The Villa

“Juicy...smoothly written.”— The New York Times “A page-turner...intoxicating.”— The Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Vintage Roberts.”— People “[Roberts]...renders the Napa Valley so clearly, with so much affection, that at times you’d swear The Villa is illustrated…an intelligent, fast-paced story.”— The Minneapolis Star Tribune “Rich in emotion and rife with conflict...this sweeping saga of Northern California wine-making steeps the reader in a heady mix of sex, scandal and the excesses of the supremely wealthy.”— Publishers Weekly “Take a mesmerizing trip through the vineyards of Napa and Italy as the amazing Nora Roberts delivers yet another exciting, sensuous and fantastic tale of love, murder, revenge and family.”— RT Book Reviews Informationen zum Autor Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels. She is also the author of the bestselling In Death series written under the pen name J. D. Robb. There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print. Klappentext #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts exposes a proud family's deadly secrets in this passionate tale of two Napa Valley rivals... PR executive Sophia Giambelli loves her job and has never worried about competition. For three generations, her family's wines have been world-renowned for their quality. But things are about to change at Villa Giambelli. Tereza, the matriarch, has announced a merger with the MacMillan family's winery-and Sophia will be assuming a new role. As a savvy businesswoman, Sophia knows she must be prepared for anything...but she isn't prepared for Tyler MacMillan. They've been ordered to work together very closely, to facilitate the merger. Sophia must teach Ty the finer points of marketing-and Ty, in turn, shows her how to get down and dirty, to use the sun, rain, and earth to coax the sweetest grapes from the vineyard. As they toil together, both in and out of the fields, Sophia is torn between a powerful attraction and a professional rivalry. At the end of the season, the course of the company's future-and the legacy of the villa-may take an entirely new direction. And when acts of sabotage threaten both the family business and the family itself, Sophia's quest will be not only for dominance, but also for survival.Prologue On the night he was murdered, Bernardo Baptista dined simply on bread and cheese and a bottle of Chianti. The wine was a bit young, and Bernardo was not. Neither would continue to age. Like his bread and cheese, Bernardo was a simple man. He had lived in the same little house in the gentle hills north of Venice since his marriage fifty-one years before. His five children had been raised there. His wife had died there. Now at seventy-three, Bernardo lived alone, with most of his family a stone's throw away, at the edges of the grand Giambelli vineyard where he had worked since his youth. He had known La Signora since her girlhood, and had been taught to remove his cap whenever she passed by. Even now if Tereza Giambelli traveled from California back to the castello and vineyard, she would stop if she saw him. And they would talk of the old days when her grandfather and his had worked the vines. Signore Baptista, she called him. Respectfully. He had great appreciation for La Signora , and had been loyal to her and hers the whole of his life. For more than sixty years he had taken part in the making of Giambelli wine. There had been many changes ? some good, in Bernardo's opinion, some not so good. He had seen much. Some thought, too much. The vines, lulled into dormancy by winter, would soon be pruned. Arthritis prevented him from doing much of the hard work, as he once had, but still he would go out every morning to watch his sons and grandsons carry on the tradition. A Baptista had always...

Product details

• Authors: Nora Roberts
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 26.03.2002
• EAN: 9780515132182
• ISBN: 978-0-515-13218-2
• No. of pages: 496
• Dimensions: 106 mm x 175 mm x 33 mm
• Series: Jove Paperbacks; Jove Paperbacks
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature