Article and Interview by Elise Cooper
A Year of Flowers by Suzanne Woods Fisher is a heartwarming read. In this collection of four novellas, three former friends have found success in the floral industry, but happiness and love remain elusive. The novellas follow the three former friends, Jaime, Claire, and Tess as they take a journey from leaving their sanctuary of Rose’s Flower Shop in Sunrise, North Carolina, as teenagers, to returning years later. Each story explores their reflections on the past of what happened that fateful day that chose them to leave, and why they are returning.
The first novella, An Apology in Bloom, has wedding florist Jaime Harper on a meteoric rise, working for an event company led by a successful and way-too-handsome boss. When a letter arrives from her past mentor with an offer too good to pass up, she decides to head back to her mentor’s flower shop.
The second novella, A Bouquet of Dreams, has Claire Murphy confronting her past, needing to start over, and realizing the best place to do it is to return to the flower shop she worked in as a teen.
The third novella, A Field of Beauty, has Tessa Anderson buying an acre of farmland to start her flower farm and forget the past. There is a bit of a love triangle between Tyler, her boyfriend, and Dawson, her business partner.
In A Future in Blossom, Jaime, Claire, and Tessa return to their hometown, finally ready to face each other and their beloved mentor, flower shop owner Rose Reid. As they unite to pull off an extraordinary wedding, amid the flurry of preparations, they just may find their way to forgiveness. This final story ties everything together, revealing Rose’s mentorship and the events that drove the friends away.
Each novella is rich with details about flowers and floral competitions. But the real theme of the books is its focus on friendship that has fragility, heartbreak, and repair. Romantic relationships are present, but friendships take center stage, showing how misunderstandings can break people apart with hope and forgiveness bringing them back together. Each story was compelling, and all were tied together in the fourth novella by an underlying mystery which would only be solved when the women returned to the North Carolina flower shop to meet up with Ruth again.
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Suzanne Woods Fisher: It is a collection of a four-part novella centering around flowers. Each novella was released separately over a course of the year with the fourth one part of this collection. I wanted to show how flowers have a universal appeal where everyone loves them. I even put this quote in at the beginning of the book, “Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”
EC: Novellas versus novels. In the “Ice Cream” themed books, it did not take center stage like in these flower books. Why?
SWF: The flowers are the theme that kept the girls connected even though their lives took them in three different directions. Flowers was still the focus of their lives. With the ice cream books the characters had other things going on.
EC: How would you describe Liam, the featured male in novella one?
SWF: He is a planner, creative, kind, accessible, optimistic, humorous, a good listener, and romantic. Plus, he has a Scottish accent.
EC: What about Jamie?
SWF: She wants to be validated, southern, sweet, easily intimidated, nervous, guilt-ridden, and obsessed with Liam. She lacks a great deal of confidence and does not realize how talented she is.
EC: What about the second novella’s female lead, Claire?
SWF: Restless, capable, vulnerable, sarcastic, direct, opinionated, has a temper, lonely, and has trust issues. She felt rejected, hurt, and rebuffed by Chris Reid.
EC: Why the symbolism for different flowers, is it true?
SWF: Yes. Yellow roses mean that someone wants you as a friend. Yellow carnations mean rejection, red roses romance, two-tier carnations mean parting… This comes from the Victorian Age in England. It is subtle way of sending a message to someone. Now there is not that much attention paid to the language of flowers. I put in this quote, “Flowers are not merely tokens of beauty. They have meaning and purpose. Things are not what they seem.” We still hold on to some of the language because most people see red roses as love.
EC: How would describe the second novella’s male lead, Chris Reid?
SWF: Stubborn, charming, angry at times, grief stricken, admirable, and spiritual. A reformed juvenile delinquent.
EC: How would you describe the third novella ‘s female lead, Tessa?
SWF: Determined, a hard worker, jealous, can be aloof, and was naïve. There is one scene where she is out in the dirt with dirty overalls and fingernails. Her gorgeous looks got her into trouble, yet here she feels beautiful. Beauty is not something that is looked at, but something that is felt.
EC: What about her soon to be fiancé Tyler?
SWF: He is a chauvinist, takes advantage of her, self- absorbed, articulate, well groomed, politician personality with a silver spoon upbringing. He wants Tessa to be a trophy wife. I intentionally attributed the same quote to him that her neighbor told her.
EC: How about her partner in the flower business, Dawson?
SWF: Hard worker, helpful, knowledgeable, and uses compost. It is a huge part of farming where the waste breaks down into the soil. He and Tessa seem to ignore their feelings or do not realize their feelings. Unlike, Tyler she feels she can always be herself with him. He does not seem dazzled by her and is at first just a friend.
EC: How would you relate the three women?
SWF: Jamie was the artistic one, Claire the managing type, and Tessa was the supplier. They worked in harmony and inspired each other.
EC: The florist who owned the shop, Rose Reid, what was her role?
SWF: She was the mentor of the three. She really invested in them to bring out the best in them. She saw something in them that they did not even see in themselves. She was very hurt when they left her. She was a more of an aunt to them.
EC: Next books?
SWF: Capture the Moment is contemporary fiction, the first in a series, set in the national parks, coming out in early May. Young woman Kate Cunningham, a zoo photographer, was given an offer by a National Geographic editor, to take a unique picture of a Grizzly Bear in the wild. There is a poacher in the park that is after the same bear. Both Kate and the poacher want to shoot it.
In October the second of the Amish doctor books will be published. These are hybrid Amish because there are a lot of non-Amish characters. It is titled A Hidden Hope. “Dok’s” practice has been everywhere since the local news wrote a story on her. To help, her husband gets the idea to send in an application to a program that will send two medical school graduates. She must mentor two residents with all book knowledge and no people knowledge.
EC: THANK YOU!!
