THIS CLOSE TO OKAY came out a year ago! TYSM to everyone who has read it & been so kind! TYSM to everyone who has cozied up w it & Felt Something. TYSM to the booksellers & libraries & reviewers & book clubs &! My love! x
<3 !
2020, 2021, 2022+.
I had a book come out last year I had a book come out this year I have a book coming out nxt year and tbqh I have no reading/writing/publishing goals for 2022. I am v grateful for my life and loves and blessings. x
LIFE UPDATE: SAW BTS IN L.A. AND HAD THE BEST TIME, GOT ARCS FOR BOOK FIVE—HALF-BLOWN ROSE (OUT 7/5/22!) AND ALSO FINISHED BOOK SIX!
ICYMI! From now until 11/28 you can vote for THIS CLOSE TO OKAY in the Goodreads Choice Awards!
YOU CAN VOTE FOR THIS CLOSE TO OKAY IN THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS!
HALF-BLOWN ROSE COVER REVEAL! COMING 7/5/22!
“By far the most exhilarating and sexy American-in-Paris story I’ve ever read. Leesa Cross-Smith’s Half-Blown Rose is smart, intriguing, and pure delight.” ―Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers
From the award-winning author of This Close to Okay comes the irresistible story of a woman remaking her life after her husband’s betrayal leads to a year of travel, art, and passion in Paris.
Vincent, having grown up the privileged daughter of artists, has a life that is lovely 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 his past and their marriage, including the fact that when he was a teenager, he may have had a child with a young woman back in Dublin—before his family moved to California and never returned.
Now estranged, 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, hazy evenings in nightclubs where Loup’s band plays, and long, starry walks along the Seine, Vincent feels herself blossoming. Filled with playlists, travel journal entries, and excerpts from Cillian’s novel, Half-Blown Rose traverses Paris, liminal spaces, and the messy complexities of relationships. As Cillian does all he can to win her back, Vincent must decide what she wants . . . and who she will be.
THIS CLOSE TO OKAY is a BotM BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 nominee!
Such an honor to be nominated alongside these writers/books. Members can vote @ bookoftheyear.com! Thanks so much y’all!
Putting Your Ear to the Tracks: A Conversation with Leesa Cross-Smith
JW: I’ve heard you say that when you begin to write a flash fiction piece, you have a flicker of an image in your mind. Was it the same way with this story?
LCS: Yes—the image that set the story off for me was a man standing at a window. It was snowing, and he was holding a baby. I could see it so vividly in my mind. Originally the guy was sort of like Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights. He was a little whiter than the brown baby he was holding, and the baby wasn’t his. So why was he holding this baby in the middle of the night? That’s how I write entire books, from an image like that.
