If Miriam Parker’s debut novel were a wine, it would be a super-fizzy Champagne rather than a serious, heavy port ... Set in the wine country around Sonoma, The Shortest Way Home is told by Hannah, a young woman about to graduate from business school and head for a lucrative Goldman Sachs job in New York. But during a getaway weekend in wine country with her almost-fiancé, Ethan, she visits a historic, down-on-its-heels winery and surprises everyone — especially herself — by impulsively giving up New York, putting Ethan on the back burner, and taking a marketing job at the winery ... Yes this is a romance, but it is also a novel about a young woman finding herself, figuring out the difference between what she wants to do with her life and what others want.

...The Bellosguardo winery, its friendly dog named Tannin and an even friendlier bartender are all so charming that Hannah agrees, almost instantly, to give up her lucrative future in New York—and possibly her relationship with Ethan (her long term boyfriend)—in lieu of a questionable marketing position with the struggling winery. It’s a business she knows nothing about, with employers who seem to have questionable dreams and desires of their own. What could possibly go wrong? ... In The Shortest Way Home, Miriam Parker explores the persistent question of whether grass is truly greener on the other side, and whether following the heart will lead you where you belong. This is a story that wine lovers and big dreamers will devour.

Hannah Greene, 30, finally has her life figured out. She is about to graduate from business school, has a steady, long-term boyfriend, Ethan, and a prestigious new job at Goldman Sachs. But when she and Ethan take a road trip to wine country, the thought of going back to the urban jungle of NYC pales in comparison to the fresh air and wine of Sonoma. Luckily, one of the wineries, Bellosguardo, can use someone with Hannah’s business skills ... While Hannah can be unsympathetic at times with her selfish decisions, the eclectic cast of characters rounds her out. Perfect to read with a glass of wine and some good cheese.

I would never have predicted that a winery could change my life. But when I walked into the empty tasting room at Bellosguardo on the first weekend in May of my thirtieth year, a feeling came over me. The kind you get when you taste a new food for the first time and you know it will be your favorite, or when you see a guy across the bookstore and you know he'll be your new boyfriend.' Some readers will feel immediate concern upon reading the first three sentences of publishing exec Parker's debut, regardless of whether they are familiar with the kind of serendipitous premonition narrator Hannah Greene has just described. The problem is, that's an awful lot of plot to give away in the first few sentences of a novel. The only hope at this point is that ensuing events are going to prove Hannah totally mistaken. Because if we already know that she's about to change the whole course of her life and that it's all going to work out brilliantly...that's a problem. Unfortunately, nothing that threatens to put any kind of serious crimp in her unfolding success and happiness will be allowed to interfere ... There is never the slightest danger of everything not working out perfectly, and these people are nowhere near interesting enough to have a whole book written about them ... sweet and safe.