A woman takes a job at a secretive French garden to avoid reminders of children; there she meets a mysterious girl needing help. This debut adult novel blends the charm of The Secret Garden and magic realism of Where the Forest Meets the Stars.
“Here lie the bones of those who broke the rules . . .”
There are many rules those who wish to live and work behind the mysterious walled gardens of Le Château du Paradis must follow. One must not gossip. One must not leave their room during dusk.
And most importantly for the newest gardener, Eloise Bourne, children are forbidden.
Although she’s locked inside the castle grounds and subjected to strange rules, Eloise’s new home enchants her with otherworldly lodging and magical flowers. Best of all, her co-workers–who are also retreating from the world–spark her to heal both body and soul. And she feels surprisingly drawn to the intriguing handyman, Raphaël.
But when she starts glimpsing a mysterious child in the trees, she reels. Is this a human girl? Or a woodsprite? Is it her imagination, or is this place truly enchanted?
As the summer unfolds, Eloise begins to fear the child is in danger. It’s not until she breaks the rules and risks her heart that Paradise becomes a prison. Eloise must unearth the gardens’ secrets, fight for her newfound family, and ultimately, claim a second chance at happiness.
A broken woman. A mysterious job ad. A chance to heal in French castle gardens. The Alchemy of Flowers is an enchanting, modern-day take on The Secret Garden, sprinkled with magic, a hint of mystery, and a dash of romance.
The Alchemy of Flowers is a unique and complex debut novel. While enchanting and visually stunning, this book wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I’m not sure if it was due to the pacing or because I was hoping for a darker tone. Don’t get me wrong, there was definitely an air of mystery, but I just felt like something was missing.
The Alchemy of Flowers is a story about healing, fresh starts, and second chances. Unfortunately, this book was a bit hit and miss for me as it had its fair share of ups and downs. It was a bit rough around the edges, and the pacing definitely could be improved. That being said, I do think the bones of this story are solid and that the author has a lot of good potential. I would definitely be open to checking out future books from this author.
*I was provided an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
When a true crime series chronicles the tragic childhood summer that changed her life forever, a young woman must grapple with the truth about her father…and herself.
Jennifer Jones and her best friends spend every summer at Big Cypress Swamp, and this summer, Jennifer will finally turn eleven. She hopes to gain the “second sight” foretold by family legend and fulfill her destiny. Instead, the swamp serves up dangers greater than the gators lurking on Halfway Creek. Little Francie Farrow vanishes—and Jennifer’s father goes to prison.
Twenty years later, Jennifer has almost shed the label of Paul Jones’s daughter when her past comes barreling back. Inspired by True Events, a TV series that solves the unsolvable, is recreating that fateful summer. As the series plays out, Jennifer wonders: Did the show finally find Francie Farrow? And is Jennifer’s father truly guilty?
Someone else wants answers even more than Jennifer does, and they won’t let her forget it.
As the series nears its finale and the long-awaited truth, Jennifer must come to terms with who her family is…and what that makes her.
Lori Roy is the author of six novels of suspense. Her latest, THE FINAL EPISODE, will hit shelves 6/24/2025. Lori’s debut, BENT ROAD, was awarded the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author. She went on to receive the 2016 Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Novel, making Lori the first woman to receive an Edgar Award for both Best First Novel and Best Novel, and she is the third person to have done so.
Lori’s critically acclaimed work has been named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, twice named a New York Times Notable Crime Book, featured in People Magazine as Book of the Week and excerpted in Oprah Magazine. Her work has been widely reviewed and has been included on numerous Best Of lists and summer reading lists.
Lori lives with her family in west-central Florida.
From New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne comes a brand-new story about two women, a family secret and a lost manuscript that changes everything…
Raised by her literary icon father Carson Wells, Allison Wells always felt loved, even though her mother died when she was a teen. But when she takes a DNA test on a whim and discovers she has a sister that she’s never heard about before, it’s clear there are things her father never told her before he died. Determined to meet Juniper—her half sister—and unravel the truth of what happened all those years ago, Ali finds herself taking a job as Juniper’s intern. She’ll eventually figure out a way to tell Juniper the truth of their relationship. But she never could have imagined what would happen next…
Juniper Connolly has always been incredibly healthy…until she wakes up in the hospital after experiencing cardiac arrest, with her new—and recently fired—intern to thank for saving her life. It’s clear June needs to de-stress her life a little, so when Ali offers her the use of her family’s cabin in a small Wyoming town, June has no reason not to go. But when she arrives in the small town, her life will never be the same.
Under the wide-open spaces of the Wyoming summer sun, Ali and June will untangle the secrets and lies their lives were built on to discover who they really are and what family really means. But even more than that, they’ll build a real relationship with one another and finally become sisters.
New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah mountains where she lives with her family. Her books have won numerous honors, including six RITA Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and Career Achievement and Romance Pioneer awards from RT Book Reviews. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website.
From New York Times bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey comes a charming story that explores the joy of friendship, the true meaning of family,and reclaiming the power to reshape our own destiny.
“Kristy Woodson Harvey has the voice of a best friend; a storyteller of the finest sort.” — Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author
“Southern bestselling sensation.” — Katie Couric Media
Kristy Woodson Harvey returns with a delightfully moving new novel about a mother-daughter duo learning to lean on their community of women—and each other—after their world is turned upside down in BEACH HOUSE RULES (on sale May 27, 2025; Gallery Books).
When Charlotte Sitterly’s husband is arrested for a white-collar crime, she and her daughter Iris are locked out of their house by the FBI and—what’s potentially even worse—thrust into the spotlight of @JuniperShoresSocialite, the town’s snarky anonymous Instagram account. Cut off from her bank accounts and feeling desperate, Charlotte takes up an acquaintance’s offer to stay at a beachfront former bed-and-breakfast that’s home to a community of single mothers and draws plenty of gossip in the small coastal North Carolina town.
Charlotte and Iris find solace and are surprised by how much fun they’re having with the other families despite their circumstances. But when the women discover a secret link between them, it changes everything they thought they knew about the unconventional family they’ve created and leaves them wondering whether their coming together was a coincidence at all. Will the skeletons in the mommune closets help Charlotte and Iris reclaim their place in the Juniper Shores community— or shatter the sisterhood forever?
“Perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Jennifer Weiner” (Country Living), Beach House Rules is a charming exploration of the joy of friendship, the true meaning of family, and reclaiming the power to reshape our own destiny.
Kristy Woodson Harvey is the New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author of eleven novels including The Summer of Songbirds and The Peachtree Bluff Series. Many of her books have been optioned or are in development for television and film and have received numerous accolades, including Good Morning America’s Buzz Pick, Southern Living’s Most Anticipated Reads, Katie Couric’s Featured Books, and Joanna Garcia Swisher’s The Happy Place Read. Kristy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize.
A Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s school of journalism, her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Southern Living, Parade, Traditional Home, USA TODAY, and many more. She also holds a master’s in English, with a concentration in multicultural and transnational literature.
Kristy is the cocreator and cohost of the weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction with fellow New York Times Bestselling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, and Patti Callahan Henry. She is also the co-founder of the interiors site Design Chic, with her mom, Beth Woodson.
She lives on the North Carolina coast with her husband, son, and dog, Salt, where she is (always!) working on her next novel.
A grumpy/sunshine, forced-proximity cowboy romance packed with sizzling chemistry, emotional tension, and small-town charm. Perfect for fans of slow-burn, steamy opposites-attract love stories.
Wyatt Logan doesn’t have time for distractions. His family’s ranch is hanging by a thread, developers are circling like vultures, and after his father’s sudden passing, the weight of Triple Creek Ranch rests squarely on his shoulders. The last thing he needs? A smart-mouthed Hollywood princess renting the cabin on his land.
Ivy Anderson is out of options. Hiding out in small-town Montana was never part of the plan, but after a painful scandal nearly destroys her career, she needs an escape. A quiet place to write. To heal. To disappear. She’s not here to make friends—or to catch the eye of the broody, infuriatingly handsome rancher who seems to hate her on sight.
But with their cabins only a few feet apart, avoiding each other isn’t an option. And every heated argument, every stolen glance, every accidental touch only fuels the fire between them.
He’s all rough edges and responsibility. She’s a flight risk with nowhere left to run. They’re complete opposites in every way. But when the line between love and hate blurs, falling for each other isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable.
Perfect for fans of Elsie Silver and Laura Pavlov, this slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance is full of tension, steam, and a swoon-worthy rancher who will steal your heart.
Caisey Quinn is back with a delicious and unforgettable forced proximity, grumpy sunshine romance.
Wyatt Logan has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and the last thing he needs is a distraction. But when Ivy Anderson blows into town after having her heart broken, his entire world gets flipped upside-down.
From the moment we meet Wyatt and Ivy, the tension and chemistry explode off the pages. Wyatt is a grumpy, stubborn rancher who doesn’t have time for the likes of city girl, Ivy Anderson. However, there’s more to Ivy than meets the eye, and the more time Wyatt spends with her, the more she gets under his skin. What starts off as an enemies-to-lovers situation quickly turns into an unforgettable slow-burning romance that will have every woman wishing for her own dirty-talking rancher.
Tempting Wyatt is an entertaining read from beginning to end, with characters that are destined to steal your heart. With just the right amount of steam and drama, you won’t be able to put this book down. I had the best time getting lost in Wyatt and Ivy’s story and can not wait to see what this author has in store for us next!
*I was provided an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
Ten years ago, I left the ashes of my past behind, determined to fulfill my dream of owning a flower shop in the largest city in the world.
With business now booming, I need to expand my storefront, and I’m desperate for help. So, when my best friend sets me up on a blind date disguised as a business meeting, with the billionaire CEO of the city’s most elite real estate firm, I cave.
What I don’t expect is the billionaire blind date turning out to be my ex-boyfriend.
Though one look is all it takes to know Asher Egan is no longer the boy I once knew from the wrong side of the tracks. He’s an ambitious, insanely wealthy businessman who knows exactly what and who he wants…
Me.
And the longer we work together, the faster the embers of our youthful love begin to reignite.
It’s a shame the pain isn’t as easily forgotten.
Fearing he’ll lose me again, he’s suddenly asking for a future we both walked away from all those years ago.
But will I be able to sift through the ashes of our past and find it in my heart to love him again… or will our second chance at a happy ending threaten to destroy us once and for all?
When Charleigh’s world was turned upside down, she was determined to put her past behind her and fulfill her dream of owning her own flower shop. With business booming, Charleigh has no choice but to look at expanding. When her best friend sets up her on a blind date disguised as a business meeting, with the billionaire CEO of the city’s most elite real estate firm, the last thing she expected was to come face to face with the man who broke her heart ten years prior…
From Asher, With Love without a doubt put my heart through the ringer. I’m talking about the angsty, pull-at-your-heartstrings kind of emotion that leaves you with no choice but to devour each word like your life depends on it.
Asher and Charleigh’s story is the perfect opposites attract, reunited lovers, second-chance romance. Despite their time apart, the pull and chemistry are still there. Everything between them just oozes off the pages, leading to incredible banter and an unforgettable love story.
If you’re looking for a romance that will leave you with all the feels, you’re not gonna want to miss From Asher, With Love. Charleigh and Asher’s romance was everything I wanted and then some. My heart was set on fire and bursting at the seams with all the heartache, longing, delicious angst, and romance. I loved everything about this book from beginning to end and it’s definitely on my list of top reads for 2025!
*I was provided an ARC copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review*
A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.
It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.
The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.
A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.
Sleeping Beauty retelling with a serial killer twist…I’m so here for here for it!
Vanishing Daughters was completely unexpected and I couldn’t put it down. I loved the web of mystery and intrigue the author created. This story was bizarre, yet utterly fascinating. I was completely invested and couldn’t wait to see how everything would come together in the end.
If I had to make a complaint about anything, it would be that I wished that Emily and Daniel would have been featured a little more. I felt like we got little glimpses of them, but they were ultimately an afterthought.
Overall, I thought Vanishing Daughters was a unique gothic thriller with an unexpected fairytale twist. This book is quite a departure from the books I normally read and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.
* I was provided an ARC copy of this book via the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *
About the Author
Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet.
Pelayo writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore concepts of grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, The Shoemaker’s Magician, as well as dozens of standalone short stories and poems.
Her works have been reviewed in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Review of Books, and more.
Praise for Cynthia Pelayo
“Vanishing Daughters is a creepy, moody, devious heartbreaker of a novel! Great characters and a compelling plot filled with twists you won’t see coming. Darkly elegant!” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of NecroTek and editor of Weird Tales Magazine
“Vanishing Daughters plunges us into the nightmare that is grief, from which it feels impossible to wake. Pelayo constructs an elegant yet haunting house of memories, dreamlike vignettes quilted, and interweaves violence, true crime, injustice with dark fairy tales through part poetry, part prose. In this multilayered exploration of sleeping women awakened, Vanishing Daughters illuminates how our lives are inseparable from folklore, from our ancestors, even if unfair.” —Ai Jiang, Bram Stoker and Nebula Award–winning author of Linghun
“A marvelous fusion of fairy tale and haunted Chicago history, loss and the will to live on, age-old injustices and a drive to give peace to the past. Mysterious and spooky, Vanishing Daughters is as heartrending as it is spine tingling, a girls-gone-missing tale in which Cynthia Pelayo navigates grief to find purpose in our many deaths, one for every soul we’ve ever loved and lost.” —Nick Medina, author of Indian Burial Ground
“A lyrical, ghostly homage to the city of Chicago. One of Pelayo’s finest.” —Erika T. Wurth, author of White Horse
“A cerebral thicket, growing tight around and keeping you. No matter how much we think we know, Pelayo shows there’s always another stone to overturn in her Chicago tales. Vanishing Daughters bares the heart in its rawest condition, revealing how our human nature can erode the lines between past and present, between grief and obsession, and between dark fairy tale and ghost story.” —Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Queen of Teeth and All the Hearts You Eat
The story of Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from Central Park Zoo and captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of followers around the world.
This is a parable of freedom, wildness, and our urban ecosystems. Flaco has been dubbed “the world’s most famous bird.” From the night in February of 2023 when vandals cut a hole in his cage until his death a year later in a courtyard on the Upper West Side, his is a story full of adventure and unexpected turns.
Nature writer David Gessner chronicles the year-long odyssey of Flaco and the human drama that followed the owl who captured the imaginations of New Yorkers and people around the world. Though he’d spent his life in a cage, Flaco learned to survive in New York City by eating rats, squirrels, and birds. He was an immigrant coming from elsewhere to make it in the big city. Central Park, the island of green in an urban sea, was his new home territory.
Flaco’s urban adventure brought controversy, pitting those who felt he should be returned to the safety of the zoo against those who created the “Free Flaco” movement. The birding world was fractured over the ethics of the online sharing of his location that brought scores of enthusiasts to view him each day. And his end—with a grim necropsy revealing Flaco had suffered a viral infection from eating pigeons and had multiple rodenticides in his system—serves as a Rachel Carson-esque warning about the harm we’ve done to our urban environments, inspiring the passage of long-sought legislation protecting urban birds and regulations meant to reduce the use of rodenticides in New York City.
David Gessner is the author of thirteen books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism, including the New York Times bestselling All the Wild That Remains. Gessner is a professor at University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he also founded the literary magazine Ecotone. His own magazine publications include pieces in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Orion, and many other magazines. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, The Call of the Wild.
Praise for David Gessner
“For Flaco fans, birdwatchers and those interested in the threats facing our environment, The Book of Flaco promises to be a hoot.”—PEOPLE
“For one glorious year, it was Flaco’s world, and we were just living in it. The world watched as a scrappy newcomer made New York his home, and we mourned his death even as we knew his freedom couldn’t last. Fortunately, David Gessner came along to chronicle these events as they happened, and to conduct a post-mortem, as it were, on Flaco’s flight to freedom, his rise to fame, and his inevitable downfall. The result is a wonderfully entertaining tribute to Flaco and everything he taught us about what owls are capable of, even in the urban chaos of Manhattan.”—Amy Stewart, author of The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession and The Drunken Botanist
“Gessner writes beautifully, with heart and honesty. This book is about an owl, sure, but more than that, it’s about ourselves: about what we in our distracted, self-centric lives have lost and occasionally, in the unexpected presence of a wild creature, are lucky enough to regain. Like Flaco himself, this book is an inspiration, an invitation to step outside ourselves, to leave the cage, as it were, and connect to something pure and precious. Nature writing can have no worthier purpose.”—Mary Roach, author of Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
“The Book of Flaco is a charming, passionate ode to the world’s most charismatic owl—and the latent wildness that we all harbor. Few birds touched as many human lives as this escaped Eurasian eagle-owl, and few writers have memorialized an animal as gracefully as David Gessner.”—Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings and Eager
Elaine Neil Orr, born in Nigeria to expat parents, brings us an indelible portrait of a young female artist, torn between two men and two cultures, struggling to find her passion and her purpose.
It’s 1963 and Isabel Hammond is an expat who has accompanied her agriculture aid worker husband to Nigeria, where she is hoping to find inspiration for her art and for her life. Then she meets charismatic local singer Bobby Tunde, and they share a night of passion that could upend everything. Seeking solace and distraction, she returns to her painting and her home in a rural village where she plants a lemon tree and unearths an ancient statue buried in her garden. She knows that the dancing female figure is not hers to keep, yet she is reluctant to give it up, and soon, she notices other changes that make her wonder what the dancing woman might portend.
Against the backdrop of political unrest in Nigeria, Isabel’s personal situation also becomes precarious. She finds herself in the center of a tide of suspicion, leaving her torn between the confines of her domestic life and the desire to immerse herself in her art and in the culture that surrounds her. The expat society, the ancient Nigerian culture, her beautiful family, and even the statue hidden in a back room—each trouble and beguile Isabel. Amid all of this, can she finally become who she wants to be?
Elaine Neil Orr is the author of five books, including the novels A Different Sun and Swimming Between Worlds. She was born and grew up in Nigeria, the daughter of missionary parents, and most of her writing is grounded in both the American South and the Nigerian South. She is a faculty member at North Carolina State University and at the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing, Spalding University.
Praise for Elaine Neil Orr
“Elaine Neil Orr’s latest novel is a powerful story of transformation and redemption, guided by the sure, steady hand of an author at the height of her power. Dancing Woman is a fierce reminder of the dangers of unearthing long buried passions, while simultaneously whispering a call to do just that. A thoroughly captivating read.”—Rachel M. Harper, The Other Mother and This Side of Providence
“Brimming with vivid description, deeply rooted in time and place, and with a fascinating cast of complicated, enigmatic characters, Dancing Woman is ultimately a story of longing—for a sense of self, community, redemption, and healing—and a profound exploration of the transformative power of art in its many forms.”—Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain and The Trackers
“1960s Nigeria is in turmoil, and so is Elaine Neil Orr’s thoughtful, unique protagonist: transplanted American bride Isabel Hammond, whose struggles to find her purpose and identity launch this fascinating tale. Dancing Woman is a provocative, lyrical, moving exploration of a dynamic young woman’s journey from crisis to growth in a challenging time and place, and well worth readers’ valuable time.”—Therese Fowler, It All Comes Down to This and Z
“Utterly intriguing…Who knew sex and drumming are intertwined? Elaine will take you on that journey…Amidst suspense, betrayal, and confusion, Elaine brings Nigeria in the 1960s to you, giving you a dose of history, language, culture, music, and art. I expect nothing less from a Nigerian in spirit and body.”—Toyin Falola, Counting the Tiger’s Teeth
“In Anatomy of Exile Zeeva Bukai beautifully weaves one Mizrahi family’s tragic tale of love and loss and deftly illuminates the liminal space between places and languages, Arabness and Jewishness. With great empathy and profound insight, Bukai explores our attachment to place, family, and tradition and the lengths we would go to protect them, showing history repeating itself in inexplicable yet inevitable ways. Anatomy of Exile is a remarkably assured debut—radiant, intelligent, and deeply moving.” — Ayelet Tsabari, author of Songs for the Brokenhearted, The Best Place on Earth and The Art of Leaving, winner of the Sami Rohr Prize, and The Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish fiction
“Zeeva Bukai writes as perceptively about romantic love and family life as she does about the wider forces that haunt it: war and exile, love across borders, the long, torturous shadow of the past. The Anatomy of Exile is a compassionate, searing and full-of-life novel that bears witness in important ways.” — Elizabeth Graver, author of Kantika, winner of the 2023 Jewish National Book Award, and The Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish fiction
“The heartbreak of being exiled from the land of your birth is beautifully described in this wrenching novel, a deep dive into the immigrant experience, family dynamics, and the misunderstandings that needlessly divide people. The fiber of loyalty is tested until it frays– yet redemption does come, and is sweet. The Anatomy of Exile, both timely and timeless, is a startlingly brave debut.” — Chris Cander, USA Today-bestselling author of The Young of Other Animals, A Gracious Neighbor, and The Weight of a Piano
“In Zeeva Bukai’s stunning debut, the burden of history is masterfully woven into the intimate journey of an Israeli family. With elegant prose and unflinching honesty, this novel about love, betrayal, and exile reminds us of the necessity of storytelling in troubled times.” — Amy Gottlieb, author of The Beautiful Possible
“Zeeva Bukai’s The Anatomy of Exile is a captivating and moving account of displacement, sacrifice, and ultimate loss. With expansive prose and deft dialogue, Bukai interrogates the ways in which a family attempts to love each other in spite of differing cultures, and how the world conspires to prevent it. But this is also a universal narrative; one that might take place anywhere and at any time. Such is the power of love, and the story that Bukai so beautifully invites us to enter into. I loved this book.” — Marcia Butler, author of Oslo, Maine and The Skin Above My Knee
“Propulsive and gorgeously written. With meticulous observation that misses nothing, Zeeva Bukai brings to life two worlds and a family torn between them. What is home? Who are we when the ground shifts beneath us? How can we sustain love and hope in the face of betrayal? A richly textured novel brimming with insight and compassion. I was riveted from the first page.” — Joan Leegant, author of the New American Prize-winning Displaced Persons
“Zeeva Bukai has written a gorgeous, soulful novel whose aching, mismatched characters limp bravely towards love even when it wounds them to the quick. But even more, she’s written a portrait of Israel as a young country, and reveals the enourmous and even magnetic power this sacred ground exerts on those who call it home.” — Yona Zeldis McDonough, Fiction Editor, Lilith Magazine
The Abadi Family saga begins when a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story between a Palestinian and a Jew ends in predictable tragedy. The family flees to America to mend, but encounters only more turmoil that threatens to tear the family apart.
In the wake of the 1967 Six Day War, Tamar Abadi’s world collapses when her sister-in-law is killed in what appears to be a terror attack but what is really the result of a secret relationship with a Palestinian poet. Tamar’s husband, Salim, is an Arab and a Jew. Torn between the two identities, and mourning his sister’s death, he uproots the family and moves them to the US. As Tamar struggles to maintain the integrity of the family’s Jewish Israeli identity against the backdrop of the American “melting pot” culture, a Palestinian family moves into the apartment upstairs and she is forced to reckon with her narrow thinking as her daughter falls in love with the Palestinian son. Fearing history will repeat itself, Tamar’s determination to separate the two sets into motion a series of events that have the power to destroy her relationship with her daughter, her marriage, and the family she has worked so hard to protect. This powerful debut novel explores Tamar’s struggle to keep her family intact, to accept love that is taboo, and grapples with how exile forces us to reshape our identity in ways we could not imagine.
Love stories impacted by social and political turmoil
The impact of having two identities, each side at odds
How this historical novel holds a mirror to current Middle East conflict
How the author’s experiences as a dual citizen inspired the novel
The various ways that we define “home”
The challenges of marriages between people of two cultures
Why Romeo and Juliet stories remain both timeless and timely
Zeeva Bukai was born in Israel and raised in New York City. Her honors include a Fellowship at the New York Center for Fiction and residencies at Hedgebrook, and Byrdcliffe Artist in Residence program. Her stories are forthcoming in the anthology Smashing the Tablets: A Radical Retelling of the Hebrew Bible, and have appeared in Carve Magazine, Pithead Chapel, the Lilith anthology, Frankly Feminist: Stories by Jewish Women, December Magazine where her story The Abandoning (an early version of the first chapter of her novel, “The Anatomy of Exile”) was selected by Lily King for the Curt Johnson Prose Prize, The Master’s Review, where she was the recipient of the Fall Fiction prize selected by Anita Felicelli, Mcsweeny’s Quarterly Concern, Image Journal, Jewishfiction.net, Women’s Quarterly Journal, and the Jewish Quarterly. Her work has been featured on the Stories on Stage Davis podcast. She studied Acting at Tel-Aviv University, and holds a BFA in Theater and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She is the Assistant Director of Academic Support at SUNY Empire State University and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
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