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THE LAVENDER FIELD

The Lavender Field, June 2006
by Jeanette Baker

MIRA
Featuring: Whitney Benedict; Gabriel Mendoza
384 pages
ISBN: 0778323110
Paperback
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"Warm, charming love story involving a wonderful cast of lovers, family and friends."

Fresh Fiction Review

THE LAVENDER FIELD
Jeanette Baker

Reviewed by Jory Reedy
Posted May 16, 2006

Romance Contemporary

Sophisticated international attorney Whitney Benedict is given an assignment she feels totally prepared to accomplish. Negotiate, orchestrate and finalize the purchase of the infamous Lipizzaner horses for her clients in the Austrian government. The unknowing seller is Gabriel Mendoza and his family. Whitney discovers that all of her experience and training hasn't prepared her for what the Mendoza family has in store for her.

Whitney was raised in Kentucky horse country where her family has been in the horse racing business for years. After a brief and destructive marriage, she became a successful attorney and enjoys an orderly life alone. However, her mom wants Whitney to marry again and give her many grandchildren.

Gabriel received an English degree and dreamed of teaching at the university level. Circumstances changed and he ended up helping his father raise and run the Lipizzaner horse establishment. Gabriel married Kristen, a woman with two children, Eric and Emma. Not long after their marriage, they had Claire together and all seemed well. Not happy with her marriage, Kristen left Gabriel and the three children. Now living back home with his mother, who runs a Bed and Breakfast, Gabriel builds the business and does the best he can for the children.

In walks Whitney with an enormous offer that would set Gabriel and his family up for life. But the proposal isn't willingly accepted and everyone is surprised at the reason Gabriel may not sell. Whitney stays with the Mendoza family and soon ideas of a life with many people around her sounds better than being alone. But are Gabriel and his family the answer to her needs? Without losing touch with why she's there, and while keeping her personal and professional feelings intact, Whitney struggles with her feelings for Gabriel and why his decision means so much to her.

THE LAVENDER FIELD is a warm and charming love story involving more than just a man and woman. It includes a great ensemble of family and friends who all seem to have a stake in the Lipizzaner legend.

Learn more about THE LAVENDER FIELD

SUMMARY

Cool, gracious, international relations attorney Whitney Benedict hasn't completely given up on marriage, but she does have a checklist of qualities for the man of her dreams: affluence, intelligence, good looks and absolutely no prior baggage. So when she travels to California to make an offer on behalf of the Austrian government for Gabriel Mendoza's famous Lipizzan horses, no one is more surprised than Whitney at the effect Gabe, his children, his stepchildren, his ex-wife, his mother and the rest of his zany family have on her heart. When an accident prolongs her stay, she settles into the routines of the "hacienda" with every intention of organizing this dysfunctional family, only to find that horses and children have a way of rearranging the best- laid plans and that a checklist isn't always the final measure for happiness.

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