Book Review: The Champagne Letters by Kate Macintosh Heartwarming Female Empowerment

photo of woman standing holding the book the champagne letters by kate macintosh

graphic with book details for the champagne letters by kate macintosh

The Champagne Letters by Kate Macintosh

Synopsis:

Recent divorcee Natalie flees to Paris after becoming overwhelmed by her failed marriage and the ongoing pressure of having to sell the home she once shared with her husband. Upon arriving she sets out to have a grand adventure and discovers the book written by Barbe-Nicole Clicquot where letters written to her Great-Granddaughter tell the story of how she rose over adversity to grow a thriving wine business. Inspired, Natalie begins enlisting the advice of Madam Clicquot to change and improve her life stumbling into a wild adventure.

 

Review:

My overall experience with this book was pleasant and I’m looking forward to exploring more work by Kate Macintosh as a result of reading this charming story. While my thoughts regarding this story are overall positive there were elements that I didn’t agree with and found less than satisfactory. Let’s get into it!

Content

Upon beginning this novel you’ll see this story is told in alternating timelines with dual first-person POV. We get Barbe Nicole’s POV from 1800’s France and Natalie’s POV during present-day Chicago.

Additionally, this story has a strong feminist theme of women being resilient enough to overcome obstacles in their lives to pursue their passion and achieve greatness. Macintosh really delivered on driving home this theme specifically with Barbe-Nicole’s storyline as she was the strongest character.

In Barbe-Nicole’s story, we cover topics dealing with the loss of a spouse, misogyny, sexism, the struggles of building a business during the war, and political unrest. Time and again we see how Barbe-Nicole navigates these challenges and finds a way to overcome them. Is she perfect and always making the right decisions? No. But she’s steadfast and determined refusing to give up on her dreams and passions. I found her story to be so engaging and inspirational that it moved me and I was continually fascinated by her independence during a time when to survive you had to rely on a man.

“ But I no longer needed a man to be visible, and if I did not find true love with another, I preferred to have it with myself, uncontested and uncompromising.”

Natalie’s story focused on topics surrounding infidelity, divorce, healing, self-love, loss of identity, self-discovery, self-growth, and taking ownership of your narrative. You’re compelled to root for Natalie following her husband leaving her for someone else because this is every woman’s nightmare. To be abandoned by the man you’ve given your heart, soul, and life to. So, you feel her pain and grief at this loss and rejection. You want her to find herself and live her best life as she travels to France. Her excursion is beautiful and filled with fascinating details of her traveling to France it’s also filled with her falling into old patterns and mindsets due to her being so lost and unmoored following her divorce making her vulnerable. While this is somewhat true and realistic as we’ve all fallen into this spiral following a bad break-up the extent of her gullibility and ignorance was a little too much for me at points.

Writing Style

Macintosh’s prose made it easy to become absorbed in this tale triggering strong emotions and visceral reactions with what was happening on the pages. It was written in such a way that it was filled with whimsy and wit and easy to read.

Additionally, I appreciated the technique in which she had Barbe-Nicole’s and Natalie’s lives mirror each other. We start with them both experiencing a traumatic event and see how they navigate life and its changes following the occurrence. I found this provided balance to the story to prevent the storylines from competing with each other. Although, I’ll confess I favored Barbe Nicole’s storyline over Natalie’s 🫣 but more about that later.

I also found I enjoyed the historical elements present in Barbe-Nicole’s storyline. You can tell the author took care in researching the smallest details concerning the wine-making business and how it operated during the 1800’s. The author also shared that she took creative liberty with a few elements of the story to shape Barbe-Nicole’s narrative and highlight the difficulties faced by women during that time. I found these to be tasteful and in no way marred the factual relevance of Barbe-Nicole’s legacy.

Readability

The Champagne Letters is a highly engaging and enjoyable read. I enjoyed this story and found it extremely entertaining. I believe this is a story that will resonate with many women navigating life following divorce or the loss of a spouse. Many of the emotions that these women experienced felt true to the events that transpired in their lives making this a heartfelt and emotional read in many instances. For example Barbe-Nicole’s thoughts on men and their obsession with younger women and how it’s a waste considering all that mature women had to offer.

“True young women were beautiful, but those of us who were older had other advantages. Wine improves with age: it becomes richer; the flavors blend and soften. It is no longer attempting to figure out what it will become. It is less changed by the hands around it and more it’s own unique thing, and women are more different.”

 

Or, why women need to maintain their identity and have a strong relationship with themselves refusing to rely on men wholly for their emotional, physical, and mental well-being.

“A man’s love is fickle; above all, a woman needs to love and care for herself in this world. She must never set her value based on the regard of others, or she risks being disappointed.”

Honestly, Barbe-Nicole carried this novel for me and was the primary reason I enjoyed it so much. Her timeless wisdom and fierce independence were so inspiring.

Plot Development

The plot maintained a steady pace including enough drama and action to propel the story forward while also maintaining its core theme and purpose. However, I did find that Natalie’s storyline was fairly weak and didn’t hold its own. Having such a strong and dynamic character as Barbe-Nicole juxtaposed with a fairly weak and gullible character as Natalie made the story feel a little uneven.

We had strong reveals and key points in Barbe-Nicole’s story that moved the plot forward realistically and sensibly. Whereas for Natalie much of her plot points didn’t feel realistic due to many of her decisions lacking common sense. There were multiple times in Natalie’s story that I could easily see what was going on and the character was oblivious. So, when we get to the point where the truth is revealed it makes the character appear pretty dumb.

Perhaps, solid plot points involving more complex and layered situations were utilized to develop Natalie as a character thus improving the progression of the plot.

Characters

Continuing with my point that Natalie’s storyline was the weakest of the novel. We have Barbe-Nicole defying the patriarchy and building a business during turbulent times of war and Natalie being a little goofy and gullible as she explores France not using basic common sense. And, while I recognize Natalie’s mindset and vulnerability are important pieces of her characterization and align somewhat with that of a woman fresh out of a 20+ year marriage. I also feel we went to the extreme with this and failed to give Natalie common sense.

Barbe-Nicole was dynamic, multi-layered, and just a real character that you could sink your teeth into. Her character growth and character arch were beautifully executed. Whereas, Natalie was just ok. Her stupidity made it a struggle to believe her character.

Furthermore, she lacked depth and complexity and failed to learn anything about relationships following her marriage. She still has this romantic, naivete that doesn’t align with a woman that’s freshly divorced following a husband’s infidelity. In these cases, most women would be guarded and distrustful and have to learn how to be open and vulnerable when it comes to dating.

If a few tweaks were made in Natalie’s characterization making her a more guarded, distrustful woman and basing her storyline on this we could’ve gotten a different story that could’ve held its weight against Barbe Nicole’s.

 

graphic of ratings for the champagne letters by kate macintosh

The Champagne Letters by Kate Macintosh was a fun, interesting read with a few less-than-savory elements. However, it doesn’t make it any less of a good book. I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a triumphant story involving women recovering from devastating life events that change the trajectory of their lives. Have you read this story? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below! Til next time happy reading!

 

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