The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeannie Ralston
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 27342
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0767927958
Dewey Decimal Number: 633.81
EAN: 9780767927956
ASIN: 0767927958
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
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Product Description
“I couldn’t help but question how I’d gotten to this strange spot in my life, so far from what I’d expected for myself. Yes, there had been a heady romance a few years back. Then a slew of subsequent decisions, fueled by love and yearnings I didn’t even know I had. But I never, ever would have suspected that this was where the sum total of them would bring me. That afternoon a new doubt dripped into my mind. When do you know, I wondered, whether the choices you’ve made were the right ones?”
In 1990, Jeannie Ralston was a successful magazine writer and bona fide city girl—the type of woman who couldn't imagine living on soil not shaded by skyscrapers. By 1994, she had called off an engagement, married Robb, a National Geographic photographer, and was living in Blanco Texas, population 1600.
The Unlikely Lavender Queen is the intimate story of a woman who gives up a lot for the man she loves – her beloved blue state, bagels and all-night bodegas—only to have to wonder: Was it too much? Ralston offers a lively chronicle of her life as a wife, new mother and an urban settler in rural Texas. As she labors to convert a dilapidated barn into a livable home, deal with scorpions and unbearably hot summers, raise two young children while Robb is frequently away on assignment, she realizes her ultimate struggle is to reconcile her life plans and goals with her husband’s without coming out the proverbial loser. And just when it seems like she might be losing that fight--and herself-- a little purple bloom changes her life.
For centuries lavender has been a mystical herb, so valuable to ancient Romans that a bushel would cost nearly a month’s wages. But when Robb returns from a trip to Provence with a plan for growing lavender on their land, Ralston is not convinced—in fact the last thing she needed or wanted was to take up farming on top of everything else. Then, much to her surprise, she slowly but surely falls in love with lavender, and in the course of growing and selling blooms, hosting the public at the farm, and creating lavender products, she discovers a new side of herself. A few short years later, Ralston had built Hill Country Lavender, a thriving commercial enterprise that transforms both her little corner of Texas and her life.
The Unlikely Lavender Queen will resonate with all women who have faced the tough choices that come with “having it all” and secretly (or not so secretly) hoped for great adventure to come along and surprise them. Ralston’s honest, funny, and poignant memoir is a testament to the fact that such adventures await us around every bend in life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 An Inspiring Book for Women August 21, 2008
Anyone who has ever found that their lives are heading in a direction other than what they had originally planned will sympathize and enjoy reading Jeannie Ralston's The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming.
The memoir begins when as Jeannie harvests her first order of lavender. From there, we travel back to what started it all: a National Geographic photographer with fabulous legs. Jeannie writes about how her marriage to what she calls a "restless" man led to a life she never would have imagined for herself.
For the first part of her life, Jeannie worked hard to establish herself as a talented writer. She wrote stories for Life, Time, and National Geographic and has been a contributing editor for Allure and is currently still one for Parenting. After she meets Robb, they fall in love and eventually marry and move to Texas. Jeannie is helplessly homesick and misses New York, the city she feels symbolizes her youth.
Although the couple first lives in Austin, a city that becomes more than tolerable in Jeannie's mind, they eventually build a home in the Hill Country. Jeannie hates it, and, when Robb decides he wants to start a lavender farm, she only becomes more miserable.
The rest of the book details her gradual acceptance and resulting fondess for the business they build and the small town they live in. But it doesn't end there, Ralston's story has a twist at the end, and her story is far from over.
When she was in town to read from her memoir, I had the opportunity to speak with Ralston. She filled me in on her life as it is now and her relationship with her husband. When I asked her to describe it for me, she told me "Robb pushes me, but he has never suppressed me. In the end, it always seems to turn out for the best."
If Jeannie has learned anything from the lavendar experience, it has been to "let go." At this point in her life, she is more open to his ideas because he has never let her or their boys down or put them in a situation that didn't have their best interest at heart.
The Unlikely Lavender Queen is a witty and entertaining story that will keep you glued to the pages to discover what will happen next. And those who enjoy it can look for more books from Ralston in the future.
 Great book! August 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this delightful memoir and found it interesting on many levels. It's well written and touches on many themes that are important to women trying to juggle career, family, and relationships.
UNlikely Lavendar Queen August 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My friend recently lent it to me on vacation, but I could not finish in time. As soon as I got home, I ordered it and have spread the word on this unlikely life experience ever since. It is well written and described in complete detail. I now tell everyone to read it and I know they will enjoy it too. I look forward to reading about Ms. Ralston's future adventures. I know she will have some wonderful ones!
This book made me want to grow a lavender field! August 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book made me want to grow a lavender field, but it also gave me a strong sense of determination and accomplishment for the author. I enjoyed reading the book, in fact once I was done with the book I went right out and bought my first lavender plant!
Reader from Texas August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I got this book at the recommendation of a friend and not too excited about reading another memoir. However, once I got into it, I simply could not put it down. Even though I knew the ending, having met the author at a booksigning, I still was in enough suspense at each of the junctures in her life to keep me reading far past bedtime.
Jeannie, shows such appreciation for the Texas life(maybe reluctantly at first). She eloquently describes her transformation from the person she was when she was in New York to a woman who learns to appreciate all the twists and turns and uncontrollable events that living in a small rural community and farming lavender brings.
This is a must read for every women who has been handed unexpected circumstances - and haven't we all!
Gwenna - Dallas
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