Enjoyed from beginning to end getting an intimate look at a marriage.a couple struggling.She a lawyer struggling to conceive her husband a bartender dealing with his job their difficulties.So well written so involving another wonderful story by MaryBeth Keane.#netgalley #scribner

4/5 stars.
Loved this! Jess is a lawyer and Malcom works at a bar. Malcom takes over when his boss retires, with a dream of what he wants everything to look like with new ownership. Jess wants a baby, and they are struggling to have one. The story follows the impact this has on them and their relationship.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to Scribner and Net Galley for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review. First off, The Half Moon; great title, beautiful cover. I’ve heard of the author before but this is my first read by them.

The story is contemporary fiction dealing with a failing marriage due to infertility. I’ve read novels on this topic before and they usually draw me in. The Half Moon didn’t allow me to connect emotionally with the characters in the way I wanted to. Maybe it was the multiple timelines or the immense detail in every paragraph. I found myself getting bored, and sadly, not at all interested in how the story would end.

I think the setting is great (The Half Moon is a cool name for a bar) and the characters had great potential. I just felt let down by the execution of the story. 1.5/5 stars.

While the topic of this book is basic, it is the writing and the storytelling that captured me and compelled me to read this book at every possible opportunity. A bartender and a lawyer are married and trying to conceive a child. But let me tell you, all the nuances that go along with those two are so convincingly depicted, that I wanted to find out what happens next. I really enjoyed reading this book. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved The Half Moon for the same reasons I loved Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes: it's immersive, tender and moving. It's character-driven in all the best ways-- I cared deeply about both Malcolm and Jess and both of their points of view were written with compassion and insight. It's beautifully written, with lines that land right in your heart. Sometimes realistic novels focusing on the complications of relationships can leave me feeling disheartened, but this one was genuine and hopeful. It would make for a great book club book! I didn't want to put the second half down and the wider themes of forgiveness, the disappointment that can come from taking stock of a middle-aged life, and the layers of marriages offer a lot to discuss. I will highly recommend this book! Thanks so much to Netgalley and Scribner for the advanced copy.

Thank you @netgalley and Scribner for this ARC of “The Half Moon.”

I typically love spousal and family dramas, but this one just didn’t do anything for me. I had high hopes after “Ask, Again, Yes,” but I found myself lost in the storyline centered around a failing bar called The Half Moon. In the end, it is a really short book, but I never got hooked.

Themes: 👰‍♀️🤵‍♂️🍷💔

My thoughts: 😏😕🤔🫡

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While I found the characters interesting, the ending floundered a bit for me. I found it enjoyable even though I questioned a few choices in the plot.

What I Liked:
-Marriage in crisis storyline
-Flawed but realistic characters
-Realistic portrayal of the strains infertility can have on a relationship
-Consideration of the road not traveled
-Malcom's and Jess's individual and collective relationships with the Half Moon Bar
-Raw and vulnerable characters
-Nonlinear timeline

What I Disliked:
-Writing style took a little to adjust to
-At times, it felt like the plot dragged
-A little overly character-driven (this is likely more of a "me" problem, as I have unintentionally been reading a lot of character-driven stories of late)

I struggled to get into this book at first, but once I did I really ended up enjoying it. It was a pretty captivating story

Captivating and emotionally charged.
Many thanks to Scribner and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I absolutely loved ask again, yes but I could not get into this book! It was reading really slow to me.

At its heart, The Half Moon is a story about a marriage at a crossroads, with two characters who are really dealing with consequences of their actions as well as victims of their circumstances. Malcom has always dreamed of owning the Half Moon bar, and now that he does everything seems to be falling apart. His wife Jess has always wanted to have children of her own, and after many years that now seems to be an impossibility. Both of the characters make very questionable choices, which many people may think are unforgivable. There is an odd cadence to this book, the flow seems more like waves crashing back and forth instead of a stead stream downriver. I never felt any build up to a crescendo; there are interesting moments and much to think about, but there is never really that moment that feels like it really all comes together. There are several side plots, that seem unrelated to the main focus of the book, but they do add to some food for thought. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

I was on the struggle bus with this one & really had a hard time getting into the story. The development dragged on & never really came to fruition. Not my favorite.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

I loved Ask Again, Yes so I requested The Half Moon solely for that reason. Unfortunately, I DNF'd The Half Moon at 20%. I am usually a fan of quiet, character-focused stories but after reading a few chapters I was absolutely bored and no invested at all. Maybe if the story was told through Jess's eyes I would have connected more. I was eager to learn more about their marriage but what I got was sloppy timelines that never led me anywhere (and I know I stopped at 20% but the reader shouldn't be strung along for that long without a connection).

I'm choosing not to post my thoughts on The Half Moon because I think negative reviews will hurt this author more than an established author.

This book recounts the married life of Malcolm and Jess Gerphardt, a couple who starts out with stars in their eyes about the kind of life they want to build together. After working at The Half Moon bar as bartender/manager for twenty-six years, Malcolm is finally fulfilling his dream of owning the bar when his longtime boss retires. Jess is a dedicated, hard-working attorney though her life goal is to become a mother. As a newlymarried couple, Jess suffers a miscarriage and they soon find themselves on the road of infertility treatments and mounting medical bills which take an extreme toll on their marriage.

The story was a slow burn and told from the perspectives of both Malcolm and Jess in both the current time as well as through memories of their past. For much of the book, I found myself lost as the recount of memories would sometimes veer off into other memories and the timeline of events became blurry. There was so much sadness and unhappiness in their story that I struggled through it.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the opportunity to receive this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
Publication date: May 2, 2023

This was a veryyyy slow burn with little payout in the end.
The main characters in this were hard to relate to because they didn’t communicate well and made silly choices over and over again. By the end, I wasn’t invested in either character or their relationship.
The plot was an even bigger issue for me. It was so slow with no real high or low points. Everything just blended together. The structure of the writing was also problematic with lots of introspection and timeline shifts mid paragraph. It made it even more difficult to stay engaged.
Overall, this is should have been a slow, character driven story but the story execution was a miss.

I loved this so much. For me, it’s right up there with Ask Again, Yes. The layering is unmatched! It’s a smart study in how to braid stories together, interiority, and structure.

Oh boy…..a very disappointing read. I don’t really know what the author was trying to do here. I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed anything about it. Perhaps I wasn’t the target audience, in that I typically don’t enjoy reading about a marriage in shambles.

I LOVED Ask Again, Yes and I don’t think this one is even comparable in its depth, story, and writing. There were too many random asides going on such as the snow storm, the missing person (beyond weird????), and the infertility storyline just felt very off to me. I’d love to read a review from someone who has gone through infertility- perhaps it would cause these marital issues. Maybe I’m naive but I can’t imagine behaving this way, even with infertility stress.

Thank you to net galley and Mary Beth Keane for the arc of this book in return for an honest review. I would say that this novel was a slow burn for me. The characters were realistic in telling the story of a troubled marriage. The couple appear to be on different tracks in life, Malcolm a bar owner and Jess an attorney. The business and marriage both struggle as the history of the relationships are revealed. The author takes great pain in describing both characters in order to show their growth towards and away from each other. This is the kind of story in which the characters stay with you long after the end of the novel.

What a real and raw story! Many of us know people that have been in similar situations which I think makes us more invested in how it ends. Small town feels with marriage problems. Family is the main theme here and it does not disappoint. I would recommend.