Lavender and Lace

Lavender Bloom is a social marketing expert and influential fashion blogger. Always focused on the perfect image, she shows the world a flawless version of herself, except to her family and her nameless online best friend. Her broody new client certainly doesn’t understand her or why she prefers to hide behind her computer.

Reclusive author Emmett Drake spends his days writing his award-winning fantasy saga and his nights chatting online with the woman of his dreams. When he is forced to hire an image consultant to please his publisher, he despises everything the woman stands for, even if he sees hidden depths beneath her polished façade.

Lavender is determined to help Emmett embrace the power of social media, convinced he has the platform to make a difference. Meanwhile, he is determined to uncover the woman hiding behind the carefully scripted marketing lingo. Their struggle to find authenticity in a world centered on likes, comments, and shares will challenge them both to embrace God’s purpose for their lives – together.

Return to Bloom’s Farm in Lavender and Lace and embrace the joy of family, faith, and true love in this nostalgic modern nod to the romantic classic, You’ve Got Mail.

Voracious reader5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2022

The Bloom family gives us so many life lessons. Lavender is far from the confident persona she has cultivated. Her mask is to prevent hurt; she makes herself small on a daily basis in order to hide. Only in controlled circumstances is she able to step up. Emmett hides as well but also broadcasts his pain in snap judgments. Their collision is staggering but also the beginning of something precious if they are brave enough to hear Truth and remove the masks.

Lavender’s bedroom at Bloom’s Farm tripled as an
office, film and photography studio, and occasionally—a place to actually
sleep. Skillfully applied makeup managed to hide the evidence of her late
nights when she recorded videos like this one.

“Don’t forget to leave a comment and tell me
what you thought! I’ll be choosing a winner to send this fabulous swag box,
courtesy of Entwine Cosmetics and yours truly, Lavender and Lace.” Looking
straight into the camera, Lavender smiled warmly before reaching down to hit
the stop button. Finally, after six takes, she had something to work with. She
turned off the bright camera lights, wincing at the heat they radiated.
Lavender carefully repacked the contents of the box of cosmetics she’d revealed
on the video and set it aside, with a quick jot on a post-it note reminding her
to pick a winner in two days.

Lavender would edit the video today and post it
tonight. In two days, it would have hundreds—maybe thousands—of comments. Most were positive and encouraging, but the others almost made her skip the comment
section entirely. It was hard enough to send something you created out into the
world without the harsh criticism that came back.

She launched the Lavender and Lace blog and
video channel five years ago. What started as a project during her online
marketing class at Indiana University turned into something she actually
enjoyed and made her a surprising amount of money. Between the blog and her
one-woman social marketing business, Lavender was proud of her success. From
the outside looking in, she still seemed like any other college graduate, unwilling to move out of her parents’ house. Bloom’s Farm was different,
though.

If she lived somewhere else, she would be at the
farm constantly. For one, they were her first and biggest client. Lavender knew
she could move out, but living with her parents was almost like living alone.
She’d considered it, but when her dad had his stroke last year, it was an easy
decision to stay around for a while longer. Family came first.

She laughed to herself. Family did come first,
but most of her family had no idea what she did beyond the marketing and
website she ran for the farm. Lavender chose not to talk about it. Honestly,
she rarely talked about much with her family. She loved them more than she
could express, but it was easier to let everyone else fight over a spot in the
conversation. Five sisters and a brother, plus a brother-in-law and a soon to
be sister-in-law? It was a bit much.

Lavender had always found her outlet through
written words anyway, journaling and creating stories since she was little. The
blog had turned into a place for her to share her passion for clothes and
make-up with her audience. Most of them, she knew, were young women in their
teens and twenties.

She clicked into the secret file on her desktop.
Would today be the day she finally shared one of the other posts she wrote? Her
computer was full of writing far deeper than her fashion blog ever was, and
those were just the ones she’d copied from the hand-written journals. Lavender
had created a massive collection of thoughts she felt led to share with young
women, but never had the courage to hit publish. The encouraging,
scripture-filled ramblings never seemed good enough to send to her followers.
They came for fashion advice, not her faith.

With a sigh, Lavender closed the folder without
opening anything. She needed to get back to the work that paid the bills.
Between the blog, social marketing clients, and her marketing for Bloom’s Farm,
she stayed plenty busy. But, most of her clients were handled through email,
and sometimes it was easy to feel isolated when you talked to a camera all day
— it couldn’t talk back.

A chime rang from her computer speakers and
Lavender felt the slight uptick in her breathing. Would it be him? Shouldn’t he
be working right now? Eagerly, she minimized the video editing software and
opened her instant messaging app.

His screen name brought a smile to her face,
like it did every time she saw it.

WillWriteForTacos: Anything exciting today?

WordsinBloom: Just working.
Shouldn’t you be doing the same?

WillWriteForTacos: I should, but I stayed
up way late writing last night. I finally figured out how the explosion will
work. Now, my underling just has to do what he is told.

WordsinBloom: Well, good. That message
shouldn’t raise any FBI surveillance alerts or anything.

Lavender knew he was an author from near
Chicago. Apparently, he was published, if you believed everything a stranger
said on the internet. They’d met six months earlier in an Indiana Writer’s
Guild chatroom. Since then, they’d messaged almost every day, but they had
agreed to keep it anonymous. But she liked knowing that he had a victory.

A few moments later, a video of a guinea pig
laughing showed up in the chat box and Lavender smiled.

WillWriteForTacos: How’s your dad? I
haven’t heard anything in a while.

Her heart fluttered at the thoughtful inquiry.
Lavender gave him a brief update on her dad’s recovery. Her dad’s stroke had
happened last Thanksgiving, and her online friend had been someone she could
talk to openly about it.

WillWriteForTacos: That’s awesome. I’ll
keep praying for him.

Lavender heard her mom close the door to the
office and she glanced at the clock. Almost five? She really needed to get this
video done.

WordsinBloom: I really gotta get this
project wrapped up. Talk tomorrow?

WillWriteForTacos: Parting is such sweet
sorrow, I shall say goodnight ‘til it be morrow.

WordsinBloom: Very nice, but everyone knows
that one.

Lavender shook her head at the Shakespeare
reference. As though she wouldn’t know one of his most famous lines. She’d have
to get another Jane Austen quote for later. He never got those correct in their
little guessing game. She hated to end the chat, since talking to WillWriteForTacos was likely to be the highlight of her day. Tomorrow, maybe
they could talk longer. But she had a video to post.