Watching the Roses — Adele Geras

I DIDN'T KNOW AND WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED THAT ALL THE CAREFUL, LOVING WORK THAT HAD GONE INTO REARING ' THE ROSES FOR YEARS AND YEARS COULD HAVE BEEN UNDONE IN THIS SHORT TIME.

Alice grew up the only child of loving parents. They live in a gorgeous mansion surrounded by gardens full of meticulously tended roses only a few miles from Alice's hoarding school. But despite how perfect her life may seem to others, a dark shadow has always hung over fragile Alice. .

At her christening, Alice's thirteenth aunt, the dreaded Violette, cursed her: Alice would never grow old but instead would be extinguished "like a candle" on her eighteenth birthday. Her other twelve aunts tried to undo the damage, but still, something horrible happens on that day.

Afterward, Alice falls into a trancelike state and refuses to talk to anyone but her diary. In its pages she confides her hopes for the return of her true love, her fears about leaving school, and the truth about her birthday and the brutal attack that threatened everything she holds dear.