The Bennett sisters are back!

Elise, the youngest of the five Bennett sisters at 42, has come to a crossroads in her life and books a 10-day farm stay in Provence to work, clear her mind, and develop a new plan. She hates being a lawyer, has quit her job at the law firm, broken up with her boyfriend, Scott, and once older sister, Merle, drops her off at the lavender farm, goes incommunicado with all her family and friends.

However, rather than finding a place to contemplate the future and regroup, she finds herself living and working with a group of students 20 or more years younger than herself and an unknown crisis simmering beneath the calm surface of life at the farm. With minimal French language skills at her disposal, she soon finds herself socially-isolated and feeling very much alone.

There are a couple of bright spots in the works, though. One other worker who appears to be about her age is an Englishman named Conor. Good looking and helpful, he is somewhat friendly and helps get a bat out of her room on her first night at the farm. He turns out to be related to the owners of the farm. Then, she encounters Ari, a local man that immediately shows his interest and admiration. But there seems to be some bad blood between Ari and Conor that causes Elise to be completely ostracized at the farm.

Deciding she’s had enough of the drama, Elise accepts Ari’s offer to spend the rest of her holiday at his home near Aix-en-Provence – no strings attached. In fact, there are so few strings attached that after getting settled in at his place and having dinner with each other the first night, Ari takes off telling Elise and his housekeeper that he’ll return soon. But days pass, and there is no further sign of the man until Conor shows up on the doorstep looking for Elise, and they discover his body in his car in the garage where he apparently has been the entire time.

Meanwhile, Merle Bennett, back home in Malcouziac in the Dordogne, is getting ready for company. Her niece, Willow, is expected soon, as is her son, Tristan: both on holiday before school starts up again in the states. She is also helping her boyfriend, Pascal, locate suitable living quarters near his new headquarters for the government’s wine fraud division in Bordeaux. She is thrilled when she comes across a nice townhouse in a lovely neighborhood that the elderly owner is willing to let at a price within their budget, and she and Pascal begin to settle in.

But when she returns to their home in Malcouziac to welcome Tristan and Willow, she is surprised to discover two additional guests: Elise’s ex-boyfriend, Scott, and his younger cousin, Teague. To add to the confusion, when Merle returns to the lavender farm on the appointed day to pick her sister up from her farm stay, Elise is nowhere to be found, and no one knows where she’s gone!

Lost in Lavender is the latest installment in the charming Bennett Sisters Mystery series by Lise McClendon. This story focuses on the youngest of the sisters and features the lovely countryside of Provence. However, with all the driving that Merle and Pascal do, readers get a glimpse of many other regions of France as well.

The story is a wonderful one of renewal and self-awareness as Elise struggles to break free of choices she made in the past and move on with a life she chooses for herself. And it is a struggle. There were a couple of times I wanted to shake her and tell her to snap out of it, shake out of her self-pity and let someone know where she was and how she was doing. Everyone but everyone was worried about the woman, and she knew it. However, she does finally come around and sets out on the road to love and a better future.

I recommend LOST IN LAVENDER to readers that have enjoyed this series in the past. However, it makes for an excellent standalone book for those that want a romance mystery/romance set in the lovely French countryside.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author. ( )

This is another entry in the fantastic Bennett Sisters series by Lise McClendon. Lost in Lavender centers on the youngest Bennett sister, Elise. In an attempt to relieve her dissatisfaction with her job as a lawyer and her insipid boyfriend, Elise decides that a working vacation at a lavender farm in Provence just might do the trick. However, once there, Elise realizes all the other guests are foreign students half her age and the work is harder than she thought. In order to find some entertainment Elise accompanies the students to a village lavender fair. Then, the mystery begins. Elise disappears with a mysterious, shady Frenchman.
With the opening scene, the author so immerses you in the French countryside and the smell of lavender, that you wish you were there. Throw in a couple of murders, bats, screams in the night, young relatives, who eloped, angry parents, mobsters and smugglers, a house too small and overflowing with guests and you get a highly entertaining read. I have read over half a dozen of the books in the series and eagerly await every release. My only complaint with this book is, I wish we saw more of the handsome Pascal and his Blackbird, Merle. Will they ever marry? "sigh" ( )

Thanks to author Lise McClendon and BookSprout for a digital advanced reader copy of this book. All comments and opinions are my own.

This was an engaging mystery set in the French countryside. Even though it's number 13 in the Bennett Sisters mystery series, you can easily read this as a standalone and thoroughly enjoy it. The characters are likable (except for the bad guys, of course), the food and drink made me hungry, and I could almost smell the lavender while reading.

Elise Bennett (the youngest of the five Bennett sisters) comes to Provence to take a break while she makes some difficult life decisions. After several uncomfortable days of hard work in the heat of summer on a picturesque lavender farm, she breezily leaves with a suave and aggressive Frenchman she just met at a local fete. He takes her to his well-appointed home in Aix-en-Provence, then he disappears. Who is he? and where is he? are the first of several mysteries that will be solved by Elise's sister Merle and Pascal, her policeman/partner.

The author takes us to delightful French villages and delicious little bistros, while several of Merle's other relatives and friends arrive to stay at her charmingly renovated French home. There are entertaining side plots, and some romance (does Elise finally meet the right man?), before the mysteries are expertly solved.

This book was a great way to visit France during this travel-restricted year. I was as thoroughly captivated by this novel as I was when reading the first one in this series. I'm looking forward to seeking out the earlier mysteries and spending more time with the Bennett sisters. ( )