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The Language of Flowers: A Novel
Unavailable
The Language of Flowers: A Novel
Unavailable
The Language of Flowers: A Novel
Audiobook10 hours

The Language of Flowers: A Novel

Written by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Narrated by Tara Sands

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.

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 grief, 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, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market 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.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 23, 2011
ISBN9780307878946
Unavailable
The Language of Flowers: A Novel
Author

Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Vanessa Diffenbaugh was born in San Francisco and raised in Chico, California. After studying creative writing and education at Stanford, she went on to teach art and writing to youth in low-income communities. Vanessa and her family live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her husband is studying urban school reform at Harvard. Her first novel, The Language of Flowers, was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.

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Reviews for The Language of Flowers

Rating: 3.996657304735376 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,795 ratings252 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really wanted to like this book as the subject of the language of flowers intrigued me. I wanted to like Victoria and for the book to have a happy ending.
    Perhaps it's the fact that I was adopted and that I am now a mother of two, but I just could not like her. She was too self involved, too selfish for that to be possible, especially once she has the baby.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book is about a girl called Victoria who grew up in a series of foster homes finally ending up in a group home. This is her story of how she, in the end blossomed and became someone very beautiful.

    When I started this book I was very excited about reading it particularly when I saw the glossary of the meanings of different flowers mentioned in the book. Unfortunately, my excitement was to be short-lived.

    Right from the word go I found myself frustrated and annoyed by Victoria. She seemed to have been stuck in an almost never ending cycle of self-destruction. Perhaps this came from having been moved from pillar to post for her whole life.

    I also found this book hard to connect with which makes reading a book for me very arduous at the best of times. I also wasn't entirely clear about the ending of the book.

    Having said the above I still thought it was worthy of 3 stars even though I really wanted to give it a lot more than that before I started to read it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Language of Flowers revolves around Victoria, a *irl who ages out of the foster care system and discovers she has a talent for knowing what the hidden meanings of flowers are and which flower is appropriate for which situation. This is a beautifully written book and one of my all time favorites.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought this was a lovely little novel. I think I loved it extra-much because I just booked the florist for my wedding, and so the frame of flowers-as-items-with-meaning resonated with me, and I was pretty excited to get to the end, where there's a little flower-dictionary appendix, and read that stephanotis (which will be in my bride/bridesmaid bouquets) means "happiness in marriage." :-)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I haven't read a book in a day and a half in ages! This grabbed me from the first page and didn't let me go. The storyline is fantastic. I laughed, cried and enjoyed every word.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A love story, not of just a boy & a girl, but of a girl & her foster mother, a sister for a sister, a florist for a homeless girl......How they meet, their secrets, their trades, how they meet, how they live, how they love, and how the communicate as translated through the Language of Flowers.....
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you enjoy books that truly bring on emotions, happiness, sadness, confusion, and anger - I would recommend this book to you. This is the ideal book club book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Amy Burnett
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    4.5 stars. Victoria doesn't start out as a heroine, but ends up as one. The story is told from two time points: starting with her "emancipation" from being a ward of the state, as she ages out at age 18, and at age 10, going to her last-chance foster-home-to-adoption placement, having been placed in a series of foster homes since being abandoned as an infant.

    Victoria is, on the surface, a thistle - the symbol of misanthropy, hate for the whole world, as her foster-mother Elizabeth tells her, after Victoria has placed cactus spikes in Elizabeth's shoes. Cactus stands not for hate, but for ardent love.

    Slowly, we learn to understand why Victoria is so prickly and defensive, and why, despite herself, Elizabeth gets through to her, partly through teaching her the language of flowers. Victoria uses this, her one talent/gift, to obtain a position in a florist's shop, and soon after, is making up "message" flower arrangements for brides and others that seem to bring into their lives the missing elements.

    Later, Victoria ends by abandoning her own baby daughter - or does she? My only nit to pick is that Grant seems a little too good to be true - he's patient, kind, smart, and does not seem to carry a grudge about his mistreatment by anybody.

    I think it's a terrific, if often heartbreaking book. Learning about the flower symbology is a brilliant thread that holds it all together and is fascinating in its own right, and in the end, I was cheering for Victoria to have a happy ending.

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this for the Idaho Writers Guild Book Club. I was afraid it might be a treacly romance, but found it to be an engaging, inventive book that dealt more with the hardships encountered by foster children. The protagonist is not always easy to like, but you do root for her. There was a long section about her personal hardship that may have gone on too, long. However, the fact that it was dragging on and not getting better was exactly the point. Bonus: You learn a little about the language of flowers.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Victoria Jones turns 18 and leaves the foster care system where she has spent her entire life. Homeless and uneducated, she wanders the neighbourhoods of San Francisco, surviving on table scraps from restaurants. Using her one and only skill--a knowledge of flowers--Victoria wangles herself a job as a florist assistant. She soon meets a friend from her past and they strike up a romance over their shared love of flowers and their ability to communicate using the Victorian symbolic language of flowers. Victoria returns to that past in alternating chapters where she goes back to when she was nine and had a chance of happiness living on a grape farm north of the city with Elizabeth. This second story has narrative and symbolic parallels with Victoria's adult narrative. At first I found this book readable but sort of tedious. Victoria was a difficult character to empathize with, but then she's supposed to be damaged by her miserable childhood. After all, how can one love if one has never experienced love? I soon grew frustrated with the novel, however. Victoria's problems are caused by getting in her own way, and they are then solved by either coincidences or the kindness of others (who she has mistreated): Her boss routinely gives her packets of cash; Her roommate conveniently goes away so she can have the apartment to herself at a crucial plot point; She just happens to know a midwife when she has refused prenatal care or medical insurance, etc. Through all this she's pretty much a jerk to everyone she knows. Yet people constantly go out of their way to help her. I also rolled my eyes at how easily she started a phenomenally successful florist business. In summary, [The Language of Flowers] was both implausible and predicable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A surprise delight. The fundamentals are unexceptional, but the execution is superb. Broken girl tries to overcome her disadvantages. Many setbacks on the way to redemption. Seems a common enough plot, really. But Diffenbaugh does something exceptional by weaving the language of flowers in a way that brings a whole new and original perspective to an otherwise predictable story. The main character, Victoria Jones, has magical gifts as a florist, ruined (almost) by lack of self belief. Some of the plot twists are a bit coincidentally convenient, but they are balanced by surprise developments that more than compensate. Refreshing to read a novel by a woman, about a woman, the is frank, unadorned and lacking any sense of gender exploitation.In all, a very enjoyable read with a happy and hopeful ending.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Communication can take many different forms. In the case of Victoria Jones, having been shunted around multiple foster homes as a small child and then growing up in group homes until she is 18, she distrusts everyone and believes herself unable to form long lasting relationships with people. But she develops a connection to plants and flowers, discovering a secret language in each plant and flower that helps her communicate with and help others. But as she finds safety and comfort among her flowers, and even grows bold enough to open her heart to another, an unexpected situation causes her to flee once more. Alternating between her past and present, the author builds the background into a dark secret that Victoria's been hiding since she was a child. Will this secret be the cause of her downfall or can she find a way to reach out for what she wants and to face possible rejection all over again?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Vanessa Diffenbaugh has a winner in her debut title The Language of Flowers. This is such a good read, I couldn't put it down. The girl is self-destructive because of early life experiences, you'll want to keep ready in hopes that she figures a way to overcome her past.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Victoria Jones has been through 32 foster homes and spent time in group homes. With no goals and nowhere to go, she sleeps in a public park where she planted a flower garden. Bloom discovers her talent with Language of Flowers. Love, forgiveness, and healing is found.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved, loved, loved this book! So good. Definitely one of my new favorites.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Language of Flowers begins with Victoria Jones's emancipation from the foster care system. The story follows her as she tries to build some kind of life for herself. One of her foster mothers taught her the Victorian language of flowers, whereby people would send each others messages through flowers and the meanings they held. Victoria's knowledge of the language of flowers helps her find a job and learn to cope in the world. Diffenbaugh's writing is very good, though it doesn't quite become beautiful or special. She tells her story well, but while I was happy to keep reading, I never grew fully invested in Victoria of the other characters in the book. My fears that the language of flowers stuff would get twee were completely unfounded, and I say well done, you, to Diffenbaugh for that, but I wonder if the rest of the book was just a little too careful, a little too polished. I never felt like things got messy and real, even when things got quite messy for Victoria. A good deal better than I expected but still not superfantastisch.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book started out somewhat strangely. However, after a few pages I really started liking it. It has a sort of "Lifetime Movie" feel to it, but it was nice to read anyway. It has a very predictable format and ending. The information about the "language of flowers" was something new for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a bit sad but it touched my heart. To find such meaning in flowers, to build your life and relationships around them is a beautiful thought.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A gift from a book exchange. I enjoyed the Victorian flowered language.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It's nice to think of more ways for people to communicate, different forms of messages they can send. This idea of particular kinds of flowers communicating specific meanings, and that one should consider these meanings when they give them, rather than just picking what's prettiest... I mean, it's not for me, I guess, but I can see the appeal. And on top of this, Diffenbaugh outside the book seems to be a pretty admirable person, helping fundraising for kids getting out of foster care, for reasons that will soon become evident. On top of that, she's a pretty good writer, in a craftswoman sense. For those of you thinking there's a but coming, yeah, here it is: but this book didn't exactly do it for me.Our protagonist, Victoria, is coming out of foster care as an adult, and she's had a really rough time of it, as one is given to understand is usually the case for those emerging from foster care. She's rather a hard case, very closed off to others, and upon getting out, basically takes up being homeless for a while. But she understands flowers, and the messages they send, and before too long, she gets offered a job at a small flower store run by Renata, a pretty strong-willed woman in her own right. She helps out around the store, making bouquets that match the language of flowers she learns, growing the business... and meeting a guy, Grant, who is a flower wholesaler, and who has a definite link to her past.So that's the setup for the story; we get Victoria's current story, along with the story of her last and best chance at finding someone to adopt her, a flower-loving woman living alone in a large house in the California countryside named Elizabeth. Clearly, since Victoria ended up in foster care, even though Elizabeth is caring and accommodating, but pushing back against Victoria's acting out, slowly taking her in and building a bond, eventually this must fall apart, so the story has that tension going for it: not knowing how things are going to fall apart, and seeing how this plays out against Victoria's troubles in her more grown-up setting, with her way with flowers and trying to build connections, with people in general and with Grant and Renata in particular. She's quite a broken young woman, Victoria, and there's a lot of work to be done in getting back to a good and sane place.Let me here give credit to Diffenbaugh as a writer again: the characterization is deftly done (generally), and the construction and pacing of the story, matching the pace of the two time periods well to each other to build connections, lulls and character beats, and different climaxes in the two times working to build the mood in the story. And she commits to the concept with the language of flowers, as well; including that glossary at the back is definitely a wise choice, and I went and looked at it at rather a sizable number of times.Here's that but again: just... as much as I liked the writing, and I think the characters work, my disbelief just didn't really hold. Victoria is a scarred and hardened individual, certainly, and her behavior's quite erratic. I get that people would make allowances, but they really go too far, overall, and she is just unbelievably, incredibly lucky in the modern story. The backstory stuff is better, and I like the bond building with Elizabeth and everything, but the modern setting... I mean, she does some fairly crazy things that I think we're supposed to sympathize with, but I don't really get to sympathy, and also just lands a lot of luckiness. Just gobs of coincidences and people having nigh-magical powers to divine her life. Either she is the most captivating person that has ever existed, or the contrivances are laid on too thick. Not that everything goes well, but when they go bad, still... the contrivances and the coincidences, oh, the contrivances and the coincidences. I couldn't take it. And Grant, man, I couldn't really take Grant. I liked him overall, but he's really like this side of a fairy-tale super-patient hero who'd never been and would never be interested anyone else but Victoria. He belong in more of a romance novel than here, I think.I want to accept the story, and I liked the writing and the setting and all, but it's still rather problematic. I want to say, really, this is a book that has some good stuff going for it, and it wasn't a hard read, but I just couldn't take the story. I wouldn't say don't read it, exactly, but I wouldn't go out and jump on it, either, really. The begonia on the cover of the book means caution in the language of flowers presented in the book, and I get why the author chose it, but I'd assign it a second meaning on top of that one, personally.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I,liked many parts of this book, the flowers, VIctorias struggle, Renata and passionate eating. Elizabeth never seemed believable to me and the closer the book moved to the end, it got more saccharine and unbelievable. My rating is for the first 2/3 of the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Victoria was 10 years old when she was told by her social worker that she would have "one last chance" in a foster home before she would be placed in a group home until she was 18. However, after being in dozens of homes already, this young girl had been quite traumatized by her experiences and was acting out with kind of anger typical for children with Reactive Attachment Disorder. When she was ultimately placed with Elizabeth, she was wild and violent. Elizabeth was unlike any of the other foster parents Victoria had lived with and against the odds, they started to bond using the language of flowers...a victorian age way of using flowers and their meaning to explain your feelings. Just when it appeared that Victoria might be adopted, a tragic circumstance occurred, leading Victoria to be placed in a group home until she was dumped by the system at the age of 18. This is really where the story begins, as flashbacks of Victoria's childhood alternate with her present day homelessness and second chances at a new life and connections with others begin for her. As a clinical psychologist who works with kids just like Victoria, I found this story heartbreakingly accurate and a perfect example of how a youth with RAD see attachments with others as terrifying. Parts of this story were hard to read. Although the author kept the scenes of abuse to a minimum, Victoria tended to be self-destructive in her choices and refused help when she needed it. I thought this story was fantastic and I plan to recommend it to my students who could benefit from this inward glimpse into the life of this tragic but exceedingly common victim of our broken child welfare system.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent.This book has just gone on offer for 99p instead of the 7.16 that is its listed price, which hopefully means that even more people will download it and enjoy it.This is a great book, I found that I was so engrossed in one time frame that the change to the other time frame came as a physical jolt - not something that I usually experience when reading dual time frame novels.In current time, Victoria is turning 18, and forced to leave the group homes where she has spent the last 8 years. She has the opportunity of 3 months in an interim shared house, but if she can't pay the rent after 3 months then she will be out on the streets. It's a harsh reality, but she has one skill to fall back on - the language of flowers, learned from the last person who really cared for her, Elizabeth, who had wanted to adopt her at the age of 10. This 10 year old Victoria is the second time frame, why did things not work out with Elizabeth? Why is Victoria still in group homes and not happily living in an adopted home?All this is gradually revealed as Victoria finds herself a job with flowers and fights off the past which is forever lurking in the background to ruin the present.I was engrossed in this novel, particularly the first half. It did slow a bit in the middle but only relative to its wonderful start. Victoria is a brilliantly drawn character, I could sense her enormous anger at everyone and everything.I can't believe that this is a first novel, I shall be queuing up for the next one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Vanessa Diffenbaugh said she wanted to write a book about foster care. In [The Language of Flowers], she succeeds with her portrait of an angry Victoria Jones. Victoria is 18 when the book opens and has lived her live in foster care, mostly recently in group homes. On her eighteenth birthday she is emancipated, free to leave the group home and make her way in the world.Diffenbaugh alternates the present with the story of the year Victoria was almost adopted, the year she learned the language of flowers. This works well; we want to find out why Victoria is angry. While the stories of the abusive foster parents are heartbreaking, the little details are the most telling: Victoria gets her first new dress when she is ten years old. Every time she acts out, she's ready for the social worker to come and take her away.We keep reading to find out whether Victoria can find a place in the world. The book does end on a note of hope -- maybe not very realistic, but it is satisfying. We come to care about Victoria and wish her a happy ending.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I received this book from Early Reviewers-My initial reaction was very hopeful. Victoria begins as a very troubled young girl who has a life of disappointment and hurt. The excitement of what her future holds carries you along with her in the early phases of the story, flip flopping between present and childhood. But after that initial connection, she begins to annoy more than intrigue. All of her life connections are through flowers rather than people. Although she has been dealt a difficult hand in life, she cannot allow herself to attach to anyone.. even hurting those who have given her the most. While some of these actions would seem understandable, others just seem over the top. Victoria comes across as more self centered than damaged. Everyone around her, on the other hand, is selfless and limitlessness in the understanding of her unusual needs. It becomes increasingly redundant. While the story was entertaining, I do not feel it lived up to the praise it has received.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Deffenbaugh is a story about an eighteen year old woman, Victoria Jones, who aged out of the Foster Care System, and who had been so disappointed by the adults in her life that she lost all perspective and confidence in herself and her own abilities. Miraculously, she connected with flowers and their Victorian meaning, and through this passion she learned to trust herself and others again. This may sound like a very depressing book, and although parts were incredibly sad, it was also a hopeful story. There were characters in this novel that loved Victoria Jones deeply; they too were flawed, but their love was undeniable. Victoria did not trust her own capabilities to love another person because she did not have the guidance, stability or unwavering, unconditional love growing up. She feared getting too close to anyone because she was destined to hurt the other person and ruin the relationship. Victoria had a remarkable gift. Through the meaning of flowers she was able to help others improve themselves and achieve their dreams. When Victoria worked with flowers, her very best self was present. The friends that Victoria made along the way were not perfect people, but they reached out to Victoria and loved her in a way that she had never experienced before, transforming her gradually. I loved Renata, Grant, Elizabeth, Mother Ruby and Marlene.I highly recommend The Language of Flowers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A different kind of book focused on flowers. I never knew that every flower has a meaning. Well written, however, a bit unbelievable. But then I am a guy.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This novel just didn't work for me, although others in the book group loved it. We see the story from the perspective of the troubled main character, Victoria, who grows from an prickly, abandoned child into an angry adolescent and then into a young woman with attachment issues but so much information about the past is artificially withheld from the reader to build suspense that I found myself annoyed more often than curious. The title refers to the Victorian tradition of using flowers to communicate sentiments, and it is the only way that Victoria is really able to communicate properly. What are the chances of someone finding her who is fluent in this language and able to break down the impenetrable barriers she has built up around her heart? I would recommend this to readers who are interested in the effects of abuse on a person.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Normally, I'm a bit hesitant to start books which focus so specifically on one certain idea or gimmick and this time was no different. I have had The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh on my shelf for months, but was intimidated by the actual language of flowers that it held - I wasn't certain I was in the mood, every time I picked it up, to be overwhelmed with information about flowers and, since I have the closest thing to a black thumb a girl can get, I was more than a little intimidated by it.What ended up happening was when I finally made the choice to pick the book up and dove into the story, my heart was captured by Victoria. She was tough, ruthless, and the complete opposite of me, making decisions I couldn't comprehend. Every time I expected the story to take a predictable turn, Victoria made a decision that shocked me - and it happened over, and over again. So I thought maybe that would be predictable - but then it just wasn't.There are several stories in this narrative: the story of Victoria finding a place, Victoria's history, the stories in miniature of those who needed Victoria's help, and more. Each story was spun slowly, which meant that the resolution of the book came even more sweetly.I don't recommend this book if you are looking for a feel good, happy story. It's more about healing, finding oneself, and examining the failings of a corrupt system which takes advantage of a young child who desperately needs a home.