The only thing she really knows is flowers - and then only the meaning of flowers. This is a Victorian tradition now dead, to know what each flower means so that when you give flowers you are actually giving a message to the recipient. She learned the language of flowers from one of her foster mothers.
Now, on her own, she must find a place to live, and work to pay the bills. She ends up at a florist shop where she proves she can handle the early morning hours and long shifts. While she works at the florist shop a couple of days a week, she lives in a park where she has planted her own garden of flowers.
Victoria's past haunts her though, as she was once loved by a foster mother, Elizabeth, who was going to adopt her - but the adoption fell through when Victoria lit a fire and burned a part of the vineyard that she lived on. In working at the florist, she also runs into Grant, the nephew of Elizabeth. Grant's own mother was mentally unstable and for years she thought she was the one who had lit the fire at Elizabeth's vineyard.
In making friends with Grant and working at the florist shop, she discovers her own worth as a human being and she determines to go back to Elizabeth and apologize for the fire.
This is a story of one girl's struggle in the social services system and her eventual redemption she finds both in herself and others. The Language of Flowers is well written and keeps you turning the pages. I thought the concept of flowers having meaning was interesting and was interested to see that this wasn't something made up by the author. You can see what flowers symbolize here.
Rating: 8 / 10
ISBN: 97800345525543
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Edition: 1st Edition