Forget-Her-Nots

Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White

Greenwillow Books, 2010

365 pages

YA, Contemporary

Source: The library

Summary: Laurel is desperately missing her mother, who recently died. She is now attending Avondale, her mother's former school in the hopes of remaining close to her. While there her interest in flowers increases as she learns about the language of flowers and seems to develop surprising powers.

Thoughts: I had earlier seen reviews of this around so I picked it up at the library. My favorite aspect of the book was the information about the language of flowers. I knew a little bit about it such as different color roses meaning different things but not very much. The book includes a list of many flowers and their meanings.

Unfortunately I did have a lot of problems with this book. Sometimes Laurel acted so dumb, which really irked me. I had to remind myself that Laurel was only fourteen, which I kept forgetting as I am used to MC's who are old enough to drive. The relationship Laurel develops with her crush was cute although I didn't find him particularly interesting. I wonder if the book is aimed at a younger audience because it explained several things that I already knew such as the plot of A Midsummer's Night Dream and the myth of Persephone but maybe younger readers wouldn't. The book is divided in to five parts and the first three are quite slow. I did however really enjoy the last part and the epilogue. Lastly Laurel has sort of magic powers relating to flowers but nobody seems willing to tell her about them although there are two people who are fully capable of doing so-I have no idea why they were so reticent although it obviously would have changed the story.

Overall: 3/5. I originally rated the book higher but as I wrote this review, it fell. I really liked the ending but it took just too long to get there.

Cover: I really like the pinks used and I love the font of the title.