Mela Lee exhibits excellent range and pacing as she portrays Vincent, a woman who is rediscovering herself in Paris while her estranged husband, Cillian, tries to win her back from afar. Not knowing how to move past finding out Cillian’s long-held secret when he publishes a semiautobiographical book, she begins a love affair with a younger man. The following summer she reunites with Cillian for their son’s wedding with a clearer understanding of who she has become and what she wants in a relationship. Tim Campbell performs excerpts from Cillian’s book in a lyrical Irish accent. These excerpts, along with playlists and journal entries, enhance the characters’ emotional lives. Lee repeats French phrases in a breathy tone, giving listeners a vivid sense of Vincent’s feelings. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Leesa Cross-Smith’s richly vivid prose pulls you in and transports you to Paris. Sharp-edged and sexy, Half-Blown Rose is an utterly intoxicating story of love, betrayal, and loyalty.”
 —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising

“With Half-Blown Rose, Leesa Cross-Smith has given us a brilliant, sexy, funny masterpiece. Reading her stunning prose is a full-blown experience. Within the deeply intimate worlds she conjures, she captures love, lust, and longing with such emotional intricacy and verve, I’m fairly certain I read this entire book with my hand pressed against my heart.”
 —Deesha Philyaw, author of National Book Award 2020 finalist The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

“By far the most exhilarating and sexy American-in-Paris story I’ve ever read. Leesa Cross-Smith’s Half-Blown Rose is smart, intriguing, and pure delight.”
 —Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers

"Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller."—Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author

"A story of love and betrayal set against the glittering backdrop of the City of Lights."—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A smoothly written, enjoyable novel that gives due to the social and emotional complexities of middle age. Vincent is a lovable protagonist; the narrative is also interspersed with her diary entries and letters, creating a self-aware, three-dimensional character. Cross-Smith sensitively explores the many permutations of romantic and platonic love and the idea that, especially in Paris, one’s love may not be limited to a single other person. Charming and lively."—Kirkus Reviews

"Absolutely ripe for conversation, introspection and self-discovery...Cross-Smith is a confident, deft writer who is comfortable exploring any dynamic as long as she has a strong character to start with. Lucky for her, this too comes naturally, making her grander exaltations of love and passion feel every bit as fate-driven and heady as they do grounded and deeply raw and human....Perfect for readers of Miranda Cowley Heller, Emma Straub and Georgia Clark, HALF-BLOWN ROSE is a guaranteed summer steamer and a surefire book club pick for readers of all ages."—Bookreporter

"Cross-Smith continues to weave spellbinding tales of love and lust in the wake of adversity. . . [Vincent] is an utterly appealing heroine. Another winning novel."—Booklist

"A refreshing take on a woman’s story of midlife upheaval." —Publishers Weekly

“This Close to Okay hits the ground running. Cross-Smith writes tenderly about the trial and error of intimacy and draws you in with enormous warmth and control.”—Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster

"Leesa Cross-Smith writes the way many people wish they could: ferociously, tenderly, and with a tremendous amount of heart."—Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things (on So We Can Glow)

“Leesa Cross-Smith has written a book to help us through these bleak and confusing times. This Close to Okay is a story of loneliness and wrenching loss, perfectly counterbalanced by the compassion of strangers and the love of family. This book is a hand-knitted sweater in the middle of a cold winter night.”—Bryn Greenwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Reckless Oath We Made

"This Close to Okay is the kind of novel that allows the reader to slip into a world rich with both comforts and troubles. The story of Emmett and Tallie is delicious, romantic, cozy, and satisfying, and it's also mysterious, unstable, and loaded with loss. This book opens up hard emotions and truths, but it also offers moments of relief and attention to the sustaining pleasures of life."—Naima Coster, New York Times bestselling author of What's Mine and Yours

"Leesa Cross-Smith is a wonderful storyteller."—Alexia Arthurs, award-winning author of How to Love a Jamaican

"Leesa Cross-Smith is some sort of sorceress."—Rion Amilcar Scott, PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize-winning author of Insurrections and The World Doesn't Require You

"Filled with heart and music playlists, Kentucky author Leesa Cross-Smith’s Half-Blown Rose is the must-read romance of the summer."—Deep South Magazine

"Cross-Smith has given readers a very full banquet for character interactions . . . There are also reliable guiding stars for those familiar with Cross-Smith’s fiction—sensitive and moving treatment of introverted women and biracial families, joyful sneaking-in of clever bon mots such as musical touchstones. But she is too fine a writer to let them grow stagnant from book to book. Her most experimental touches here—transcripts of text exchanges between the 40-somethings and adult children, excerpts from the husband’s book, etc. . . can be expected to win over more readers."—LEO Weekly

"Irresistibly captivating." —Woman's World

02/01/2022

Though she's still hurting from secrets revealed by estranged husband Cillian in a best-selling memoir, fortyish Vincent loves living in Paris, where she's an art lecturer with engaging friends and a prospective young lover named Loup. But she's compelled to see Cillian again at their son's wedding, and soon she's caught between the blandishments of Cillian and Loup. With a 30,000-copy first printing; from the multi-award-winning, multi-award-nominated author of This Close to Okay.

Mela Lee exhibits excellent range and pacing as she portrays Vincent, a woman who is rediscovering herself in Paris while her estranged husband, Cillian, tries to win her back from afar. Not knowing how to move past finding out Cillian’s long-held secret when he publishes a semiautobiographical book, she begins a love affair with a younger man. The following summer she reunites with Cillian for their son’s wedding with a clearer understanding of who she has become and what she wants in a relationship. Tim Campbell performs excerpts from Cillian’s book in a lyrical Irish accent. These excerpts, along with playlists and journal entries, enhance the characters’ emotional lives. Lee repeats French phrases in a breathy tone, giving listeners a vivid sense of Vincent’s feelings. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

2022-05-11
A woman flees her recently torn-apart marriage to Paris, where she reevaluates her life.

When Vincent Wilde’s husband, Cillian, a renowned author, publishes a novel that tells the thinly veiled story of their relationship—and reveals the existence of an illegitimate child he fathered at age 15—she finds solace in temporarily relocating to Paris, home of her namesake, Van Gogh. In Paris, she can be “simply Vincent, not Vincent the wife or Vincent the mom or Vincent the daughter or Vincent the sister.” Vincent stays in her artist parents’ lush apartment; hosts dinners attended by a cast of cultured acquaintances; and teaches a class on journaling. The pleasant rhythm of Vincent’s routine is interrupted, though, when a friend introduces her to the energetic, violently attractive Loup—a 24-year-old who, like his wolfish namesake, symbolizes a force equally captivating and dangerous. Loup is instantly enamored with Vincent, and as he’s woven into her social circle, the attraction between them grows stronger and harder for Vincent to resist. Meanwhile, she tries to process frequent apology letters from Cillian, who’s seeking reconciliation, and strikes up a surprisingly heartfelt correspondence with her husband's estranged son. Vincent and Loup finally initiate an affair whose intensity is entirely befitting of Paris: wandering through the city aimlessly at night; meeting at Loup’s band’s smoky, busy shows; and discovering one another physically. But as Vincent's son’s wedding approaches, ensuring a reunion between her and Cillian, she’s compelled to reevaluate the person she’s become during her marriage and must decide whether her time in Paris will prove life-altering or nothing but a brief, beautiful mirage. Though its plot sometimes proves predictable—the love triangle at the book’s center is its almost-exclusive focus, and it presents few unexpected turns (or character developments, at least on the men’s parts)—this is a smoothly written, enjoyable novel that gives due to the social and emotional complexities of middle age. Vincent is a lovable protagonist; the narrative is also interspersed with her diary entries and letters, creating a self-aware, three-dimensional character. Cross-Smith sensitively explores the many permutations of romantic and platonic love and the idea that, especially in Paris, one’s love may not be limited to a single other person.

Charming and lively, if somewhat predictable.