Divining the Leaves

Ridhi Kapadia is seventeen and on her own. She makes natural perfumes, wears flower crowns and walks the woods near her home, listening for what the trees whisper. She believes in magic and keeps asking the yakshas, woodland spirits drawn from Hindu and Buddhist folklore, to let her into their enchanted forest kingdom.

Nilesh Batra, once her friend and now a popular classmate, does not believe. He has just learned that his parents' perfect marriage is a sham, and he has been suspended from school. Heartsick, he turns up at Ridhi's door, which neither of them wants. When a pretty yakshini offers him the distraction of magic, he takes it, though he used to mock Ridhi for her faith in exactly that.

Angry, Ridhi makes a bargain with Lady Sulochana, a noblewoman of the yaksha court. Sulochana will help restore Ridhi's reputation, and in return will turn her into the yakshini she longs to be and teach her to divine the murmurs of the trees. Then Nilesh becomes trapped in the yakshas' realm.

This is a contemporary young adult fantasy of court intrigue, plant magic and a friendship turned bitter. Ridhi starts to suspect that the leaves are telling a troubling story about the forest she loves. The mood is lush and sensory, with danger under the beauty, and the two former friends have to work together if they want to save their futures.