This book!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
It completely caught me off guard—in the best way. I went in expecting one thing and got something way more emotional and thought-provoking than I anticipated.

The story jumps between two timelines: Helene, a nurse in WWII France who discovers she can heal people through touch, and her great-granddaughter Louise, who accidentally brings her best friend back to life after a car accident. That moment flips her world upside down and sends her searching for answers about her family’s hidden history—and the cost of their gift.

What really got me was how this book makes you think about life, death, and what it actually means to heal. It doesn’t shy away from the heavy stuff, but it’s also full of love and resilience. The way the past and present unfold together is so well done—no info dumps, just little pieces falling into place as you go.

There’s a little bit of romance, but this is really a story about family, legacy, and figuring out who you are. It’s emotional, bittersweeet, and If you like historical fiction with a touch of magic, I’d definitely recommend this.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced copy!

4.25⭐
Lovely meditation on healing wrapped up in a multi-generational story of a family of women whose gift of healing remains stronger than the various ways each generation tries to control or deny its existence. Opening with Louise and a devastating car accident that exposes her matrilineal gift, the repercussions of what happened may be able to heal the gift between her mother and her grandmother. The story switches between Helene, a young girl in France during WWII, and Louise in present day coming to understand her family's story. While magical realism plays an important part, at its core this is a love letter to nurses and all healers. Thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dual timelines from world war II France to a present-day Appalachian orchard. The stories seamlessly waves generations of women found together either gift, healing touch. But is it a gift, or a curse? Is it helpful, or harmful? Is it embraced by each woman, or denied. The twist and turns, the rights and wrongs, the ups and downs, the moral dilemmas. I really enjoyed this story which included bits of romance and mystery. The characters are compelling, the story is thought-provoking and touching, and the ending isn't anything you'd see coming! I could easily see a sequel to this book and if there is one, put me on the list to read it!

loved this romance and how they are able to heal over moonlight. loved that she loved someone enough to bring him back. great story.

The Moonlight Healers by Elizabeth Becker beautifully captures the realities of those who dedicate their lives to healing. While the story weaves in magical and fantasy elements, I truly believe that healers, whether doctors, nurses, or anyone offering care, possess a kind of magic within them.

Set across two timelines, this novel follows Helene and Louise, revealing the powerful legacy of women who heal. Their stories are filled with love, strength, sacrifice, and deep compassion, making for an emotional and moving read.

I went into this book expecting something different, and I’m so glad it surprised me. It resonated with me on many levels. As someone who has tried to support mental health and well-being, I connected deeply with the feeling of wanting to take away others’ pain while also recognizing the burnout that comes with it. We don’t often think about the emotional toll on those in healing professions, and this book captures that reality beautifully.

This story will stay with me for a long time. Thank you, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Graydon House, for the copy.

I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This book was such a nice surprise. A historical fiction with touch of magical realism. We follow family of female healers via two points of view: one during WWII in France, the other nowadays in Virginia. It kept my attention and I needed to know what happens next and how each generation deals with their gift.

This stunning debut is a love letter to caregivers, healers, and nurses everywhere. I enjoyed the dual timelines in this story of a family's legacy. The complex relationships among the women in this book are truly heartfelt and told in an honest and refreshing way that feels real. The magical realism is gentle and feels organic to the storytelling. This book made me think, made me feel, and made me cry and I can't wait to see what Becker has up her sleeve for her sophomore novel.

A heartfelt thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read this novel prior to its publication in exchange for my honest review.

The Moonlight Healers was a delightful intergenerational novel exploring themes of healing, love, loss, and repair. The two point of views helped to move the story forward in a creative way, and the dynamics between characters were so heartwarming.

I found myself a bit lost in the pacing at times and the ending felt a bit rushed. I think an epilogue would have really benefitted the book and provided readers with closure.

Thanks to @NetGalley for my digital copy of The Moonlight Healer!

What a beautiful tribute to nurses, legacy, and the unseen threads of time.

I didn’t expect this story to unfold the way it did, but what a gift it was. I went in blind, and I was pleasantly surprised! Having encountered a few amazing nurses myself—nurses I will forever remember and be grateful for—this book felt like a whispered blessing passed down through generations. It is a hymn to nurses—the quiet sorcerers of healing, the keepers of comfort, the steady hands in life’s most fragile moments, the unsung heroes…

Told in a dance of past and present, the novel follows a lineage of women bound by an inheritance not measured in gold, but in something far more sacred—a gift, a calling, a thread that stitches them to one another across time. Helene’s journey gripped me, each moment of heartbreak and triumph resonating like an echo in my chest. And Louise—her great-granddaughter—wandering through the tangled paths of love and identity, searching for herself in the reflections of those who came before her, was just as mesmerizing. Their stories entwine like roots beneath the soil, unseen yet vital, shaping and steadying one another.

But what lingers most is the novel’s meditation on life and death—the way it turns them over like stones in a river, revealing their quiet beauty, their inevitable flow. It reminds us that we are all connected, that even in parting, something of us remains.

This book is more than a story—it is a song of resilience, a love letter to those who heal, a gentle reminder of the magic we so often overlook. It lingers like a soft refrain, long after the last note fades.

3.5

This was an emotional book about multiple generations of women carrying the gift to heal. It's a beautiful exploration of the challenges that health care workers, especially nurses, face when caring for patients. I really appreciated the commentary around allowing people peaceful, respectful passings. Dignity in death is something that's important to me, and this story definitely emphasized it's importance.

However, I never really found myself fully connecting with the characters. I'm not exactly sure why, but I finished the story and just felt like it was missing something. I do think that someone who really loves historical fiction would enjoy this more than I did!

Thank you to NetGalley and Greydon House for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received both an ALC and an eARC from the publisher of this story, and I’m absolutely enthralled. The audiobook is beautiful, the narrators did an excellent job, in fact the audiobook adds an extra touch with the accents for dialogue that truly magnifies the story.

The moonlight healers is a beautifully written, haunting, and powerful story that will tug heartstrings, and feel like a blanket of understanding to nurses, doctors, and healers everywhere.

As a medical professional I found this story to be a powerful testament to the work of nurses and healers, a look into the beauty and grief that comes with the profession. When sometimes the hardest thing is the right thing, and also the power of letting someone go, for their dignity rather than trying to cheat death for our own selfish desires. The complexity of mother and daughter dynamics, the way we want to shelter our children from the world, especially in the medical field where we see so much pain that we may cling to the pureness of children staying little. And how sheltering them isn’t always protecting them, but rather we need to prepare them to face the darkness of the world by giving them tools along the way.

Absolutely brilliant.

This was a strong dual timeline debut about a family of women with the ability to heal people but their gift comes at a price. The opening grabbed me from the start where a car crash almost kill's a girls friend but in her panic she's able to save his life only for it to having long-lasting repercussions. In the past we get to know more about her grandmother and her time serving as a nurse during WWII and helping heal soldiers. Great on audio narrated by Cassandra Campbell and Bailey Carr (two favs), this was an enjoyable listen and perfect for fans of books like Emma Donoghue's The pull of the stars. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I would like to start off this review by thanking Harlequin Trade Publishing| Graydon House and Elizabeth Becker for allowing me to read this novel, The Moonlight Healers, via #netgalley. All opinions following are my own.

This book is a beautiful tribute to all those that have the power to heal those around them: nurses, doctors, midwives, caregivers, therapists, and the list goes on. This story specifically talks about a family legacy of healing.

For generations as far back as she knows, the women in Louise Winston's family have had the power to be healers. She finds this out herself when she is in a horrific car accident with her best friend, Peter, that leaves him dead. Not knowing her family secret, she performs CPR on his lifeless, broken body. Minutes later, he is alive again and doesn't have a scratch on him. After being discharged from the hospital, she rushes home to her mother for answers.

Resigned, her mother says that they need to go visit Louise's grandmother for answers. There, Louise remembers a childhood with her great-grandmother Helene, and readers are then given her story as a healer in German-occuppied France during World War II.

Spanning four generations of women, healers, and nurses, readers are gifted a beautiful story of love, resilience, and the balance of the universe.

If it's not obvious by my synopsis, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. As a debut author, Elizabeth Becker is able to cue into people's emotions and the human experience in a way that is breathtaking. This was an easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. When it comes out on Tuesday, February 11, I implore everyone to read it.

#BrenBreathesBooks #brenreviewsbooks #5starreads #ElizabethBecker #Fantasy #DebutAuthor #ARCReader #ARC #comingsoon #februaryreads #booksofinstagram #bookworm #bookish #reader #ReaderLife #booknerd #bookstagramcommunity #bookcommunity

what a beautiful novel. let’s just start there because I am truly so moved by the story of louise, camilla, helene— these incredible women with the gift of healing touch. an actual tear ran down my cheek as I read the final sentences. the tribute to the magic of women, to their work, to nurses, to healing, family legacy— elizabeth becker took these themes and tenderly interwove a vivid and ripe story as we jumped through the past and present. i will say, i did guess the plot twist early on but that did not take away from the emotional impact of the story because the storytelling was that good and everything we learn about the lives of each of these women captivates you. i was fortunate enough to be provided an arc copy via netgalley for an honest review, but I will be at the bookstore on release day picking up a physical copy because this is a book I want to put my hands on & relive again while eagerly flipping through the pages. i think this novel will be on quite a few lists this year & maybe more. thank you for this masterful & magical story, elizabeth becker.

The Moonlight Healers by Elizabeth Becker gives us the story of Louise who discovers she has inherited the gift of healing after she brings her friend back to life after a horrific car accident. Her mother takes her to her grandmother’s house in Virginia to learn the stories of her family’s history including her great grandmother who was a nurse during World War II. Louise finds what she is truly capable of while discovering the secrets of her family. It’s a beautiful story about survival, love, and the bonds between mothers and daughters.

I recommend this book for magical realism and historical fiction readers. The book alternates between Louise’s story in 2019 and Helene in 1942, each of the women are struggling to come to grips with their healing gift. The stories converge in present time to show how the women in their family have healed others throughout history and how they heal one another.

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

The Moonlight Healers is a book of magical realism and fantasy drama. Being pulled into the pages and transported to a different world is always a joy for a reader.... Absolutely recommend to fantasy lovers!

Set in both 1940’s France and current day Virginia. Helene is a 17 year old with a special gift to heal. Her gift allows her to ease the dying soldiers final moments. She is able to honor their souls with peace in the battlefield as they transition. She can also revive a soul. She learns that any revived soul is now on borrowed time and one can’t escape death when it comes for us. Choices have to be made to restore that balance. Jump forward to current day and Helene’s great granddaughter Louise, is in a horrible car accident. Her best friend dies on impact and Louise brings him back. The decisions these healers have to make is heartbreaking. How far are we willing to go and how much are we willing to give up for those we love. “It’s not the end you think it is. There’s peace here. They’re safe. Their pain is gone. And the living are the ones who carry it now.”

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ebook copy of The Moonlight Healers. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was definitely a heartfelt novel that pays homage to the work of nurses, while also incorporating some mystical elements that rounded out this great book! One of my favorite reads of the new year. It was written beautifully, the setting was dreamy and the relationships between generations of women with these gifts of healing was a balm to my reading soul. I was so happy to read such a satisfying novel, and thank you again for the opportunity to read this

This wasn't a book I would normally pick up, but I am so glad I did. This was such a wonderful story! 
With my grandmother being a nurse, this felt so close to home, seeing the love and compassion for nurses/healers. I absolutely loved watching generations of women in the same family discovering their passion and hard work it is to be a nurse. 
I loved the writing style and was so connected to the characters.

This story was beautiful in its simplicity.

Louise comes from a long line of healing women, but she was unaware she had these capabilities until she brings her best friend back from the dead after a car accident.

Helene, her great-grandmother, learned everything about the power, and the cost, of her healing touch working as a nurse on the frontlines in France during World War II.

While the story of their family legacy is told primarily through these two POVs more than 60 years apart, it also shows how five generations of women have dealt with their abilities and the personal costs of using them.

Poignant and powerful, short but incredibly well-written!