she can to cast doubt on the Giambellis and make a name for herself.

There are many other sub-plots in this book - Rene's attempt to claw her way to the top at the expense of the Giambellis, Kris' jealously of Sophia, Donato and Gina's troubled marriage and Tony's philandering ways but the best of the bunch would have to be the blossoming romance between David and Pilar. Pilar fights her attraction to David but in the end David sweeps her off her feet and she wins the affection of his two children, Theo and Maddy.

With exceptionaly strong characters, lively dialogue, red-herrings and many twists, Nora Roberts has written a fast-paced novel that will keep you immersed until the end. This book is classic Nora.