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An 831 Stories Romance
by Eliza Dumais
A gorgeous, seductive fiction debut from wine and dating columnist Eliza Dumais, about parsing romantic clarity amidst the mind-muddling effects of fermented grapes, the French language, and exhausting physical labor. Perfect for fans of Under the Tuscan Sun, French Kiss, and The Pairing.
Alice is bored—romantically, professionally, creatively. So when her boss, a prominent wine importer, suggests she work a grape harvest in France, she sees it as a welcome opportunity to course-correct her apathy. Though Alice is plenty skeptical of the drink-pray-love premise, she begins to let her guard down when she finds herself picking riesling and practicing her French alongside a charming cast of international characters—and, most notably, Henri, the vineyard owner's nephew, who's just as lost as she is.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (5/28/2026)
This past week I read the June read of the 1,000 Books Before You Dye: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. A plot set in 1940's Louisiana. I started this book with mixed feelings. I found this to be a heartbreaking story with lessons of racism, injustice and self-worth. It will be an interest...
-Lynne_G
"The characters are just as vivid as the setting ... an addictive contemporary that will delight hopeless romantics and armchair travelers alike." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Reminiscent of a summer fling, this is a warm and relaxing though fleeting read." —Kirkus Reviews
Grape Juice begs to be read ravenously." —The Washington Post
"This book was basically tailor-made for me: a sexy European romance that had me feeling like I'd escaped to France from the very first page." —Marisa Meltzer, bestselling author of Glossy and It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin
"Grape Juice is the romantic fantasy that has me refilling my glass time and time again." —Jamie Beck, photographer and New York Times bestselling author of An American in Provence
This information about Grape Juice was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Eliza Dumais is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York, with a focus on wine, food, travel, and sex (hedonism, essentially). You can find her work in Vogue, Food & Wine, Cosmopolitan, and VICE, and she is the co-editor of independent wine magazine, SWURL. Grape Juice is her debut novella.
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