The Forbidden Orchid

In this sweeping historical adventure, a young British girl travels to China to find the most valuable flower in the world that will save her family from ending up in the workhouse.

“Elodie and Ching Lan are feminists of their era, refusing to bend to the rules and limits placed before them.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Similar in tone to Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty, a perfect read for teens who dream of adventure.”—Booklist

The most valuable flower in the world could cost her life.

Staid, responsible Elodie Buchanan is the eldest of ten sisters in a small English town in 1861. The girls barely know their father, a plant hunter usually off adventuring through China. Then disaster strikes: Mr. Buchanan reneges on his contract to collect an extremely rare and valuable orchid. He will be thrown into debtors’ prison while his daughters are sent to the orphanage and the workhouse.

Elodie can’t stand by and see her family destroyed, so she persuades her father to return to China once more to try to hunt down the flower—only this time, despite everything she knows about her place in society, Elodie goes with him. She has never before left her village, but what starts as fear turns to wonder as she adapts to seafaring life aboard the tea clipper The Osprey, and later to the new sights, dangers, and romance of China. But now, even if she can find the orchid, how can she ever go back to being the staid, responsible Elodie that everybody needs?