51 pages • 1 hour read
Magnolia Parks
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Chapters 47-68Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 47 Summary: “BJ”
BJ picks Magnolia up for a party and realizes that she likes Tom. She also admits that she doesn’t trust BJ. When BJ warns her Taura will be at the party, Magnolia reacts emotionally and tells him she prefers Tom to him. To avoid the cameras out front, they sneak through the back door and join the party. The event is an opening of one of Jonah’s clubs. BJ enjoys spending time with Magnolia. When Paili hints that BJ might have slept with someone other than Taura, he gets angry. The group leaves through the front door and are caught by many cameras. Magnolia freezes, and Taura kisses her as a distraction. Via text, Tom and BJ establish that they will both take Magnolia to the Grand Prix.
Chapter 48 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia is getting ready for the upcoming ball and thinks that she looked like “a fairy god-princess” (323). Bushka and Bridget agree to come, and BJ and Tom escort both of them, to Magnolia’s annoyance.
Chapter 49 Summary: “BJ”
Tom comments on Magnolia and BJ’s dynamic. While he acknowledges their bond and chemistry, he thinks that their interactions are weird. BJ says that they are either “dancing in a burning room or taking turns dragging the other unconscious up a mountain” (330). Tom says that the metaphorical gunpowder will either light them up or kill them.
Chapter 50 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia attends Julian’s birthday party and spots Daisy Haites with Christian. BJ did not realize that Magnolia knows Julian; she saw him at a club shortly after she and BJ broke up. At the time, she and Julian kissed, but Magnolia felt like she was cheating on BJ and ended up crying in Julian’s arms. Now, in front of BJ, Julian tells Magnolia to call him when she is looking for an actual bad boy. Meanwhile, Daisy argues with Christian, accusing him of still being in love with Magnolia, and Christian’s distress suggests that her accusation is accurate. Magnolia reflects, “[P]erhaps I have loved too many boys and maybe I’ve made too many boys love me” (343). She feels guilty because she needed Christian for reassurance and support and used him to provide her with information about BJ. Now, Magnolia sends a text to BJ, apologizing for the fight.
Chapter 51 Summary: “BJ”
BJ is upset to realize how Christian feels about Magnolia, so he does cocaine to cope. Christian admits to BJ that he loves Magnolia, but he realizes that everything Magnolia does is about BJ. Christian says that he doesn’t know how to move on from his affections for her.
Chapter 52 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia turns to Tom to console herself about BJ’s distance from her. Bridget suggests that Magnolia needs attention from men because their father is largely absent from their lives. For the first time, Magnolia considers the possibility that she and BJ may not resume their relationship.
Chapter 53 Summary: “Magnolia”
Christian comes to Magnolia’s room and tells Magnolia she is a “bitch,” and he also admits that he is in love with her. He kisses her, then demands that she let him move on from her. She realizes, “Maybe sometimes I did treat Christian like a safety net for when Beej lets me fall” (357). Christian also loves Daisy, and Magnolia wonders how many loves a person gets in a lifetime.
Chapter 54 Summary: “BJ”
BJ finds Magnolia at St. Dunstan in the East, a spot that they used to frequent as teenagers. Magnolia demands again to know who he really slept with, but he is angry with her for stringing his best friend along. He emphasizes the fact that he only made one mistake while she has been dating many other men to make him jealous. He says that until she can admit her own mistakes, their relationship will never work.
Chapter 55 Summary: “BJ”
BJ decides to throw a party at his house. He thinks that Magnolia has chosen Tom because he has seen pictures of her with him, so he decides to invite every attractive girl he knows to the party. BJ takes a large amount of cocaine and sleeps with two women, trying to lose himself.
Chapter 56 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia goes out with Paili. She thinks of Tom as her crutch, her safe harbor while her heart is getting patched up. Tom admits his hope that once Magnolia untangles herself from BJ, she will choose him instead. At the club, BJ is on the couch with a girl. Magnolia realizes that he is high. BJ pushes her, and Tom punches BJ. Magnolia runs away.
Chapter 57 Summary: “BJ”
BJ is appalled that he pushed Magnolia. He wants Tom to beat him up. His actions compel Magnolia to claim that they can never be together again. BJ hopes that he will get two loves in his lifetime, but he is convinced that he will never be able to move on from his love for Magnolia.
Chapter 58 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia wakes up with Tom in her bed. She tells her mother and Bridget that BJ is using drugs again. Tom says that the connection that he and Magnolia share could be real. Magnolia texts Henry and asks him not to let BJ overdose.
Chapter 59 Summary: “BJ”
BJ goes to Amsterdam with the boys to party. The boys try to plan another weekend away, but BJ declines, saying that he has something that he needs to do for work.
Chapter 60 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia goes away with Tom and contemplates the prospect of accepting him as a real boyfriend even though he loves someone else. Tom is calm, mature, and thoughtful, but Magnolia’s friends guess that she is still attached to BJ.
Chapter 61 Summary: “BJ”
BJ goes to an event at which he expects to see Magnolia. Bridget attends and tells him Magnolia is in Switzerland with Tom. Bridget says that BJ and Magnolia are codependent, but she confides that Magnolia was destroyed when BJ overdosed. Magnolia believes that if BJ dies, she will also die. Bridget asks BJ if he is trying to test Magnolia’s love for him.
Chapter 62 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia tells herself that she should choose Tom, but she has always felt that she and BJ are fated to remain connected to each other. She goes to the family home in Dartmouth and visits the willow tree by the lake. BJ is waiting for her there. They admit that they miss and love one another, and as they kiss, Magnolia feels that she is home.
Chapter 63 Summary: “BJ”
They spend the night together at the house, and BJ remembers that their plan was always to have a quiet life together in a rural place away from London. He asks if she can let go of what he did and relinquish her connection to Tom her other romantic interests. In exchange, he promises to give up his connections to other women. She agrees.
Chapter 64 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia is happy to have resumed her relationship with BJ, but she is saddened by the prospect of ending her connection to Tom. She reflects that BJ is water and Tom is wine, saying, “I don’t need him to survive, but I love him anyway; he tastes good, makes me feel better, makes me feel braver” (407). She tells Tom that she is choosing BJ and thanks Tom for loving her.
Chapter 65 Summary: “BJ”
BJ visits his parents’ home and has dinner with the family. He tells them that he and Magnolia are in a relationship again. His family is thrilled.
Chapter 66 Summary: “Magnolia”
Magnolia tells her family that she was at the Dartmouth house with BJ and announces that they have resumed their relationship. Bridget asks if they will get married at the Mandarin Oriental.
Chapter 67 Summary: “BJ”
Everyone in the mutual friend group is delighted that BJ and Magnolia are back together. BJ is relieved to be able to touch her again. Paili enters and sees them together. Magnolia hugs her, then freezes when she smells Paili’s perfume. She recognizes the orange blossom scent and abruptly asks if Paili is the person with whom BJ had sex. Paili admits it. BJ remembers that on that particular night, Paili followed him into his room at a party, and he kissed her. He wanted to have sex with her, and she with him, but they both felt terrible afterwards. Jonah found them and told BJ that he couldn’t tell Magnolia about having sex with Paili.
Chapter 68 Summary: “Magnolia”
The narrative returns to the present moment. Magnolia runs from the restaurant, distraught by imagining BJ having sex with Paili. BJ grabs her, and Magnolia lets him hold her one last time. Then she says that he will never touch her again. She pulls the necklace holding his crest ring and snaps the chain, then throws it on the ground. Henry and Jonah hold BJ back as Magnolia escapes in a cab. She asks the driver to take her to Heathrow Airport. She realizes that loving BJ is killing her, and she finally decides to let go.
Chapters 47-68 Analysis
Drama heightens in this section as Magnolia and BJ at first appear to be moving away from one another, driven by the complications in the earlier chapters. There is also a palpable irony in BJ’s distress when he discovers that Christian is still attached to Magnolia, for BJ has the same problem, but his jealousy deepens the emerging pattern of multiple love triangles. Specifically, Christian is involved with Daisy even while he is preoccupied with Magnolia, and Tom still cares for Clara though he is falling in love with Magnolia as well. Likewise, Jonah and Henry are both vying over Taura Sax. As the characters struggle with Navigating the Complexities of Multiple Romantic Partners, Jessa Hastings introduces the crowning irony when BJ and Magnolia break up once again, just as they have decided to find their way back to one another. Because BJ cheated on her with Paili, her best friend, the discovery of his actions creates a negative exploration of The Dynamics of Loyalty and Betrayal.
In this moment, Magnolia perceives this new betrayal as one that echoes Marsaili’s betrayal; just like Marsaili, Paili is a woman whom Magnolia loves, trusts, and depends on, and Paili’s deception therefore cuts her all the more. However, unlike the Parks family’s situation, where Magnolia refused to run away but has instead continued to live in her father’s home, Magnolia now chooses to leave London to avoid BJ and Paili’s ultimate betrayal. With this cliffhanger ending, Hastings defies the usual convention of romance novels that demands a reconciliation after the traditional “third-act breakup.” Instead, the split and Magnolia’s resulting escape confirm that the pair’s fated love is also a doomed love, reinforcing the latent Romeo and Juliet theme. BJ expresses this in the image he uses to Tom to describe him and Magnolia as either dancing in a burning room or dragging each other up and down a mountain.
The action of these chapters repeats many of the scenarios that dominate the action of the novel; in many such instances, Magnolia sees BJ with another girl and runs away, causing BJ to engage in destructive behavior, after which they make a cautious and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to reconnect. In most cases, they both try to meet their emotional needs with other people, but a turning point in the relationship is achieved when BJ makes Magnolia confront her own mistakes and hypocrisy. He insists that she can no longer play the role of the betrayed victim because she has been manipulative in her own way. Ironically, this similarity in toxic behavior connects them and confirms that they fit together.
The Costs of Celebrity Status are also further explored in these chapters as Magnolia notes that the more dramatic or conflicted their behavior, the more attention they draw from the public eye. While BJ is upset by pictures of Magnolia with Tom, the only time that their celebrity status plays a role in the action is when Magnolia and BJ run the risk of inadvertently publicizing their fight outside of Jonah’s club; in this moment, Taura steps in with a kiss as a distraction, and this act of misdirection confirms that the public interest lies mostly in the drama, and the celebrities are in control of the narrative as well as their image.
As with Greece, when the setting changes from London to a more rural area, BJ and Magnolia are able to connect in a more authentic way. The demands of celebrity and the influence of family and friends are put aside as they focus on one another. In this context, the willow tree by the lake becomes symbolic of their relationship and the old, long-running ties that bind them together. Thus, the author implies that the natural setting strips away the affectations and false sense of sophistication that characterizes the city, allowing them to exhibit more natural, honest behavior. However, the conclusion of the dramatic action is not the reconciliation, but a final break that suggests the doomed nature of the protagonists’ love. While running away is the same reaction that Magnolia has in the face of romantic difficulties, her decision to break the necklace symbolizes her wish for a final separation. Neither protagonist has experienced significant change or growth, and Magnolia has claimed several times that she and BJ cannot make their relationship work. This lack of a real resolution to the major plotline also has the more practical purpose of allowing Hastings to continue developing the characters’ relationship over the course of a series; the cliffhanger ending is therefore designed to boost interest in a sequel.
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