Sweet title, not a sweet story. Vanessa Diffenbaugh has used the Victorian dictionary of flower meanings to create a story filled with the harsh reality of life for a foster child. Victoria Jones has just been emancipated – out on her own after shuffling from foster families to group homes for 18 years. Starved of human emotion, she’s ill–equipped to deal with the society she now must join. She trusts no one – lives on the street yet yearns for the safety and solitude of her own place. To get the money for her own retreat she finds a job in a flower shop – hired because she knows the little-known dictionary of flower meanings to create unique bouquets that speak their hidden message. How this gritty street girl comes to a Victorian world of flowers is a mystery that unravels in flashbacks to her childhood. Her tale of communication, miscommunication, love, loss and rejection entwine with the people who slowly become part of her life. The wall she has constructed around her emotions is almost hard to believe, but it artfully makes the reader feel the plight of those who have been misfits, loners or outcasts, who need to feel the love and acceptance that we might take for granted. Through it all are the bouquets of flowers: aster for patience, baby’s breath for everlasting love, but also the wary yellow carnation – disdain. The beauty of the flowers and joy she feels in their presence brings a refreshing relief to the sadness and loneliness of Victoria’s life. In the end – even more than the plight of foster children, the author makes us realize that all our lives are based on the communication, both positive and negative, that control our choices and the people we love. The Language of Flowers is a great book club choice – multi-leveled characters with much to discuss in lives that are as filled with as many meanings as the flowers.