Critically-Acclaimed Author Lily Chu Breaks Away from Romance with 'The Library of Flowers' - And She Explains Why (Exclusive)
You know L.C. Chu, especially if you're a romance reader. You know her as Lily Chu, and now she's stepped into the fantasy arena with The Library of Flowers.
There is an element of romance within, but The Library of Flowers brings us into a world where our sense of smell is invited to take over. For centuries, the Hua women have managed to have sway over emperors and billionaires thanks to their magical perfumes. They can stir hearts and ensure fortunes.
Every fifth generation, an eldest daughter is born with the ability to summon true love, and that's the destiny Lucy has been granted. Only, she doesn't want that destiny, especially after her magic failed, so she leaves it all behind fleeing Vancouver for Toronto to live life her way.
I chatted with Chu about the inspiration for the novel and why the power of scent is so important to us as humans. However, it all started with a discussion about the gorgeous cover. I know people say to never judge a book by its cover, but this is one case where you can ignore them.
"I had a mental image of what the cover would be," Chu explained as we got into the intricacies of it, "I had images of an indigo blue and a pink. That's where I was mentally, and then they showed me this, and I don't know what I was thinking!"
While Leni Kauffman does the covers for Chu's romance novels, including Drop Dead and The Takedown, Sija Hong was commissioned for The Library of Flowers, and that was intentional, with Chu explaining, "Because this book is a different vibe, I loved having that very eye-catching cover. I can see that thing across a room."
As Chu explained that she's not visually artistic, I could completely relate. Authors and writers have a skill of putting words to page, but trying to figure out the perfect picture or piece of art is another level of creativity, and I could understand as Chu shared, "Some people just have an eye. This is the balance. This is the tone, and I'm not great at that. I really do depend on the people whose job it is to be artistically brilliant."
The Library of Flowers is focused on Chinese culture, but it's also a story that anyone can relate to. For elder daughters, we can understand Lucy's fight within herself, and while Chu isn't an eldest daughter, she's an only daughter, so she understood it as well.
"I had a lot to draw on," Chu said when it came to the inspiration to make it relatable.
"The great thing about being a writer is that you use your imagination for this stuff. While a lot of Lucy's character came from my own experience, it also came from the experiences of a lot of other women I was able to meet and ask questions."
Lucy is also a woman in her 30s, and that's an important and redefining age, as we tend to feel like we should have everything figured out.
"You're not an adult in your 20s," Chu went on to talk about the development of Lucy, "When you hit your 30s, you're supposed to have it figured out. People don't have jobs; they have careers. Maybe they're having kids, and maybe they're buying houses."
Lucy isn't at that stage. Instead, "her life is almost stagnated."
She hasn't achieved everything that she would want to do. Chu explained that "she has her own perfume business, but she still has all this unfinished business that she has to deal with before she can move on with her life."
The perfume business and the world of perfume with the Hua family is something that steps out of the page. The way Chu describes the scents is mesmerizing and makes you feel like those scents are all around, and that comes from the critically acclaimed author getting lots of sample bottles and having them around her house.
"I just like having scents around me," she told me, "So I just reached out for what things smell like. I would see which scents would work well together, and then I would double-check. I have a perfumer's kit with a whole bunch of notes that you can mix. They were all terrible, and there's a reason people train for years in this, but it helped."
Lucy's business is in Toronto, thousands of kilometers away from her family. She's run away from her mom, and it's another element that many people can relate to. She left home to get away from the destiny that was being placed on her, and we don't even need the world of fantasy to understand that pressure.
"A lot of my books deal with expectations, either societal or family, because I think a lot of our internal expectations are derived from those areas," Chu touched on, "Lucy has always been told the story that she is going to be this super special daughter. Her job is to save the family, which is a lot of pressure."
And it's true that we all have expectations based on what people have told us. It can be in work or love, but the expectations come from growing up. Some people have a family business thrust onto them from a young age, while others will have parents who push certain relationship expectations on their children. Society pushes particular roles on us, and one of the scariest things is disappointing people.
"People don't want to disappoint their parents," Chu agreed, while also adding, "People want to make a success of their life, and they want to be happy. They want to be doing what they want to do, and they don't want to consider themselves as a failure. So, Lucy's just an extreme version of that."
Some of the best fantasy stories are those that have a real-world element, but it was a conscious choice to put The Library of Flowers into a fantasy realm, and Chu shared that it was to give her something different to work on other than her romance novels.
"I really wanted a change of pace, because this was a different genre, and I think perfume has an element of magic. Realistically, we know it's science, but it's all about how we process smell and how it's attached to memory. A single sniff of something can transport you back years. All of a sudden you're in your university dorm room or you're in the club. It's visceral."
And it's true. I can't tell you the number of times I've walked down the street and the smell of someone's laundry detergent takes me back to boarding school. However, the Hua women don't just use perfumes to bring back memories.
"I was originally working on a book with an alchemist in the time of Anne Boleyn, but that wasn't really working, and it morphed into this," teased Chu, as we discussed where the development of using perfumes to control came from. Now, I'm convinced we need this Anne Boleyn-time period story in some sort of way.
Something that many readers have latched onto is the way the Hua ancestors get their stories told, and these are stories that many of us would love to see more of. Is it possible that we could see more development in the world of The Library of Flowers?
"I really liked writing those chapters," Chu was happy to hear that there was an interest in more, "I have a degree in Chinese history, so it was a pleasure to finally use it, and it was deeply satisfying for me to write those chapters. I would love to write a straight historical fiction set in one of those times, because they're such interesting time periods."
It's not a promise of more from the Hua women, but there's hope that we could see more stories from Chu that take us into these worlds. Even if it's following another set of characters, the idea of going back to the Ming or Qing time periods through her eyes would be amazing.
The Library of Flowers is perfect for those who love fantasy, historical fiction, and women's fiction, and it's available now at a bookstore near you.
Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 10:00 AM.