3.5 stars

This is another one of those books that I went back and forth on ratings for. I liked that it was a change of pace. It's a magical realism story with the main plot being a murder mystery. I really enjoyed that aspect of the plot. I liked the magical gifts mixed with family drama and secrets, murder, and the FMC coping with trauma. The New England setting was beautiful, and I had no real trouble picturing some of the scenes depicted.

The book was a little underwhelming in its execution. I felt the FMC was younger than her stated age (which can be caused by the trauma she's experienced), and I felt that the romance was too close to insta-love. I would have liked the love interest to be a platonic friendship instead. Zoe really just needed someone on her side who didn't want to control her, and a friendship felt right for the two of them.

I will say that the ending was satisfying, as we did get a lot of the answers to the questions that popped up from the beginning. We get the mystery solved nicely and more explanation of why the family received the gifts they have. I liked the fact that the family matriarch was finally the recognition she deserved, despite the men trying to erase her; it's feminist without being too forceful about it. Despite its faults, it was nice to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a solid 3 star book for me. In one line - an interesting premise and quite atmospheric but a little underdeveloped.

I’d probably consider this magical realism rather than fantasy. Family dynamics and a mystery to be solved are at the heart of this tale and the magical elements are used to explore them. I really liked the evocative New England setting. The conflicts within the family were interesting with lots of secrets to uncover but I didn’t really feel much of a connection to any of them which made it harder to become fully invested in the story.

The (closed door) romance was sweet, but felt a bit too sudden for me, and the FMC sometimes came across like a bit of a manic pixie dream girl - certainly in terms of how the love interest seems to view her.

Overall, Breathings of the Moon is quite a charming read and enjoyable read. But for me, it lacked the depth and character connection needed to make it truly memorable.

Thanks to NetGalley and Rook and Castle Press for the ARC copy. This has not affected my review at all, which are my own thoughts.

Zoe Underhill is the Memory Keeper of her family, a gift passed down through the generations. It has allowed her to shift into other personalities, and form a new life as different people, far from her controlling and poisonous family. But when her mother’s body is discovered twenty years after her disappearance, Zoe must return to unravel her mother’s mystery and learn the truth about the family legend which gifted their enigmatic powers to the Underhills. There is a reckoning long overdue, and blood must pay to redress it. Perhaps her own.

Before starting with the actual review, I'd like to introduce the players properly: we have Zoe, our protagonist; Ryan, her older sister, who is accompanied by Jessica, his wife; Nolan, the grandfather and patriarch of the family; Owen, Nolan's brother who is working with Duncan, a historian paid to investigate the Underhill family history; Brynn, Zoe's mother; Robert, Ryan's father; and last, but not least, Aunt Belle, Nolan's wife's sister and nightmare inducing for Zoe.

So, we start with Zoe not being Zoe, AKA, having used her abilities to forge herself a new personality, a teacher, and thus having run away from her family. Ryan have found her, too, and is trying to convince her to come back, because the family wants her help: they want Zoe to use her memory powers to find out what happened to her and if there's any culprit to whatever that might have been. Complaining, reluctant and not happy about it, Zoe does come back to the family house. And that's when everything starts spiraling.

Let's start with what I didn't enjoy, shall we? So, as usual, one of my issues with this book was the romance😂 But, really, this time, it felt too insta-lovey for me to appreciate it. Like, Zoe and her love interest (LI, whose name I won't say to avoid spoilers) had two counted interactions before she started thinking about his lips and wondering how it would feel. Also, do y'all know those romance plots where the girl/woman is nothing like other women and that's why the man falls in love with her? Well, the romance between Zoe and her LI came across exactly like that. He was different to the men in her family and to any other men she had met before, because he was nice with her, and listened to her and wanted to help her find out what happened to her mother in an organic way instead of imposing himself and his opinions.
Not saying this is bad, on the contrary, wished more LI (no matter gender) where more like this and complemented the MC so well. But, the way the romance was developed and treated by the narration make it felt unnecessary for me. Zoe and her LI should have stayed friends; I would have rooted more for them as such. By the end of the book, the chemistry and relationship developed between them felt more like a rushed and lusty one than romantic. I didn't believed that these two were in actual love.

Now, onto what I *did* like, which is everything else! The family drama was on point, with the push and pull with the members with each other, trying to impose their opinions and power over the others while trying (and kind of failing) to collaborate to find out what happened to Bryn (Zoe's mother). Aunt Belle was as hated as she deserved with how she favored Ryan over Zoe or how she treated her and her mother over the years, and I liked that she is to faced some justice in the future as promised by other character. I think Owen's character, who is portrayed as the ostracized member of the family (in a very different way to Zoe), was done very well, showing his hobbies, his opinion and some things about him that let me shocked when discover. The same aspect with Robert or Nolan's characters, in fact, because everybody likes to keep secrets, and they can be mortal some times.

Zoe, as the protagonist, is the one we follow. I loved her. They way she is always thinking ahead of the others to make sure she is safe and capable of running away when needed, or how smart she is even if the family doesn't credit her for it. The exploration of her childhood trauma and her ability to be different people, which also had a great impact on her psyche, were done in an incredible way, without overdoing it and showing both the good and the bad. Giving the situation the seriousness it needed while also tying it up with the magical realism aspect of the story: how the Memory Keeper abilities that Zoe has have shaped her and make her who she is, along with the personalities she's adopted through her life.

Finally, that magical realism I mentioned, the magic system, is one of the best constructed and explained throughout the novel I've seen lately. It wasn't overdone or super complicated, but it was developed along the action, when needed, giving the necessary details without overwhelming the reader. I haven't read much magic rooted on memory, much less like the one described in Breathings of the Moon, but I'll definitely call this one my favorite until a better one comes to dethrone it.

Overall, I enjoyed this read! The book kept me glue to its pages, probably loving Zoe as a narrator so much and the intrigue of the mystery of her mother, Bryn. The family drama was enough to fill the times between investigations Zoe carried out. I'm still a bit disappointed about the romance, but I'm sure other people can enjoy it, I'm just too picky with these relationships in books😂 It's true that the romantic love helped Zoe grow a bit as a person, but I still think that her LI could have stayed as her friend and still provoke that growth in her

Totally recommended for fans of magic memory, messy families and mysteries that develop quite slow

I gave Breathings of the Moon four ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Thank you Byrd Nash, Rook and Castle Press and Net Galley for the ARC. These are my honest opinions.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters were well thought out and relatable. The story line was easy to follow and kept me engaged.

I like that I suspected several characters of the murder of Brynn, but didn’t guess, with 100% certainty. I like when I think I know, but I’m not positive. That means the plot is written well.

I also liked that, even though there is a little romance budding, it doesn’t take over the story.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book, even if it was a year after the publishing date (something that I admittedly didn’t realize, which I apologize for.)
Better late than ever!

First of all time magic system was absolutely to die for. I was so intrigued the whole time by it and it just made everything so whimsical.

I didn’t know I was craving a magical mystery book until I picked this up which was absolutely phenomenal.

I actually think it could’ve done to be a bit longer, as I felt some story beats could’ve been better developed if given a bit more page time to do so, but all in all a great story.

Breathings of the Moon is a murder mystery with a touch of magic. Zoe Underhill is a memory keeper and is summoned to return home to help find who murdered her mother twenty years ago. This book kept me interested from the first page. I liked that the magical aspect of the story did not feel so overdramatic as to make it unbelievable. Thanks to Byrd Nash, Rook and Castle Press, and NetGalley for this complimentary copy of this ebook. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I have read one other book by the author: A Spell of Rowans. There too, like here, we have a people with a hint of magic. The magic is not exactly earth-shattering but it exists in such a way that it alters the way everyone in the story sees their lives and manages to survive emotional issues.

Zoe is someone else when the book begins. This is not something that makes sense immediately and the author does not waste time explaining it. We have to get it based on how the story unfolds. Zoe is almost coerced by her brother to go back to their family’s home to figure out what happened to their mother all those years ago, since her body has just been found. Zoe is reluctant for more reasons than one.

This is the second book that I read so close to another where there is a missing mother and the replacement is terrible. Zoe’s skill is not the charm the men in her family (and her mother) have. She can see the memories of others and she draws it in like a cocoon around herself. Memories are biased as we are soon to learn, and this does not help the nascent investigation.

There is a romance in the narrative, to help alleviate some of the dysfunction we see amongst everyone else. The end result is reached through a process of elimination, but it is not the true goal of the plot. The family wants to find a semblance of peace in one form or another to move ahead, not realising that they have been stuck in limbo because of this one secret.

I like the author’s writing. The magic part of it is written into the narrative so seamlessly that I did not think it odd at any time. I would not recommend it to people who do not like magical realism in their tales, but for others, it would be an enjoyable (if sad) read.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Rating: 4.5⭐️/5

So many challenging and taboo genres were approached in this magical realism novel and I thought it was done REALLY well for how short the novel was. A FMC with borderline personality disorder from stealing memories and using them as her own, navigating childhood trauma, patriarchal roles and ruthless family, Breathings of the Moon was so unique and a great read. Don’t forget about the murder mystery!

I do think there could have been a bit more character development, but I appreciated how chaotic her “splits” into new personalities were.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I tell you I loved the magical aspects of this book 🙌🏻
The use of magic, memory and historical significance was blended perfectly!
Also, totally did not expect the murderer 🥺

An enthralling, fast paced read! 🥳

I wanted so badly to like this book, there was so much about it that intrigued me, from the setting, the magical realism elements, and the dysfunctional family with many secrets. Unfortunately the execution and writing did not work for me and I DNF'd at 25%.

Our POV main character was written in a very immature way despite being in her mid-late 20s, constantly making assumptions and jumping to conclusions, her stilted inner monologue. There was also a lot of telling instead of showing, with plenty of info dumping and repetition. A couple of times I had to reread a previous paragraph because I thought I had missed something with the jumpy transitions.

Perhaps these are all things that improve as the book goes on, I kept telling myself to make it to at least 50% before making a decision on putting it down or not, but after an oddly written interaction between Zoe and Duncan I sadly couldn't care to continue.

An original read that brought me much joy when reading. I loved the fantasy concept and it felt fresh.. I would love to read more from Byrd Nash in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.75- Loved the objective of this story, but wish it was longer to expand upon ideas mentioned

This was my first book by Byrd Nash and I was definitely intrigued! I will have to go back and read more. This was a story filled with family drama, mystery, and magical realism. The family drama is what reeled me in and kept me reading.

The story follows Zoe Underhill, who has a gift to read the memories of those she touches. Her mother’s body was found after of being missing for many years, so upon her brothers request to get to the bottom of it. She uses these powers to figure out the truth behind their mother’s death.

Thoughts and Thinkings
The family drama was great, all of the family members were fleshed out and had their own motives. Some you loved, some you hated and I enjoyed reading about them.
The magical element was good the powers of memory was fleshed out, I wish we got more understanding about the Charm power and how it worked.

I was not set on the romance part of the story, while I liked Duncan. I wish there was more yearning and drawn out romance of their relationship

I felt like there were repeated themes, that had no conclusion. Like “where were the women” this was repeated and I only got a small part about Sarah making her husband embarrassed but nothing else about why.

I really wanted more of the spiral into another person from Zoe. I loved what we had but wish the story slowed down a bit to give us that.

I enjoyed the resolution of this book, I was happy with how it ended and felt like the main pieces of the story was wrapped up. I just wish the smaller pieces had a climax as well.


To Wrap Up!
I really enjoyed this story and would’ve been happier with more of it. The magical realism and mystery of it reeled me in, but the family drama kept me hooked till the end. If you like stories with dysfunctional families, murder mysteries and a touch of magic. Then I would strongly recommend this book!

Thank you, NetGalley and Rook and Castle (Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles), for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This was interesting. Not really what I expected when I read the summary. My favorite character was Duncan, which was probably on purpose. But I wasn’t really sympathetic toward Zoe. I felt like there were some things about the book that didn’t make sense, like phrases that were repeated a few times that didn’t seem to connect to anything but I felt like were important. I’d recommend this for someone who wants a closed-door romance with a mystery and some mystical powers thrown in, but not for someone who wants romance with spice or in-depth magic. Thank you to NetGalley and Rook and Castle Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.

“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”Marcus Tullius Cicero

This is my first book by Byrd Nash and I enjoyed it a lot! I couldn’t stop reading and that says a lot.
I was immersed in the mystery, family drama, and magical realism.
What captivated me was the exploration of fragility of memory, questioning how much can we trust our own recollections and how narratives shift depending on who tells them.
The story follows Zoe’s journey to uncover her mother’s killer when she returns home and every family member holds a different version of the past. This family has different gifts (or curses) and Zoe’s is memory keeper, it’s an ability to access other people's memories with possibility to become someone from the inside out.

Also how stunning is the cover of the book right?
Looking forward to more books by the author!

Some favorite quotes:
The older the memory, the harder it is for people to even think about what happened. Anything I learn will be colored by time, by nostalgia.
The man prefers center-stage, with all eyes on him. Jealous or admiring ones, but eyes there must be. He often forgets to leave the stage so the other actors can say their lines.
Dinner is ready, which means we can now use knives to cut each other instead of words.
I feel the urgency of the season, of letting go of the old.
I am drunk on him and ignore worrying about what the hangover will feel like later when I wake from this dream.

A big thank you to Rook and Castle Press | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

a memory keeper....what a gift....

but the family also had other gifts... gifts that could exploit others....

zoe underhill could take a memory from people and turn her life into that memory that people had... thats how she disappeared and lived her life away from her family....

though her brother always found her and took her back home....

but it was time....

time to remember.... but could she do it.... could she remember who murdered her mother....

a family fraught with tension.... who had murdered her mother but already someone was trying to keep her there.... by taking away her access to money.... her cards had been stolen out of her bags.... who could she trust....

man this book is going to haunt me..... its compelling and shocking in equal measure but man this author can keep you on the edge of your seat....

cant wait for the next book from this author

Byrd Nash’s writing is what truly captivated me in Breathings of the Moon. Her prose has an ethereal quality that elevates the novel beyond a simple mystery-thriller, immersing the reader in a world full of secrets and intrigue. Every member of the Underhill family had their own distinct voice, and Nash gave them the perfect amount of page-time to make them feel real—whether that meant making them likable or, in Aunt Belle’s case, distinctly not.

The gifts (or curses) bestowed upon the Underhills were particularly intriguing, as they fit so well with who they were as individuals. It made their struggles feel even more personal and added depth to their family’s legacy. While I enjoyed the supernatural and mystery elements, I felt the romantic relationship in the book was somewhat misplaced. I would have preferred if it had been left more ambiguous, creating tension about whether it would ever truly develop rather than progressing as much as it did.

Additionally, I wish there had been a deeper descent into madness for Zoe. While she certainly didn’t deserve it, that unraveling of the mind is something I enjoy in thrillers, and a darker turn could have made the story even more gripping. In regards to genre, this book was definitely more on the mystery side of the mystery/thriller genre.

Overall, Breathings of the Moon is a beautifully written novel with well-crafted characters and a unique blend of mystery and the supernatural. While there were aspects I wished had been explored differently, the writing kept me engaged from beginning to end.

The magical realism in this book was so well done and this is probably one of my favourite books. I started off kind of disliking the book, but stuck with it and by about 20% into the book I was hooked. I cried, I laughed and I was on the edge of my seat. I absolutely loved it.

I was hesitant to read this even though I love the author and her other books because I’ve only ever enjoyed 2 books with the use of memory. This book officially makes it 3. I should have never doubted her. That was my mistake.

This book is so soft but unyielding in its tragedy and heartache. However, it is also full of hope and love. My favorite aspect aside from the setting and characters was actually how memory was used in this book to be magical, but also tied to the reality that many face. I don’t want to give away spoilers, but Nash does such a good job at making you love and hate characters, and man, did I hate a few of them.

3.7 Stars
One Liner: Great premise; wanted more from it

Zoe Underhill can share other people’s memories with just a touch. She can even take on their memories to become a new person. This ancestral gift made her run far away to live a life free of chaos and dysfunctional drama. However, Zoe’s brother comes for her; their mother (who disappeared twenty years ago) has been found dead. To find the truth, her brother needs Zoe’s help to access the memories of their family members and separate emotions from facts.
Legend says Abraham Underhill, Zoe’s ancestor stopped by the Gale in 1898 to save Kingstowe. In return, he and his family were gifted strange powers. The townsfolk are wary of the Underhill family because of this.
As the 130th anniversary of the Gale approaches, Zoe realizes that she needs to tap into the past and her own memories to find the truth.
The story comes from Zoe’s first-person POV.

My Thoughts:
I’ve enjoyed the author’s works before, so was excited to read this one. The premise is terrific. Imagine a person with the power to see your memories with just a touch!
There’s a bit of everything, which can make it hard to highlight a single genre. It has dysfunctional family drama, a mystery about the mother’s disappearance, paranormal abilities, and a touch of romance.
The family drama gets the highest marks. The tension, toxicity, and stress of living with such people are very well done. I could feel the same itch as Zoe, to escape the house and go somewhere peaceful. The relationship dynamics are complex and the characters are just as messy, adding to the feeling of suffocation. This can be a trigger for some readers.
The mystery is okay, decent enough as the family drama often takes over. Can’t help it since both tracks are interconnected. I could guess the killer halfway through and got it right, though I didn’t know the reason until the reveal.
The FMC’s abilities are shown through various scenes. This makes it easy to understand how her abilities work as well as see the side effects. I like her enough, though something feels missing. I can’t point out what exactly, sorry!
The MMC, Duncan, is the right type of counterpart for the FMC. His stability and steadfastness are evident. It is easy to see why the FMC is attracted to his calm and assured personality. At the same time, he is competent and assertive; just not in-your-face type, and a very comforting presence to have around.
While the story definitely has some atmosphere, I was hoping for more. I need to feel the storm and salty sea breeze around me. Some scenes were quite there but some weren’t.
The side characters have definite personalities. I like that the relationship between Zoe and her brother is a bit strained but they also share a deep sibling bond. It feels realistic.
The climax is pretty cool. I like how the resolution aligns with the character’s personality and delivers justice.
However, the ending is more of HFN and a bit open-ish. An epilogue set a year or two later would have helped a lot. I want to know if the nasty old aunt got what she deserved. Maybe newsletter subscribers can get a bonus epilogue (hint, hint).

To summarize, Breathings of the Moon is an intriguing and dark story about family secrets, memories, and relationships.
Thank you, NetGalley and Rook and Castle (Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles), for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Breathings of the Moon is magic realism with a murder mystery, dysfunctional family dynamics, and some ghostly elements. The book was well written, fast paced, and engaging. Character backgrounds explained the motivations and actions of all the main players in a believable way. This is magic realism at its best, when the magic is seamlessly integrated into stories and lives of the characters. Solid 4 stars.

*Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC for an honest review. All opinions are my own*