Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire »

MARGOT BERWIN earned her MFA from the New School in 2005. Her stories have appeared on Nerve.com,
in the New York Press, and in the anthology The Future of Misbehavior. She worked in advertising for many years and
lives in New York City with a killer collection of plants.

Eat, Pray, Love meets The Orchid Thief in this rollicking debut novel about plant magic, spiritual discovery, and romantic fever in the jungles of Mexico.

Shortly after her divorce, advertising executive Lila Nova purchases her first plant. It’s a bird-of-paradise, and the seller is David Exley, a rugged “country-sexual” who seems to promise a paradise of his own making. Lila is immediately obsessed—with plants and with the man who sells them—but when David introduces her to the myth of the nine plants of desire, and when she meets a man named Armand who claims to own the nine plants, her obsession reaches unexpected heights: if she can possess all nine plants, the legend goes, her wildest dreams will be fulfilled.
But Lila is too trusting, and as a result she is soon off on an adventure she never meant to take: in the Yucatán, alone, hefting a backpack full of travel guides and expensive shampoo, and learning...

Publishers Weekly

Berwin delivers a bangup debut packed with adventure, betrayal, love and, naturally, rare plants. New York ad woman Lila Nova, increasingly disillusioned with her job and the city, becomes enchanted by David Exley, a handsome guy selling plants at a green market. Soon, she's hooked on him, and her budding fascination with tropical plants leads her to a Laundromat that has a rare fern displayed in the window. Proprietor Armand quickly befriends Lila and gives her a trimming from the fern to take home, telling her if it forms roots, he'll show her the nine special plants he keeps in the back room. When Exley sees the fern trimming, Lila tells him about Armand's special plants, and soon the plants have been stolen and Exley has disappeared. Armand guilts Lila into coming to Mexico with him to find replacement plants, and there's magic, romance, greenery and greed as Lila and Armand venture through the Yucatan, hooking up with potential love-interest Diego and running into the devious Exley. It's a fun page-turner-escapist and wonderfully entertaining. (June)

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