This highly-engaging and cleverly-written novel by Ashley Elston follows the complicated life of Lucca Marino aka Evie Porter as she carries out various sketchy projects for a Mr. Smith and his not-so-lawful organization. The storyline takes us through the unsavory projects which Evie was contracted to complete. Evie happens to fall for Ryan, the object of one of her investigations, until doppelganger Lucca Marino is sent to alert Ryan of Evie’s scrutiny of his company. IT tech Devon assists Evie in uncovering the criminal acts of Mr. Smith. We learn all about the Tempranillo grape and the various nicknames or alternative names for the grape. We enjoyed a 2013 Muga Rioja Reserva and discussed the Ah-so two-pronged wine opener, used to open older or fragile corks.

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes? Jojo Moyes’ 2023 novel helps answer that question. Nisha Cantor, a wealthy globetrotter, and Sam Kemp, an overly stressed woman with an awful job, accidentally pick up each other’s gym bag. Inside Nisha’s bag was a beautiful pair of 6-inch Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, which makes Sam feel more confident when she wears them. Nisha is desperate to find them since her husband is divorcing her and wants the shoes back. Both women’s lives turn upside down with new life experiences. This was a funny, easy read with numerous twists and turns in the plot. And we learned all about famous and infamous wine fraud - Rudy Kurniawan to Yellowtail.

This intriguing 2022 novel by Nikki Erlick focuses on the age-old question of how much time one has to live. The tale begins when everyone in the world over 22 years of age receives a small wooden box with the message: The measure of your life lives within. Every person found a piece of string in the box correlating to how long they will live. We follow the lives of eight New Yorkers and the repercussions of the choices they make based on their string length. Following the theme of the wooden box, we try a boxed white wine from La Petite Frog Picpoul out of Southern France. It proved to be a crisp, tasty wine that we enjoy while learning about the aspects of boxed wine.