The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

Bestseller Chokshi (best known for the YA novel The Gilded Wolves) makes her adult debut with a lush and haunting modern fairy tale about the nature of friendship and love. Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada, the heiress to a fortune, wants for nothing but love. She finds it in the unnamed narrator, a man who embraces all things mysterious and unexplained. Their marriage is built on sharing fairy stories, playing fantastical games, and maintaining a no questions asked policy about Indigo’s past. But when Indigo’s dying aunt and onetime guardian forces them to return to the House of Dreams, Indigo’s childhood home, secrets bubble to the surface. The ghost of Indigo’s childhood best friend clings to the House of Dreams and begs to be acknowledged. Soon fantasy and reality blur, testing the strength of the couple’s love, and even threatening their lives. Chokshi’s prose overflows with metaphor and lavish imagery, adding to the decadent, gothic feel as the mystery of Indigo’s past intensifies. The result is equal parts dizzying, dazzling, and foreboding. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Feb.)