On Lavender Lane

November 21, 2011
This tear-jerking tale of a commitment-shy professional cook learning to love a former Navy SEAL in idyllic rural Oregon, the third in Ross’s Shelter Bay series (after One Summer and The Homecoming), may ring familiar bells for readers of Christina Skye’s A Home by the Sea, but Ross’s concern with social issues like spousal abuse and post-traumatic stress broadens this savory romance into more substantial literary fare. Madeline Durand is a dedicated hands-on devotee of organic food and down-home recipes produced with passion and soul. As a teenager, Maddy had an awful falling-out with delectably hunky Lucas Chaffee, but when the two reconnect as adults, his determination to marry her gradually gets her off the treadmill she’d been on and into a knee-weakening burst of lust. The busybodies of Shelter Bay are more than happy to support the two as they slowly make their way toward happiness. Agent: Writers House.

December 1, 2011

Fleeing the limelight after her faithless husband's sex video goes viral during one of her cooking demos, celebrity TV chef Madeline Durand heads to sleepy Shelter Bay and becomes involved in helping her grandmother Sofia De Luca turn the family farm into a restaurant. It's a healing situation made to order for Maddy. When Sofia talks Navy SEAL medic Lucas Chaffee into becoming part of the project, the dynamics change, as Lucas and Maddy are forced to deal with their once romantic past in order to get on with their lives. Naturally, everyone in town has plenty of opinions. VERDICT Cooking, romance, and a warm, inviting setting work their delectable magic in this tender charmer that introduces new characters (and some serious issues) and reprises previous series players. Ross (One Summer) lives in the hills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

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