The Beautiful Maddening - by Shea Ernshaw

About the Book

Seventeen-year-old Lark lives in a decaying family home where white petals cause the locals to fall in love with anyone who bears the Goode last name, but when she meets a boy who seems unaffected by the family curse, she finds herself falling into a feeling she has spent her life trying to avoid.

Book Synopsis

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw comes an "electric romance that weaves together magic and suspense" (Publishers Weekly) about a teen navigating her family's love curse that blooms with their enchanted tulips every year.

Seventeen year-old Lark Goode wants only one thing: to escape her small town of Cutwater and the history of her family name. It's a history that began during the Dutch tulip mania of 1636, when Lark's ancestor stole the last remaining tulip bulbs and fled to America. But when the tulips bloomed on American soil, madness sprouted from their snowy white petals.

The madness was love.

Now, generations later, the Goodes remain cursed--the unnatural flowers outside their home causing locals to fall helplessly in love with anyone carrying Goode blood in their veins. While her brother embraces the strange power, Lark wants nothing more than to be free from it.

But when she meets a boy who seems unaffected by the family curse, Lark finds herself falling headlong into a feeling she's spent her whole life trying to avoid. Yet, all curses and magic come with a price, and the town of Cutwater soon sinks into a dangerous sickness tied to Lark and the ill-fated tulips.

To save the town, Lark will need to sacrifice everything--even true love--to break the spell. Because in the Goode family, love has a way of destroying everything.

Review Quotes

Everyone in Cutwater knows to avoid the Goodes, a cursed family that only inflict desire and madness upon anyone who interacts with them. After inheriting a family secret, 17-year-old Lark Goode knows this to be true: the tulips growing behind her ramshackle house are responsible for the madness each spring. Her twin, Archer, embraces the curse, enjoying the favors he receives from admirers, while Lark rejects it, isolating herself and yearning for the day she graduates and can move far away. When Lark's classmates start begging her for tulips, she discovers that some have been stolen and are circulating around Cutwater, wreaking havoc and heartbreak. As Lark searches for solutions to save her peers, she tries to stop herself from doing the one thing she's always avoided: falling in love. Drawn to Oak, a stranger unaffected by the madness, Lark finds herself spending more time in his company, unsure whether her burgeoning feelings are real or another aspect of the curse. Lyrical prose by Ernshaw (A Wilderness of Stars) ponders love, portents, and family legacy in an electric romance that weaves together magic and suspense. The protagonists cue as white. Ages 14-up. Agent: Jess Regel, Helm Literary. (June)--Publishers Weekly "3/17/2025"

For decades, the blossoming of the tulips in the Goode family garden has only brought trouble, compelling the residents of their small town of Cutwater to become irrationally infatuated with all members of the Goodes until the flowers die. Lark Goode is hoping to get through two more weeks until graduation before the flowers bloom, but no such luck--the tulips come, and with them other people's obsession, but this year is different. Lark's classmates have stolen some petals for themselves to covet their effects, and now school dynamics are overhauled as unpredictable passions drastically shift relationships. Meanwhile, Lark meets Oak, a new, green-eyed boy who seems immune to the tulips' power, and as the two form a tentative bond, Lark begins to wonder if she could truly be loved for who she is and not because of some family curse. Lark's repetitive, obsessive narration is both grating and gives away the game far too early, so when readers come to the final twist, it feels more perfunctory than transformative. Her focus on the pain that the curse has caused only her borders on narcissistic, especially when she gives little heed to how the magic has affected her twin, who, though outwardly bubbly and charming, is clearly suffering as well. Still, the thematic exploration at hand (love, obsession, and how tightly the two can be linked) is a perpetually interesting one, and Ernshaw (The Wicked Deep, BCCB 3/18) has a knack for creating worlds touched by unpredictable magic while still grounded in complexities of realism. KQG--BCCB "May 2025"

About the Author

Shea Ernshaw is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of The Wicked Deep, Winterwood, A Wilderness of Stairs, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen, and A History of Wild Places. Her books have been published in over twenty countries and repeatedly chosen as Indie Next Picks. She lives in a small mountain town in Oregon and is happiest when lost in a good book, lost in the woods, or writing her next novel. Visit her online at SheaErnshaw.com.