{ ++ } Miz B over at Should Be Reading hosts this weekly meme, where us book lovers get a chance to spotlight our currently-reading and basically...do a little teasing. : ) The rules are simple:
- Grab your current read.
- Open to a random page. (Full disclosure: I actually go hunting for a good teaser. heehee.)
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. (Um. Sometimes I post more than 2 sentences. hee.)
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other participants can add the book to their to-reads if they like your teaser.
On my chest bone, the mistletoe rested. I studied its irregular rise and fall. Neither my heartbeat, nor my breath had returned to normal since reading the stranger's response in my palm.
The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in communicating feelings like 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, Victoria has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own.
When her talent is discovered by a local florist, she discovers her gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But it takes meeting a mysterious vendor at the flower market for her to realise what's been missing in her own life, and as she starts to fall for him, she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, and decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.
"The Language of Flowers" is a heartbreaking and redemptive novel about the meaning of flowers, the meaning of family, and the meaning of love.
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Published: 08.19.2011 (Ballantine Books)
