THE NIGHT BLOSSOMS by LEYLAH ATTAR

‘Do you ever really know someone, or do you just know the parts they want you to see?’

We’ve been eagerly awaiting The Night Blossoms by Leylah Attar, wanting to hear Rafael’s story. If you’ve read The Paper Swan, you’ll know he is Damien’s childhood friend and a bit of a genius with a tragic past. You also know his story is going to affect you and pull at your heartstrings. Be prepared though! This romantic suspense was a bit like a whirlwind; surprising, abrupt, contradicting, confusing but still, all-encompassing. It was a soft caress and it was a destructive force of nature. Once again, we were mesmerised by this Author’s astounding ways of weaving a story like a beautiful heart-breaking piece of poetry. We loved it!

“When you cry, my whole world turns dark. You are my life, my hope, my home. If my life ended tomorrow, I would look for you again and again, in every lifetime.”

We are not going to go into details on the story as that would be robbing a reader of a journey of discovery, one you must take yourselves. It all begins with a young Rafael Roza and an abandoned girl in a bee costume, Evelina Flores. Torn apart, making promises to each other, whilst victims of their individual heart-breaking circumstances. Leylah Attar evokes transcendent imagery for the reader, which made this story feel at times like we were watching it unfold, like a blooming blossom. It is a wondrous ability to create a world and feeling like this!

“Everybody leaves. And they never say goodbye. One day, you’ll leave too.”

The back and forth from past to present was seamless and so well written, however, we would’ve liked to spend more quality time with the characters -in the moment- and have less time-traveling. The connection was there, but could have been much stronger than what we felt, it could have been so much more. We love having our hearts a hundred percent involved, break them, batter them as much as you like, then put them back together in the end. We’ll actually thank you for it. The suspense, drama, and thrilling mystery were a rollercoaster of whodunnit, and love lost. We caught on about halfway through and had our suspicion and theories. Whilst we were proved correct, it didn’t take anything away from this compelling story, rather we enjoyed ‘watching’ it unfold with our hearts in our mouths at one stage.

“How could I let go of the only person who never let go of me?”