Grace and Lavender

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My thoughts about Grace and Lavender

By Heather Norman Smith

By now everyone knows how much I love to read.  I read as much as I can for my own personal mental health.  It calms and relaxes me and gives me a little breather from life.

The latest book I read called Grace and Lavender is a wonderful quick read.  It struck a cord in my heart for sure.  I have a heart for children so the fact that it involves a young girl named Grace from a children’s home pulled me right in.  Grace is fourteen and has been through all the foster homes.  She’s not sure she remembers her “real” family and some days she’s not sure what to do.  To save herself she’s shut off her emotions.

Cooking is her outlet though.  So when that is denied her she acts out.  This isn’t the first time she’s acted out though and her punishment is community service. 

This brings us to the actual central character that everyone revolves around in Colleen.  Colleen is retired with adult twin children.  She’s done a lot of things in her life and now she’s taking on a few more projects.  One is getting on a game show.  She filled out her application and she’s sure she’s going to get chosen.  The other is taking on Grace as a service project with her church group.  She will supervise the girls community service.  A part of her just tells her this is a calling and she has to do it.

As she prepares to work with Grace she decides that Grace can help her cook for the women’s shelter in town and visit a retired disabled veteran that she goes to visit and clean for.  Both should be good for the girl.

A fun fact that gets introduced later in the book is that Colleen herself was adopted.  No where in the book does she share this with Grace though and I wonder if maybe that’ll come in book two.

Melody is the daughter of Colleen and her husband.  She thought she was content with her status quo life. Not overachieving, just average life.  Instead she gets laid off and decides to help her mother with Grace.  Instead she gets so much more than she bargained for and learns a whole lot about soap.

Hooked yet?  You better believe it’s a great book so check this one out!!

Also find out why names are so important and why Colleen isn’t so sure about having a granddaughter named Prairie.

Book Blurb

Recently retired Colleen Hill is always busy, constantly on a quest to make life more interesting. When the ladies’ group at her church partners with the local children’s home, Colleen jumps in as usual, volunteering to share her passion for cooking with a troubled teenager named Grace. But Colleen must balance the new project with her pursuit of becoming a contestant on a television game show, along with all the other ideas her brain continually spins out.

Colleen’s daughter Melody is quite different. She lives a calm, simple life and is content with who she is. That is, until an unexpected opportunity to work with Grace, too, pushes her to reevaluate life and dare to take on bigger dreams. The path starts with a newly-found interest in soap-making and leads her to responsibilities she didn’t even know she wanted, including helping Grace understand the meaning of her name.

Grace & Lavender is a book for all audiences—a heart-warming story that reminds us to seek God’s purpose for our lives.

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