A Veil of Vines

By: Tillie Cole

Narrated by: Marisa Vitali, Brian Pallino

To most people, princes, princesses, counts, and dukes are found only in the pages of the most famous of fairy tales. Crowns, priceless jewels, and gilded thrones belong only in childhood dreams. But for some, these frivolous fancies are truth. For some, they are real life.

On Manhattan's Upper East Side, people have always treated me as someone special. All because of my ancestral name and legacy. All because of a connection I share to our home country's most important family of all.

I am Caresa Acardi, the Duchessa di Parma. A blue blood of Italy. I was born to marry well. And now the marriage date is set. I am to marry into House Savona. The family that would have been the royals had Italy not abolished the monarchy in 1946. But to the aristocrats of my home, the abolition means nothing at all.

The Savonas still hold power where it counts most.

In our tight-knit world of money, status, and masked balls, they are everything and more. And I am soon to become one of them.

I am soon to become Prince Zeno Savona's wife...or at least I was, until I met Achille. And everything changed.

©2016 Tillie Cole (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

It was sweet

Not much else to say. It was a sweet love story. The female narrator kind of annoyed me, but that’s about it.

Brilliant!

Once again Tillie Cole has written a masterpiece of a romance! I loved this very romantic story about two star-crossed lovers who meets in a vineyard in Italy. The heroine has been raised to become a queen and has been betrothed to the de facto prince of Italy since she was a child. When the time comes for her to travel to Italy to marry the prince, this American/Italian woman finds that she's not attracted to the playboy prince, who leaves her at his estate while waiting for the wedding and goes off jet setting around with other women. While waiting, she meets the maker of one of the finest merlot wines in the world. Over learning about the wine they fall in love with with each other, but they have the problem of her betrothal (on which her family's business depends). Can she make the decision for love, or will duty win out. Great narration!

A beautiful story

Veil of Vines was one of the most romantic love stories I have indulged in a long time. I was so caught off guard because this is radically different from the author's Scarred Souls series. But I am not complaining because Tillie Cole delivered. It shows great range as an artist.
Although it wasn't as dark as Scarred Souls, my heart strings were sufficiently tugged. I believed in the setting, the fantasy, the couple, their love, and their conflict. I laugh, I swooned, I cried, and in the end I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters.
Plato's symposium was mentioned in this book and these characters truly embodied that vibe of epic love. I aspire to have this type of passion on my life.
Brian Pallino's Italian accent was very believable. He bought Achilles to life. I also enjoyed Marisa Vitali, commitment to her role.

This is not my favourite Tillie Cole Book

Tillie Cole is a masterful and imaginative storyteller, who crafts beautiful word pictures and engaging characters seemingly effortlessly. Reading Veil of Vines brough up for me the same concerns as "A Thousand Boy Kisses". Maybe it is just the hyperawareness we have in recent times of child trafficking and paedophilia but I do not like the idea of small children being fed concepts like 1000 kisses and similarly did not feel comfortable with the repeated reference to toddlers with 'plump lips". It is the responsibility of the editor to remove these......

In addition and somehow related I did not like the power dynamic between Caresa and Achille and the graphic and for me unnecessary sex scenes. It somehow resembled teachers forming relationships with their students..... just not an appropriate dynamic - she should have got someone else to teach him.......

Finally, unlike other Tillie Cole audiobooks I did not like either of the narrators.

Overall this book was a disappointment and seemed like it had been put together in too rushed a fashion.

Italian Love Story

This story was cute, emotional and heartwarming all at the same time. If you want a story that’s more romance and less smut, this is it.

Amazingly romantic

I rarely write reviews but this is one of probably five I've ever done. This story is so romantic and so elegant. It's intelligently written without over-used terms or crudeness that sometimes comes with so many books these days. It's the story of a woman from a well-to-do Italian family who moves back to Italy for an arranged marriage. She's been groomed for it for years so she doesn't put up a fight but then she meets a wine maker who works for the royalty she is soon marrying into. It is a beautiful love story. There is sex and love making but not over the top kind of stuff. It is just such an intelligently written and researched story where you will learn of wine making, Italian traditions, and even some of the Italian language. I absolutely recommend it.

Mmmmmeh

😬😬😬... not my favorite Tillie Cole book. It's slow, bland imo, barely any 🔥, more like a🕯😔 I had a tough time staying interested. Stuff finally happens towards the end, but too late for me.