ON THE NOVEL—

Flora, an orphaned Native American girl with a passion for botany, has never understood the appeal of love. Love, to her, means nothing more than tending to her gardens or spending time with her closest friend and orphan-sister, Cecilia.

It isn’t until an unfortunate occurrence at their orphanage that Flora and Cecilia are thrown into a life of debt, causing a blight in their friendship. And so, hopeful to pay off the debt haunting her, and mend things with Cecilia for good, Flora begins working at Virginia’s most beloved garden emporium, Holloway Gardens. It is there that she and Cecilia meet Jory and Keith Holloway; brothers and heirs to the family business. As Cecilia falls into a turbulent relationship with Jory, Flora finds herself drawn to Keith and his strange connection to a girl’s suicide inside one of the greenhouses at Holloway Gardens.

Flora soon comes face to face with her fears of love, her sudden feelings towards a boy she insists she hates—and her most delicate feelings towards Cecilia—but with the possibility of gaining all she’s ever wanted.

If only she allows herself to be burned for the sake of it.