I was immediately caught up in Vanessa Diffenbaugh's The Language of Flowers (Ballantine, Aug.), the story of a troubled girl who uses the Victorian language of flowers to relate to the world around her. After freeing herself from the foster care system at 18, she finds work with a florist and discovers that she can help others by choosing flowers that have a special meaning for them. Through a chance encounter at a flower market, she discovers something she has been missing her whole life... love. But the path to love is not an easy one for her—which is what makes this book surprising and delightful. I loved that I learned about the language of flowers, which is rich and fascinating. I loved that the characters weren't perfect and that motherhood wasn't perfect and that love wasn't perfect—but it was everlasting and enduring. I found Diffenbaugh's debut to be a gem of a book; it captivated me and made me cry: perfect.