The Language of Flowers

Sorry that I suck at blogging, okay? Steve keeps threatening to kick me out of the blog if I don't post. It was a very busy year which made my terrible blogging skills even worse. I did however keep a list of what I watched and read, so I decided it would only be right for me to do my part in reaching 400 posts this year.

The Language of Flowers is a lovely book about a girl turned women who has had a rough upbringing. She has some real trust issues which lead to misbehavior and she bounced from foster home to foster home growing up. One foster parent tried real hard to connect with Victoria. She first introduced her to the so called “Language of Flowers”. Each flower represents a meaning and can be used to depict emotions and feelings. Something mysterious and awful happens with this foster relationship which leads to her running away and not speaking to Elizabeth (foster parent) for a very long time. When she is 18 and living on the streets, she finds that she has some skill in arranging flowers and grows close with a local florist. She begins to make a living and even reconnects with someone from her past, Elizabeth’s nephew.

Spoiler Alert! What brought me through most of this book was the intrigue at what the large event was that forced Victoria away from a loving and almost permanent home with Elizabeth. Turns out she burnt down Elizabeth’s wine vineyard and blamed it on Elizabeth’s nephew, who actually felt guilt about the whole thing. After you find out that, it seems odd that the nephew would forgive Victoria and actually have a relationship with her. At one point, Victoria and said nephew have a baby but she doesn’t tell him and she freaks out and leaves the baby unattended for a bit. She then decides she can’t take care of a baby (partially because breast feeding was painful…) and drops the baby off at nephew’s home in a bed of moss which means maternal love. Generally, leaving your child is not considered maternal love, but oh well. He doesn’t know he has a child but he takes care of it then takes Victoria back years later. Seems a little unrealistic, no?