I didn't get the chance to review this book but it looks like such an intriguing premise and can't wait to read it further down the line!

Unfortunately this wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t read it until the end, I’m sorry. I can’t review what I didn’t read. The 2 stars are for the cover, it’s a minimalistic one which I like.

I know that this is an ARC, but I felt that it wasn't as polished as it should be for it to have reached that stage. There were times that I just didn't understand what was going on. I felt like the author was trying too hard, and not quite leaving a mark - except confusion. I was just bored and confused most of the time, and it didn't pack the punch that the premise led me to hope for.

The premise of this book was good, I really liked the idea behind it. The structure of the book was a little hard to follow, I think mostly because the motivations of the characters seemed a little unclear. For most of the book I found myself getting along fairly okay with everything, however the last 1/4 threw me off entirely. The resolutions felt a little forced and the women were there only to further Kiran's actions, rather than be fully fledged characters themselves.

I got 30% into this and just did not care about anything that was happening. It's not the book for me.

First, thank you to Netgalley for this ARC. 

Sadly, I struggled through this one and only finished it because I needed to see what exactly happened at the river but BOY I struggled. 

I didn't like the characters nor their friendship. They talked about how much they stuck up for each other and how "friends always support friends" but it didn't really feel like it. 

30 year old Kiran is haunted by what happened at the river back in highschool and returns to his hometown to sort things out. So from there the story abruptly recounts his past except I didn't even realize when the flashback started. 

It just generally felt confusing and unrelatable and I lost interest in the mystery very quickly. I hate giving such low ratings to books because authors work so hard but this one just didn't do it for me.

What an utterly fabulous book. It had everything you need to make a great book. A book which you easily get sucked into.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Mark Paul Oleksiw for giving me the opportunity to read this fab book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

A wonderful story about friendship, the past mixed with the present. 
It was a bit slow for me, and it is not surprising that I find many people who kept putting this book down.
Overall, I found it to be a great reminder of how friendships of the past shape our futures.

Although a pretty good story, it gets confusing with its time-jumping sometimes. The main character's development is little and frustrating at best. The end is unexpected in a weird and not precisely good way.

This is a lovely coming-of-age novel about three friends, Kiran, Marius, and Moony and a tragic accident that takes place the night of high school graduation. The fleeting memories haunt Kiran and as a successful young 30-something, he suddenly quits his job and returns to his hometown, spurred on by a newspaper clipping sent to him anonymously. Anxious to recover his memories of that night, he recalls those high school years including his friendships with the two and his unrequited love for Laura, a girl in his English class. It's a story of redemption, young love, friendship, and familial love. Very sweet and tender!

Wow!  This was just a wonderful book!  It had mystery, pain, beauty and redemption.  Olesiw is an immensely talented writer who produces realistic characters and story lines.  I spent an entire day just completely in the thrall of THE BOYS WHO DANCED WITH THE MOON.

A really inventive and wonderfully written story that will appeal to fans of Simon Mason and Matt Haig.
Full of mystery and feeling, you’ll get completely invested in the characters and uncovering the truth.

I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of this book.  Getting to know the characters and what was driving each of them in the here and now was very interesting.  That being said, I was sort of disappointed in the last 1/4 of the book.  I felt that the ending was rather rushed and rather unsatisfying.

This one took me a bit to get into, I kept putting it down and coming back to it. 

The characters were well written, and I loved the mix of current and flashback, and especially the ending. Great read, just a bit slow at first for me!

I tried reading this for about a month now but can’t get past 15%. It’s super slow and boring and honestly not worth reading when I can read something else that I actually enjoy. Maybe it’s just me because other people have loved it. It’s about a man who drowned his best friend when he was younger (I think it was an accident) and he is still trying to move on. Then someone starts sending him newspapers about the incident, dated from when it happened. Honestly, that’s as much as I can give you since I didn’t get far. I just found it extremely boring and the characters were boring. You know how some books are vague at the beginning  and then it all starts to make sense as you keep reading? Well this one was so vague you couldn’t really understand what was happening. Maybe I will try to read it again later.

While I am rating this book one star, it's because of ME and my total inability to connect with this book and is not a reflection on the book itself. 

Initially I had a really hard time getting into this book and the first 40% of it, I was pretty bored. Other than that the flow of the book sort of threw me off and it just made it hard for me to want to binge it. I didn't really connect to their friendship either and sometimes found it pretty unhealthy or at least not what I'm personally looking for in a friendship. Teenage Kiren creeped me out so hard, his whole obsession is built around someone who he's barely even spoken with? It doesn't sit completely right with me. I enjoyed the parts dealing with teenaged Kiren more than the ones dealing with the adult version of him, and I found the young!Kiren part pretty nice and easy to read. Also, the teenagers in this book never fully felt or acted like teenagers to me. I don't know why really, it's just a gut feeling more than anything. 

While there definitely wasn't anything objectively wrong with this book, I cannot give it more than one star simply because of how much I didn't connect with the book whatsoever. For a certain type of reader, the kind that prefers slow and dreamlike books, this would probably be a total hit though.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is my first non-fantasy book after such a long time. I was so used to reading fantasy books that I forgot that not all arcs that I received are fantasy. I was quite disappointed when I realized The Boys who danced with the Moon is not a fantasy book -the title seems fitting tho. 

The arc that I received, the font is a bit different than the other digital copies I have. So I was already a little put off by it. And the first few pages had too many words to explain something that could have been said with much lesser words than used. Because for me, the longer the explanation, the more confused I would be -as I would just skim over it. 

The book is written in Kiran's pov. I like his name -different. The chapters alternate between the present and the past. I dislike this setting as it is too confusing and it makes me bias over which scenarios I want to read. In this case, I preferred the past over the present. The past is very fun, happy and colorful. There's a lot of things happening, and friendship forming. The present, on the other hand, is gloomy, dark and a little depressing. 

However, as the present starts to get more interesting and eventful, I look forward to them more than the past -since I could already guess what would happen. I am glad that Kiran and Marius had the closure they needed all along. I didn't think it would happen that fast, but I don't know -different friendships have different ways? 

The thing that I don't like about the ending is the romance. I really think that it is unnecessary. With everything that is happening, suddenly there's romance. I just could not comprehend that. I mean, yes he was mesmerized by her before. But that was like years ago, and they haven't spoken to each other throughout those years at all.

I was so glad that the story revolves around friendship and closure that I was so disappointed and mad that the author just had to include love at the end. Like it could not have waited?

Overall, the Boys who danced with the Moon is a great story about friendship and memories. But definitely, not a light read -it requires all your attention and time.

Oleksiw’s The Boys Who Danced With The Moon is a coming of age tale that follows Kiran Wells, a 30-something-year-old that is still fighting his past and the drowning of a loved friend back when he was still in high school, blaming himself for his death.  This book had a stand by  me premise but with a few twists of its own.  Not a bad book and I would definitely give this book as a gift.

This book was, for me personally, a work of art.

Oleksiw’s The Boys Who Danced With The Moon is a coming of age tale that follows Kiran Wells, a 30-something-year-old that is still fighting his past and the drowning of a loved friend back when he was still in high school, blaming himself for his death.

Mostly through flashbacks, we get to know the story of three - Kiran, a quiet, loner type, with an interest into more obscure music, who writes poems; Marius, the protective type, big but with a huge heart; and Andrew, ‘Moony’, who is strange with his priest robe but funny and innocent at the same time. The author brings us into the lives of three teenage boys, battling troubles in school and in love, too.

I found this book astonishing as far as it comes to the writing style. There were so many beautiful lines that I kept marking off and that had somehow stuck with me during reading - the writing was beautiful and flowy and, although I imagine some may find this style distracting or strange, it allowed me to really understand the story more and understand the characters in themselves more than I would if this book was written differently.

The flashback-style usually distracts me in these kinds of stories, but I felt like it was perfect for this one. Although it got me a bit confused in the beginning, by the end of the book I wouldn’t have it any other way really. One thing that I also found really beautiful and perfect for this novel were the poems that were added into the book as written by Kiran as he was falling more and more in love with Laura and going through trouble with telling his parents he would prefer to go to some other university. Most of the poems made me stop my reading and made me read them again and again - they were all so beautiful, especially the last one - the one Kiran wanted to present to Laura as a parting gift.

I must admit, I didn’t expect the ending to go out as such and didn’t enjoy it as much as I did with the other parts of the book, so I think it deserves 4 out of 5 stars. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys poetry and a flowy style of reading, and a tale of boys becoming men and discovering themselves.

A bit slow at first... I didn't really feel "into it" at any point. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.