The Last Camellia by Sarah Jio (+ Massive Giveaway!)

My destiny is in your hands. 

About The Last Camellia by Sarak Jio: On the eve of the Second World War, the last surviving specimen of a camellia plant known as the Middlebury Pink lies secreted away on an English country estate. Flora, an amateur American botanist, is contracted by an international ring of flower thieves to infiltrate the household and acquire the coveted bloom. Her search is at once brightened by new love and threatened by her discovery of a series of ghastly crimes.

More than half a century later, garden designer Addison takes up residence at the manor, now owned by the family of her husband, Rex. The couple’s shared passion for mysteries is fueled by the enchanting camellia orchard and an old gardener’s notebook. Yet its pages hint at dark acts ingeniously concealed. If the danger that Flora once faced remains very much alive, will Addison share her fate?

My two cents

While many will be familiar with the meaning of the different colours of roses, or the violet, or carnations, did you ever think of the camellia? I've never even given it thought. According to the Victorian language of flowers, the camellia flower means "My destiny is in your hands" ... how intriguing to build a historical fiction mystery around a flower ... so ominous!

1803: In an English countryside, an old woman is hiding away her husband's obsession: a camellia plant bought for mere sixpence. This the Last Camellia, a variety called The Middlebury Pink, a magnificent saucer-sized white flower with pink tips which blooms once in a blue moon. Prized in the Queen of England's gardens, when a storm decimated her gardens, flower thieves went on a rampage to find this specimen in the countryside.

2000: Fleeing a mysterious past, New Yorker Addison moves with her husband, Rex, to Livingston Manor in the English countryside. Recently acquired by Rex's family, Addison becomes enamoured with the gardens, particularly the camellia trees. The old housekeeper Mrs Dilloway, who has lived there practically all her life, is hiding the sad past of the estate and its owners. One day, Addison comes across a scrapbook detailing all the camellia varieties in the garden, with some strange codes ...

1940: With her family's New York bakery struggling to make ends meet, a desperate Flora agrees to find a rare flower with the hopes of making enough money to help her aging parents. On the boat to England, she meets with her employer -- unknowingly she agreed to work for a ring of flower thieves to locate the Middlebury Pink -- and a handsome stranger whom she becomes smitten with. Flora ends up in the estate where the camellia is located, in the guise of a nanny. She stumbles upon the mysterious circumstances surrounding the tragic passing of the children's mother ... and more.

The mystery deepens in these two women's lives, the story flipping between these two eras,  uncovering their secrets, and revealing the secrets surrounding the last camellia.

***

So engrossing! I couldn't put this down and read this in just a few days! I was expecting this to be mainly historical fiction but was surprised that it was a mystery through and through. And it's the best type of mystery because things are revealed slowly, deliberately, and suspensefully. 

This is a rather complicated story and there are multiple mysteries coming to the fore. But I never felt it was complicated because the writing flowed well, the characters were intriguing, and the build up was really well done. 

Likewise, I found the the flipping back and forth between two eras and two storylines quite easy to follow ... that's quite the feat as this device sometimes tends to confuse rather than illuminate. 

Uh-oh: If I could quibble on one thing, I found myself shaking my head at the quickness of the relationship that blossomed between Flora and Desmond. With the back stories and personalities of all the characters so well thought through, I felt that the lack of build up of this particular relationship stuck out like a sore thumb.

Verdict: I couldn't put this down! A romantic, suspenseful historical fiction multi-mystery cutting across two generations surround a stunning rare camellia. Highly recommended as a summer read ...

About Sarah Jio

Sarah Jio is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Blackberry Winter, The Violets of March, and The Bungalow. She has written thousands of articles for magazines such as Glamour, SELF, Health, Redbook, Cooking Light, O, The Oprah Magazine, Woman’s Day and many other publications. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their three young children.

Connect with Sarah at her website, Sarahjio.com, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Giveaway Time!

Want to read this? It's your lucky day!
The publisher, Plume, is giving away 5 paperbacks of The Last Camellia!

(US/Can only)

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Check out the full tour here. 

I received a copy of The Last Camellia through TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Paperback: 320 pages

Publisher: Plume (May 28, 2013)