The Grove

Publishers Weekly · Starred Review

YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults

School Library Journal · Starred Review

With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦With love, you need the sour to savor the sweet.✦

Viking · Penguin Random House · June 17, 2025

Two sisters. A fading world of orange groves and red clay roads. A traveling carnival that arrives like a fever dream—and leaves nothing unchanged.

“I am haunted by the heavy sweetness of the orange grove.”
— Cynthia Salaysay

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Orange groves, carnival ferris wheel, and vintage truck on a Florida dirt road at golden sunset

The World of the Grove

A Florida that no longer exists.

Before the highways came. Before the theme parks arrived. A world of red clay roads, orange blossoms, and a silence so deep you could hear yourself think.

The Florida That Was

Central Florida in the early 1960s—before everything changed.

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Life in the Orange Groves

The citrus economy that built and broke families across generations.

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When the Carnival Came

The arrival of the outside world in an isolated small town.

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The Story Behind the Story

How The Grove came to be—from a writing prompt to Viking.

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About the Author

Brooks Whitney Phillips

An author, journalist, and freelance writer, Brooks Whitney Phillips wrote a syndicated column and feature stories for the Chicago Tribune and has contributed to national publications on travel, design, and the arts.

She is the recipient of the Marianne Russo Award for Novel-in-Progress from the Key West Literary Seminar. The Grovebegan as a writing prompt at an all-women's writing group at the Key West Library—and grew into the story she always knew was there.

“It was always bubbling underneath.”
— Brooks Whitney Phillips

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Adopted in Schools · Libraries · Book Clubs

Resources for Every Reader

For Educators

Curriculum guide, discussion questions, and author visit availability.

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For Libraries

"A must-have for all collections." — School Library Journal

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For Book Clubs

Discussion guide, reading questions, and invite Brooks to your club.

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What Readers & Critics Are Saying

Starred Review

“Luminous prose relays the protagonist's satisfying emotional growth over the course of Phillips's potent tale of love and loyalty.”
— Publishers Weekly

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