These Tangled Vines, by Julianne Maclean, starts with what we would all love to hear – you just inherited some property in Italy! At least, I would! I’ve never been to Italy but if someone wanted to give me a vineyard, I don’t think I would turn it down.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

The book is set in Tuscany and primarily follows three women: Fiona, Lillian, and Sloane. There are spoilers in this review, so if you plan to read the book, SCROLL past the sections with “Spoilers.” 😂😂

The setting was beautiful, as the author described it. I’ve seen pictures of Italy and I would love to go there one day. It seems like such a serene, calm, and peaceful environment. The food would be a bonus! The author did a good job of including enough descriptions to make me wish I was there.

Fiona Bell is a young woman in her 30s (young to me, anyway). Her perspective is the only one shared in first person, and she is a likable character. She is single with some relationship issues. Fiona was 18 when her mother died, and on her deathbed her mother revealed to Fiona that her father—who she has known these past 18 years as her father—is not her biological father. (What?? Can you imagine hearing that from your mother on her deathbed?)

Her biological father (Anton) owns a vineyard in Italy, but her mother makes her promise to keep this news a secret from her father, because it would devastate him. The father who raised her has been in a wheelchair her whole life due to a horrible accident in Italy. He had only bad memories of their trip. The dutiful daughter kept her promise for all these years. She didn’t want to hurt her father.

Fiona receives a phone call from a lawyer in Italy, who tells her that her biological father had passed away. He urges her to be there for the reading of the will as she is named as one of the heirs. She was too late to attend the funeral, but if she hurried she could make it in time for the reading of the will. After much contemplation, she lied to her father and his caregiver, got on the next flight to Italy, and began to face her past. Her mother’s past. Her father’s past. It was quite a tangled story, hence the title.

Fiona had always believed Anton to be a man who took advantage of her mother, a womanizer, or some other connotation of negative relationship, so she never sought to know him or attempt to have a relationship with him. She also didn’t want to hurt her disabled father by engaging in an attempt to know him. Little did she know she would be walking into a hornet’s nest with Anton’s two older children—who only just learned that they had a half-sibling—with all the implications of her “stealing” their inheritance as an illegitimate child, manipulations by her mother, and other serious accusations regarding her character and her intentions.

The second woman followed in the book is Lillian, Fiona’s mother. She and her husband went to Tuscany for a season, while her husband was writing his first novel. She took a job at a vineyard in Tuscany, and the reader is aware that this is the same vineyard which is owned by Fiona’s biological father Anton. The author jumps back and forth in history to share details of the relationship Lillian had with Anton. It was clearly an affair, which both of them seemed to genuinely try not to engage in. He was the perfect gentleman.

Anton’s wife was living in LA with their two children and had recently filed for divorce. They rarely saw each other in spite of his constant begging for her to bring the children. Lillian’s husband was off in Paris writing his novel and was not staying connected to her because, “It’s long distance.” Throughout their marriage, she had put all of her attention onto her husband and his writing career, yet he did not support her desires or needs. One can see how easy it was for her to fall into the arms of another man, regardless of looks or status. She offers some business advice to Anton on marketing the Americans; he is very supportive and complimentary of her ideas and there is a chemistry between them. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NO SPOILERS HERE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aside, that’s how affairs usually get started. Another reminder to support and compliment your spouse. If you don’t, someone else probably is! Give him or her the love they need. 

In all my years of being a marriage therapist, I don’t recall anyone who had an affair tell me they did it “on purpose.” (If they did, I would consider an even bigger issue than this.) Their typical response, “it just happened.” It started with a conversation, complimentary and support of ideas, a hand on the back, a lengthier conversation, brooding over the individual, and so on. It happened because they didn’t guard their heart. Their spouse didn’t guard their spouse’s heart either, and their spouse was not fulfilling a deep need in their life. I’m not excusing affairs, so please don’t email me and blast me about this. I am not in favor of affairs. And I am not in favor of divorce for the majority of marriages. God hates divorce. However, I do understand how affairs can happen when someone is living in an emotional desert. Perhaps because of my profession I am a bit more understanding of Lillian and her dilemma.

Anyway, back to the story. Fiona learns through her research and conversations with various staffers that Lillian and Anton’s relationship went beyond a one-night stand or sexual offense. Anton did not take advantage of Lillian as she had previously thought. Their relationship grew over time, and they were very much in love. Lillian had not heard from her husband in weeks. She finally made plans to leave her husband and stay with Anton. But suddenly, her husband returns, was involved in an accident, and became a quadriplegic. I won’t tell you the details of the incident, so as not to spoil the entire story, but it is a juicy part of the story. After the accident, Lillian comes to her senses, says good-bye to Anton, goes back to America with her husband. She spends the rest of her life taking care of his needs. Recompense, perhaps?

The third woman is Sloane, Fiona’s half-sister. Fiona also has a half-brother, Conner. Neither of them stayed in touch with their father after the divorce, and they were both fairly spoiled and entitled individuals. I felt like Conner’s character was a bit one-dimensional as he remained the same throughout the book. Some people are not willing to forgive. Conner and Sloane (and their mother) never knew about Fiona until she arrived for the reading of the will, so they were justifiably angry. They believed she was there to manipulate and take over, and they thought she was there just for the money. She never came to Italy, after all. While Conner remains angry and maintains the bitterness toward Fiona and Lillian, Sloane begins to see the truth about her father, the vineyard at Tuscany, and the situation between Anton and Lillian for what it was. She also has a revelation about herself, her children, and her family. I liked seeing her transformation, which again reminds us that anyone can change, and anyone can forgive. 

Even Fiona. After Fiona learns she has inherited the vineyard (yes, the whole kit and caboodle), she resolves the issues she had with her mother and learned to love her father (Anton). She then goes back home to deal with her stepdad. For her entire life, she had taken up the baton that her mother passed on to her. Just as her mother had given up on her own desires in life, Fiona sacrificed her life to care for her dad. He obviously needs care, but he has also used his disability (and other means prior to the accident) to prevent the women in his life from advancing their own selves. He was afraid of “losing” them, so he held them tight. So tight that Fiona was feeling smothered. She was bitter at him for losing an opportunity to connect to her biological father and wasn’t sure she could ever forgive him. 

I felt like the book wrapped up everything pretty well, but the resolution between Fiona and her dad seemed a bit abrupt. Within one chapter she went from “I’m so mad at you” to “Okay, I forgive you.” It felt a bit quick after all the chapters that preceded that moment in time, like the author was tired of writing by that point.

Other than that—dealing with her stepdad issue—I really liked the book. I liked the way it ended, and I liked the overall messages one can draw from it. Lillian’s affair could have been avoided, and this is something all couples should consider, but she would never go back and change it as she has a daughter she loves. While she could have justified leaving her husband, she made the choice of commitment to her wedding vows. It’s way too easy for couples to give it up when things get tough, so I appreciated her decision no matter how difficult. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~YOU HAVE REACHED THE NO SPOILERS ZONE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lessons for couples? Love your spouse. Love is an action word, so show them love in the things you do, say, and time you spend together. Hold your spouse tight but don’t squeeze the breath out of them. Encourage one another to have independence and reach their individual goals, all the while balancing it out focusing on the relationship. Most importantly (not necessarily in the book), developing a relationship with God as a couple will draw the couple closer to each other, and increase their love for each other.

I’m so glad I have a husband who has stuck with me through thick and thin. I’ve heard firsthand stories of men leaving their wives when they are diagnosed with breast cancer. But Tim has been with me, caring for me, and picking up the slack when I have been unable to follow through. He’s a champion!

We haven’t had our book club meeting yet. I would love to be there for the discussion, but I won’t be able to attend this one because we will be traveling. If I remember, I will edit this to include my book club’s review.  I would rate it 8.5.

---

À la prochaine à bientot! Until next time…