“Perhaps the unattached, the unwanted, the unloved, could grow to give love as lushly as anyone else.”
The saying goes that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. However, when it comes to books with flowers on the cover, it’s hard not to find yourself captivated. Aside from being pretty, floral designs on book covers often carry deeper meanings including growth, beauty and sometimes more sombre themes like death. So, with another changing of the seasons palpable in the air, we here at What We Reading thought we would take a look at some of our favourite books with flowers on the cover! Whether you’re an avid romance, mystery thriller or literary fiction reader, our picks promise to deliver another beautiful book for your shelves and a story that will keep you enchanted from the first page to the last.
The Truth About Forever – Sarah Dessen
Kicking off our list of the best books with flowers is Sarah Dessen’s bestselling young adult romance story, The Truth About Forever. Macy has very little to look forward to. Her boyfriend, Jason, is away at Brain Camp. Her days promise to be spent at her boring job in the library, her evenings will be filled with vocabulary lessons for her SATs, and her spare time will be spent with her mother, the two of them sharing their grief over the traumatising loss of Macy’s father.
But, sometimes, unexpected things can happen. Things such as the catering job at Wish, complete with its fun-loving, chaotic crew. Or her sister’s project of renovating a dilapidated beach house, reawakening long-forgotten memories. Things like meeting Wes, a talented artist with the ability to turn any girl’s world upside down. As Macy sets out of her shell, she begins to question her sheltered life.
The Ensemble – Aja Gabel
Jana. Brit. Daniel. Henry. These four young friends would never have come together had they not needed one another. Their shared love of art drew them together, and their appreciation for classical music helped them forge a family. Brit is a beautiful orphan and the violinist. Henry is on the viola and has always had it easy. Daniel is a cellist and a grumpy sceptic. Jana is their flinty and the group’s de facto leader.
Together, the four of them experience devastating failure and incredible success, enduring heartbreak and marriage, triumph and loss, betrayal and enduring loyalty. Whether it’s by career, the intensity of their art, or the secrets they carry, Aja Gabel’s debut novel, The Ensemble, follows the four as they navigate through the cutthroat world of classical music and their complex relationships as ambition, passion, and love intertwine over their lives.
The Language Of Flowers – Vanessa Diffenbaugh
One of the most famous books with flowers at its core, Vanessa Diffenbaugh puts a fresh spin on the Victorian language of flowers in her novel, The Language of Flowers. For Victoria Jones, she has grown used to communicating mistrust and isolation. After a childhood spent within the foster care system, she is unable to get close to anybody. Nowadays, her only connection to the world is through the flowers and their meanings.
Now eighteen years old, out of the care system and with nowhere to go, Victoria realises that she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger soon has him pondering on everything she has been missing during her life. And, when she is forced to confront a gut-wrenching secret from her past, she is forced to decide whether it is worth risking it all for a second chance at happiness.
Stay With Me – Ayobami Adebayo
Yejide and Akin have been married since they first met and fell in love during their days at university. Whilst most expected Akin to take several partners, he and Yejide have both always agreed that polygamy isn’t for them. Yet, four years into married life, despite consulting doctors, and healers and dabbling in everything from teas to curses, the couple are still unable to produce a child.
Yejide is convinced she still has plenty of time. Until there’s a knock on the front door, revealing her family and a young woman who they introduce as Akin’s new second wife. Livid, Yejide knows that the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant, which she does finally manage – but at a cost far greater than she could have ever imagined. Set in Nigeria, Ayobami Adebayo’s stunning debut novel, Stay With Me, gives voice to both husband and wife and examines how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.
A Long Long Way (Dunne Family #3) – Sebastian Barry
In 1914, Willie Dunne, barely eighteen years old, leaves behind his hometown of Dublin, his family and the girl he intends to make his wife enlist in the Allied forces and face the Germans on the Western Front. Once there, he soon finds the horrors of violence and bloodshed he could never have imagined. The only means he has of keeping his spirits up are the letters he receives from home and the shared camaraderie he has with his fellow Irish countrymen.
Aware of how political tensions have boiled to the surface during his absence, Willie returns to Ireland on leave and finds a world shattered by forces closer to home. Despite returning to the comfort of his family, he knows he must rejoin the regiment and fight until the end. Written by acclaimed novelist and playwright Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way is a graceful chronicle of Willie’s personal struggles and the overwhelming consequences of conflict.
The Body Finder (The Body Finder #1) – Kimberly Derting
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton, and her morbid secret power. Whilst the sixteen-year-old is confused by the sudden new feelings she has for her childhood best friend, she’s even more bemused by her newfound ability to sense dead bodies – specifically those that have been murdered.
She has never considered this ability to be a gift. But, now that a serial killer is striking across her small town and the echoes of their victims continue to haunt her, she realises that she may be the only one capable of stopping them. Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to unmask a murderer, and she hopes his intentions are more than friendly. Nevertheless, as Violet comes closer and closer to discovering a killer, she finds herself in their crosshairs as their next victim.
The Pulse Of Hopeful Life – Jeana Watters
Andria is still trapped in the cycle of grief after losing her baby in an accident five years earlier. She has lived in quiet isolation until an accidental friendship with Quentin finally coaxes her out of hiding and brings light into her life again. Resurfacing memories force Andria to confront the past she left open, namely how she left her husband, Brett, and three-year-old Lizzie several months after the funeral. Returning, Andria is gradually pulled back into the life she has always longed for and finds herself back in the place she abandoned.
Jeana Watters’ The Pulse of Hopeful Life is a beautiful book with flowers donning its cover that attempts to answer the question of how a mother could ever leave her family. Through Andria’s lens, readers are taken on a journey of a mother who makes he decision to leave, and how she attempts to piece things back together again.
If There Be Thorns (Dollanganger #3) – V.C. Andrews
One of the best books with flowers on the cover for any readers looking for a horror tale, V.C. Andrews’ If There Be Thorns follows Christopher and Cathy. The pair have made a loving home for their handsome and talented teenager Jory, their imaginative nine-year-old Bart, and their sweet baby daughter. Then an elderly woman and her strange butler move in next door.
The old woman in black watches from her window, and lures Bart inside her home with the promise of cookies and ice cream and asks that he call her ‘grandmother’. Slowly, Bart begins to transform. Each visit pushes him closer to the brink of madness and violence, and all his parents can do is watch. For Cathy and Chris, the horrors of the past may very well have come home, promising to take everything they love from them.
Cruel Beauty – Rosamund Hodge
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the nefarious ruler of her kingdom thanks to a foolish wager made by her father. And, since birth, Nyx has been training to kill him. With no other choice but to do her duty, she resents her family for never attempting to save her from her fate. Nevertheless, on her seventeenth birthday, she leaves all that she has ever known to marry the all-powerful Ignifex. Her plan is to seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle from the inside, and end the nine-centuries-old curse inflicted upon her people.
But Ignifex soon shows himself to be not at all like what Nyx had expected, and his castle – a shifting maze of magical rooms – soon captivates her. As she attempts to find a way to free her homeland, Nyx is surprised to feel herself growing increasingly drawn to Ignifex. With time running out, she is soon forced to grapple with whether she’s willing to sacrifice the man she was never supposed to love for a chance to save her kingdom in Rosamund Hodge’s Cruel Beauty.
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Saving CeeCee Honeycutt – Beth Hoffman
Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the sole caregiver of her psychotic mother, Camille. But, when Camille is struck by a truck and passes away, CeeCee is left to fend for herself. To her rescue comes Tootie Caldwell, the great-aunt she never knew she had.
In her vintage Packard convertible, Tootie whisks CeeCee to Savannah’s world of prosperity and Southern eccentricity, a world seemingly run entirely by women. There, she encounters all manner of quirky residents. Exotic Miz Thelma Rae Goodpepper bathes in her backyard bathtub and uses slugs as secret weapons, Oletta Jones is Tootie’s all-knowing housekeeper, and Violene Hobbs entertains a local police officer in her canary-yellow peignoir. Outlandishly funny and profoundly funny, Beth Hoffman’s debut novel, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, is a big-hearted tale about the power of female friendships.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
