
Where the Sea Lavender Grows
A Novel
Amazon Publishing · Print & ebook · May 1, 2026
A woman restoring a historic cottage on the English coast uncovers a startling connection to the past in a haunting and bittersweet novel about art, loss, and love by the author of Closest Kept.
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- Who it’s for
- Readers interested in historical fiction centered on World War II and its aftermath
- Themes
- loss, love, historical mystery
- Pacing
- Steady
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Start with this bookAbout this book
A woman restoring a historic cottage on the English coast uncovers a startling connection to the past in a haunting and bittersweet novel about art, loss, and love by the author of Closest Kept. Elise, an artist grieving the loss of her son and a fracturing marriage, is in North Norfolk to restore Marsh House to its former glory, its walls adorned with the fading murals and paintings of its long-ago owner, Lilias Carter-Brown.
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Elise makes an immediate connection to the house, to Sam—a carpenter and a comfort—and to history itself when an old photograph draws Elise into Lilias’s heartbreaking past. In 1939, with war threatening, Lilias and her sister turn Marsh House into a sanctuary for London evacuees—a young boy and his mother. But it’s the boy’s father, Harry, an enlistee soon to report for duty, with whom Lilias forms an unexpected and intimate bond. When Harry suddenly vanishes without a trace, it changes the course of Lilias’s life forever. Now, as Elise and Sam work to solve the mystery of the disappearance, the restoration of Marsh House is bringing Elise back to life as well—to love again, to put her and Lilias’s pasts to rest, and to finally move on.
Who it’s for
- Readers interested in historical fiction centered on World War II and its aftermath
- Readers who enjoy stories about family secrets and personal restoration
Where it sits
| World War II & Holocaust | 64% |
|---|---|
| 20th-Century Historical Romance | 53% |
| Multiple-Timeline Fiction | 36% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- World War II & Holocaust
- 20th-Century Historical Romance
- Women's Fiction
- Authors
- Kitty Johnson
- Publisher
- Amazon Publishing
- Published
- May 1, 2026
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- loss · love · historical mystery
- Reading lane
- World War II & Holocaust