What a great novel this would make for a book club or buddy read! While the conclusion of the book is left to interpretation, I wanted something more cohesive. What bothers me about this book is the laissez-faire manner in which Vincent holds the hearts of both her husband and Loup. There is no question that the author knows how to write about passion. Despite there being a twenty-year age difference, the push and pull of this relationship are palpable. The attraction between Vincent and Loup is undeniable. Those of us who share this sentiment about the city will enjoy this aspect of the book. Even her music playlists which are provided throughout the book exemplify this passion. Vincent’s love affair with Paris is felt in every part of this book.

This is not the way one wants to find out about this secret that he has been holding onto for decades. I feel the depth of Vincent’s despair, learning her husband Cillian has a son from a relationship at the age of 15 after he revealed it all in his latest book. At times, a single line will come from what the author refers to as ”the narrator”. This is a book that feels like it requires the reader to experience what Vincent is experiencing. It is a love affair not only between a woman and a man, but also one with Paris. Half-Blown Rose by Leesa Cross-Smith is a thought-provoking novel built on the concept of betrayal. As Cillian does all he can to win her back, Vincent must decide what she wants. In a journey that is both transportive and intimate, Half-Blown Rose traverses Paris, art, travel, liminal spaces, and the messy complexities of relationships and romance, with excerpts from Cillian’s novel, playlists, and journal entries woven throughout. Soon they begin an intense affair, and somewhere between dinners made together, cigarettes smoked in the moonlight, hazy evenings in nightclubs, and long, starry walks along the Seine, Vincent feels herself loosening and blossoming. Now estranged from her husband, Vincent has agreed to see Cillian again at their son’s wedding the following summer, but Loup introduces new complications. But Vincent is also in Paris to escape a painful betrayal: her husband, Cillian, has published a bestselling book divulging secrets about their marriage and his own past, hinting that when he was a teenager, he may have had a child with a young woman back in Dublin-before he moved to California and never returned. The eye of a young, charismatic man named Loup.

Half blown rose a novel