Heather’s Bookshelf: The Wine Cellar
Author: Chris Hart
Released: 05/01/26
Genre: Time Travel Romance
“She thought about him saying her full name. Not Rosie. The other one. He had said it once and her ribcage had done a thing she had not yet found the word for, and he had not said it again, because some things were said once and saved.”
“The Wine Cellar” follows Dr. Rosie Conti. The young doctor loses her grandmother and is surprised to find that she has inherited a property in Italy.
Curious about the secrecy of the inheritance, Rosie travels to Sicily and explores the estate. Beneath the floorboards, she finds a wine cellar and a bottle dated 1943. Taking a sip, the taste is not what she expected, but neither is what happens next.
Rosie finds herself in 1943 Italy and in the middle of WWII. She meets Salvatore "Turi" Valenti who cautions her, hides her and then asks for her help. Rosie utilizes her knowledge as a modern MD to try and save those injured by the German invaders. Rosie soon realizes her trips back in time are short-lived and limited. She also realizes she is developing feelings for Turi - more than complicating her trips back in time.
Will Rosie survive her trips back in time? And even if she does, will her heart?
Trigger Warning: violence, war-time violence
Overall, this was a frustrating read for me. The story is told through the POV of the protagonist, Rosie. She’s an intelligent, successful, and lonely young doctor. She doesn’t really have any meaningful relationships and throws herself into work prior to her grandmother passing away. Due to the lack of relationships and loner mentality, she’s not exceptionally relatable or likable to start the story. But her character does develop and her medical skillset helps from a respect level. The setting in Sicily is a lovely one to start and you can picture the little inherited space, the village and the olive trees. The mystery of the cellar and the wine bottle provide intrigue. There’s a lot of promise here…and then it just stops. The dialogue and storyline are so repetitive it is painful. It’s not just the same passages and events on repeat like it’s Groundhog’s Day, but the way the author writes is also repetitive in both words and phrases used and in structure. For example, there are 3 pages where almost every sentence seemed to start with “she” and sentences that are more convoluted than they need to be “She did not feel the thing she had thought she might feel.” I don’t know if AI was used here- but if so, the author should disclose it and make a different choice next time. The ending felt just as repetitive without a great resolution or revelation, however, it did feel like a complete ending for these characters book 1.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
OVERALL REVIEW:
A time travel romance with too little romance and a frustrating structure that deterred from the potential of the creative storyline and the potential of the setting.
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