The Language of Flowers: A Novel Author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh | Language: English | ISBN:
B004J4WLB4 | Format: EPUB
The Language of Flowers: A Novel Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what’s been missing in her life. And when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.
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- File Size: 1543 KB
- Print Length: 338 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 034552554X
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 23, 2011)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B004J4WLB4
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #792 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Psychological - #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Sagas - #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Psychological
- #4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Psychological - #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Sagas - #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction > Psychological
The Language of Flowers is a moving story of a young girl kicked around by life and the foster care system. It kept me glued to the page this holiday weekend, as I couldn't seem to let go of Victoria and her unique means of communication. We first meet Victoria on her eighteenth birthday, when she ages out of the system and is thrust into society. Her social worker asks for her plan, but the problem is Victoria doesn't have one. She doesn't know what she wants and is carrying around enough anger, misery and self loathing that I had a hard time imagining her ever being able to cope with anything.
The story is told in chapters alternating between the present and events that occurred when she was 10 years old. This is when she had her last chance at a family and a normal life. We get a surprisingly vivid picture of both the 10 year old Victoria and the 18 year old Victoria. Her story is heartbreakingly real and will keep any reader riveted to the page as you cheer for this young woman to open up and learn to accept love and hope. Her anger is blistering and her narrative voice is strong and unfaltering as the reader gets a disturbing look at what can happen to kids in foster care. The scars Victoria carries are deep and lasting and the author creates a surprising amount of suspense as you are left to wonder just how she might overcome them.
All of the information about the actual language of flowers is fascinating and adds a magical element to the story that served to both temper some of the harsh emotional realities and give Victoria a port in her stormy life. One of my favorite parts of the book is when she meets Grant and attempts to communicate with him using flowers.
The story of Victoria Jones is a difficult one to tell. I feel grateful for having read this book before its official release. The story begins with a girl, Victoria, nervous and wild and a ward of the state. We see her being jerked around from place to place by a social worker whose only emotion seems to be the relief she gets when she leaves Victoria at a new home. This officially spares her the burden that Victoria has become. There is not much of a back story on how she came to be in the foster system and or why, but it isn't really needed in her case. In fact I think it made it that more interesting and believable. Not all abandoned children reconnect with their birth parents and ride off into the sunset.
We are transported from the present to the past (10 years to be exact) whit each alternating chapter. They start off giving us pieces of Victoria's past in group homes and her almost permanent home with Elizabeth. In the process of all this you learn a plethora of information about flowers that I never though possible. The names, oh the names and meanings!!! So brilliant. Victoria has turned 18 and is legally emancipated from the state of California and instead of rushing out to do what most 18 year olds in her situation would have done (party, drink, experiment) she takes the lonely road. She becomes homeless until a chance meeting gives her the opportunity to work using her talent for flowers. As a result, faces from the past reappear, old wounds reopened and new ones start to rip.
There are so many instances that I wanted to just scream at Victoria! Ok, maybe not scream but just stop reading. I was so frustrated with her selfishness that I could literally spit. Then somewhere along I got it, I simply got it!
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