Lavender in Bloomby Lily Velez
Publication date: July 25th 2016
Genres: Historical, Romance, Young Adult
BLURB
It’s the year 1802 in Avignon,
France…
Noah Capet has spent most of his
young life living simple and unvaried days in the hushed countryside of
southern France. Quiet, reserved, and diffident, his preference for existing is
to do so in solitude, keeping to himself both in town and on his family’s
farm—a predilection that’s altogether disrupted when a newcomer to town by the
name of Jeremie Perreault begins an unremitting quest to befriend him.
Jeremie is everything Noah is
not. Charismatic and gregarious, he leaves a trail of charmed admirers in his
wake wherever he goes. Expressive and idealistic, he talks without end about
his deep love for old books and his spirited dream to one day travel the world
on a literary pilgrimage.
Over the course of a single
summer, the two form an unlikely friendship, but just as quickly as it
develops, it soon entirely dissolves as they’re forced to face the truth of
what has unexpectedly emerged between them.
Lavender in Bloom is a tender and
tragic coming-of-age story about first love and self-discovery, and a poignant
reminder that time is fleeting and always takes with it the choices we’re too
afraid to make.
Buy Link: Amazon
EXCERPT:
“I think
of you almost every moment, Noah. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I am utterly
tormented by these things I feel for you.”
It was as if lightning had struck Noah. He was paralyzed by the
admission, stricken silent, and at his core, an inferno devoured him. Its heat
filled his veins, spread from ligament to ligament, muscle to muscle. Jeremie
had once read aloud a poem regarding a phoenix making its nest in a person’s
bosom. Noah felt the phoenix now, felt her awakening, shifting, extending her
wings and beating them powerfully so that he was left breathless, but no more
breathless than by what Jeremie did next.
Jeremie came to him at once, erasing the last of the distance
between them, and this time, Noah didn’t back away. The thin gap of space
between their bodies sweltered. Still, Noah didn’t move. He didn’t move as
Jeremie cupped Noah’s elbows, fingers grasping at bone. He didn’t move as
Jeremie pulled him nearer. He didn’t even move when their faces were close
enough for him to feel Jeremie’s warm breath against his mouth.
“Tell me you feel the same,” Jeremie whispered. It sounded like a
prayer. His head was bowed slightly to be at level with Noah’s.
There was a pull in Noah’s stomach, an unfamiliar desire growing
heavier. He was close enough now to see the velvet trimming on the collar of
Jeremie’s coat, the paisley design of the white ascot at his neck. Jeremie’s
lips lingered before his own, daring, eager, ravenous. It would’ve been
effortless to give in, to lean his body into Jeremie’s, to be overtaken by the
fever consuming him. He wanted to. Of that much he was certain, and it shocked
him like nothing else ever had.
Tell me you feel the same, Jeremie had whispered.
And Noah, still fighting a war he hadn’t even known had begun long
ago, had thought to, had nearly conceded to it. But then he saw an image of
Jeremie’s father, cold and cruel, bringing his own son to ruins, and in the
end, he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. For Jeremie’s sake, he couldn’t fall.
Firm in his resolve, he drew up his strength and stepped back out
of Jeremie’s hold. The moment he did, the phoenix extinguished herself.
Tell me you feel the same.
Noah met his eyes, forcefully, meaningfully. “I don’t.”
Buy Link: Amazon
Author Info
Lily Velez has been writing
stories since she was six years old. Not much has changed since then. She still
prefers the written word and her overactive imagination over the 'real world'
(though to be fair, her stories no longer feature talking dinosaurs). A
graduate of Rollins College and a Florida native, when she's not reading or
writing, she spends most of her days wrangling up her pit bulls Noah and Luna,
planning exciting travel adventures, and nursing her addiction to cheese. All
this when she isn't participating in the extreme sport known as napping. You
can learn more about Lily and her books at www.lilyvelezbooks.com.
Author Links:
Website / Goodreads / Twitter
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS WITH AUTHOR LILY VELEZ
Where did the inspiration for Lavender in Bloom come from?
The story behind Lavender in Bloom first emerged on July
22, 2013. Back then, I was still developing my character Noah Capet, and while
doing some free-writing for his backstory, pieces of his forbidden romance with
Jeremie began to emerge little by little. The very first ‘telling’ of the story
was less than 500 words and written in first-person from Noah’s point of view.
Over the next few years, I’d return to Noah and Jeremie again and again,
writing snippets here and there that eventually amounted to tens of thousands of
words. Finally, I decided 2016 would be the year I brought their story into the
world!
Where did all the fables in the book come from?
In Lavender in Bloom, you get to enjoy a nice variety of
anecdotes. Some, like a king building a chapel simply to house his relics, are
quite true. The story of the luck of the horseshoe is a well-known legend. As
for the story of the sun and the moon, and the story of how lavender first came
into bloom in France...those two are both my own creation. I read a number of
fables about the sun and the moon but couldn’t find one that resonated with me
so ultimately crafted my own. The lavender story is based on an ‘alternate
universe’ story featuring Noah and Jeremie but was slightly modified to fit in
with the ending I had in mind.
How do you develop your characters and plots?
I tend to develop characters first. They’re my favorite part about
writing a new story, in fact, because my stories are, for the most part, very
character-oriented. As aforementioned, Noah and Jeremie have been around in my
mind for a few years, so I’ve had ample time to get to know the ins and outs of
their personalities. How? For one, I do extensive free-writing for my
characters to get in their heads and understand them better. Prior to beginning
this manuscript, I had already written tens of thousands of words featuring
Noah and Jeremie in different scenes. I also like to create Pinterest boards
for characters so I know everything about the way they look, what their home
looks like, what their pets look like, how they dress, the type of possessions
they’d have, etc. As for plots, I typically let the characters run the show.
The story for Lavender in Bloom completely arose on its own one day. I
hadn’t intended that for Noah’s backstory at all. But he clearly had something
up his sleeve. ;)
What was your favorite part of Lavender in Bloom to write
and why?
There were a lot of scenes that were exciting for me to write. I
would say one of my favorite scene, however, takes place in Jeremie’s bookshop
when Noah has finished helping him ready the store for its grand opening. I
don’t want to give away too much so that I don’t spoil it for readers, but
toward the end of this scene, Jeremie does something to indicate that he’s
begun to see Noah as more than just a friend. To me, it was just a very tender
moment in the story, and I think it’s something we can all relate to. We’ve all
had those moments when we’ve wondered if the object of our affection feels
similarly. It can be scary to make the first move to find out, so I just feel
like the scene has a universality to it. I also enjoy this scene because it’s
the ‘point of no return’ for Noah and Jeremie. Neither of them can pretend like
the moment never happened, and it ends up changing their relationship for the
rest of the summer.
What was the hardest part of the writing process?
As it happened, the mass shooting in Orlando (the worst mass
shooting in U.S. history) took place while I was doing final edits for Lavender
in Bloom. I live in Orlando, and the shooting actually took place at a
venue just 20 minutes away from my home. That was hard because it emphasized
the amount of hate that’s in our world, especially when it comes to who a
person loves. Noah and Jeremie’s story takes place in 1802. Although
revolutionary ideals (and later, The Napoleonic Code) decriminalized same-sex
relationships at the time, it’s not like you could suddenly walk down the
street hand-in-hand with your significant other. Objections still ran deep, and
just decades before the story’s set, two men were actually burned alive in
Paris for being lovers. So the hardest part for me was realizing just how close
to home Noah and Jeremie’s story is for countless people even to this day.
If you could spend a day with a character from your book, who
would it be and what would you do?
I’d probably most enjoy spending a day with Jeremie. I would want
to join him on one of his literary pilgrimages--probably the one where he
visits all the breathtaking libraries in the world. That would be so much fun,
and it’s actually a goal of mine as well!
What were your goals and intentions in this book? What do you hope
people will take away?
I hope people will take away the fact that you can’t live your
life to please other people. This is something I think we all face at some
point in our lives. We either do what’s expected of us to make mom and dad (or
whoever it might be) happy and proud (but it comes at the expense of our own
joy)...or we forge a path for ourselves, break the mold, and live the
fulfilling life of our dreams.
It can be scary to do the thing that lights you up on the
inside--especially if it’s met with the disapproval of others. No one wants to
be an outcast. We want to be accepted and loved. We want to feel like we
belong.
But this life you have is your life and yours only. It’s a
gift. You’ve been given a unique opportunity to explore the world, to grow, to
learn about what you like and don’t like, to develop meaningful and beautiful
relationships with others, and to have an overall fulfilling and positive
experience until your last day. So why spend a single minute of your life in a
job/role/position/relationship/etc. that doesn’t make you excited to be alive?
Your dreams are special, and I hope this book encourages people to
go after that thing that’s been tugging at their heart for a while now, to say
yes to that opportunity no matter how scary it might be, and to not let amazing
and beautiful things slip through their fingers because of fear.
Are you working on another book?
Two stories are currently warring within me to become my next
book.
The first is a contemporary, new adult romance about a young woman
who tracks down the family of the organ donor whose heart saved her father's
life a year ago, and finds a group of shattered individuals still in the throes
of grief.
The second is an adult historical romance set in the 1800s in
Prague that follows a young psychology professor named Gottfried, whose world
is turned upside down when a seventeen-year-0ld, would-be anarchist named
Dominik Prochazka becomes enamored of him.
If you'd like to stay updated about my future books and be among
the first to know about advanced reader copies, giveaways, and events, you can
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