In the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains lies a small town with a big heart—and a chance to begin again . . . When Hannah Montgomery buys a lavender farm in Blue Hollow Falls with three friends, she’s creating a life she never imagined—one she hopes will honor the memory of the sweet young son she tragically lost years ago. Standing on the porch of the sprawling farmhouse, looking out on row upon … looking out on row upon row of those lush purple plumes, Hannah is ready to embrace this fresh, new start . . .
Then she meets Wilson McCall. The stonemason hired to fix their crumbling chimneys and leaky roof is quieter than most folks in the Falls. Hannah’s not surprised to learn the widower struggles with his own grief. Who could blame her if she finds joy in making Will laugh again, or if she feels a poignant kinship when she sees him with his teenaged son? But her deepening friendship with Will reminds Hannah that there’s a part of her that still needs to heal—awakening a tender yearning to have a life that isn’t just good enough, but lived fully—even if that means taking risks once more . . .
Praise for Donna Kauffman
“Charming characters, emotion galore, a small town—you’re going to love Donna Kauffman!” —Lori Foster
“We all know where there’s Donna Kauffman, there’s a rollicking, sexy read chock‑full of charm and sparkle.” —USAToday.com
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All of Donna Kauffman’s books are great. I like all the characters no one is mean . They all have problems that they over come.
Will and Hannah were so real that I could not stop reading this book. I loved them individually, together, with Jake and with their friends. How Hannah has come to terms with her loss and Will’s courage in seeking her out to get help through his was just beautifully written. Their awkward first dates and conversations were very realistic. Be prepared to laugh a little and cry a a little. My favorite quote
“What if I can’t make it one minute to the next?” I feared he was giving me more credit than I was due. I wasn’t strong enough to get through this. “Then work on one second at a time. When you realize failure and giving up aren’t options, you’ll find standing up and fighting for what you want is all you have.”
Great advice in a multitude of situations, thank you Donna Kauffman, this was simply a wonderful read.
Lavender Blue by Donna Kauffman
Blue Hollow Falls #3
I love Blue Hollow Falls and the community that lives there. I can see it, feel it and want to be a member of it as I read the stories that take place within it. This was a book that warmed my heart and made me happy even though the heavy topic of loss, grieving and making one’s way forward with life after a great loss was central to this book. It was healing, good and provided a HEA…I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Hannah Montgomery and three of her friends, met at a grief group, have gone together to purchase a lavender farm in Blue Hollow Falls. Each of the women have suffered loss and bring special talents to their joint business venture. I look forward to finding out what will happen to Chey, Avery & Vivi in future books. Hannah is an artist and illustrator who lost her son and is divorced from her husband. Her way of living through the pain warmed my heart and as she shared her thoughts with others I grew to like her more and more. She was comfortable in her skin, knew what she wanted, was a good friend, willing to give and to share, enjoyed life and found humor and beauty around her.
Wilson “Will” McCall was a hunk and a half but a quiet deep sort of man. He is a widow and single parent of a fourteen year old son. In the previous book I liked him and hoped he would be able to deal with his grief and in this book he does just that…and opens himself up to what life again. I loved the way he interacted with his son and how that relationship grew, too. Will and Hannah were perfect for one another and I liked the slow growth to their relationship and the fire that entered it when they finally opened up to one another.
I loved this book and hope that this series will continue long enough for Will’s son Jake to grow up and choose what he wants to do with his life and also to find out what will happen to Bailey – she is someone I would love to see as an adult in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and Kensginton-Zebra for the ARC – This is my honest review.
5 Stars
A Donna Kauffman book never disappoints! Lavender Blue was no exception. A beautiful story about Hannah, who buys the lavender farm and Wilson, the stonemason who is doing some repairs for her. This is my honest review in exchange for an ACR. Loved the book!
Wonderfully sweet and heartwarming. It’s a story of two lost souls who have suffered great loss and are trying to find their way through the grief. Hannah Montgomery has come to Blue Hollow Falls to start over along with three friends. Together they have bought a lavender farm Wilson McCall is working on the farm when he meets Hannah for the first time. He’s a widower left to raise his teenage son on his own. It’s been years since he lost his wife but he’s never moved on. Now Hannah is stirring his heart back to life. These two quickly form a friendship but it’s not long before they are both yearning for more. Trusting and loving again may be more than either of them can handle though.
Beautifully written with many emotional highs and lows. Don’t miss this must read. I highly recommend it.
Lavender Blue by Donna Kauffman …. This is the 3rd book in the Blue Hollow Falls series and I want to thank the publisher and #NetGalley for letting me preview and review this book. Will ( a widower who came back to Blue Hollow Falls to raise his son Jake) Hannah ( a mother who is dealing with the loss of her young son Liam.. and starting a new business with three friends..on a lavender farm) Donna does a great job of pulling you into the book and keeping you there. There are tears, laughter, angst, some steamy stuff all leading to a very HEA. I can’t wait for the next book in this series.
In my opinion, this is the best book Donna Kauffman has written to date!! Lavendar Blue can be read as a stand alone or as part of a series. Hannah and Will share their emotions with the reader that are poignant and the insight shared was truly heartfelt to this reader. I do see Hannah’s home mates turning into books of their own and can’t wait for the next book in this series! Kudos to Donna Kauffman for her true gift with words and her insight into the emotional support that makes up relationships and the personal baggage that comes with them! Love Blue Hollow Falls and family!
Lavender Blue is the fifth book in Donna Kauffman’s Blue Hollow Falls series. Hannah Montgomery and three dear friends have bought a lavender farm just outside of Blue Hollow Falls in Virginia. Each of the four women come from a past of deep loss, and part of their healing process has brought them to this point. Vivienne Baudin actually inherited the farm, but the others have bought in to the venture.
Their plans are to open a tea shop and produce products that center around lavender, be it tea, cookies, soaps, or essential oils. But first there are many repairs and much restoration to be done. One major project is the restoration and rebuilding of the four large chimneys. Stone mason and widower Wilson McCall has been at the farm for a few weeks working on the chimneys.
On the day Hannah makes his close up acquaintance, it happens as he grabs her and holds her up against the outside porch wall as bricks come crashing down from a chimney that had not been restored as per the architectural plans that were on file. From that time on there is a deeper connection between them. Hannah also makes a connection with Will’s 14 year old son, Jacob. He is the same age her son Liam would have been if he were still here.
Both Hannah and Will are working through their grief, having lost their ways when they lost their loved ones. Even though they tentatively move forward in a relationship, it takes a severe storm to bring the three of them together.
This is a very good novel filled with rich characters, beautiful scenery, and a wonderful story. I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to the next book in this series. I do recommend this book!
I feel like every time I review one of Donna’s books I say it was my favorite, but I think this may really be my favorite. Though part of the Blue Hollow Falls series it can be read as a stand alone. I knew after hearing more of his story in Bluestone & Vine that widower, Will McCall’s story was going to hurt my heart a little and I was right. Immediately after meeting Hannah Montgomery and learning about her background and own experience with grief I knew that she could be the one to help put Will’s heart back together again. Hannah and her friends (also survivors of grief) moved to town to open a lavender farm. I’m hoping that we get to find out more about the friends in future stories. We get to reconnect with Will’s son Jake and with neighbor Bailey (who is just delightful). I love all of the intricate details Kaufman included about processes, whether stone-masonry, lavender picking, wood working, farming or painting. I feel like I could attempt some of these things after learning about them in this novel.
This book was emotional and heart wrenching at times but also breathtakingly beautiful. Having experienced tragedy in my own life I feel like I would have better learned how to handle by grief from reading this story than the countless books on grief I consumed over the past 10 years. I really resonated with both characters and while watching them attempt to heal themselves also found a great deal of healing myself. Grab a box of tissues, grab a blanket and hunker down to enjoy this wonderful story fully of love, grief, humor and healing.
Wow! This was a beautiful story about two individuals who have both expericend painful losses, but come together to overcome these hardships.
I thought it was a great book, and I really enjoyed getting to meet each of these wonderful characters who not only brought laughs to my day but also tears.
I received an Advanced Readers Cooy, and this is my honest review.
Can’t wait for the next one in the series.
A wonderful read!
I loved this book. Great well-developed characters. Good plot although it dragged about 3/4 of the way through for a little bit. So glad I stuck with it though. Tremendous and extremely satisfying ending.
4.5 Stars!
Wonderfully heartfelt!
Such a great, emotional, addicting read!
With laugh out loud moments and genuine heartache, this book has it all.
These characters felt so human and I absolutely loved getting to know them. They had emotional journeys that felt so real and honest. So sweet reading a story where the characters overcome and love again.
This was my first in the series and I loved it! Will definitely be going back to read the first 2.
Hannah Montgomery and three of her friends purchased a lavender farm in the small town of Blue Hollow Falls in the Blue Ridge Mountains. These women were an unusual mix of women, both ages and personalities. They had each experienced a terrible tragedy and loss of a loved one which brought them together and formed an unbreakable friendship.
Hannah lost her young son, Liam, when he was seven years old. As she heals from that loss, she hopes to honor Liam’s memory by creating something wonderful and trying to live a full life.
She becomes friends with Wilson McCall, who was hired to do some work on their new home. He has a fourteen year old son, Jake, and is struggling with his own grief due to the death of his wife about a decade earlier.
As Hannah and Will’s friendship deepens into the possibility of something more, they both have to come to grips with the grief that they have experienced if there is a possibility that they could live a full and rich life. But they will both need to be willing to take a risk. Will it be worth the risk or will they settle for part of a life?
I really enjoyed the characters in the book. They were told with rich detail, as was the landscape. The friendships are genuine and real and wonderful. The one thing I am not a fan of is very descriptive sex scenes, of which there are a few in this story. Will and Hannah’s story is beautiful and emotional. The other characters play a wonderful part in weaving a story that is rich in the realities of grief and the beauty of healing.
I was given an arc copy of this book by netgalley and I willingly offer my review.
This book was packed full of emotion. Grief, anger, love, panic and friendship all showed up in this book. I’ll have to admit it started off kind of slow for me, but I also had lots of distracting life issues going on at the time. I definitely got more into it in the last half of the book.
I did love Hannah and Will together. They had both suffered tremendous loss in their lives and were still pretty deep in the grief process. I loved how they were able to help each other through to the point that they could at least see light at the end of the tunnel. Their passionate feelings for each other came as a surprise to them…a lovely surprise. The building of that passion and emotional feelings were accomplished in a superb fashion by Kauffman. I was totally vested in their relationship.
This book made me laugh and cry. As always, the secondary characters were well developed by Kauffman and very interesting in their own right. Love must come to them as well–and I can’t wait!
Lavender Blue is a story about people recovering from devastating losses & learning to trust & love again. Hannah lost her son when he was only 7 years old. While she was grieving, she had to deal with the end of her marriage & her husband cheating. Now she’s in a good place in her life. She’s moving on & is interested in Will.
Will is quiet & gruff. He’s having a hard time getting over the death of his wife. His son has started playing the fiddle & singing like his mother did. Will can barely stand to hear him because he sounds just like his mother. He’s drawn to Hannah but feels guilty about that too.
These are interesting characters & a difficult subject. It was interesting that Hannah was able to help others by explaining how she overcame her grief but she had the “head in the sand” attitude when she backslid. She wasn’t sure what was going on. The supporting characters added depth to the story & additional color. This book is part of a series but can be easily read as a stand alone. Characters from the first books pop in but there isn’t anything to confuse you.