The elegantly worded The Language of Flowers made me invest quite a lot during the first chapters, but gambled all my affection away later on. I will try to explain how this unceremonious drop around the middle of the story came to pass after introducing Victoria to you. There is nothing victorious about Victoria apart from the fact that she survived to see her eighteen's birthday. Even social worker Meredith sees her only as a failure she personally doesn't deserve. A dark blotch on her white s [...]

Too much folding! “He folded himself into a chair. She folded her feet beneath her. He folded over in exhaustion placing his head on the table. She folded over in pain. She folded herself underneath the bush.” How about: “He sat in a chair. She pulled her feet beneath her. He slumped over in exhaustion. She bent over in pain. She curled herself underneath the bush.”Really, another verb is needed here and fold/ed was most overused. Yes, I am nitpicking, but since I was bothered enough to [...]

Can't remember when I've read and enjoyed a story as much as Victoria's. She stole my heart from the beginning and I only grew to admire and love her more with each page. There were times when I wanted to shake her and yell at her to wake up and get a grip. Just when I thought she wouldn't, she did just that. Amazing story of survival, love, and strength. The flowers add so much depth and feelings to this story that I was enthralled by it all. Just an amazing and wonderfully well written book wi [...]

Sorry if I post this review twice. I somehow "lost" the one I was writing.This book is the darling of book clubs all over the country but I found it to be insipid and flawed. It showed great promise for about the first third. Diffenbaugh seemed to show an accurate and heartbreaking portrait of a young girl who is let down by the foster care system. She is angry and damaged. This was believable and felt very real.The rest of the book didn't make a lot of sense to me. This broken young woman is sa [...]

"The Language of Flowers" by Vanessa DiffenbaughI loved this book from the beginning and didn’t want it to end. I have always had a fascination with knowing the names history of flowers and plants and love finding them in natural surroundings. This book, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, (whose name is similar to the dieffenbachia plant) had such a moving story line in telling the story of Victoria, from her abandonment at birth, through childhood abuse, to her orphanage experien [...]

I have received many a horrified look when I have told people that I don't like red roses. Their expression of horror only got worse when I told them I much preferred yellow roses. I was always really confused as to why which flowers I liked would cause such a strong reaction.Then I read this book and found out. Translation Time."I don't like red roses" = "I don't like love"."But I love yellow roses" = "But I love infidelity".o.ONow, I'm guessing that this wasn't actually the reason why the look [...]

Update: $1.99 Kindle special today. If any of my friends ( especially women friends), have missed reading this bookw is a good time to buy it. Vanessa, the author, truly wrote a book about something she has direct experience with : The Foster Care SystemThe LANGUAGE of flowers Location - San Francisco. Vanessa went to Standard- lived in the Bay Area and is very familiar with the SF Bay Area It's excellent - Her first book. My favorite book she wrote. I started this book today (On Valentines Day [...]

This book was to me, the language of growth, acceptance, and love and of coming home. I have many books on my shelf, but this one stood out simply as I remembered a quick line from a friend, saying she loved it – thanks Jools for this, and for my book.This was special, and did really suit me in the form of short intense chapters, alternating between the past and present. Tethering me somewhere between constantly feeling bereft yet hopeful, but precariously edgy. I did not put this book down on [...]

I received this book from Giveaways.After my recent horrendous experience with The Rose Labyrinth, which had me wanting to claw my eyes out after four sentences, it was wonderful to come across a novel with such a graceful writing style that was apparent from the first page.For eight years I dreamed of fire. Trees ignited as I passed them, oceans burned. The sugary smoke settled in my hair as I slept, the scent like a cloud left on my pillow as I rose. Even so, the moment my mattress started to [...]

I received this book through a postal book swap and we were just permitted to post online as we are through our rotation.When this book first came out, I kept seeing the hard cover everywhere with its very striking image of white blossoms and a black background. It kind of had the look of a romance novel, so I hadn't tried it. My friend Kathryn read and loved it, and that had landed it on my to-read list, but I hadn't gotten around to it. I was happy to do so when it ended up in my mail, because [...]

Hard to put down book about mothers and daughters. I feel completely emotionally exhausted but I had to stay up and find out how everything was going to play out. If this book has escaped your attention, remedy that right away and pick it up!

4.75/5 edit: being made into movie♡"for eight years i dreamed of fire. trees ignited as i passed them, oceans burned. the sugary smoke settled in my hair as i slept, the scent like a cloud left on my pillow as i rose. even so, the moment my mattress started to burn, i bolted awake. the sharp, chemical smell was nothing like the hazy syrup of my dreams; the two were as different as indian and carolina jasmine, separation and attachment. they could not be confusedanding in the middle of the room [...]

I don't really know what to write about this book. It was well-written, but I'm not sure I liked it. I didn't hate it, though. For me, it's one of those books that left me going, "UmmOK". I like the flower communication and all, but the whole story just sort of took some weird turns and ended up feeling like it wasn't going anywhere. And then it didn't. It just kind of ended. Meh.

Onvan : The Language of Flowers - Nevisande : Vanessa Diffenbaugh - ISBN : 034552554X - ISBN13 : 9780345525543 - Dar 323 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2011

Orphaned at a young age, Victoria has been moved to different foster homes, rebelling with angry outbursts and never in one place long enough to establish any solid relationships. At the age of 10, she is taken in by a woman who teaches her the language of flowers and what each flower means. Through these teachings, Victoria is able to start positively communicating. However, when the relationship is threatened, she reverts back to behaviour that will cost her the safe haven she has found and sh [...]

Imagine a little baby as the seed of beautiful flower who travels from birth to fruition through orphanages, group homes, foster care and the social system of America, never falling in fertile soil to take route and thrive? But then, as destiny would have it, Victoria Jones lands on a flower and vineyard farm in California where the secrets of the Victorian Floriography of the plants is revealed to this girl who only understood the human language of rejection and unworthiness to be loved. She cl [...]

This child, this self-admitted odd-bod, Victoria has been in the foster system since birth. Ask her who her parents are and she will say the Foster System. At age ten, she has been in thirty-nine different foster homes. She is used to, at a moment's notice, being removed or rejected by her foster parents. She travels light, everything she owns is in a small canvas bag which includes her Dictionary of Flowers. The story is told in two sequences of time; when she is ten, going to a new foster home [...]

I’m probably not the target audience for this book, but I’m not NOT the right audience. Thematically it reminded me a lot of Kitchens of the Great Midwest which I thought was superb.The writing wasn’t bad, the pacing wasn’t a slog. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for another orphan story. Seems like every book has an orphan in it these day. Why? Are we in the midst of a global identity crisis? Maybe it’s just one of those random trends, like every novel having “Girl” in the title [...]

I've always believed that giving flowers meant something . I knew that red roses meant love and somewhere along the line I learned that Baby's Breath , almost always in a bride's bouquet signified everlasting love . However, that was the extent of my knowledge of the meaning of flowers , originating in the Victorian era - until I read this book . Do flowers speak to us in this way ? I really don't know but it's nice to think so and the author has creatively wrapped this language around this stor [...]

Moss doesn't have any roots, but it grows anyway, without any roots. That's what this book is about the roots that we have in our lives, or don't have. Who was your mother, what were her traits, where do you fit in, where did you come from, who are you connected to, your roots. Victoria has spent her life in and out of foster care homes, abused, neglected, unwanted. The book flashes back to when she was in fosters homes, to when she went to live with Elizabeth at the age of 10, to her current da [...]

If you only enjoy books with likable protagonists & manly men give this one a pass. I expected some pleasant distraction about love & the Victorian language of flowers - didn’t disappoint except in the light read department. Downright dark it borders on melodrama as it tells the story of an abandoned baby deprived of a mother’s love & nurturing, illustrating the often irreparable damage done to that child’s psyche. Victoria is caught up in a foster system that reinforces her fe [...]

This "review" forces me to think about the five star rating system. Since a number of stars reflects my own personal assessment then I need to be honest about how I feel about a book. Here is a chance to define my rating system: five stars means that the book is fascinating, readable, attention holding, has a plot, well defined characters and is well written, lyrical or poetic even. One star means I should not have read the book, why did I bother? But I did and it was good enough to finish(or sk [...]

The Language of Flowers is a debut novel which sparked a major international bidding war. It sold at auction for over 1 million in the US (!) ~ and for a six-figure sum in the UK and Commonwealth.The blurb gives an awesome synopsis, but I will add a bit to it: The story itself alternates between the present and the past, a chapter at a time. In the present, Victoria is eighteen, jobless, homeless and sleeping in a park. She manages to get a job working for a florist (she knows flowers, in an obs [...]

Humans have assigned meaning to various plants for centuries. That idea was taken a step further during the Victorian era with "floriography," a way of communicating messages using flowers. It was great for expressing emotion in a restrictive, ritual-driven culture. To send a message, a bouquet or boutonniere would be exchanged using blooms to convey not just love, but also friendship, a family connection, or complicated feelings. If a man and a woman had a disagreement, he might send her purple [...]

I've come across a few articles/books as of late about the role reading can play in making a person more empathic. I had those studies in mind as I read Vanessa Diffenbaugh's "The Language of Flowers." Chiefly because, without empathy, I would have failed to fully appreciate its narrator, Victoria Jones.A foster kid, Jones is a tough girl who blew her chance at being adopted and so, for 18 years, has bounced from group home to group home with the worst of attitudes. The book follows her life upo [...]

I had difficulty with "the willing suspension of disbelief" required by this novel. I was able to accept Victoria's behavior only because I felt she was in need of serious psychiatric counseling. However, the behavior of everyone else was completely unbelievable (possible exception was the social worker). Why would Elizabeth, the foster mom who loves Victoria so much, risk losing her completely simply because, decades of estrangement from her sister, she decides she can't adopt Victoria without [...]

Do you ever read a book then look at all the other reviews and wonder if you've read the same book? This is that book. I know some readers have to 'like' or care about the characters to enjoy a book. I don't: loved 'Gone Girl' for instance which I don't think had one likeable character in it. But the main character in this never felt fully fleshed out to me, I couldn't quite believe in her. The idea of an emotionally damaged child/woman who can only really communicate through the Victorian langu [...]

I'm a little conflicted about how to rate and review this one. I was really interested in the subject matter - the Victorian language of flowers. The young protagonist Victoria is a hurt and traumatized young woman after spending most of her life in foster care. After finally being released on her 18th birthday she begins a new life working with a florist and begins to bloom a little herself. The narration flips back and forth between her present life and various childhood episodes which I found [...]

3 ½ starsHad this not been a book club read I would probably never have started reading it. The basic storyline and book title just sounded too much like romantic chic lit. Sometimes those are nice but restrict myself to perhaps one or two books in this genre per year. But this was more Joshilyn Jackson than Nora RobertsThe chapters alternate between 9-year-old and 18-year-old Victoria and while time hopping in a novel can sometimes feel too jarring I think it worked very well here. Mainly beca [...]

Could not put this one down and was done within 24 hours. The book had an almost magical appeal on me and was drawn to the story line as well as the meaning of the various flowers.While Victoria was a frustrating and complex character throughout the book, I couldn't help but to like her and was rooting for from beginning to end.Special bonus is the whimsical "Victoria's Dictionary of Flowers" at the end of the book. Have a feeling I will be reaching for this book here and there to use it as a re [...]