At fourteen, Simone Fleurier is wrenched from her home on a Provençal lavender farm and sent to work at the boarding house of her Aunt Augustine in Marseilles. Her life there is hard and impoverished - until she discovers the local music hall. Suddenly Simone has a dream: one day she will be a famous singer and dancer.

In Paris, she is drawn to André Blanchard, the son of a powerful French family, and Simone Fleurier becomes the city's brightest light. But slowly the world around her grows darker. When Nazi troops occupy her beloved city, Simone must make a decision that will lead her into great danger. It is also a decision that will prove to her that love, just like wild lavender, can grow in the least likely of places ...

A born storyteller, Belinda Alexandra has created a tale of passion and courage that moves from the backstreets of Marseilles to the grand music theatres of Paris, from the countryside of Provençe to decadent pre-war Berlin and Jazz-Age New York. Wild Lavender is a feast for the senses that will live on in the imagination long after the book is closed.

I will release this to my sister in Christchurch during a visit in May 2005.

Received from mystic-nz. Thanks

A wonderful story told in three parts of Simone's life over a number of years. Starting with her dreams as a young girl to be on the stage, her life in a strange city, then meeting a man who helps her fulfil her dream of stardom and then the dark years of the war but her courageous struggle to help those around her. Thanks mystic-nz for sharing this book with me.

I am releasing this book to parent at my children's school. Hopefully she will read and pass on to another avid reader.