Of Flowers and Books

I’ve been craving for a book that pulls me in and won’t let go. A friend loaned me a book that has been on the best seller’s list for about 10 years and is so wildly popular that it was turned into a made for TV movie-series. I read the first 100 pages. Then I tried again thinking that it would get better. I’m sure the book is excellent and deserves its spot on the best seller list, but I can’t get through it.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh came to my rescue. I simply couldn’t put it down. It is so well written and blends mystery with suspense as the reader is toggled from the past to the present. I read it in two nights while laundry suffered. I highly recommend this book if you share my passion for flowers and books.

I learned a valuable lesson along the way. Let me explain. Originally, I turned to Amazon for ideas by simply typing in “best selling books” and as you can imagine, there were lots of options to choose from. I’d seen The Language of Flowers pop up during previous searches, but quickly dismissed it because the cover image conveyed something completely different (to me) than the story inside.

After reading the book, I realized that I fell victim to the old adage: you can’t judge a book by its cover. If the cover of the book looked like the image above, I think that I would have read it a long time ago. But, the cover looked like the one below and I passed it up. Shame on me.

Below are some reviews:

Amazon’s review: 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.

Below is the full review from the New York Times if you want to learn more about this novel.

Full review from The New York Times