From bestselling author Nina LaCour comes a sweeping family saga that wrestles with themes of self-discovery and love in all forms, inspired by the author’s own Creole family

New Orleans, 1944. Odette has always been one of the Honore sisters, glamorous and admired in their Creole community. But while Odette’s older sisters are content to be wives and mothers, Odette has always wanted something else. It is only with her beloved cousin, Delphine, that Odette can tell her secret: she is in love with a woman, and she longs to be an artist. Delphine has a secret lover, too, a white man. In the hidden garden they’ve discovered, Odette and Delphine can dream of futures full of passion and freedom.

But five years later, Odette’s life is nothing like what she’d planned. She’s a widowed mother, living in Los Angeles, and she and Delphine, who is passing as white, have spiraled away from each other. When Delphine reaches a breaking point, Odette must make a shattering choice to try to hold her family together.

Profound and expansive, a story of love and longing, art and motherhood, friendship and desire, Meet Me in the Garden is a decades-spanning tour de force, inspired by the author’s family and tracing the history of the Great Migration.

I absolutely devoured this book. It’s beautifully written, and I fell completely in love with the characters from the very start. I actually picked this one up on a whim through Book of the Month, mostly because none of the other main selections that month were grabbing me. I’m so glad I took the chance, because this ended up being one of my favorite reads of the month.

The book starts in New Orleans 1944 where we meet Odette, one of the well known Honore sisters in their Creole community. Her older sisters are content settling into lives as wives and mothers, but Odette has always wanted something different. Only her cousin Delphine knows her real secret: that she’s in love with a woman and dreams of becoming an artist, while Delphine has her own hidden relationship with a white man. The two find a secret garden that becomes their private space to imagine a future where they can be who they want to be and be with who they want to love. Eventually, the both find themselves in LA, and their lives take different paths than they initially dreamed of. Odette is now a widowed mother, and her bond with Delphine, who has since chosen to pass as white, has crumbled. When Delphine reaches out needing help, Odette will be forced to make a decision that affects both of their futures for years to come.

This story is deep, and beautiful and the writing carries a ton of emotion. The author captures the specific time and place so vividly that I felt like I was right there living these people’s lives alongside them rather than just reading about them. Every time I set the book down, I found myself still thinking about the characters and where their lives were headed. Even after I finished, I sat with this one for several days afterward.

Honestly, I’m having a hard time putting into words just how much this book affected me. It’s the kind of story that sits with you for days after finishing it. Pacing wise, the decades spanning structure never felt too rushed or too thin. Every stretch of time given to these characters was perfect and gave us a real sense of their entire lives without anything ever dragging or stumbling.

If you love layered, character driven historical fiction that explores identity and the choices we make when the life doesn’t turn out the way we imagined, this one belongs at the top of your list. It’s a quiet, powerful kind of book, and it’s going to stay with me for a long time.

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