"The Secret Language of Flowers" by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

In Vanessa Diffenbaugh's debut novel "The Language of Flowers" the main character Victoria is an emancipated foster care teenager of the age of 18. Through the use of the Victorian language of flowers, she uses them to communicate her feelings of anger, mistrust, and loneliness. Now homeless, she gets inspired to use this secret language for something positive by working at a florist shop.


Through the florist, Victoria meets a mysterious man at the flower vendors and unknowingly reconnects with him, having known him a decade earlier. For someone who lives everyday in extreme guilt for the things she's done in her past, this connections makes her confront her pain and forces Victoria to either walk away from the people she's hurt but still loves, or to seek forgiveness and ask for a second chance at happiness.


Diffenbaugh, taking inspiration from her own foster children, writes a novel that challenges the reader not to feel for Victoria and the struggles she's overcome though such adversity. It is a beautiful debut novel with a hopeful, inspiring, and love filled message of second chances.