Carrie Schmidt's Reviews > The Blooming of Delphinium

“What am I going to do with a refrigerator full of elderly men?”

I wasn’t sure how Holly Varni was going to top my love of On Moonberry Lake, but boy did she ever! The Blooming of Delphinium had me snort-laughing from beginning to end, with a couple of bouts of ugly-crying to balance it all out lol.

I have discovered something about myself in the last few years. I have a thing for adorable and/or hilarious older people. If you want to find the way to my heart in a book or TV show or movie (besides the romance), throw in some quirky and sassy senior citizens. Something which Holly Varni does in abundance in The Blooming of Delphinium. I guffawed frequently over the antics of the local senior living residents who have suddenly taken over the back room of Delphinium’s florist shop in protest over the rules at The Gardens assisted living home. Complete with a hunger strike (except for their snack demands for Delphinium), sneaking out of the home ‘in disguise’, and later staging a hilarious sit-in gone amuck (on an issue unrelated to The Gardens), these wily characters took over more than her shop – they took over Delphinium’s heart, and mine, as well. Watching them come alive under her friendship and how she truly saw them touched me as well. But yeah… expect to laugh a lot in this entertaining novel.

“It’s like dealing with delinquents. They’re always one step ahead of you.”

But as I also mentioned, expect to shed a few tears as well. Loving a handful of senior citizens (and they really are a handful haha) means having your heart broken sometimes too, and that certainly is the case in this story. Varni crafts these emotional scenes with tenderness, affection, and lots of love which, yes, may bring on an ugly cry or two but it also makes it so worth the read. (Seriously, mostly you’re laughing in this book so don’t let a few tears scare you away.) And then there’s Delphinium, the star of our story (though I’m pretty sure the band of rebels from The Gardens steals that distinction pretty early on lol). She’s grown up feeling like an outsider when it comes to her creative gifting and her straitlaced parents. Still feeling the loss of her beloved grandmother who was gifted with a similar form of synesthesia, Delphinium now faces what feels like losing her all over again as her florist shop struggles financially. Varni delivers some tenderly-redemptive character growth here, and one scene in particular really touched me (and had my eyes welling up yet again).

OH! and the ROMANCE. Can’t forget that. Though… I don’t want to say too much about that for the sake of avoiding spoilers. Suffice it to say, however, that there are sparks aplenty, some delicious romantic tension, and a marvelous enemies-to-more/opposites attract love story going on in the background here. Of course there are the usual obstacles and miscommunications but it’s all leading up to a delightful resolution that I think will make you smile as much as it did me.

Bottom Line: The Blooming of Delphinium is charming and hilarious and heartfelt. Varni’s warmy and witty writing voice draws you instantly into the story and vividly defines the characters until they leap off the page and into your heart. I found the synesthesia aspect of the story to be fascinating and it added some intriguing layers to Delphinium’s character as well as others – everything I love about magical realism but about an actual sensory phenomenon. Themes of seeing someone for who they really are, investing in the lonely and giving them a place to belong, giving second (and third) chances, and loving people for all their uniqueness, quirks and all, resonated with me, and the swoony romance simmering throughout this delightful story was icing on the cake. It deserves more than 5 stars just for making me laugh so much and FEEL so deeply.

(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book)

first reviewed at Reading Is My SuperPower