First published 2021
Orquídea Divina has spent decades keeping secrets from the Montoya family. The pantry never runs dry at the house in Four Rivers. She refuses to leave, not for weddings, not for baptisms, not for anything. Then she calls them all together, promises them an inheritance, and transforms into a ceiba tree before anyone gets a single answer. Seven years pass. Marimar, Rey, and Rhiannon each carry something of their grandmother now, a gift or a power that showed up uninvited and changed them. But something else found them too. A figure is moving through the Montoya family tree, hunting them one by one, and it will not stop until Orquídea's line is gone. To survive, the three descendants travel to Ecuador, the country Orquídea left behind and never discussed. Her buried secrets are there. So are her broken promises. The story moves between Orquídea's past and her grandchildren's present, and what connects the two is the question the Montoyas have always been too afraid to ask: who, exactly, was this woman before she became their matriarch?
Genres: historical-fiction, fantasy, adult-fiction, magical-realism, mystery-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, lyrical, mysterious, suspenseful
Tropes: dual-timeline, family-curse, found-family, generational-trauma, inherited-powers
Setting: Four Rivers, Ecuador
Period: 21st-century
324 pages · Paperback · Atria Books
Content warnings: death, violence