‘Flowers’ blooms with emotion

“The Language Of Flowers,” written by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, is a New York Times best seller, and is a story like no other.

With just 308 pages, the story starts off with an 18-year-old orphan girl named Victoria who has a love for flowers and the meanings behind them. As she turns 18 at the beginning of the story, one will see her go through the shift from group homes to being on her own in the real world. One will feel for her as she struggles to find a job and eventually becomes homeless.

Her journey to find and forgive herself is heartwarming as well as heart-wrenching. When things finally seem to be falling into place and Victoria is beginning to become truly happy, her past will come back to haunt her, causing her to ruin what she had worked so hard to build.

One will follow her throughout her story wondering why she can’t just let herself be happy until you want to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. This story is truly one that will get your heart pumping and your emotions to flow through you with great intensity.

Not only does this book have a jaw-dropping, eye-watering story, but it also has its own dictionary of flowers and their meanings at the very back of the book. Throughout the story, Victoria mentions various flowers, even explaining some of the meanings, but she doesn’t do this for all of the flowers. The flower dictionary comes in handy throughout the reading.

It is also a very interesting thing to have if one would feel inspired to give someone flowers with a special meaning. The flower dictionary is organized alphabetically by flower name, listing the flower first and the meaning afterward.

The cover of “The Language Of Flowers” is eye-catching with its bright colors and aesthetic background of a girl holding flowers. The vintage-like text will also draws one to the cover. The choice of colors fit together fairly well and really draw the cover all together, making it both eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing.

Diffenbaugh is the author of said story. She is mainly a fiction writer, though, after writing “The Language Of Flowers,” went on to write a nonfiction dictionary called, “A Victorian Flower Dictionary.”

Her newest book, “We Never Asked For Wings” is one you should look out for. “For 14 years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children — Alex, now 15, and Luna, 6 — in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay.

“But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life. Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future.”— Back cover.