The Flower Reader

Author: Elizabeth Loupas
Goodreads Rating: 4.17
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pages: 408
Reviewed By: Nicole


I read this book for a blog tour hosted by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. The concept confused me a little, but once I got into the book, I understood what it meant by flower reading. I was also really intimidated by the woman on the cover because she looks like she could kill you dead with that look. I'm so glad that I got asked to read this book because I really wound up enjoying it.


Goodreads synopses:


Rinette Leslie of Granmuir has the ancient gift of divining the future in flowers, but her gift cannot prepare her for the turmoil that comes when the dying queen regent entrusts her with a casket full of Scotland's darkest secrets. On the very day she means to deliver it to newly crowned Mary, Queen of Scots, Rinette's husband is brutally assassinated.

Devastated, Rinette demands justice before she will surrender the casket, but she is surrounded by ruthless men who will do anything to possess it. In the end, the flowers are all she can trust-and only the flowers will lead her safely home to Granmuir.


Check out my review after the jump!
I really liked this book, it was a nice quick read and had a lot of great aspects to it. This is the time period that I usually read, but I seldom read after Mary, Queen of Scots because I've always been such an Elizabeth fan and Mary tried to usurp her. I picked sides in this matter and I picked Elizabeth. Getting to read about Mary was exciting and fun.


I really liked Rinette, our heroine. She was flawed as a person which everyone is so she felt like a real person. I felt for her as she discovered the truth about her life and how wrong she was about things. I felt for her as her quest to find her husbands murderer, her determination was inspiring. There were so many unsavory characters around her that it was hard to see how she could navigate it all.


I really liked how she did floromancy even if that made Rinette out to be a "witch". The idea of reading flowers and that they would speak to Rinette was really awesome and I think an original idea. If only she knew how much trouble her gift would get her into in the long run. 


I will admit that there were moments that were predictable, but those didn't hinder my reading because I felt just a teansie-bit smarter for having figured it out. That being said, there were still a lot of twists and turns that I didn't see coming that ended with plenty of "Oh no they didnt!'s" (If you couldn't tell i'm a vocal reader). I had some trouble with the names since they were Scottish, and I could never be sure if I was pronouncing them right. (Like Mairi and Kitte I would pronounce Mary and Kit.)


My lastly biggest problem was the French, nothing irritates me more than when a book makes me work to understand what they are saying. I wish I spoke French, but I don't so the inclusion of these words once in a while didn't hinder my understanding or anything, it was just frustrating.


Like any good royal, the queen was so mercurial, that it was aggravating and there were moments where you just hated her for her actions. Of course, she would never apologize for what she had done to Rinette. I wish I could go into more detail, but I really don't want to spoil you because these twists and turns are what made me love this book.


The ending really sealed the deal for me, and is, again, something that I refuse to spoil because you really should just go out and read it. It is a great for anyone who loves history, especially the glitz of the Tudor era. There are so many fabulous names that come up in this book like Nostradamus and Catherine de Medici. I loved this book so much that when I get a chance I'm going to pick up The Second Duchess also by Loupas.