First Press at Blackwood Vineyard
A Second Chance Romance

About this book:

Five years ago, Master Sommelier candidate Avery Vance fled Blackwood Vineyard—and the man she loved—for the polished crystal of Manhattan. Now, with her father felled by a stroke, the bank circling, and a heatwave cooking the crop on the vine, she’s back in the Shenandoah Valley to salvage her family’s legacy. But the vineyard’s salvation rests in the hands of Luke Sterling: the viticulturist she left at the altar, the only man who stayed when the money ran dry, and the one person who knows exactly how little she understands about growing wine.

Luke has no use for Avery’s Michelin-star credentials or her designer boots in the mud. He’s spent years fighting rot, drought, and foreclosure alone, and he’s not about to let a prodigal daughter jeopardize the harvest that keeps the lights on. Forced into an uneasy truce, they have four weeks to pick, crush, and ferment a vintage that could save Blackwood—or bury it. Between blistering days in the rows and long nights at the crush pad, old wounds reopen and the chemistry that once burned hot enough to forge gold rings reignites, fierce and uncomplicated.

But the valley holds more than ghosts. A looming storm, a predatory loan officer, and a secret buried in the soil threaten to destroy everything they’re racing to build. As the harvest moon rises, Avery and Luke must decide if they’re blending a future together—or merely bottling the past. *First Press at Blackwood Vineyard* is a steamy, high-stakes second-chance romance steeped in the grit and glory of winemaking, where the terroir is unforgiving, the stakes are generational, and love is the most volatile vintage of all.