Review of Hothouse Flower by Margot Berwin

Hothouse Flower

by Margot Berwin

Eat, Pray, Love meets The Orchid Thief in this rollicking debut novel about plant magic, spiritual discovery, and romantic fever in the jungles of Mexico.

Shortly after her divorce, advertising executive Lila Nova purchases her first plant. It’s a bird-of-paradise, and the seller is David Exley, a rugged “country-sexual” who seems to promise a paradise of his own making. Lila is immediately obsessed—with plants and with the man who sells them—but when David introduces her to the myth of the nine plants of desire, and when she meets a man named Armand who claims to own the nine plants, her obsession reaches unexpected heights: if she can possess all nine plants, the legend goes, her wildest dreams will be fulfilled.
But Lila is too trusting, and as a result she is soon off on an adventure she never meant to take: in the Yucatán, alone, hefting a backpack full of travel guides and expensive shampoo, and learning more than she ever wanted to know about the rain forest—and about herself.

Plant mythology, shamans and charlatans, mysterious spirit animals, orchid obsessives, scorpions,
poisonous snakes, and handsome Huichols . . . they’re all here in this tale of mystery, adventure, and
heat—in every sense of the word.

My thoughts:

My friend Staci asked if I wanted to read this book and I said I would. She has to sent it to someone, so I had to get reading it. I thought I would like it from her review, but I wasn't sure.

From the cover it looks kind of like a Better Homes and Gardens kind of book or something. I knew it was about plants, and I was unsure about how plants could be sensual.

Lila finds Exley in a plant stand in town. She ends up buying a bird of paradise plant from him. After that, she sees a plant that really catches her eye outside a laundromat. She walks in and it has a moss floor and plants all around. She finds out there are nine plants of desire in the back room from the owner Armand, and she wants to make it a point to see those plants. She got a cutting of a fire fern from the laundromat, and Exley wanted to know where she got it. She was told not to tell anyone about the nine plants of desire. Lila ends up going on an adventure, and along the way meets Diego.

Each chapter tells of a certain plant and what it's properties are. There is a lot more to plants that I could have imagined. Who knew they could be so sexual too.

I wasn't sure what was going to happen at the end and who Lila was going to side with. I wasn't sure who was telling the truth, but she did what was right and I was happy with how the story ended.

5 Stars!