Where the Flowers Bloom by D.L. Darby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Where the Flowers Bloom is the debut book from D.L. Darby and I felt as if it was a very solid debut book.

Let’s start with all of the positive things, Daphne is a very well written, strong, heartfelt character, that I really enjoyed. I love that this book showcases that women can have an amazing friendship that last years without a bunch of cattiness. So often women are portrayed as being hateful and nasty to each other, and those of us who are fortunate enough to have wonderful, female friendships can appreciate the way that happens in this book. The author did a great job with the plot, keeping the book moving, and you can feel so many of the same emotions as the characters. I additionally, enjoyed Henry for the most part, although there were many instances that I felt , he was a bit judgmental and quick to jump to conclusions which I thought he had some nerve doing given all of the secrets that he was keeping.

The way that Daphne dealt with the loss of her mother and grieved hit home as I lost my mother this past year. The author did a very nice job of describing how some people feel and what goes on in your mind after the loss of a loved one. You could tell that she had been through this, and that really came out in the story. Some of my favorite quotes were these below, because one was a great reminder of the fact that lots of us deal with it, and lots of different ways, and the other because it was so pointed and brilliant.

“Grieving for a little while is one thing; taking years to get back to living life is another.“

“The important thing, I think, is never to hold someone accountable for their actions when they are grieving. People can be harsh and volatile even, but they lash out because they are in pain. It’s your choice how you deal with that. You can be there and not allow yourself to get close enough to get hurt. You can walk away and let them figure it out on their own. You can even hit them with some tough love and tell them to suck it up cause life goes on, and you have to keep living. But when you’re both in pain, when the tragedy affects both of you, it’s important to remember to take care of yourself as well.”

I honestly felt that this was much more a woman’s fiction novel than a romance novel. The only part I felt that made it jump to “romance “is the amount of sex scenes in the book. I think that the book could’ve stood very much on its own as a brilliantly written book with a few less sex scenes and the main focus, being the grief, the secrets, and how each person deals with those emotions differently. Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with a book that has hot scenes in it, I just felt that this book was so much more than that and not in anyway a typical romance book. This is meant as a complement to how well the author writes, and is in no way saying that this is not a good book. Having said the above, I still fully believe that this is an author, you should take a chance on reading, and I think that overall you will find yourself grateful that you did.

Having lost both of my parents, and my mother in the past seven months this last quote brought me immense comfort, and I look forward to being someone else’s survival guide in the future.

“Brenè Brown to me, “One day, you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through, and it will be someone else’s survival guide.”

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