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A review by leahsbooks
Half-Blown Rose by Leesa Cross-Smith
3.0
Thank you to libro.fm for providing me with an ALC of this book. I am voluntarily providing my honest opinion.
This sounded really intriguing, and seriously, who doesn't want to just be swept away to Paris when the going gets hard? Unfortunately, I don't have the resources or the privilege to be able to do this, and rely on books to do the job. And while there were some things about this book that I did like, there were some that I really didn't like.
Let's start with the good. The writing is beautiful and evocative, and I honestly felt like I had been transported to Paris through the reading of this book, although I have to be honest and admit that I've never been there. Since I read this as an audiobook, the narrators did a fabulous job. Mela Lee brought Vincent to life in the most beautiful way, mastering both English and French, as well as some other accents. Tim Campbell has a great voice and fabulous Irish accent, although it was difficult for me to a) like his character at all, and b) understand at times, through the thick accent. I especially liked that major events in the telling have playlists in the text, since I'm a sucker for good music.
There are some sections of the book where a word or phrase is repeated many times, and while this typically works well in print, it doesn't carry over as well in audiobook format. More importantly, I struggled with the characters. Like, a lot. I felt like Vincent had the opportunity to shine and stand up for herself, and learn to harness her own power, and it was just a completely missed chance in the story. Instead, she seems completely reasonable all the time, which was so frustrating, since it felt like I was angrier about Cillian's actions than she was. She was way too wishy-washy for me as a character, and I found myself wondering if the shared history of being in a relationship for more than two decades is enough to overcome a total shattering of trust. And don't even get me started on Cillian - he's a total asshole, and I absolutely hated him. I was honestly spending the entire reading hoping that she would just GO OFF on him, and then the ending was just so ... blah. It felt like a letdown to spend all that time reading and then not even have anything wrapped up.
This sounded really intriguing, and seriously, who doesn't want to just be swept away to Paris when the going gets hard? Unfortunately, I don't have the resources or the privilege to be able to do this, and rely on books to do the job. And while there were some things about this book that I did like, there were some that I really didn't like.
Let's start with the good. The writing is beautiful and evocative, and I honestly felt like I had been transported to Paris through the reading of this book, although I have to be honest and admit that I've never been there. Since I read this as an audiobook, the narrators did a fabulous job. Mela Lee brought Vincent to life in the most beautiful way, mastering both English and French, as well as some other accents. Tim Campbell has a great voice and fabulous Irish accent, although it was difficult for me to a) like his character at all, and b) understand at times, through the thick accent. I especially liked that major events in the telling have playlists in the text, since I'm a sucker for good music.
There are some sections of the book where a word or phrase is repeated many times, and while this typically works well in print, it doesn't carry over as well in audiobook format. More importantly, I struggled with the characters. Like, a lot. I felt like Vincent had the opportunity to shine and stand up for herself, and learn to harness her own power, and it was just a completely missed chance in the story. Instead, she seems completely reasonable all the time, which was so frustrating, since it felt like I was angrier about Cillian's actions than she was. She was way too wishy-washy for me as a character, and I found myself wondering if the shared history of being in a relationship for more than two decades is enough to overcome a total shattering of trust. And don't even get me started on Cillian - he's a total asshole, and I absolutely hated him. I was honestly spending the entire reading hoping that she would just GO OFF on him, and then the ending was just so ... blah. It felt like a letdown to spend all that time reading and then not even have anything wrapped up.