This was so well written. I was engrossed from the first page and it ticked all the boxes of my expectations. The character development was excellent. I would definitely recommend to others, a must read!

Excellent slice-of-life. Less complex than ASK AGAIN, YES but equally affecting. Really captures the damage financial strain and miscommunications can do on an otherwise happy marriage. Fast-reading and clean prose. Likable but flawed characters.

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion of it. I could not even get through the first long boring chapter.

What a beautiful book! It definitely gives me vibes of the movie Beautiful Girls and really most Edward Burns movies. I loved the character development, I loved the idea of it being set during a blizzard, and I would love to have a drink and get my feet dirty dancing at the Half Moon.

I wasn’t sure at first…the first few pages didn’t pull me in and I felt like…hmmm, where is this going? But before long, I was engrossed…another very good read by Ms. Keane, full of real life with all its complications, unanswerable questions, and lovely shades of gray. Highly recommend.

As long as Mary Beth Keane is writing books, I'll be reading them--"The Half Moon," her follow up to the very enjoyable "Ask Again, Yes," shows that her knack for distilling the essence of complicated and often messy Irish-American family relationships into compulsively readable novels was no fluke. Here Keane brings us Malcolm and Jess Gephardt, a married couple whose relationship has hit the rocks in the wake of their pursuit of individual dreams--Malcolm's ownership of the pub The Half Moon and Jess's increasingly expensive and thus far fruitless fertility treatments. When a recently divorced father enters the picture and The Half Moon hits a financial crisis, Malcolm and Jess must decide what dreams are worth fighting for and what they will risk to make them come true.

This was a very authentic and at times painful to read story of the things that can go wrong in a marriage. Both Malcolm and Jess are fully-developed and sympathetic characters; I was rooting for them and for their relationship. There is an (in my opinion) unnecessary side plot involving one of The Half Moon's patrons who disappears in a snowstorm, but that is a small quibble in what was a satisfying read. For fans of "Ask Again, Yes" and "We Are the Brennans" and perfect for book groups.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Scribner for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

This is the most authentic novel I have read in a while. It centers on a relationship/marriage that is loving, healthy, and fairly typical until a series of events, including struggles with fertility and financial woes (related to the Half Moon, a bar they own) causes them to lose their way. These characters are finely drawn, You feel like you know them...or that you are them. If the story stopped there, it would have been enough. However, another element (a bit of a mystery) gets introduced towards the end, and although it very much remains a book about a relationship, it is also a bit more. This is a "quiet" book full of emotion with a solid plot line that moves it forward. I really loved every minute I spent with it. If you relish a novel with well-developed, relatable characters or have ever owned a struggling bar/ restaurant, I think you will enjoy this one! Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

This book really drew me in. I enjoyed Mary Beth Keane's writing style immensely. The Half Moon was my first book by her, and I would love to read more.

The story follows a couple through their breakup and the events that led up to their estrangement. It's told in a non linear time-line that worked very well for me. It's full of great detail, emotion, and wonderful character development.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I couldn’t get into the book. Storyline sounded promising, but it just didn’t grab me. Couldn’t get past the first few chapters.

very character driven; liked it less than Ask Again Yes
this author weaves a beautiful story however, it goes nowhere, no plot

What an amazing, in depth tale of love, loss, and redemption.

The Half Moon is a bar where dreams come true for our hero and also destroy his marriage…will it also be the backdrop or redemption?

Trigger warning: infertility and the trials in a relationship have center stage here.

The book took me a long time to read and I think this was due to the long chapters. When the chapters are a bit shorter, I can read a couple or five at a time; with this story it was one chapter and needing to stop to move on with my day.

I did end up finishing the book on audio because I could enjoy the story and continue doing the things like laundry, cleaning, etc.

The story itself was a beautiful tribute to love, loss, and cherishing those who are the most important to us. I felt deeply for our characters and were rooting them on, even as they inevitably missteped and made life worse for themselves. It read like real life of the best friends you’ve had forever….just wanting the best for them and their happiness…and shaking your head at them when you know they’re torpedoing themselves.

I really liked this one. Thank you to #NetGalley for this ARC.

It was nice to read a book about an early midlife crisis. Often, the stories of people in their late 30s/early 40s seem to be skipped over and for someone in this age category it was refreshing and relatable. I think this story would have done better as a "slice of life" story, rather than trying to throw in the mystery/crime piece . That felt quite forced.

Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon and Schuster for the free copy to review and Net Galley for the digital download. Thanks to Scribner for the May 2nd 2023 publication.

I found The Half Moon to be a good solid story. There are no 'wow' factors, no 'jumping off the page' sections, just good solid story telling that keeps you turning pages. It is character driven and the characters are well thought out with substantial roles to play. You see the story unfold from every characters point of view without having to go with alternating chapters, it is all done with dialog.

Love, marriage and family are dominant factors in this story. The give and take of marriage through the ups and the downs are prevalent throughout the novel. You are able to put yourself in each situation and then be able to understand how these characters processed their feelings. Marriage is not static and Keane allows these characters to work through the problems and the pains, with no one being the bad guy. This story does not stall, it does not get boring, it is not romantically sappy, you do not lose interest part way through. This is good solid story telling at it's finest.

So take a seat in The Half Moon, buy yourself a drink, and quietly watch as a great story reveals itself.

I really enjoyed the author's book "Ask Again, Yes" and was looking forward to a similar experience with this one but it fell short of expectations for me.

What I loved:
1. I love a good small town story and this one didn't disappoint. I loved that Malcom stops to say hello to people no matter where he is - he genuinely is happy to see them and talk to them. The small town vibe was strong and real!!
2. I understood the tension and hurt that Malcom and Jess were going through and appreciated each of their points of view - I thought we saw each of their points very clearly and were able to decide for ourselves if it made sense.

What I didn't like:
1. Aside from seemingly stream of consciousness sentence structure, the timelines and POVs were all over the place with no hallmarks.
2. The "mystery" didn't make sense to me - felt like it was forced into the book.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Scribner, and Mary Beth Keane for a digital ARC of this book! Now available as of 5.2!

I liked Ask Again, Yes but not this one. Boring, dense, flat, no likeable characters. I didn't like Ask Again, Yes enough and certainly not this one so I will probably not pick up another Mary Beth Keane book.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

This was my mistake because I requested this forgetting how boring I felt Ask Again, Yes was. This was just as much of a snooze fest as the previous work. I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. It’s well written so I think many people will enjoy it.

3.0 stars
Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the eARC of The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane. I found this story to be pleasant, safe, hopeful, sad, boring and predictable. Always start with the nice before you add the concerns. If you are looking for a comfortable novel with a slow ride, this is the one. I started this book so many times and then had to go back and read the previous, very long chapter to remember what was happening. I felt like I was watching the characters from afar and just didn't feel the connection I wish I had.

4 stars - the first half was a bit slow but it definitely picked up in the second. I also started this one on my kindle and switched to audio a few chapters in, and I definitely think this reads better on audio. This was a beautiful story of marriage, growing up, and figuring shit out.

I was so excited to read this because Ask Again, Yes is an all-time favorite. This book once again demonstrates Mary Beth Keane’s skills for writing the complexity of people so well. I am not usually into character-driven books, but I love her writing. This one did end up not drawing me in as much though. There was a lot going on and honestly, I was not a big fan of Jess after she cheated on her husband. For me, this held my interest, but I put it down for awhile and never felt super interested in picking it up again. I eventually did finish it just to see what happened, but all in all, it was just okay. 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A story about a husband and a wife who feel sorry for themselves and ended up making me feel sorry for myself for having picked this up. Marriage melodrama masquerading as literary fiction. This is an outlier review.

Story Synopsis:
Malcolm Gephardt, 45 – Owner of a bar named ‘The Half Moon’. Bar in losses. Malcolm desperate to get it back on its feet.
Jessica, 41 – Malcolm’s wife. Lawyer. Desperate for a child and willing to do anything to be a mother. Malcolm not in agreement.
Malcolm and Jessica separated four months ago.
This week, there’s news of a blizzard hitting their small town. The story takes place in the course of these seven days, where Malcolm has just heard an upsetting news about Jessica, and a regular patron of The Half Moon has gone missing.
The story comes to us in limited third person perspective mostly of Malcolm and some portions from Jessica.

Bookish Yays:
✔ There’s one point where Malcolm remarks to Jessica about IVF, and how it can lead to false hope, and how long can they keep trying because of that hope if earlier IVF attempts haven’t worked. I loved that scene because I have seen the same happen to friends who opted for IVF. That hope is a killer.
✔ A couple of quotable quotes.
✔ The cover – with its dual reference to the bar as well as the marriage of Jessica and Malcolm. Real smart design.

Bookish Nays:
❌ Main characters who are in their forties but behave as if they are in their twenties. Jessica and Malcolm have many secrets from each other despite their long relationship. This should have made them realistic, but their baseless self-pity and shoddy decision-making made me loathe them instead of rooting for them. When I can’t feel sympathetic even towards a woman who is desperate to be a mother, the book is a lost cause.
❌ The secondary characters are as flat as a soda kept out for a day.
❌ Slow writing that is worsened by our lack of empathy with the characters.
❌ The narrative chronology, which, while limited to a week, goes meandering across past and present like nobody’s business.
❌ A missing person story doing in a novel about a couple struggling with their separation and its aftermath - What the heck! That track was relevant just to a minimal degree, and the book would have worked better without that distraction.
❌ The key ingredient in a marriage story is passion. Not the romantic kind, but strong feelings, whether in moments of love or during arguments. But Jessica and Malcolm have serious discussions with as much emotion as if they were talking about the grocery list. (Heck, I make my grocery list with more emotions!)
❌ I might have liked the small town depiction of this story (with its nosy characters who know everything about others and nothing about themselves) had I not been reading another novel set in a small town that has handled the same brilliantly. This felt staid in comparison.
❌ The ending. Good God! Why, why, why? The whole character build-up went for a toss with that decision. I might still have rated this higher had the ending been realistic. But HFN and HEA endings make sense only when they proceed logically from the plot and not a pull-the-rug finale like this none.


This book ought to have worked for me as it had so many ingredients I relish in fiction: flawed characters, marital struggles, parenting problems. Heck, I even enjoy literary fiction for the way it brings depth to the characters. But this time, nada! I felt nothing for anything and anyone during this read.

I can’t help recollect the song lyrics, ‘You say it best, when you say nothing at all.’ So I”ll just stop this rant here and hope that it’s for the best.

Kindly read other reviews before you make up your mind about this title because for me, this book stands as ‘Not recommended’, and as we all know, no two readers read the same book.

2 stars.

My thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Half Moon”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

Content warnings: Miscarriage, Infidelity.