The Library of Flowers

Summary

My name is Lucy Hua, and I come from a long line of extraordinary women.

For centuries, the Hua women have held sway over the courts of emperors and billionaires with their magical perfumes able to stir hearts and Ensure fortunes. And in every fifth generation, an eldest daughter is born with the rarest gift of all: the ability to summon true love.

As a long-awaited fifth daughter, Lucy was supposed to be the miracle her exacting mother had been waiting for. But when her gift failed, Lucy fled Vancouver, her legacy, and the expectations that had nearly broken her. Now, years later, she runs a tiny perfume shop tucked away in Toronto’s Kensington Market—crafting beautiful, perfectly ordinary scents and keeping her extraordinary past firmly behind her. That is, until a death in the family brings her home … and saddles her with an unwelcome inheritance: the centuries-old Hua family register, brimming with secrets, formulas, and forgotten truths.

As Lucy unravels the stories of the women who came before her—including the mother whose complicated heart she never could understand—she must confront the tangled threads of love, power, and identity … and ask herself whether her magic was ever truly gone or simply waiting for her to decide for herself what it means to be a daughter of the House of Hua.