Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Half-Blown Rose

I SOOOO wanted to like this, but it just didn’t hit home the way I thought it would. I switched to audio so I could power through at about 50%, and I should’ve started with the audio. So well done. Vincent (a woman named after Van Gogh) travels to Paris after her Irish husband releases a best-selling book with bombshell secrets. In Paris, estranged from her husband, Cillian, Vincent makes friends and meets Loup, a 24 year old student in her journaling class at the art museum. Vincent develops a crush on Loup, and the first half of the book is dedicated to “will she or won’t she”?

part 2. Vincent and Loup travel Europe together, Vincent avoids her husband and children and falls more in love with Loup. Part 3. Vincent returns to the US for her sons wedding, and is forced to encounter her estranged husband. She still loves him, but doesn’t want to get back together with him. But she’s not sure she can leave her family and friends behind and openly commit to Loup either. Her husband asks what it will take for them to get back together, she says he needs to buy her a villa in Tuscany. He does that. But then Vincent finds out she is pregnant at 44 with Loup’s baby (and we get a little father of the bride II action here). Vincent is in tuscany with family, including her husbands son from when he was a teenager, and realizes she is missing Loup because he is family now. She tells Loup to come to Tuscany and the book ends as she is waking Cillian up to tell him about her lover that is on his way. When they leave Tuscany, Vincent decides she will leave both men as lovers but keep them around in her baby’s life (surely to be better than her husband was for 25 years of marriage). The book was slow and we never got to see the consequences of Vincent’s actions. That said, I loved the idea and the setting, and the last 1/3 was much more tolerable and fast paced than the beginning. Not sure I would recommend, but a unique idea.

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

WOW WOW WOW! 🌹

I have so many thoughts about this one and like … LESSA, WE NEED AN EPILOGUE OR SEQUEL ASAP! I need answers 😭❤️

the style of writing, the Parisian lifestyle, the background of french day-to-day life, the unconventional romances - it truly was *chef kiss*

part romance, part contemporary fiction, this book will truly scoop you into the world of vincent and her quest to find herself after her husband keeps a life-changing secret from her. I totally found myself re-reading pages and chapters because the use of the french language was so so beautiful.

I studied abroad and had the opportunity to tour paris and the french countryside a few years ago, and I absolutely adored how they tied in culture with the romantic and self-indulgent storyline 🇫🇷

VIVE LA FRANCE!!

I knocked off a star because there were a few chapters that were a bit repetitive and slow, and y’all know I love my stories wrapped up in a neat lil bow so that cliffhanger 🤯🌹

a big thank you to grand central publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! highly recommend the audiobook for this one 🎧

rating: 4 stars
wine pairing: beaujolais red blend

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