Drunk on love

Jasmine Guillory

Book - 2022

"Margot Noble needs some relief from the stress of running the family winery with her brother. Enter Luke: sexy, charming, and best of all in the too-small world of Napa, a stranger. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and Margot is delighted that she lucked into the perfect one-night stand she'll never have to see again. That is, until the winery's newest hire, Luke, walks in the next morning. Margot is determined to keep things purely professional, but when their every interaction reminds her of the attraction still bubbling between them, it proves to be much more challenging than she expects. Luke Williams had it all, but when he quits his high-salary tech job in Silicon Valley in a blaze of burnout and moves back to... Napa to help a friend, he realizes he doesn't want to tell the world--or his mom--why he's now working at a winery. His mom loves bragging about her successful son--how can he admit that the job she's so proud of broke him? Luke has no idea what is next for him, but one thing is certain: he wants more from the incredibly smart and sexy woman he hooked up with--even after he learns she's his new boss. But even if they can find a way to be together that wouldn't be an ethical nightmare, would such a successful woman really want a tech-world dropout?"--Dust jacket flap.

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FICTION/Guillory Jasmine
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1st Floor FICTION/Guillory Jasmine Due Jun 6, 2023
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Subjects
Genres
Romance fiction
Novels
Published
New York : Berkley 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Jasmine Guillory (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Includes discussion questions.
Physical Description
384 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780593100875
9780593100882
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Best-selling romance writer Guillory (By the Book, 2022), a book contributor on the Today show, sets her entrancing new novel among the verdant vineyards of Napa Valley and inside the wine business. Margot Noble and her brother are fractious co-owners of the Noble Family Vineyards and among the few Black owners in Napa. Although she oversees the business and personnel, her brother hires someone to work in the tasting room. She is peeved. Luke Williams loves software engineering, but stress and racism lead him to abruptly quit his prestigious tech job and seek a change of pace in Napa Valley, where he grew up. Picking up a stranger in a bar is not a habit for either of them, but Margot and Luke are hooked from the first "hello." Imagine their shock the next morning when Luke walks into Margot's office as her new employee. Brilliant character work by Guillory steers their ethical dance in an office romance with imbalanced power dynamics. Since quitting Silicon Valley, Luke has felt like a failure, so to avoid disappointing his mother he fabricates a story about taking a sabbatical and reconnecting with his high-school girlfriend. This lie snowballs into major trust issues between Margot and Luke. Suffused with tenderness and delight, this is Guillory's best book yet.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Bestseller Guillory (The Wedding Party) sets this scintillating workplace romance at a Napa Valley vineyard. Its co-owner, Margot Noble, faces a crisis of conscience when she realizes that her recent steamy one-night stand is also her new employee, Luke Williams, hired by her brother in her absence. Though their intense attraction lingers, Margot's determined not to sleep with her employee (again). Her brother, the vineyard's other owner, doesn't believe she deserves to have inherited her half of the business from their uncle, and she doesn't want to give him any more ammunition to use against her. The situation is just as fraught for Luke, who recently quit a high-paying tech job with a discriminatory boss--a fact he hasn't yet told his mother, who also mistakenly believes he's dating his best friend. A relationship with Margot would only complicate things further--but knowing that does nothing to curtail his desire. When his mother has an accident, Luke quits the vineyard to fill in at her inn, giving Luke and Margot the opportunity to explore their chemistry at last. His shyness and her strength are an orgasmic combination, but Margot's fear of being judged and Luke's need to prove himself worthy threaten their happiness. The lush background and Guillory's signature blend of sexy, sweet, and funny keep the pages flying. This is a gem. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Sept.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Margot Noble and her brother inherited a California vineyard; managing it together has been rewarding but stressful. In search of some escape, Margot has a one-night stand with Luke, a sexy and charming former tech worker searching for his own place in the world. After their spectacular night, Margot is shocked when Luke shows up at work the next day--he is the new employee that her brother hired on her day off. It's a struggle to keep things professional as the two fall further and further in love. Guillory's (By the Book) latest is a fun and flirty listen, enlivened by the engaging push and pull as the characters balance love with workplace dictates. Narrators Heidi Franklin and Ryan Vincent Anderson provide sparkling performances, with Franklin capturing Margot's drive and strong personality and Anderson bringing out Luke's sensitivity. VERDICT Guillory satisfyingly plays with romantic tropes, creating a thoroughly contemporary romance set against the beautiful background of California's wine country. Recommend to fans of Denise Williams, Farrah Rochon, and Abby Jimenez.--Elyssa Everling

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

The new CEO of a winery seeks to prove herself to her co-owner brother but fears her carefully crafted professionalism may crumble after she has a one-night stand with a new employee. Since 34-year-old Margot Noble inherited half of her uncle Stan's winery three years ago, she has been determined to prove her worth in the family business. After overhearing her brother, Elliot, say she didn't deserve her share of Noble Family Vineyards, she quit her marketing job and headed to Napa with a mission. With Elliot's decadelong experience as a winemaker, Margot must work extra hard on the business side to prove her worth. Still, her competence as CEO doesn't prevent Elliot from making decisions without her, like when he hires a new employee for the tasting room without consulting Margot first. Desperately in need of a vacation and a drink after confronting Elliot, Margot finds solace at The Barrel, her best friend Sydney's bar. There, Sydney dares Margot to strike up a conversation with a handsome younger man. His name is Luke Williams, and he's a former software engineer who's only temporarily in Napa to help his friend Avery get over a nasty breakup. One thing leads to another, and Margot and Luke spend a passionate night (and morning!) together. At work the next day, Margot is more than content to daydream about her memories with Luke…until he walks into her office as the winery's new hire. Suddenly, Margot and Luke must navigate a relationship where Margot is Luke's boss--a position she doesn't have the luxury to jeopardize--while they try to deny feelings for one another that prove stronger than any wine. Guillory's latest romance is bursting with mouthwatering sexual tension and desire: "But now he had to work under Margot Noble, while all the time thinking about what it had been like to be literally under Margot Noble." Despite plenty of moments overrun with miscommunication, Margot is a powerful protagonist, and her dedication to her career, despite the numerous challenges, is absolutely refreshing. An intoxicating romance with a strong lead. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

One Margot Noble bit her lip so she wouldn't scream. "I know that Uncle Stan never had parties here," she said to her brother, as calmly as she could. "But I'm suggesting that we do something different this year. Shake it up a little. It's the twenty-fifth anniversary of Noble Family Vineyards, and I think it's worthy of celebration. A party for our wine club members and other guests seems like a perfect way to do it." By the look on Elliot's face it was like she'd suggested turning the vineyard into a corn maze. "This sounds like a huge amount of hassle, Margot," Elliot said. "You want to have this party here? Why would we do something like that?" She'd known Elliot would hate this idea. "First, like I said, it's the anniversary-I know we've never really celebrated it, but it seems like a great year to do it. Second, a number of our wine club members and other visitors to the winery have asked why we don't have parties here, especially since we have such a great space, so I think people would be excited to come. Third, it's excellent marketing for us and our wines-it'll sell wine, give us some great publicity, get people here who haven't been to the tasting room before, and keep them coming back. And it'll add members to our wine club." She hoped. "And fourth, it might earn us some money-we'll charge a fee for the party, and parties like this tend to sell a bunch of wine anyway, so it'll be a win-win." Elliot's face closed up. She knew what he was thinking. She kept using "we" and "our," like the first person plural encompassed her, too. But she knew he thought of the winery as his, and his alone. He'd been the one who had worked here for ten years, not her. Well, they'd owned the winery together since their uncle had died and left it to the two of them, almost three years ago. It felt like Elliot would never get used to that. "Stan didn't want to have parties," Elliot said. "He didn't want us to become one of those wineries where people would go there just to get drunk and make scenes. That's not who Noble is." Margot made herself take a deep breath. "It's not going to be that kind of party," she said. "Just a time for people to come, see what we've done here, taste the wines, bring their friends along, celebrate with us. It will give us a publicity boost, it'll sell some wine, it'll drive more visits to the winery, all good things." Do you remember what a shaky financial situation this place was in when I came on board? she wanted to-but did not-say. Do you see how much better we're doing now, with all of the changes I've instituted? Can you, just once, not argue with me about my ideas? Maybe even trust me? Instead she took another deep breath. "Plus, it's a great opportunity to do some of that landscaping I've been wanting to do." They had a lot of outdoor space at the winery, but it was kind of bare. The lawn between the winery building and the barn needed work, and she wanted to add more flowers, herbs, and greenery to the grounds. Maybe even a little garden. She'd mentioned all of this to Elliot before, but he'd mostly ignored her. "Seems like you've made up your mind to do this, whether I like it or not," he said. "When will this party be?" She wasn't going to let herself react to that. "I wanted to talk to you about it before I decided that." Well, she also wanted to talk to other people in the area first, see when other wineries had scheduled their parties, check to see when she could get the landscaping done, and catering, and all of those details that Elliot wouldn't care about. "Okay," he said. "Thanks for letting me know." That sounded irritable, but she wouldn't take the bait. She looked down at her notepad. "That's it on my agenda. Anything else we need to go over?" She'd pulled her brother into an impromptu Sunday-night meeting to go over winery business. She'd been out of town for the past week, and Elliot had been in charge of the winery, so they needed to catch each other up. She already knew a lot of what had been going on at the winery in her absence; she handled all of the social media, so she'd seen all of the posts and tags over the past week, all of them good, thankfully. She'd been down in San Francisco and the East Bay, visiting restaurants and wine stores. Some of her visits had been to sell them on the Noble Family Vineyards wines, some had been to schmooze with people at the places that already sold their wines, so they'd sell more of them. Her trip had been very successful-not that Elliot had congratulated her on that. She shook her head at herself. That was unfair. Elliot just didn't think about things like that. That's what she was here for. She took care of the business side of things; he handled the wine side. He stood up. "I don't have anything." He stopped, right when he got to her office door. "Oh, wait. I hired someone on Friday. For the tasting room job. I told him to come in tomorrow at ten. William something. Isn't the other new person starting tomorrow, too?" Margot stared at her brother. "You hired someone? Without me here?" He had the grace to at least look ashamed. "I know, I'm sorry. But he came by on Friday and I interviewed him on the spot. I liked him a lot, and I think you will, too." Margot knew she shouldn't have left her brother in charge at the winery for a whole week. "You keep saying we're short-staffed," Elliot said, "and I know you wanted to get someone in before summer. And I need plenty of time to train staff on our wines, so when I found a good person, I thought we should hire him right away." Margot took a deep breath. Just as she'd told herself she'd been unfair to Elliot, this happened. "I wish you'd waited," she said. "I'm the one who works closely with the tasting room staff, not you. We aren't in that much of a rush." They were short-staffed and they did need to get someone hired and trained up quickly. But the wrong person would make her life more difficult, not his. Elliot let out a huff. "I have his résumé somewhere," Elliot said. "I can call him, tell him it's not final, that he has to interview with you tomorrow." Margot sighed. That would just make them look unprofessional. "No, that's okay. I'll deal with it." Elliot nodded on his way out the door. He'd probably known she would say that. "Okay. See you tomorrow." Margot looked around at her office after her brother walked out. She had mail to open and file, messages to listen to, and all sorts of notes from the past few days that she needed to put into a spreadsheet. She'd planned to do all of that tonight. But her irritation was high, like it often was after dealing with her brother. She needed to get out of here, vent, see a friendly face. She'd deal with all of this in the morning. She drove home, to her little house in Napa, and fumed the whole way. She'd known-of course she'd known-that her brother wouldn't be excited about having a party (for the public!) at the winery. But somehow, she'd still hoped that he'd tell her it was a good idea, that it would be good for the winery, compliment her on her initiative, say something about how proud he was that they'd brought this winery back from the brink together. Of course he hadn't. Noble Family Vineyards had been tiny for the first fifteen or so years; a winery that barely anyone had ever heard of, except for a few connoisseurs. Uncle Stan had bought more land and increased production about ten years before, soon after he'd hired Elliot as his assistant. She'd spent the past three years trying to make his-and Elliot's-hard work succeed. And now they were almost there. That's why she'd wanted to have a party in the first place. All she could do now was to make this party as great as possible. She parked in her driveway and, without even going inside her house, walked the few blocks to the Barrel. "Hey," she said when she sat down at the bar. "Hey yourself," her friend Sydney said from behind the bar. "Welcome back. I thought you'd be working late tonight." Sydney owned the restaurant and was often either at the bar or at the front door on a busy night. "I should still be working, but I had to leave the winery so I didn't yell at my brother, and I thought I'd come yell here instead." Sydney grinned. She knew all about Margot's brother. "What did he do this time?" Sydney picked up a glass, poured some wine into it, and set it down in front of Margot. Margot hadn't purposely rented a house within walking distance of the Barrel, but it was definitely an advantage. Especially since Sydney rarely let her pay for her drinks. "He hired someone for the tasting room while I was gone. And you know my brother has a one-track mind when it comes to hiring-all he cares about is whether they can talk intelligently about wine in the way he wants them to. Yes, of course, people have to be passionate about wine and be able to represent our winery correctly. I care about that, too! But the tasting room jobs are customer service at their core; it's also important for tasting room staff to be engaging, not to bore people about wine, not to be condescending. But Elliot doesn't care about any of that. He didn't want me to expand our tasting room in the first place, even though it's been successful! And do you know who's going to have to deal with the fallout if this William or whoever Elliot hired sucks?" Sydney pushed a jar of breadsticks in front of her. "You?" she asked. "Me!" Margot said. She took a sip of wine and picked up a breadstick. "I need people who can sell wine, not just talk about it! Make people want to stay longer, join our wine club, all of that! What good will it do us if we have to get rid of whoever this is in the midst of the busy season, or if they quit and leave us in the lurch, or . . ." Margot stopped herself, and looked at Sydney. Then they both burst out laughing. "I'm doing it again, aren't I?" Margot said. Sydney nodded. "You're absolutely doing it again. I wasn't going to say it, though." Not two weeks before, Margot had been sitting right here at the bar, and had told Sydney she was going to work on not letting the little things get to her, especially the little things about working with her brother. And now here she was, doing it again. "You could have said it." She waved a breadstick at Sydney. "You're probably the only person who could, actually. Okay, you're right-no more work talk out of me tonight. Tomorrow, I'll tell you about my trip and what a success it was, but tonight, I'm just going to sit at the bar and keep you company and eat all of the snacks that chef of yours wants to send over to me." Just then, a plate of arancini landed in front of Margot, and she grinned, first at the waiter, then at Sydney. "See? A sign." Sydney laughed. "A sign indeed. And yes, definitely, no talking about work, but did anyone tell you about the local drama over the weekend while you were gone?" Margot's eyes widened as she picked up one of the cheese-filled fritters. "No. This sounds juicy. Tell me." "Well . . ." Sydney looked over Margot's shoulder. Margot saw her friend's professional smile flash on. "Welcome to the Barrel. Would you like to sit at the bar?" She left Margot to go serve the couple who had just walked in, but that didn't bother Margot. That's what they did, these nights that she came in when Syd was behind the bar. They had snatches of gossip and catching up and laughter, whenever Sydney could spare time from serving people and putting out fires elsewhere in the restaurant. Margot pulled her phone out as she sipped her wine and snacked. She should deal with some of these emails that had come in over the weekend, and get responses ready to go out on Monday morning. This was especially important since she'd have to spend her Monday-and much of the upcoming week-training two new staff members. If only her brother had checked with her schedule and . . . no. No, she wasn't going to do that now, remember? This was fine. It would be fine. She would just deal with these emails tonight and then this new person tomorrow and she would figure it all out. She hoped. Sydney came back to take the drink order from someone who had just sat down next to Margot, and then poured more wine in Margot's glass. "You know what you need?" Sydney said. "You need a vacation." "I was just out of town for a week." Sydney shook her head. "That wasn't a vacation, you were working the whole time. You need a real sit on the beach, go out to dinner without it being a work dinner, wander around a city for fun, no checking your work emails at seven p.m. on Sunday night kind of vacation." "That sounds incredible," Margot said. "But I don't have time-or the mental energy-to actually plan a vacation. I just want to be on vacation, without having to deal with any of the decisions that go into that. What I need is someone else to plan it for me." "You would never let anyone else plan a vacation for you," Sydney said. "Well, other than me, and I don't have time for that, either." Margot thought about that. "Maybe if they knew me well enough? If I trusted them enough?" They looked at each other and laughed. "Right," Sydney said. "Never mind." Someone called Sydney's name at the door, and she came out from behind the bar. Margot slid her phone into her jacket pocket and went to the bathroom. When she came out of the stall, she looked at herself in the mirror. Well, even though she was exhausted, at least her hair looked good today. That's probably why she'd managed to keep her cool with her brother-she had special powers on good-hair days, she was almost positive. She touched up her lipstick and walked out of the bathroom. Excerpted from Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.