Review: The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

I was looking forward to reading The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Holly Ringland's debut novel, the second I found out it was set in Australia. I've visited Australia twice now over the last 4ish years and it's one of my favourite places. This novel totally lived up to my expectations because the settings were magical and played such an important part in this great book.

Here's the synopsis:

An enchanting and captivating novel about how our untold stories haunt us — and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.
After her family suffers a tragedy, nine-year-old Alice Hart is forced to leave her idyllic seaside home. She is taken in by her grandmother, June, a flower farmer who raises Alice on the language of Australian native flowers, a way to say the things that are too hard to speak.
Under the watchful eye of June and the women who run the farm, Alice settles, but grows up increasingly frustrated by how little she knows of her family’s story. In her early twenties, Alice’s life is thrown into upheaval again when she suffers devastating betrayal and loss. Desperate to outrun grief, Alice flees to the dramatically beautiful central Australian desert. In this otherworldly landscape Alice thinks she has found solace, until she meets a charismatic and ultimately dangerous man.
Spanning two decades, set between sugar cane fields by the sea, a native Australian flower farm, and a celestial crater in the central desert, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart follows Alice’s unforgettable journey, as she learns that the most powerful story she will ever possess is her own.

As I said, the settings of this book were incredibly important to the overall story. It reminded me a lot of Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery's other books. Anne and PEI are intertwined - you can't think of one without picturing the other - and her imagination and way she viewed the natural world around her are a huge reason the series is so delightful. Ringland does something similar with her novel and Alice. Plus, not only are the settings at the heart of each story but Alice and Anne have a lot in common. They're both orphans and neither had an ideal upbringing. Then, when they're still quite young, they're wrenched from the world and home they knew and brought somewhere completely different. And, coincidentally, red earth ends up being important to both women. (For Anne that's the dirt of PEI but you'll have to read Ringland's book to fully understand the importance to Alice.)

Plus, as a special added bonus, I'm fairly certain I've been in the areas Ringland imagined up for Alice. She notes in her Author's note that she made up the towns and National Park Alice visits later in the novel. But, based on the description of where Alice grew up and then moved to as well as where Ringland herself grew up, I was pretty sure the story took place somewhere near the Gold or Sunshine Coasts. Then, when I read the "In Gratitude" section, Ringland notes that she grew up on the land of the Bundjalung people. That's the area of of Australia I've been to and, like I said, I absolutely adore it. How can you not:

A photo I took the last time I was at Point Danger

Speaking of the Bundjalung people...I'm really glad Ringland made the stories of Australia's Aboriginal people of such high importance. I feel like their stories are continuously glossed over or completely erased and I hate it. (This is a fact in Australia and in Canada, where I live. We're getting better but we have so much more to do.) When I first went to Australia I climbed Mount Warning. It was an almost 9 kilometre (5.5 mile) round trip at an elevation of 1,159 m (3,802 ft). I wanted to throw up and/or cry while doing it (OK, I'm pretty sure I did actually cry) but I climbed the thing. The view was stunning:

A photo my boyfriend took on his second trip to Australia

But how does this relate to the book? Well, when I was planning for my last trip back in November, I thought that I'd give the climb another try. I was working out regularly and was pretty sure I would be able to make it up without shedding any tears. I wanted to check out the details to send to my friend who was coming with us when I started doing more reading. I had forgotten/not paid enough attention the last time that Mount Warning's original name, given to it by the Bundjalung people, is Wollumbin. It is considered a sacred space and they do not want people climbing it. I immediately knew I couldn't climb it again. The thought of knowingly ignoring the wishes of the people whose land had been taken away from them made me almost as nauseous as when I tried to climb the mountain (karma?). I appreciated that Ringland told the stories of the Aboriginal people (even though she made up the Park and tribe) and how they did not want people picking flowers or taking dirt from the park. It might seem trivial but it's really not. And, again, I'm so glad Ringland put focus on it.

Now that I've gushed about the natural setting of the novel, how about the rest of it? It was delightful in a heart-wrenching, family drama kind of way. Alice is a character who will completely get under your skin and you won't be able to rest until you find out how her story ends. Which I really want to talk about but that would be a spoiler so I have so many thoughts I need to hold in. Bah.

Oh, and I just loved how each chapter started with a line drawing, name, meaning, and description of Australian flowers.

This flower has particular significance to the story. 

The novel is well-written though I sometimes found the intentional vagueness irritating. Ringland doesn't exactly say when the novel takes place but I think it starts in the past when Alice is 9 and then she's 26 in present day. I can see why she wouldn't want to make it specific because then the story will have a more timeless quality but it was actually really distracting for me. So was not knowing where the book was taking place but that was my own personal thing :) Other than that tiny annoyance, I thought the story flowed well considering it starts when Alice is 9, has a brief stop when she's 17ish, and then ends at 26. The story wasn't overly flowery (ha...pun intended) and, though it may seem contradictory to how much I swooned over the descriptions of the scenery, it wasn't bogged down in descriptive language. And yet I could still perfectly picture the settings and characters Ringland created.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is unique and, other than Anne, I can't think of any other book like it. Holly Ringland's debut novel is a page-turner that will reach deep into your soul and have you completely engrossed in the story. I think Alice is a character everyone should meet and her story is one that will stick with you long after you've turned the last page.

*An Advance Reading Copy was provided by the publisher, House of Anansi Press, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Guest Post: Faerl Marie

As promised, I have a lovely guest post from author Faerl Marie, author of  The Golden Apple as part of the CLP Blog Tour. My review went up yesterday, in case you missed it. I wanted to know how much importance the setting of this novel had in the story. New York City can sometimes become a character itself in books and movies and I wondered if Faerl had any thoughts on that. Enjoy!

It was important to set the novel in New York City because Poppy needed to move somewhere completely separate from her life with Josh, somewhere with a lot of contrast to the small, southern town she was used to. New York City is big and glamorous and it's a chameleon. It can be anything you need or want it to be and Poppy needed contrast, a place to hide, when she first arrived. Later in the novel she needed more familiarity and comfort and it became that.

The city did become its own character of sorts. It became a friend to Poppy. When she first arrived, New York was an acquaintance, sort of like Austin--a place she had visited a few times but had no real history or intimacy with. She starts out in Vivienne's neighborhood and the city is a friend of a friend. As she moves forward, away from her life with Josh and towards one with Austin she gets to know the city for herself, choosing a neighborhood (one that is close to Austin) and creating familiar feelings and "friendliness" with that part of the city. Once she doesn't need it to be an escape it becomes her home. 

Author Bio:
Faerl Marie is a graduate of the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and minors in English and Social Welfare. She has worked as a style consultant, personal shopper and wardrobe curator, among other things. Faerl Marie spends her days writing, dreaming about new stories and characters, walking her dog and adoring her husband. She lives in the idyllic mountains near Santa Fe, New Mexico. "The Golden Apple" is her first novel.

Connect with Faerl!
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Top Ten Tuesday: Don't Make Me Live There!

Top Ten Tuesday is weekly meme created by the lovely folks at The Broke and the Bookish. They created it because they're "particularly fond of lists" and since I also enjoy lists, I've decided to participate in this fun feature.

Have you ever read a book and thought, "My god, I never ever want to live in this world or trade places with this character. The hell they have to go through!"? That's what this week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about. We had to choose ten worlds we'd never want to live in or ten characters who we would never trade places with. It was an interesting list to created and, not surprisingly, there's a lot of fantasy/dystopian type worlds and characters listed. What would you put on your list? Links lead to Goodreads.

Worlds

This one gets a big ol' "duh". Is there anyone who would want to live in a world where The Hunger Games exists? Suzanne Collins created a hell of a story and Panem is great to read about but I'd rather stay in today's North America, thank you very much.

I love Jane Austen's books. I love reading about 19th century England. I do not want to live there. Sure, it'd be peaceful without all the traffic and smog and so on, but I like my modern conveniences - like toothbrushes and Twitter. 

Divergent's world is a little less crazy on the dystopian chart but the things that happen in their world are no less devastating. I also wouldn't want to be controlled by some whacked out woman and 'wake up' to find I had killed my neighbour. Ugh.

Tanya Huff wrote an awesome story and the world's pretty cool but there's some weird sort of approved incest thing that happens. I never really understood it but from what I could tell first cousins would sleep together after getting all hot and bothered during a magical outing. Really weird. But great novel. Oh, and there are some crazy and evil Dragon Lords (that might not be their correct title but it's been awhile since I read the book) that are running around the city, too.

Characters

Before you jump down my throat, let me explain. The world Harry Potter lives in is one that I'd give up almost anything to live in because I love it so. BUT, I don't want to be Harry Potter. The pressure that kid was under was enormous and I wouldn't want to be in his place.

Caitlin is the main character in Sarah Dessen's novel Dreamland. I wouldn't want to be her because she ends up dating a real asshole who treats her horribly and is all kinds of abusive. Rereading this book last year was really hard because I really felt like I wanted to save Caitlin. It was like reading about a little sister or cousin or niece who you weren't able to save until it was almost too late. Heartbreaking.

I wouldn't want to trade places with Emma, from Catherine McKenzie's novel Forgotten, for a couple of reasons. First, she's in Africa when a devastating earthquake hits (think the 2010 earthquake in Haiti). That's not fun. Second, because of that earthquake and the issues it creates with communications, her friends and family think she's dead. Uhhh...so not fun. Excellent book, though, by one of my favourite authors.

I really like the fun, cozy mysteries by Joanne Fluke that feature Hannah Swensen. They have recipes throughout and main character Hannah owns a cookie shop. But, they are mysteries, and this is the reason I wouldn't want to be Hannah. She's always the one to find the dead bodies! That's not my idea of fun.

I picked Dan Brown's most famous character because of the way his career would have progressed. If I chose to get an obscene amount of education and then work on my own research projects while being a professor at a prestigious American college, I'm expecting to have a pretty low key life. That's not the case for Langdon. He repeatedly gets pulled into dangerous, life threatening situations all around the world. I doubt that's what he signed up for!

Ursula Todd had an extraordinary life. Er. Lives. She's the main character from the amazing novel Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. She relives her life over and over and over again. I don't think that's something I would like. I wouldn't want to know what's going to happen (like World War II) and be powerless to stop it. 

Review: Catch of the Day

Catch of The Day by Carla Caruso was a sweet read. I didn't love it but I didn't dislike it. I did, however, love that it was set in Australia!

Here's the synopsis:

After a regrettable incident at the office Christmas party, up-and-coming fashion editor, Winnie Cherry, is banished to coastal South Australia to set up a beach lifestyle magazine – 300km from nowhere.
Her friends joke that she'll marry a rich cray fisherman and stay there for good, but Winnie has other ideas. Determined to get back to Sydney within two months, she gets to work and starts counting down the days. Until she meets handsome freelance photographer Alex Bass, and sparks begin to fly.
As Winnie is increasingly drawn into the close-knit local community, she starts to question whether city life is really what she wants. That is, until Alex drops a bombshell that casts dark storm clouds over all her coastal dreams…

This was a really middle of the road book for me. I didn't fall in love with the characters (or really even fall in like with them) but I still wanted to know what would happen to them at the end of the novel. I knew there were going to be major issues coming up (the foreshadowing wasn't very well done and I figured out the basics of Alex's secret) and I wondered how the characters would deal with them. I rooted for them as I wanted to see everyone have a happily ever after ending. 

This novel had a Pride and Prejudice feel to it. When Winnie and Alex first meet they instantly dislike each other based on a split second judgement. I'm glad they eventually got to know each other and realized that the other had more going on with them than what was on the surface. That being said...it was kind of hard to believe Winnie's change in attitude over the course of the novel. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with the town and her city girl persona seemed so ingrained in her that it was a touch harder than it should have been to see her small town girl personality come out and shine. 

My favourite part of the whole book was the setting. I don't often come across books that are set in Australia. In fact, I can't remember the last book I read that was set there, let alone written by an Australian author. Not only was the setting lovely but the language was authentic too. Caruso used a lot of Australian terms (including ute...which I am only just now looking up because I had no idea what the hell kind of transportation device it was...ha! Short form for 'utility vehicle'. Learn something new every day.) and, while I was lost with some of them (obviously), I was still glad they were included. 

I also really like the look of the cover (other than the fact that the author's name is taking up half the cover...hate that). The blues are so pretty and the woman sitting on the dock could totally be Winnie (except for the hair colour. She was described as a strawberry blonde...as well as auburn and dusty blonde...). I also love that pop of red with the heart dangling on the line off the 'd'.

Overall, Catch of the Day was a fun read. Carla Caruso has written a sweet chick lit novel that I think lots of others would enjoy, even if I didn't absolutely love it.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*