The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

By: Holly Ringland

Narrated by: Louise Crawford

Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Flowers, fire and fairy tales are the elements that will forever shape nine-year-old Alice Hart's life, in The Lost Flower's of Alice Hart, the international bestseller by Holly Ringland.

Alice Hart lives in isolation by the sea, where her mother’s enchanting flowers and their hidden messages shelter her from the dark moods of her father. When tragedy changes her life irrevocably, nine-year-old Alice goes to live with the grandmother she never knew existed, on a native flower farm that gives refuge to women who, like Alice, are lost or broken. In the Victorian tradition, every flower has a meaning and, as she settles into her new life, Alice uses this language of flowers to say the things that are too hard to speak.

As she grows older, though, family secrecy, a devastating betrayal and a man who’s not all he seems, combine to make Alice realise there are some stories that flowers alone cannot tell. If she is to have the freedom she craves, she must find the courage to possess the most powerful story she knows: her own.

©2018 Holly Ringland (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio

Critic reviews

Rich, vibrant and alive with the messy, sometimes violent, song of human connection. Holly Ringland is a writer to watch out for (Jenn Ashworth)

Holly Ringland’s debut is achingly beautiful, moving and masterful. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is a book to fall in love with, to cherish and to remember for a long time after you’ve closed the last page. One of the most exquisite books out this year from a genuinely exciting new talent, Holly Ringland is one of those writers who takes your breath away. Timeless, enchanting, and powerful (Kate Leaver)

The best fairy tales traverse the darkest corners of the human heart, and this beautiful novel is no exception. Truth and illusion, devastation and triumph, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart will spit you out whole (Myfanwy Jones)

An astonishingly assured debut, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is a story of love, loss, betrayal and the redemptive power of storytelling . . . Both heartbreaking and life-affirming (Kate Forsyth)

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is a book that glows – in the fire and heart of it; in the wonder and hope of it. Holly Ringland is a gifted, natural story-teller and her novel-about finding magic in the dark; about the power of freedom and the freedom of story-is truly a light-giving, tender thing. A vivid, compelling, utterly moving debut (Brooke Davis)

This novel shines with courage, with heart, and with love. Infused with a tender ferocity, and the beauty and warmth of native flowers, it invokes great stories of loss, kindness and home (Ashley Hay)

Probably good story

The disparity between the story and the manner in which is read is so big thati can't listen it to an end.

I really enjoyed this book

I loved the descriptions of the landscape, and I enjoyed the story. Would definitely recommend

Beautiful concept and imagery. Not well executed.

The flower motifs are beautiful and I enjoyed the description of the Australian landscapes. The storyline is there but there are too many holes and thrown in characters that were not well developed but were rather just inserted to serve as a vehicle for her story.
Also a few irritating holes in the story- like why some people were able to use google (and a little creepy in one case) and some were not even though her name was not a secret.
Felt like a draft of what could have been a great book.
I heard it’s being developed into a tv show. I look forward to that as they will have the luxury to pad out the thin parts.