Book Review: Love the Wine You're With

Love the Wine You’re With by Kim Gruenenfelder

I finished up my beach trip with another great beach book – Love the Wine You’re With by Kim Gruenenfelder. The title, cover, and book jacket let you know this is the perfect book to enjoy while lounging at the beach or by the pool with your own glass of wine.

It is a fun bit of chick lit – made for women by a woman about women. This novel focuses on three friends in their early thirties struggling to discover what (and who) they want in their lives. Each woman deals with her own issues in relationships and work. One woman is having an affair with her married boss, another is now deemed “too old” for the acting roles she is auditioning for, and the third woman is stuck in a great job with a great man but finds both unfulfilling.

People often hear about the quarter-life crisis individuals face in their mid-twenties, but you do not often hear about the chaos of life in one’s early thirties. Since I am there, it was refreshing to hear how these characters faced their own age battles. While I am far removed from their seasons of singledom, I found their relationship seeking adventures entertaining. Who doesn’t love a good story about friends and their romantic pursuits and failures? Haven’t there been entire television series about this same idea?

It is also nice to read something that ends in a romantic comedy fashion. I enjoy romantic comedies; so, it makes perfect sense, that I enjoy a book that ends with the women ending up with the right men all tied up nicely. After reading so many heavy books lately, this was a relaxing way to end my trip to beach – with a glass of my favorite Moscato in hand. I also loved all the wine puns throughout the book. So. Many. Fun. Puns! 

My only issue is that three women friends seemed so similar that I often had a hard time distinguishing between characters. About halfway through the novel, I was finally able to identify which character was which.

This is the first book I have read by the author, but it will not be my last.

* I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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