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by Manuela Gomez Rhine (Author)
The moment Parker Wilson sees palm trees stretching across Southern California, he is enraptured. The palms beckon and seduce. They give him work as a palm trimmer and offer solace from his troubled past in the desperate working conditions of a Kansas slaughterhouse.
Pomona Sandoval is haunted by the last words of her dying mother: "We are cursed in love. You must read Ramona to break our dreadful curse." But Pomona doesn't want to read the old-fashioned love story cherished by her missing father. Instead she plans to leap from Pasadena's suicide bridge to avoid dealing with her painful past and terrifying future.
As fate brings Parker and Pomona together under the magic of a palm tree, new love takes them through Southern California landscapes past and present -- from the historic Huntington Gardens to the destroyed Mexican neighborhood of Chavez Ravine.
When Parker and Pomona finally arrive at the South Central Farm, a threatened oasis in the center of Los Angeles, the two lovestruck broken souls are swept into a movement to stop the Farm's destruction.
As they contend with this battle, as well as their battles within, they discover the power of land to heal not just themselves, but entire communities. And as they are ultimately forced to reckon with their pasts in order to find true love and salvation, Parker and Pomona learn what it means to stand up and fight for what matters.
