I received The Flower and The Wolf from the author in return for an honest review. I wasn’t sure what to think of this book, as it’s not a book I would normally choose to read. Luckily, I really enjoyed it!
Synopsis
Lily was the daughter between a rich Englishman and an Romany woman. Until she was 11, she lived a charmed life.
When Lily was 11, her entire life changed. Her father died, and after his death, Lily and her mother found out that he had an entire other family. Lily’s mom never did figure out how to deal with the betrayal, but after a year or so, she remarried. Lily’s step-dad wasn’t the nicest person, and he made Lily’s home life pretty miserable.
School was horrible, too. Lily’s lab partner had brain damage, and he had physical boundary issues. After a while, those boundaries made Lily uncomfortable, so she went to her teacher to ask for reassignment. Not only did she not receive reassignment, but her teachers basically told her to get over it.
So when he assaults Lily in school, she has nowhere to turn for help. She figures her only out is to lay on train tracks to try to kill herself.
A man driving by, named Iago, sees her running toward the train tracks and saves her life. Thus begins Lily’s crush on a man 11 years her senior. She was 14, he was 25, and while she understood that nothing could happen with him while she was so young, she still felt she was in love with him.
Iago remained a perfect gentleman until Lily turned 16, then told her that he had feelings for her as well. While he admitted to his feelings, he also told Lily that he wouldn’t do anything about them until after she turned 18.
He kept his word, and the week after Lily turned 18, Iago finally took her on a date. Unfortunately, their age difference made all Lily’s friends and family uncomfortable. They basically accused him of grooming her to be someone he could control.
My Thoughts on The Flower and The Wolf
While I agreed with the assessment of Lily’s friends and family, I didn’t see anything from his behavior in the book that gave the impression that he was a predator. I did have a small problem with the fact that the synopsis on Goodreads made the book sound like it was all about Lily and Iago, after Lily growsup. What I got was Lily’s story and a smidge of Iago. She mentioned him quite a bit, but the story wasn’t really about both of them. It was still a good book, and I enjoyed it, I just wish the synopsis I read was a little more accurate.
I loved Lily’s character. She was relatable in so many ways, and her life wasn’t easy. I’m sure pretty much all of us feel like we don’t fit in with our families, so Lily gave validation to those feelings. She was able to move forward from the hard parts of her life, and after a while her life seemed charmed on the outside. She still struggled with some of her friends and coworkers, but she lived dreams that some of us only, dare I say it, dream of.
One thing I have trouble with my book reviews is giving star ratings, so a while back I quit giving them. I prefer to let my opinions sell themselves, rather than try to assign an arbitrary number to my feelings about a book. So, while I really enjoyed this book, I will always only give you my honest opinion of this book, rather than try to give you a star rating to go by.
I hope you enjoyed my review of The Flower and The Wolf by Ruth Danes, and if you did, please share with your friends! I’d love to connect, so please feel free to find me on Twitter! Also, I’d love if you hit that subscribe button, so you never miss a post!
Until Next Time, Friends!
