Ricki Wilde is the artistic, impulsive youngest daughter of a wealthy, famous Atlanta family, and she does not fit the dynasty. Offered the ground floor of a Harlem brownstone by its elderly owner, Ms. Della, she leaves Atlanta to open the flower shop she has always imagined. In her new neighborhood the Harlem Renaissance is not past but present in its streets, music and stories. One February evening, amid the out-of-season scent of night-blooming jasmine, she meets Ezra Walker, a gifted and deeply mysterious musician whose life stretches back, impossibly, to that Renaissance world and who carries a curse tied to leap years. Their attraction becomes a love story that moves between contemporary Harlem and the 1920s, asking what Ezra's long survival has cost him and whether Ricki's brief, vivid life is the thing that can finally change its terms.
Author: Tia Williams ยท Original publisher: Grand Central Publishing (New York), 2024
