Lavender Morning:

LAVENDER MORNING, by Jude Deveraux. Atria Books, 2009, 375 pp., $25.95. ISBN-13:978-0-7434-3720-2

Oh, to have a wealthy neighbor who takes a maternal interest in you! Book one in the new Elidean series by Jude Deveraux, the latest offering in her ultra-successful line of romance novels, takes readers on a love journey into the past and the future. Jocelyn Minton loses her elegant and refined mother at a young age and her father remarries back into his true lower middle class station in life. Jocelyn seems destined to live as a stranger in their strange land. However, destiny steps in when Miss Edilean Harcourt, “Miss Edi,” a kind and refined elderly neighbor, takes her under her wing and the two become confidantes and best friends, with Miss Edi filling the role of surrogate mother.

Years later, when Miss Edi passes, things are not the same in more ways than one. First, Jocelyn finds herself the new owner of Miss Edi’s home, a 1700’s estate that Miss Edi never disclosed and all the secrets that money can’t buy. Upon moving to the Virginia home, she develops a love-hate relationship with two very different brothers (one of whom Miss Edi seems to feel is her “perfect man”). Navigating between the brothers who compete for her affections and an odd assortment of townspeople, Jocelyn is kept on her toes (and tries to avoid stepping on some others). Unfortunately, Miss Edi forgot to leave Jocelyn one important thing: money. Without it, she faces the daunting task of keeping the estate running.

Should Jocelyn stay, should she go, and should she paint the Manor lavender? So many questions! In the end, she finds her own true love and charges into the future with great expectations. LAVENDER MORNING is an action-packed novel filled