These Tangled Vines

By Julianne MacLean

ISBN# 9781542025393

Author’s Website:  http://www.juliannemaclean.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Fiona lived her life thinking her parents had a normal relationship, despite her father being a quadriplegic, due to an accident that happened before Fiona was born.  However, hours before her mother died, she confessed that someone else was Fiona’s biological father.  She begged Fiona not to tell her dad as it would destroy him.  So, she kept her mother’s secret. 

Now, several years later she gets a call that her biological father, Anton Clark, has passed away and that he has willed her some property.  She must go to Tuscany, Italy for the reading of the will and face the family that had been unaware of her existence.

While in Tuscany, Fiona asks around to find out about her parents and how she came to be. Anton and her mother were both married to other people at the time the two got together.  Her parents had come to Tuscany so her father could finish the book he had been writing for five years that took place there.  While there, Fiona’s mother worked in Anton’s winery as a tour guide.  That summer changed everything for the couple and shaped their future.

And, now Fiona is determined to discover all there is to know about all three of her parents, and to decide what to do with her inheritance.

This book sounded interesting, but it ended up being kind of dull and slow-paced.

I actually did enjoy Anton.  It seems like everyone he loved, hurt him in the end though.  His wife, his kids, and Lillian, maybe most of all.  My heart definitely went out to him and the heartbreak he had to live with.

And, could there have been a more selfish and self-serving person in this story than Freddie?  Because of him, all three of Fiona’s parents lived in misery.

I found this story to just be sad. It shows how miserable you can be when living with someone out of guilt and denying yourself your own desires and wants.