The Villa

By: Nora Roberts

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Sophia Giambelli has never worried about competition. For three generations, the Giambelli wines have been renowned for their quality - from Napa Valley to Italy, and throughout the world. The pride of the Giambelli family and a top PR executive, Sophia loves her job - and excels at it.

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, she 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 Tyler 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.

©2004 Nora Roberts (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Fun read

Loved the characters. All fell together nicely. Great reader. Hated for it to come to an end.

Amazing!!

This was by far one of my faves from Nora Roberts!!! The narrator was spot on!! I didn’t want it to end!!!

Outstanding narration of really good novel!

The Villa builds, twists-turns, has interesting-to-me settings, a rich array of characters of varying ages, plenty of scoundrels, villains and sub-plots, mystery...! Overall, I really enjoyed and have put into my favorites folder.

And, yes, it's Nora Roberts, so one can count on characters in love/lust, fighting love, claiming infatuation... all the while they are thoroughly enjoying the challenges and then the ultimate, conquering love scenes. Sometimes, I fast-forward through these as she does tend to be formulaic, graphic and predictable -- however, somehow, these scenes in The Villa were a little softer in the graphic passion department, which I welcomed. There is a lot of emphasis on strong female vs. strong male characters: will he, won't he, will she, won't she; I found that tiring and cliche' -- but not so much so that I didn't like the book -- I did.

One of the elements that made The Villa so thoroughly enjoyable, was the outstanding narration by Laural Merlington, a reader I'd not as yet heard -- worthy of more stars than available to award! Will seek her out in the future, however, as just excellent!

Excellent!

I'm a big fan of Nora Roberts and have actually read this book several years ago. The story is great several different subplots that all come together well in the end. This is a don't miss if you love romance. The narrator does an excellent job and it was a pleasure to listen.

Nora Roberts at her best

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would absolutely recommend this book. It is a delightful tale of family, intrigue, romance (of course), wine, and has an unexpected twist at the end.

What did you like best about this story?

It had all of the elements of the best Nora Roberts books: strong family relationships, an interesting story line, and a bonus two romances instead of one. The insights into wine making in California and in Italy were interesting. The characters were real - I especially enjoyed the teenage girl.

Have you listened to any of Laural Merlington’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to any other stories narrated by Laural Merlington but to my non-Italian ear, she did a fabulous job.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I was much too tempted to listen to it in one sitting - and did stay up too late one evening to listen to the end of it.

Any additional comments?

It is an audiobook that I will listen to several times again, I am sure.

Very good as always.

Nora Roberts spins a wonderful tale with thoroughly drawn out characters. Very enjoyable reread. But didn't like the twist at the end. Very silly.

wonderful

I really enjoyed this story! even gave me a few giggles!! wish she would've made it a trilogy really enjoyed the characters

Beautiful, romantic,exciting,emotional

loved it couldn't put my headphones away, romantic exciting,beatiuful,tragic evert hinging one story, we'll done Nora

excellent

Good story. I like having some hot romance mixed in with the suspense, story and mystery. this book had just that. The presentation was great....she successfully uses voices well to represent the various characters.

Great listening

Performer was great. Voice changes for each character. Enthusiasm. Didn’t sound like she was just a reading a book. Story ending was unexpected and a bit quick to its conclusion.