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Tanara McCauley

~ Love Knows Color

Tanara McCauley

Tag Archives: the language of flowers

Seven Books in Seven Weeks Drawing Results

21 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Book Reviews

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

author, book reviews, contest, giveaway, reading marathon, seven books in seven weeks, susan may warren, take a chance on me, terri blackstock, the language of flowers, truth stained lies, vanessa diffenbaugh, writer, writing

Thanks to all of you who followed along and participated in my Seven Books in Seven Weeks reading marathon! I had a great time and read some great books because of your recommendations.

I also enjoyed your comments and some of the emotional turmoil we shared. All that was missing was the ability to share a cup of coffee while reading together real-time.

But don’t worry, I always drank an extra cup in your absence :-).

Now for the winners of the three books included in the giveaway for this series:

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Congratulations Pragya, Daniellajoe, and Victoria! I will be contacting each of you by email in order to deliver your books.

And again, thanks and many blessings to everyone who participated to make this series a success. God bless you!

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Week 1 Book 1: A Review of The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

04 Saturday May 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Book Reviews

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

adoption, book giveaway, book reviews, foster care system, fresh start, general market fiction, healing, northern California, redemption, relationships, san francisco, second chances, seven books in seven weeks, the language of flowers, troubled chidren, vanessa diffenbaugh

Cover.-Language-of-Flowers-pbk Throughout history flowers have been known for their beauty and fragrant scents. While commonly given as expressions of love and well wishes, their meanings became even more specific during the Victorian era. Dictionaries of the flower-to-emotion relationships were penned with care, but over time the language created for romantic expression faded to obscurity.

In Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s The Language of Flowers, the elegant art of floral communication resurfaces through the most unlikely of sources: eighteen-year-old Victoria Jones. The San Franciscan has just aged out of the foster care system and heads into the world with a chip on her shoulder and thorns in her heart.

She has no plans or ambitious dreams about her future, only a love for flowers and knowledge of their language that comes from a past failed adoption which haunts her. The details of that event remain hidden until the end of the book but one thing is clear: Victoria is so afraid of love and relationships, and so certain of her own lack of worth, she is determined to live as much of a life of isolation as possible.

But the need to survive forces her as far out of her shell as she believes herself willing to go, and she soon begins to use her connection with flowers to help others. She is given a fresh start at life in the company of people who want to make her part of theirs; but her past is like a jealous weed determined to prevent her from blossoming out of its muddy clutches.

A story of second chances, The Language of Flowers is beautifully written and emotionally draining. Victoria makes enough bad choices to tempt even the reader to give up on her; yet there is something about her personality shown through her first-person narration of the story that keeps one rooting for her.

I was torn between my compassion for her past and exasperation over how her current choices were negatively impacting her future. Sometimes I wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her, other times I wanted to cry for her. In the end, however, I couldn’t help but like her.

When a girl does things like snatch a few extra donuts out of the box because her date is eating them too fast, you just have to like her.

Sometimes the story slowed down a bit, and on more than one occasion I had to flip back through it to find the meaning of a flower previously mentioned. I discovered halfway through the book that there’s a flower dictionary at the end. It would’ve been helpful to put it after the table of contents or at least mention it somewhere in the beginning.

Overall, Diffenbaugh did a wonderful job with her debut The Language of Flowers. It is a heart-wrenching and realistic portrayal of the struggles of a broken human heart trying to push its way through the weighted soil of a hard life, and open its petals to the hope and promise of the future.

I gave it four out of five stars. This book will be included in the book giveaway at the end of the Seven Books in Seven Weeks series.

Click here for the list of the remaining books: Seven Books in Seven Weeks: The List .

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Seven Books in Seven Weeks: The List

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by tanaramccauley in Book Reviews, Writing and Pursuing Publication

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bestsellers, book marathon, bookworm, Christian fiction, fannie flagg, frank peretti, general market fiction, goodreads, kyle idleman, nonfiction, not a fan, reading, seven books in seven weeks, standing in the rainbow, stephen lawhead, susan may warren, take a chance on me, taliesin, terri blackstock, the language of flowers, this present darkness, truth stained lies, vanessa diffenbaugh

I’ve finally compiled a list for my Seven Books in Seven Weeks marathon. Thanks to everyone who posted or emailed your suggestions. It took a while to filter through and decide which seven books would occupy hours of my time over the next seven weeks, but now that the list is done I’m ready to hit the ground reading! Or…something like that.

readingabook1

And now without further ado (for the record I initially wrote that as adieu (don’t ask me why I did it, nor why I’m telling you)), in the order in which I’ll be reading them, here are my Seven Books in Seven Weeks:

  1. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
  2. Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman
  3. This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti
  4. Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg
  5. Take a Chance on Me by Susan May Warren
  6. Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead
  7. Truth Stained Lies by Terri Blackstock

Week one officially begins this Friday (4/26). I will post reviews of each book the Saturday after they’ve been read, so my first review of The Language of Flowers will be available Saturday (5/4).

If you’ve never read any of these books or, Lord willing, you’ve read them and believe them good enough to read again, join me! I’ll be posting my progress on my Goodreads profile and we can chat throughout the week.

In addition, at the end of this marathon I’ll be giving away a few of the books in the list. Anyone who participates through shares, retweets, comments, and reading along will be eligible to win. (Make sure to note in the comments if/when you share on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest so I can enter you in the drawing).

Thanks again to everyone for your recommendations and participation. Now let’s get reading!

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