The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Title: The Language of Flowers
Author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh
First Published: 2011
Published By: Ballantine Books
Format Read: Ebook
Read: Dec. 8 2014
Rating: 4/5

Image from Goodreads







After a lifetime of foster and group homes, Victoria is emancipated from the child care system, once she turns 18. With no one to turn to she moves in to a transitional group home before being evicted for not being able to pay the rent. Camping out in a San Francisco park, she devotes her time to planting a garden. Flowers being her only passion, she learned at a young age their individual meanings from a Victorian era dictionary and a woman named Elizabeth who at one time had been the closest thing to a mother she ever had. After proving her knowledge a florist named Renata takes a chance on Victoria and hires her. It is this job that leads Victoria to reconnect with someone from her past setting the bases for the rest of the book.

I recently joined a book group on Goodreads called Bookworm Bitches and this was one of the books chosen for the month of December. After reading the description I knew it wasn't one I would have chosen to read myself but because I wanted to join in with a discussion I thought I'd give it a try. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised because I quite liked Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers. Although Victoria wasn't the most likable character (there were many times I wanted to shake her) the way the story was written and the language of the flowers itself made up for it.