Check Me Out - LKLD April 2025

THE GARDEN

By Clare Beams

In 1948, pregnant Irene Willard, who’s had five previous miscarriages, stays with a husbandand-wife team of doctors who are pioneering a cure for her condition, where she discovers a long-forgotten garden, a place imbued with its own powers and pulls, making a desperate bid to harness the garden’s power despite the consequences.

SECRETLY YOURS

By Tessa Bailey

Returning home to his family’s winery, Professor Julian Vos, on sabbatical from his ivy league job, finds himself distracted from his plans to write a novel by eccentric, chronically late, unbelievably beautiful gardener Hallie Welch, who is a burst of color in his grayscale life.

THE GARDENER’S PLOT

By Deborah J. Benoit

Maggie Walker has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden. But when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it, suddenly the police are looking for a killer. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to prove it.

THE SPELLSHOP

By Sarah Beth Durst

When the Great Library of Alyssium goes up in flames, introverted librarian Kiela and her sentient spider plant flee to the faraway island of her childhood where she opens a spellshop to restore the island’s power, coming out of her shell to make a new life for herself.

THE GARDEN AGAINST TIME

By Olivia Laing

Inspired by the restoration of her own 18th-century walled garden in Suffolk, the widely acclaimed writer and critic, moving between real and imagined gardens, interrogates the sometimes-shocking cost of making paradise on earth, resulting in an intricately woven tapestry of the many possibilities gardens can hold.

THIS POISON HEART

By Kalynn Bayron

While learning to control her gift, the ability to grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms, Briseis must use her powers to save her family from a centuries-old curse as dark forces surround her.

MIA MAYHEM AND THE WILD GARDEN

By Kara West

Tasked to grow her own plant with super seeds collected from all corners of the Earth and beyond, Mia finds herself in a unbe-LEAFable situation when it won’t stop growing until it takes over the world!

PLANT THE TINY SEED

By Christie Matheson

Rhyming text and illustrations invite young readers to follow the stages of flower growth as a tiny seed matures and blooms into a beautiful flower.