The Last Tale of the Flower Bride
HarperCollins, 2023
Agent: Thao Le
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.
But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.
Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
Accolades:
UK Sunday Times Besteller
Reviews:
“Bestseller Chokshi makes her adult debut with a lush and haunting modern fairy tale about the nature of friendship and love…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.” —Publisher's Weekly
"Chokshi's tale is as sweet as a piece of fairy fruit, and just as wicked. Every bite is velvet, every swallow is gold, and the taste lingers like a fever dream." —V. E. Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
"A delightfully meta fairy tale. . . . Magic emanates from every exquisitely crafted sentence. . . . It feels like the best conjuring trick ever." —Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post
“The gothic atmosphere of this fairy-tale romance, mixed with heartbreaking tragedy, creates a story that hovers between fantasy and illusion. It begins with an enchantment and ends with its breaking. In between, a dream becomes a nightmare—until they both wake up. Chokshi’s adult debut is recommended for lovers of gothic romance, magical realism, and stories where fairy tales come true, especially when they shouldn’t.” —Library Review