<em>There were no surprises in <ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:PLACENAME w:st="on">Gatlin</ST1:PLACENAME> <ST1:PLACETYPE w:st="on">County</ST1:PLACETYPE></ST1:PLACE>. <br>We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.</em><br><em>At least, that's what I thought.</em><br><em>Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.</em><br><em>There was a curse.</em><br><em>There was a girl.</em><br><em>And in the end, there was a grave.</em><br><br>Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of <ST1:CITY w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Gatlin</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY> has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.<br><br>Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When <ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Lena</ST1:PLACE> moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.<br><br>In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.