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A Kirkus Best Book of 2017
A Booklist Best Book of 2017
A School Library Journal Editors' Choice
A Fall 2017 Junior Library Guild Selection
OwlCrate's October 2017 Selection
"A grab-you-by-the-throat tale of love and family. McLemore's storytelling is nothing short of riveting."
--Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen
"No one does magical realism like McLemore...Sheer magic: fierce, bright, and blazing with possibility."
--Booklist, starred review
"This fantastical tale with delight her fans and entice a new audience."
--School Library Journal, starred review
"Part mystery, part love story, this evocative, lush novel is a delight for sophisticated readers."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Love grows such strange things.
Anna-Marie McLemore's debut novel The Weight of Feathers garnered fabulous reviews and was a finalist for the prestigious YALSA Morris Award, and her second novel, When the Moon Was Ours, was longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Now, in Wild Beauty, McLemore introduces a spellbinding setting and two characters who are drawn together by fate—and pulled apart by reality.
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 then, after generations of vanishings, a strange boy appears in the gardens.
The boy is a mystery to Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help Fel 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.
--Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen
"No one does magical realism like McLemore...Sheer magic: fierce, bright, and blazing with possibility."
--Booklist, starred review
"This fantastical tale with delight her fans and entice a new audience."
--School Library Journal, starred review
"Part mystery, part love story, this evocative, lush novel is a delight for sophisticated readers."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Love grows such strange things.
Anna-Marie McLemore's debut novel The Weight of Feathers garnered fabulous reviews and was a finalist for the prestigious YALSA Morris Award, and her second novel, When the Moon Was Ours, was longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Now, in Wild Beauty, McLemore introduces a spellbinding setting and two characters who are drawn together by fate—and pulled apart by reality.
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 then, after generations of vanishings, a strange boy appears in the gardens.
The boy is a mystery to Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help Fel 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.