The Language of Flowers in Busy as a Bee Books

Aug 19, 2011 Liz rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle-read, bees-neez

This novel 'had me at hello'. I thought the beginning of the story was beautifully written and I was invested in the plot. We are introduced to Victoria, a little girl who was in and out of foster care families and group homes until the age of 10. Her experiences and reactions to them tugged at my heartstrings; basically, she became ultra-defensive, defiant, and deemed herself unlovable. I was really pulling for the little girl!
At the age of 10, despite her best efforts, Victoria was fostered ...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Carly Svamvour rated it really liked it

January 10th, 2k13 - I finished up last night. Again, I enjoyed this book for the second time. I did have the same problem as before though; had a hard time with plot rocking back and forth from present to past to present.

Great characters in this story. The story moves along, giving the reader a glimpse of background as it goes along.

I gave this a 4 the first time I read it. I think I'll leave it at that.

Don't consider this a 'review'. It's just my thoughts.

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January 3rd, 2k13 - ...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2011, _own-ebook, busy-as-a-bee-books-group, fiction

I was intrigued by this novel that featured a main character that was aging out of foster care. Although the story wasn't earth shattering - in fact, it was pretty predictable - it gave a fairly good idea of what some of the kids aging out of a lifetime in foster care can be like - I thought that the author did a good job with Victoria and writing her. Individuals who spend much of their childhood in foster care tend to be challenging in EVERY way - often selfish, rude, manipulative and extremel I was intrigued by this novel that featured a main character that was aging out of foster care. Although the story wasn't earth shattering - in fact, it was pretty predictable - it gave a fairly good idea of what some of the kids aging out of a lifetime in foster care can be like - I thought that the author did a good job with Victoria and writing her. Individuals who spend much of their childhood in foster care tend to be challenging in EVERY way - often selfish, rude, manipulative and extremely difficult to like. I think the author's portrait of an individual aging out of foster care was pretty on point. I worked with several of these kids during my time as a social work and let's face it, kids like that aren't for everyone.

What I loved most about this novel was that the author wrote a book that I hope can help people see the foster care system a bit more clearly. I hope it will help readers have a little more sympathy for kids who have been abused and/or neglected and then act out in bad ways. Just understanding what it can do to kids is the first step!

As I said above, the actual story was fairly predictable and didn't offer a lot of major surprises. But, the story was fine - just nothing that wow'd me. The writing was fantastic - there was a lyrical flow in the language that I loved.

I did love the whole flowers & meanings pieces of the novel - that was intriguing to me. Such a unique way for the author to help show the character's grasp of emotion. I love the idea of secret messages that you can pass along with flowers. In many ways, the flower component of the story allowed the author to weave the very intense and often ugly story of Victoria and her life experiences while also leaving the reader with some hope for the future.

All in all, this was a great book - really more of a four and a half star book but not quite a five star novel. I definitely recommend this to readers who aren't uncomfortable with intense subjects. It's a fantastic debut novel that is definitely worth a read! ...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Stacy rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook

Here's the review on my blog http://readinginthemountains.wordpres... ...more

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May 28, 2014 Karli rated it liked it · review of another edition

I loved the first half of this, but it really fell off for me in the second half. It was interesting and well written, but just not a booked I loved.

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Feb 11, 2013 Tena Helms rated it it was amazing

Was a really good book sorta long but hard to put down

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Oct 18, 2011 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: bee-shelf, read-in-2011

This was a nice easy read that I finished in a couple days (which is fast for me!) Parts were very sad, but I enjoyed the story. I also enjoyed learning about the language of flowers.

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