'Sharp-edged and sexy, Half-Blown Rose is an utterly intoxicating story of love, betrayal, and loyalty' Taylor Jenkins Reid
After learning a shocking truth about her husband's past, forty-four-year-old Vincent Wilde moves to Paris determined to build a new life. She's soon teaching modern art and enjoying a vibrant group of friends-but when she meets a charismatic young man named Loup, her life in the city becomes more thrilling than she'd ever imagined. Somewhere between dinners made together, cigarettes smoked in the moonlight, sexy evenings in nightclubs and long romantic walks along the Seine, Vincent feels herself blossoming.
However, as her affair with Loup intensifies, she begins to wonder about their age difference-a hurdle that's heightened by the fact she's due to see her estranged husband Cillian again at their son's wedding in the summer...
An irresistibly romantic story of a woman remaking her life on her own terms, shot through with nostalgic 90s and 00s playlists and fizzling atmosphere of Paris
An irresistible story of a woman remaking her life after her husband's betrayal leads to a year of travel, art, and passion in Paris, from the award-winning author of This Close to Okay.
Vincent, having grown up as the privileged daughter of artists, has a lovely life in many ways. At forty-four, she enjoys strolling the streets of Paris and teaching at the modern art museum; she has a vibrant group of friends; and she's even caught the eye of a young, charismatic man named Loup. But Vincent is also in Paris to escape a painful betrayal: her husband, Cillian, has published a bestselling book divulging secrets about their marriage and his own past, hinting that when he was a teenager, he may have had a child with a young woman back in Dublin-before he moved to California and never returned.
Now estranged from her husband, Vincent has agreed to see Cillian again at their son's wedding the following summer, but Loup introduces new complications. Soon they begin an intense affair, and somewhere between dinners made together, cigarettes smoked in the moonlight, hazy evenings in nightclubs, and long, starry walks along the Seine, Vincent feels herself loosening and blossoming.
In a journey that is both transportive and intimate, Half-Blown Rose traverses Paris, art, travel, liminal spaces, and the messy complexities of relationships and romance, with excerpts from Cillian's novel, playlists, and journal entries woven throughout. As Cillian does all he can to win her back, Vincent must decide what she wants . . . and who she will be.
