A Vintage Affair by Josh Lanyon

Message in a bottle. Somewhere in the cobwebbed cellar of the decrepit antebellum mansion known as Ballineen are the legendary Lee bottles--and Austin Gillespie is there to find them. The last thing on his mind is hot and heavy romance with handsome bad boy PI Jeff Brady. But Jeff has other ideas and, after one intoxicating night, so does Austin. The only problem is they have different ideas. Jeff doesn’t believe in love at first sight, and even if he did, he's buried more deeply in the closet than those famous missing bottles of vintage Madeira. Popping a cork or two is one thing. Popping the question? No way. No how. Unless Austin is ready to give up on another dream, he's going to have to figure out how to make sure the lights go on--and stay on--in Georgia.

Some books go great with a drink, and in this case that drink is a nice glass of wine. I wasn't in the mood for wine, but reading this I couldn't help it, I had to get a glass if only just to know it's there.

I had this short story on hold for a while now and I kind of lost my interest for it. I have this habit of getting books then getting other books and reading the newest I get instead of going through them in an orderly fashion. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Anyway, A Vintage Affair proved to be a great novella and I enjoyed reading it. Right now, as I'm thinking about it, I really love what Josh Lanyon did there, from start to finish. The plot was constructed beautifully, nothing was left to chance, and I had fun trying to figure out who was the bad guy there.

I liked both Austin and Jeff, and I liked how things evolved between them, although at times I felt sad and just a tiny bit deceived—I think that's the word I'm looking for. I probably could relate to Austin a bit better, but I also liked Jeff's sort of naïveté. He was very in touch with some things while completely oblivious on certain matters.

At first I wanted more insight on the mystery part of the story, but as I kept reading I didn't mind the focus of the book so that kind of solved itself. Then there was a scene in particular that I was expecting to bother me, but it didn't and that was surprising. I think it didn't bother me because I already knew (guessed) the outcome. Or part of it.

I liked the setting, I liked the characters, I enjoyed the story, but I will also say that I would have liked a bit more details overall. Actually, well, I think what I'm truly saying is that I would have liked for the story to be longer. I have some questions about Cormac and I would have said I wanted to know what's next for Austin and Jeff, but when there's a will, there's a Coda, as Josh Lanyon spoils us readers.