Ambrose Delanar—with his fiery snapdragon in tow—is set to attend the Conservatory of Botany to cultivate his plant magic and make a name for himself in high society’s gardens. When his estranged father summons him back to his childhood home in the country to become gardener at Windwick Manor, it means giving up his promising future to dig up a burdened past.
Ambrose arrives home to a sinister blight creeping over the estate. To find an antidote, he must rely on Mira, the girl who broke his heart as a child and the heiress of Windwick, and his pathological liar father who wants to heal their relationship before he dies. But forgiveness and trust don’t grow quickly.
As new secrets are revealed and murder is whispered from the manor walls, Ambrose and Mira work together to save the place they loved as children. But not everyone is who they seem, and the past holds more deception than they remember. Ambrose must decide whether fighting for the girl, the father, and the place he once called home is worth the pain, or if he will let it all be choked out in his pride.
THE BOTANIST is an 80,000 word YA Fantasy with relational themes and a lyrical voice akin to A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft and A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross, with whimsical worldbuilding and eccentric characters similar to the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The Botanist is being queried. (image by Annie Spratt)