Lavender Morning

February 16, 2009
Family ties, smalltown values and unexpected love in picturesque settings have made Deveraux a longtime bestselling author, so it’s no surprise she again delivers on her tried-and-true formula. Jocelyn “Joce” Minton, daughter of a Williamsburg, Va., debutante and a handyman, is alienated from her family after her widowed father marries a woman who is decidedly not debutante material and has a pair of selfish twins. Joce ends up in the care of an elderly neighbor, Miss Edi, who watches over the girl through college. When Miss Edi dies, she leaves Joce an ancestral manor house and a trove of secrets going back to 1941 that compel Joce to visit Edilean, Va., where she meets the local color, including a sexy lawyer and his sexier gardener cousin—who has a secret or two, himself. Alternating WWII battlefront tragedy with contemporary romance, Deveraux packs in something for every generation, from wicked supermodels to patriotic sacrifice, from planting an herb garden to DNA tests. For all the novel’s coincidences and predictability, readers will find it hard to resist the charm of Edilean, the manor house, the town, the woman of many secrets and, of course, the series to follow.

February 15, 2009
Jocelyn Minton is a young woman of many contradictions. Her wealthy mother married the local handyman. After her mother dies, her father returns to his blue-collar roots and marries a woman who has two gorgeous twin daughters who torment Joce. The only bright spot in her life is Edilean Harcourt, an older woman who connected with Joce on every level and enriched her life until she died. Joce thought she knew her mentor and protector very well, until Edilean leaves Joce her family home in Edilean, Virginia, andJoce discovers how heavily edited her version ofEdileans life is. As she follows Edileansinstructions and movesinto the house and contacts ayoung lawyer, Joce entersa new world, learnsthe truth about her dear friend, and meetsthe insular inhabitants of the town, including her own bad boynot the lawyer, but his cousin Luke, her gardener. With the promise of futurebooks about surprising andinteresting Edilean, veteran storyteller Deveraux incorporates her trademarksweet and salty characters into apair ofentertaining romances, one past, one present, to createone of her mostfun and pleasing tales.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)