Book review: Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

Rating: ★★☆☆☆Links: Amazon • TBD • Goodreads
Publication Date: October 3, 2017
Source: Purchased

Love grows such strange things.

For nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant guests from around the world. They’ve also hidden a tragic legacy: if they fall in love too deeply, their lovers vanish. But then, after generations of vanishings, a strange boy appears in the gardens.

The boy is a mystery to Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help Fel piece together his unknown past, La Pradera leads them to secrets as dangerous as they are magical in this stunning exploration of love, loss, and family.

Wild Beauty was a total impulse buy at BookCon last year. I’d heard of it and I’d added it to my TBR because of some great reviews, but it was really the cover that drew me in. It’s just so pretty. (It didn’t hurt that it was a signed copy, either.)

I’m going to start off by saying that it took me about three weeks to read the 340 pages of this book. At first, I thought it was just me being distracted. I’ve definitely had trouble focusing on books recently, but after three weeks of effort, I think I can say with about 99% certainty that this book just wasn’t for me.

It’s not badly written. The writing style is fine (if a little flowery for my tastes) and I liked the focus on family, but… nothing happens. It’s just a bunch of teenage girls making flowers bloom. The conflict wasn’t very interesting. The mystery of Fel’s past did nothing for me. I was just so bored. I can’t even tell you how many times I almost fell asleep while reading this book.

I have another one of the author’s books and will be giving it a try at some point, but this particular story just wasn’t for me.

#killingthetbr: six months on shelf

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Have you read Wild Beauty? Is it on your TBR?
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