There's a series of books about a female protagonist named Rifkind. In one of the books, a guy who is crushing on her and has been magically trapped in a tower

There's a series of books about a female protagonist named Rifkind. In one of the books, a guy who is crushing on her and has been magically trapped in a tower for years gives her a flower made from some magical morphing material and when she takes it and looks at it, it becomes dramatically better, showing to both of them that she had much greater familiarity with the type of flower in question than he had. He was trying to be romantic but didn't actually know what the flower looked like in any real detail. I guess good fiction requires a lot of research to maintain suspension of disbelief, perhaps more than writing about reality.