Lime Juice Money
A Novel
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
With the sultry atmosphere and ratcheting tension of The White Lotus, The Mosquito Coast, and Nine Perfect Strangers, Lime Juice Money is an intoxicating, sensuous debut that follows a woman trapped in an increasingly volatile relationship 5,000 miles from home in a Central American jungle.
A woman losing herself. A brutal relationship. And a jungle full of secrets.
When disaster strikes, hearing-impaired Laelia Wylde leaves London with her new partner, Aidrian, and her young children, hoping for a fresh start in the verdant jungle of Belize. There, she can be closer to her botanist father, get away from her sister, and maybe find a way to open the restaurant she’s always dreamed of.
While the jungle is mesmerizingly beautiful, it is also unforgiving and brutally hot, filled with deadly creatures and sinister magic. Laelia’s fragmented recollections of the past are increasingly bewildering, the gunshots she hears at night through her worsening tinnitus seem to be getting closer, and she still doesn’t understand why her father tried to turn her against Aid when they first met—though maybe she just misheard.
Uncovering long-buried secrets that threaten to derail everything, Laelia must somehow find the courage and resilience she needs to survive. Or is she destined to disappear into the shadows, like the orchid her father named her after?
Lime Juice Money is a twisty, searing journey of raw love, betrayal, corruption, and greed in a shaken paradise, pulsating with danger both inside and outside the door.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the outset of Morey's slow-burn debut, former chef Laelia Wylde leaves the U.K. with her children and boyfriend, Aidrian "Aid" Lynch, to visit her retired botanist father, Ellis, in Belize. On Ellis's birthday, Laelia introduces him to Aid, and senses immediate tension between the two men. After the gathering, Ellis whispers something to her, but her tinnitus prevents her from understanding it. The same night, Ellis suffers a stroke and falls into a coma, prompting Laelia to move her family into his jungle home while he's hospitalized. As Laelia and her children grow enchanted by life in the jungle, Aid becomes increasingly jealous and volatile. Things take a dark turn when Laelia, who worries that her tinnitus is distorting her grasp on reality, thinks she hears gunshots in the middle. Along the way, Morey weaves in chapters exploring Ellis's past, tracing his journey to Belize and his uncovering of dangerous scientific secrets. Though the pace can drag, Morey's descriptions of the jungle are lush and immersive, and she delivers a chillingly effective payoff. This shows real promise.
