Wild Beauty Book Review

This book was one I enjoyed more than I had anticipated. I had thought that I was going to like it but this book, at the completion of it, I almost wanted to start rereading it. Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore is a book that I think may end up on my favorite reads of the year.

I went into this book knowing that the story followed a family of ladies that had the ability to grow flowers. They lived on an estate where they grow lush gardens. They were also cursed: Love someone too deeply and they will disappear. When a boy appears who doesn't remember anything from before showing up on the property, it disrupts the flow of their lives a bit. And I was interested in seeing how.

The first line of the book is one of my favorite lines out of the whole book: "Later, they would blame what happened on the little wooden horses." And those little wooden horses were a recurring thing throughout the book as well. And I loved seeing how they tied in with Estrella's life as she grew up and how they tied into the history of Fel, the boy who appears.

I loved we see how Fel struggles with remembering who he was prior to meeting the Nomeolvides women. He gains bits and pieces as the story moves along and we learn as he does until it gets closer to the end. I don't want to give away anything due to possible spoilers about Fel's past.

The pacing felt perfect for this story, with it being a little slow to start with action beyond finding Fel  and then progressively picking up with the answers being at the end. It tied up nicely, although I would love to see more of the Nomeolvides family to see how they fare after the events in this book.

The writing as well is beautiful as well. Which is a huge reason why I think I wanted to almost immediately want to pick it back up. McLemore's writing style in this book is perfect for the story and moved things just right. 

I also loved that McLemore didn't have to come out and say that the cousins weren't straight. You saw that they weren't in the girlish ways that they showed their love for Bay Briar that any young girl may show her affections for anyone. Even the one time we're "told" that one of the Nomeolvides women was in love with another women, it's mom sharing a story with her daughter about the woman she was in love with. And I love that not being straight isn't a big deal in the home. It's just part of their lives.

This was a solid 4.5 out of 5 star read and would definitely suggest picking it up. If you've read Wild Beauty as well, I wanna hear your thoughts about it in the comments.

Kindred bookmate,

Cassie