Some books are so perfectly situated in their location that you feel as though you've purchased a plane ticket. So it is with THE FLOWER ARRANGEMENT, Ella Griffin's new novel about a florist in Dublin and how she measures love through flowers.
Lara has used flowers as therapy for as long as she can remember. Feeling the dirt in her hands and crafting bouquets for others has gotten her through the roughest seasons of her life. She owns a small shop in a Dublin neighborhood called Blossom & Grow and Ms. Griffin's writing makes it all feel so alive that I could almost feel the cups of tea in my hands as I pushed the door open to the shop. This story is woven with characters who play primary roles and others who only pepper, but are significant just the same.
This book is not a romance in the way many readers would understand it, and is instead a slice-of-life tale about a family and a store and how those two things become indistinguishable when it's a family business.
There's trauma woven in this book (as all books set on that island have), and it's not long ago. The tragedies that happened before we met Lara are still living and breathing to her, and the ones we live through with her are visceral. Her family, her loves, her friends, her Dublin; they're all as alive as her shop is and the connections between all the various streams of her life is gently lovely.
This was my first book by Ms. Griffin, but it will not be my last. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys breathed-in fiction, stories about women who face tragedy, and tales where the happily ever after is a self-reliant, quiet one.
Drawing together a delightful cast of characters, Ella Griffin brings her warmth, wit and wisdom to this captivating tale of the connections that bring us all together. Every bouquet tells a story. And every story begins at Blossom & Grow, a tiny flower shop in the heart of Dublin...
Among the buckets of fragrant blooms, beneath the flickering candles and lanterns, Lara works her magic, translating feelings into flower arrangements that change hearts and lives.
She is no stranger to the power of flowers herself. They gave her hope when she was a child who lost a mother, and, again when she was a mother who lost a child.
But old wounds take time to heal, and life has more heartbreak in store. What will it take for the woman who can unlock everybody else’s emotions to open up her own heart?
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy