Eight Hundred Grapes: A Novel

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars | 17,311 ratings

Price: 1.99

Last update: 01-28-2025


About this item

FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME AND THE NIGHT WE LOST HIM

Heralded as “impossible to put down” (Elle), and named a Best Book of the Summer by Glamour, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire, and Us Weekly, Eight Hundred Grapes is a heartbreaking, funny, and deeply evocative novel about love, marriage, family, wine, and the treacherous terrain in which they all intersect.

There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide… What if your beloved fiancé, he of the crinkly smile and irresistible British accent, had kept a life-changing secret from you? And what if, just a week before your dream wedding, you discovered it?

Georgia Ford, bride-to-be, hops in her car and drives through the night, from Los Angeles to Sonoma, to her safe haven: her family, and the acclaimed family winery. Georgia craves the company of those who know her best, and whom she truly knows. Better yet, it’s the eve of the last harvest—the best time of the growing season, and Georgia knows she’ll find solace—and distraction—in the familiar rituals. But when Georgia arrives home, nothing is at all familiar. Her parents, her brothers, the family business, are all unrecognizable. It seems her fiancé isn’t the only one who’s been keeping secrets…

Eight Hundred Grapes is a story about the messy realities of family, the strength (and weaknesses) of romantic love, and the importance of finding a place to call home. “This winning tale will both satisfy on a literary level and encourage oenophiles to pour themselves a glass of a recent vintage to enjoy while reading; it’s a tasty treat for wine lovers and teetotalers alike” (Publishers Weekly). You won’t be able to put this “addictive” (Us Weekly) novel down.

From the Publisher

Hello, Sunshine: A Novel The Night We Lost Him: A Novel The Last Thing He Told Me: A Novel
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Stephanie Davis
    5.0 out of 5 stars cathartic
    Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2024
    I loved this book, every twist and turn and question mark. The struggle. The love stories - not just the romantic ones, but the love stories that can only be told between members of a family that fight for each other. It’s a special book and, for someone who dearly misses lost parents, cathartic and special. Read this. You won’t regret it.
  • Bookseeker
    4.0 out of 5 stars Imaginary Sebastopol
    Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2015
    This book draws parallels between organic wine making and the well being of individuals and families. It seems to a non wine maker like me that the author has done a good bit of research into wine science. However there are a few elements of the book that left me confused and bemused. The first few chapters struck an odd tone. Is this a rom com? A family drama? A tragedy? While I don't require a book to adhere to a format I am familiar with the tone left me confused. This settles a bit as you read further. But than we come to the geography. Sebastopol, California is a part of beautiful Sonoma County, but unlike say Yountville when you drive into town you do not see beautiful rolling hills planted with vines. In fact you can't get into Sebastopol directly from the major highway. You exit the freeway into one of two nearby towns. Both ways in offer a hodgepodge of businesses, antique stores, and flat open land with a selection of cows, apple trees, other trees or depending on time of year grass or dead grass. If you come from Santa Rosa on highway 12 you can see the edge of what the author describes as a venue for artisan food and culture. If you enter the other way good luck finding it.

    Unlike the town of Sonoma and some of the other wine country towns Sebastopol used to lack a centralized tourist zone and the center of town is a weird series of one way streets (turn left, turn left again) that induce a surprising level of gridlock several times a day. Most of the real beauty lies outside of the central area where there are vineyards, apple orchards, and cow pastures. However many of the novels movements from the vineyard to the bar and places to eat have as far as I can tell, no relationship to the real town. Also a central feature of the plot is the the cultural dislocation of the authors mother who is a cellist. While there is no professional orchestra in tiny Sebastopol there are recording studios and cultural venues within driving distance. In fact San Francisco while far away for a daily commute is not completely inaccessible.

    I don't know how much other novels suffer if one is intimately familiar with the setting. I suspect urban areas are much more forgiving places in which to set action. But Sebastopol is not a generic place. It has a finite number of shops and eateries and a really unique mix of people. Good job on the wine poetry. Geography, not so much.
  • LB
    3.0 out of 5 stars I read novels to escape real life. I love HEA! no excuses. It was a lovely book.but I prefer Heauti
    Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2024
    If I wanted realism I would read documentaries. Or just remember my own life.i read to enjoy Happy times with breathless anticipations ! Call my life boring,but many have felt jealous of what we have. Still I read for enjoyment and a little sizzle between couples. Or sizzle fizzled out 25 years ago. Sexy novels take my mind and make my body tingle, much better and affair that would tear a marriage apart. I'll keep reading! It's an okay story to read. Very well written. The Oprah group would probably Love it.!
  • KatPiper
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully crafted story full of wonderful characters
    Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2016
    Eight Hundred Grapes is a beautifully developed story about family, passion, secrets, winemaking, and learning to come to grips with all the surprises--big and little--that life throws your way. Georgia, the main character, couldn't wait to get away from the rural life of a winemaker's daughter in the Sonoma valley of Northern California. She ran to embrace a new life as a law student, then a lawyer, in the big city of L.A. She returns home suddenly, after learning about a secret her fiancé had kept from her--that he had a child he only recently found out about. Georgia runs back to her childhood home to find comfort in her family, her parents and her grown twin brothers, with the naive certainty that everything she knew about her family would be exactly as it was when she was growing up. But people change and everyone has secrets. And nothing is ever the same. Georgia begins a long process of trying to deal with these changes as she muses "You hurry up, ... try to make childhood end. Then, as an adult, you have no idea why you were running away. What, exactly, you needed so desperately to get away from."

    The author appears to have an extensive knowledge of grapes, wine and the process of winemaking. Without going into too much technical detail, she beautifully describes the love and passion and pride that Georgia's father put into his work. She describes, through Georgia's words "My father never measured success [as] reaching the tip-top of something, as if there was an objective tip-top. My father measured it by how well you figured out what you wanted for your life--what you needed to be happy." Indeed!

    As each of the secrets gets revealed, you find yourself drawn into the story. That's what makes it for me--being drawn in so that I cannot put the book down. This is a beautifully crafted story, full of wonderful characters, all so likeable even with their flaws.

    Or perhaps because of them.

    You decide.
  • Amazon Customer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Romancing and wine
    Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2024
    While somewhat predictable and a soap opera, it’s still a compelling read if you love wine and the culture surrounding it. If you’ve been to Sonoma, Napa or the Russian River Valley, you’ll for sure enjoy it..
  • Cynthia Bowers
    5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful story
    Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2024
    The ending brought me to tears.

    Since my first Laura Dave book The Last Thing He Told me was a mystery, I mistakenly bought this book expecting a mystery.

    At first I was disappointed it wasn’t. But as I continued reading I was able to visualize Georgia’s family and their vineyard and I felt very connected to their story.

    The book didn’t hold many huge surprises, but the little surprises were heartwarming and life affirming.

    And I learned a little something about wine-making in the process.

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