Wild Beauty : A Novel

The author of the National Book Award long-listed When the Moon Was Ours delivers a spellbinding young adult romance about a lush garden and two lovers who fall under its spell.

For nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant guests from around the world. They’ve also hidden a tragic legacy: If they fall in love too deeply, their lovers vanish. But a strange boy appears in the gardens, a boy neither Estrella, the girl who finds him, nor her family know anything about.

The grandmothers treat him like a lost son. The mothers hope he’s a sign that their vanished loves might reappear. Estrella’s cousins worry his presence is a warning none of them yet understand. However much the boy is an enigma to them, he’s even more a mystery to himself. As Estrella tries to help him piece together his unknown past, La Pradera leads them to secrets as dangerous as they are magical in this stunning exploration of love, loss, and family.

Anna-Marie McLemore was born in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and grew up in a Mexican-American family. She is the author of When the Moon Was Ours (long-listed for the National Book Award) and The Weight of Feathers (finalist for the Morris Award).