In the shadow of her mothers’ legacy—Jamie, the fiery artist, and Em, the methodical botanist—eighteen-year-old Adelaide “Addie” Lane-Rivera feels like a seedling struggling to grow. Adopted as a baby, she’s inherited their community garden, their quiet strength, and their frayed red yarn bracelets… but not their certainty. When she unearths a rusted lockbox under the garden’s old maple tree, its contents—letters from the birth mother who named her Adelaide (“noble strength”)—ignite a hunger to carve her own path, even if it means burning bridges. Addie’s rebellion collides with Finnegan “Finn” Clarke, a roguish street artist with a talent for murals and a past etched in secrets. They meet at midnight in the condemned greenhouse, where Finn is painting a feral phoenix and Addie is lobbing zucchini loaves at bulldozers sent to raze the garden. Their chemistry is immediate and volatile: she’s a storm of poetry and pragmatism, he’s a wildfire of sarcasm and spray paint. A kiss in a neon-lit alley seals their fate, but Finn’s past—a mother in prison, a debt to a dealer, and a terror of being loved—threatens to scorch everything Addie holds dear. As Finn moves into the garage above Jamie’s studio, their relationship becomes a battlefield of passion and self-sabotage. Addie discovers his sketchbooks filled with haunting portraits of her—her scarred wrists, her teal-streaked curls, the garden she’s sworn to protect—while Finn unravels her obsession with her birth mother’s letters. But when his debt collector arrives, demanding payment, Addie pawns Em’s vintage camera to save him, fracturing her trust in herself and her moms’ hard-won stability. Jamie and Em, now in their 50s, watch their daughter’s turmoil with aching familiarity. Jamie’s own history of reckless love mirrors Addie’s, while Em’s fear of losing her to the same chaos that once nearly destroyed their marriage strains their bond. When Addie trashes the garage in a fit of heartbreak, Jamie hands her a glue gun and a truth: “You don’t have to fix things. Just break them better.” The garden becomes their shared metaphor—a place of healing and hunger, where Addie plants her birth mother’s letters like seeds and Finn paints murals of bridges engulfed in flames. But as Finn’s debts escalate and Addie’s recklessness edges into danger, the garden’s fate hangs in the balance. Will their love be the kindling that destroys it, or the ash that fertilizes new growth? ~The Gardens We Burn~ is a raw, lyrical exploration of inherited trauma and first love’s ferocity. Through Addie and Finn’s tumultuous relationship, the story asks: Can we outgrow the roots that suffocate us? Is love a anchor or an arsonist? And what blooms when we dare to let the old gardens burn? With the community garden as both battleground and sanctuary, the novel weaves together messy poetry, stolen kisses, and the unshakable bond between a girl who fears she’ll never be enough and a boy who’s never believed he deserved anything at all. A sequel to ~The Bridges We Tie~, this standalone story honors the original’s themes of resilience while carving a new path through the weeds of adolescence, identity, and the courage to grow—even when growth means leaving something behind. Lastly, please vote cause I'm a sixteen year old teenager who just needs to support her parents and siblings for our higher education, converting dollars into our currency is profitable so pleaseeee don't forget to vote... I really need it. Thank you for trying this book out!