To Taste the Wine

Fern Michaels

Chelsea Myles is an actress with her uncle's small troupe in later 19th century London. Her uncle's troup makes its money by holding cheap plays and pickpocketing the customers. While Chelsea does not actually steal anything, she knows she lives from their profits. During one scam, Chelsea ended up with a purse holding 400 pounds. She decided to use that money to immigrate to Australia.

She joins another lady to travel together to lower expenses. By the first day on the ship, Chelsea has assumed another identity. She also falls in love with Quaid Tanner who is returning to Australia and his vinyard there. He falls in love with her, but cannot marry her. When she gets to her new home, her assumed identity is engaged to be married to Quaid's neighbor and enemy.

Don't bother with this one unless you really have nothing else to read. I read until after he left her at the port with his rival, almost half way through. Then I skipped the rest, reading a page here or there until the end. I never could get a feel for the characters, found myself putting the book down out of boredom, and never got involved.

To Taste the Wine is out of print. In my opinion, that's fine.

Notice: Explicit sexual content