An Honest Review of Half-Blown Rose by Leesa Cross-Smith

Half-Blown Rose has a premise that immediately drew me into the story. Vincent is a 44-year-old Black woman. A mother of two grown children, a wife of a famous author, and an artist who makes jewelry. After her husband commits an act of betrayal in a very public way, Vincent flees her home in Kentucky and lands in Paris, where she plans to stay until she figures out how to get over her hurt.

The book begins when Vincent has been in Paris for three months. She has a job teaching a class at an art museum. She’s making her jewelry and she’s found an eclectic and fashionable group of friends with whom she has dinner parties on a regular basis. She has also attracted the attention of one of her students, a devilishly attractive 24-year-old named, Loup.

The story unfolds as Vincent enters into a relationship with Loup, even though she’s also trying to determine if her marriage can be salvaged.

Think hot and steamy sex, romantic Paris backdrop, convoluted feelings about love, responsibility, family, and a woman’s right to embrace her sexuality.

My Honest Review Of Half-Blown Rose

What I Liked

This may sound crazy, but I really enjoyed reading Half-Blown Rose, but when I finished the book, I was left feeling unsatisfied and slightly annoyed. I liken the feeling to when you order frozen yogurt even though you really wanted ice cream. At first that froyo goes down like ice cream, but when you’re all done, that satisfying comfort one gets from sweet, creamy ice cream just isn’t there. Your tongue is just cold.

Leesa Cross-Smith is clearly an extremely talented writer, as evidenced by the sensual world she created for this book and the characters who inhabited it.  I felt Vincent’s menstrual pain and her unexpected lust for her 24-year-old student. As I turned the pages of the book, I could smell the cigarette smoke and the coffee wafting from the streets of Paris.

I loved the characters Cross-Smith created, not one of them fell into the trap of stereotype and they were each deftly drawn and for the most part likable, even when they were doing “naughty things.” I especially appreciated the fact that the Black people in this book were all wealthy and unencumbered by race-based limitations. They were free to live their best lives, just like other fictional characters in sexy summer beach reads.

Most of all, I loved the fact that this book centered the experiences of a middle-aged, Black woman who was on a journey to find her real self. And that journey wasn’t linear and it didn’t follow society’s conventions. That alone made the book worth reading.

What I Didn’t Like about Half-Blown Rose

Back to the Frozen Yogurt analogy. Despite the fact that I loved watching Vincent get to explore her true passions – including her passions for her young lover – I had a hard time understanding the depth of her anger for her husband. To review, her husband fathered a child back in his home country of Ireland when he was 15 years old. He never told Vincent about his secret son and she found out about him when she read her husband’s semi-autobiographical novel, that was basically a tell-all. (Note: this is all explained on the book jacket cover so I’m not giving anything away.)

Other than this major bombshell though, Vincent and her sexy Irish husband, Cillan, seem to have a perfect marriage. He’s extremely devoted to her, and she loves him and their life together. I’m not saying she doesn’t have the right to feel betrayed, but the betrayal happened when he himself was a teenager and other issues were at play (which I won’t reveal), so Vincent’s outrage feels a bit oversized and without even a hint of understanding or grace.

Also, the character of Loup, the 24-year-old object of Vincent’s attractions is just too perfect. Like he’s literally flawless. I know this is fiction, but his perfection only served to further make this story seem more like a fairytale, instead of a piece of work grounded in reality, which is what I think it’s trying to be.

The Inciting Incident Didn’t Work for Me

Every story needs and inciting incident. In Half-Blown Rose, we see Vincent reacting to this thing her husband did- the aforementioned inciting incident – which sets her off on a journey of self-discovery. But as I said, the thing her husband did, just didn’t feel big and bad enough to propel Vincent into the choices she is making for herself in Paris.

I totally appreciate the work Cross-Smith is making the reader do, by presenting quite a few moral conflicts we must consider. Can a woman love more than one person at a time? Can a woman pursue a sexual relationship just for pleasure?

Just because a woman has raised her children, and lived a life, is she still allowed to bloom?

The thing is, all of these issues would have been delightful to consider without making Vincent’s self-exploration be the result of a “crime” her husband committed. I think I would have enjoyed this story more if Vincent had just decided on her own to go “find herself” instead of making her husband’s guilt be the source of her explorations. Or, Cross-Smith could have made Vincent’s husband’s betrayal more nefarious, so her anger would seem more justified.

Final Thoughts about Half-Blown Rose

I still believe that Half-Blown Rose is a perfect Meltingpot summer beach read. There’s romance, a multicultural cast, multiple European settings, and delicious writing.  And I also think it would be a perfect book club choice, particularly if your book club is comprised of women over age 40. Books don’t have to be perfectly written to be worth reading and discussing, and there is definitely plenty to discuss throughout these pages about women’s sexuality; about what happens to women in midlife; about what makes a good marriage; about second chances; and about being true to our own deepest desires.

As a reader, I enjoyed diving into this story. As a writer, the central premise didn’t work for me.

Have you read Half-Blown Rose yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts.