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A review by whatkellireads
Half-Blown Rose by Leesa Cross-Smith
4.0
4.5/5 — I listened to this one on audio and loved it so much that I HAD to have a physical copy for my shelf. This book is absolutely beautiful - from the cover, to the Parisian atmosphere, to the age-gap romance, I fell completely in love with this story. It was really powerful and it touched on many deep, real topics that we deal with today in society.
I could feel the chemistry between Vincent, a 40 something year old women betrayed by her husband & trying to find her sense of self and Loup, a 24 year old charismatic artist & hunk of a man also trying to find his place in the world. Sensual, sexy and romantic. Outside of their relationship, the supporting characters were also fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat literally not knowing how this story was going to end. (I STILL feel like I need an epilogue!) This book challenged me to realize that not all in love & life is black and white, that sometimes living in the gray space is acceptable too.
Overall, Half-Blown Rose presents itself as a work of art and I think that's what made it a stand out for me. Cross-Smith intertwines playlists, novel excerpts, journal entries, text messages and emails together to create what felt like a scrapbook of Vincent's life. I enjoyed the references to food, art, music and travel and immediately wanted to book a trip to Paris when I finished!
Read if you liked "The Paper Palace" or "The Idea of You"!
I could feel the chemistry between Vincent, a 40 something year old women betrayed by her husband & trying to find her sense of self and Loup, a 24 year old charismatic artist & hunk of a man also trying to find his place in the world. Sensual, sexy and romantic. Outside of their relationship, the supporting characters were also fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat literally not knowing how this story was going to end. (I STILL feel like I need an epilogue!) This book challenged me to realize that not all in love & life is black and white, that sometimes living in the gray space is acceptable too.
Overall, Half-Blown Rose presents itself as a work of art and I think that's what made it a stand out for me. Cross-Smith intertwines playlists, novel excerpts, journal entries, text messages and emails together to create what felt like a scrapbook of Vincent's life. I enjoyed the references to food, art, music and travel and immediately wanted to book a trip to Paris when I finished!
Read if you liked "The Paper Palace" or "The Idea of You"!