Review: 4.5 stars - I fell in love with this story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2014
Reading Nowhere But Here, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters, the storyline, the situations, and the emotions they all evoked.Kate’s life seemed to be stalled out. With no family, she had been skating through her job, writing lackluster pieces as a newspaper writer. She was dating a man who did nothing but get on my nerves in the few scenes we see him, while mourning the recent lose of the woman who raised her. To put it simply, she is lost. I hurt for her, watching her stumble through her routine thinking all she had was herself.Jamie intrigued me early on. He seemed to have knowledge of everything that went on at the vineyard and was called on by the other staff members to get things done. His easy going nature was a perfect compliment to Kate’s focus on her story. Even with the way their first meeting happened, stress rolled off him, projecting a happy-go-lucky, carefree vineyard hand. But the knowledge of the science of winemaking, and the technical aspects of the vineyard’s systems he was able to quickly recall and share made me immediately suspicious of the persona he was projecting.Renee’s characters have always felt real. They have a variety of moods and traits that make them well rounded people that jump out of the page, and Jamie and Kate are perfect examples of realistic characters. As this story is told completely from Kate’s perspective, we don’t know what is up with Jamie beyond what he shared with her.The beginning scenario of why her boss was sending her to California sounded artificial at first. She’s been underperforming, so he sends her to cover a story he’s been trying to get for years? It made me think maybe he knew more about the situation there and maybe was in cahoots with someone else at the winery. The further I read though, the more I think Jerry just really cared about Kate and was trying to shake her out of the melancholy she was living.This was heartfelt, sweet, and cute. I love that this wasn’t full of angst for the sake of angst. Every negative emotion was in proportion to the hurt or fear involved in the action. And saying there wasn’t angst doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of tension, fear, and bits of unknown. It was just a perfect balance to remind Jamie and Kate of the feelings that were developing.Thanks to Renee Carlino and Atria Books for providing me with a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.