This is a story of the dreams we have, the ones that come true, and those that don’t. The desires of a married couple whose visions seem blinded by their individual desires.

Malcolm Gephardt, is a bartender at one of those bars where it seems everyone there knows the lives of each other inside and out. Malcolm is married to Jess, a lawyer, who loves her life with Malcolm, and as much as she loves her career, what she really wants is to have a baby. And they try, over and over they try, spending money they really can’t afford to spend in order for Jess’s wish to come true, in addition to the therapist they’re seeing - who isn’t cheap - to deal with their struggles over if/when to stop trying to conceive.

Malcolm’s boss is retiring and Malcolm decides this is the time to make his dream of owning a bar a reality. He has years of ideas he’s collected to make it attractive to a broader clientele, and therefore more prosperous. The problem is that while he’s spent years there as a bartender, knows his side of the business inside and out, he knows very little about owning and running a business successfully.

Meanwhile, Jess is still focused on wanting to have a baby, even though all of their attempts to conceive had failed, and those bills are adding up, as well. She needs time to decide on what this means, what to do next, unwilling to let go of this desire, despite how much it is draining them both, physically and financially. She needs a break from their lives together.

And then everything seemingly collapses like dominoes. An epic blizzard changes everything, one of Malcolm’s regular customers appears to be missing, the power is out, there are people that need to be checked on, and decisions that need to be made.

A story of family, of love - who, how, and why we love, the decisions that follow when all seems lost, and learning to accept love for what it is.


Pub Date: 02 May 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Scribner

Mary Beth Keane has the ability to paint a visceral picture of the pain of human relationships and like Ask Again, Yes she does it flawlessly in The Half Moon. Keane is able to depict how a crisis in a marriage, such as infertility can chip away at the individual soul of the woman, and the helpless and silent grief of the man, leading both to wonder what to do with themselves and their dreams. The differing points of view gave me insight into each of their experiences leading me to cheer for, and yell in frustration around the decisions they make to tear each other apart and come together in grief.

Thanks for the ARC NetGalley and Scribner!

This is a beautifully written tale of a marriage and the trials and tribulations of surviving it. It’s character-driven and very relatable. Very poignant and lovely with a twist or two along the way.

My thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I enjoy domestic dramas about how tough marriage can be so this was right up my alley, I did definitely enjoy this but found it to be a bit slow in parts. Still absolutely worth the read.

After a long battle with infertility, bar owner Malcolm and lawyer-wife Jess come to an impasse. She looks elsewhere, and he is basically running the bar into the ground with no way out. At the same time, there's an epic snow storm and a questionable bar patron who goes missing.

I blew through this, wanting to know if they work it out, if the bar makes it, if there's a baby, I appreciate how Mary Beth Keane writes male characters, and how she manipulates time. Very solid, if not necessarily ground breaking.

A fantastic family drama! I loved Ask Again Yes and this did not disappoint. Keane beautifully portrays the ups and downs of family life and all the emotions that accompany it. A must read!!!

This story was interesting because it wasn’t anything spectacular meaning some over the top story. It was deep and real. It was something that could happen to us when we fall into the routines of our everyday life. I appreciated that part of the story.

The realness of this story made it hard to read at times, it touched a level of vulnerability that anyone married for the long haul can relate. Much like Ask Again, Yes this book will stay with me long after reading.

The Half Moon is an interesting look into a marriage and the emotional and physical toll of infertility treatments. There is more to the story, of course, but Keane depicts the strain (financial, physical and emotional) of multiple fertility treatments on the relationship between Jess and Malcolm. Coupled with differing ideas about life and the future, the marriage goes through a lot. I really loved the details in this novel. The characters are multi-dimensional and the way they relate was very real. The mystery between a bar customer and employee added another plot line which also brings to question the choices we make in life and how those decisions can affect the course of our future.

Keane writes beautifully and with compassion about every day problems of ordinary people. You care about the characters and at the end there is always hope. Recommended!

I tend to have an unusual way of rating the books I review, I read on cardio machines in the gym. If my 35 minute stint seems to go by in a flash, it's either a four or a five star review.. If, on the other hand, it feels twice as long as the actual time worked out, I tend to rate lower.

I had heard such good things about Mary Beth Keane's previous novel Ask Again, Yes, that I was totally delighted to have been approved for the ARC of her new one. Truth be told, it's closer to 3 1//////2 stars because the writing is good. Perhaps I was put off by the alternating point of view of the chapters without an early clarification of whether it was Jess or Malcom's viewpoint.

So many novels are about marriage, as this one is, but I don't know why I should have found the entire premise difficult to believe. Malcolm is the owner of a bar in suburban New York City. He has been bartending there from before buying it from the time he was in his teens. It has been his life. Jess, his wife, an attorney, obviously better educated by drowning in tuition loan payouts, does not seem to be the perfect match described. There is little more than physical attraction keeping them together.

Aside from their lack of real communication, I could not understand how Jess decided to leave Malcolm and move in with a divorcee with three young children. Okay, I understand that she wanted kids whereas Malcolm had had enough of unsuccessful IVF (costly) treatments to let it go.

There are two mothers (his and hers) and two friends who interfere, and ultimately, everything works out, (sort of.). There is also a, mysterious disappearance of a bar patron and a part-time bartender, and some hanky panky perpetrated by the previous owner of The Half Moon Bar. All in all, this left me unsatisfied and made by time at the gym seem interminable.

As always, thanks to NetGalley and Scribner's/Simon and Schuster for the chance to read this novel pre-publication in exchange for an honest review..

Keane's magic is in her ability to write characters that feel intimate and fully-developed. "The Half Moon" looks closely at the relationship between Malcolm, a bartender who dreams of owning his own bar. And Jess, a lawyer, who dreams of motherhood. The backdrop of a silent and snowy town in the middle of a power outage creates the space for a deep reflection of the marriage. A heart wrenching and deeply personal look at love and how it can transform, stretch, and grow over time.

I feel very medium about The Half Moon. The novel felt slow paced to me, and I wasn't always compelled to pick it up and continue reading. It is more of a character-driven novel but I don't feel like I ever really had a connection to the characters and they felt a bit flat to me. I especially had trouble picturing the main female character, Jessica — big city lawyer but also small town girl who (at one point) was very happy hanging at her husband's bar (The Half Moon). As a character I couldn't quite wrap my head around her and her personality. There were certain points in the book when I felt we were on the cusp of some exciting moment that would enliven the plot, but those moments always just sort of fizzled.

I saw a lot of similarities between this book and Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes (town setting of Gillam, marital strife, small-town working class characters - cops, etc.). If I had to pick between the two, Ask Again, Yes felt more exciting and like an epic work spanning the lifetimes of the characters, and The Half Moon never seemed to have the excitement or emotional depth to make it compelling to me.

I should say Keane's writing is strong, but the plot (of lack thereof) in this book just didn't click for me.

The Half Moon is the story of Malcolm and Jess, a couple struggling to keep their marriage intact through infertility, a failing business, and both of their selfish decisions.

Perhaps I struggled with this book bc I’ve never dealt with any of the issues presented, but I could not find empathy for either main character. A good relationship is about being a team, and neither of them acted as such, even at the end. Had this not been an ARC I would have stopped reading halfway through this book.

There was also a subplot about one of the bar patrons who goes missing, which could have been left out entirely. It just felt like a distraction.

This book wasn’t for me, but if you like heady, character driven stories maybe you’ll be a fan.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC kindle version of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I read the summary, but as a person that struggles with infertility (and DOR, like Jess, specifically) this one hit a chord I was not prepared for when reading. Keane did a great job describing the endless hope, emotional exhaustion, and difficulties that the experience can bring upon even the strongest relationship. Similarly, I spent more than a decade in the service industry as a bartender, so I liked seeing that side pop up for Malcolm, too.

Sadly, though, that's sort of where my enjoyment stopped. Malcolm and Jess seemed to be doing a slow-motion beach run. How such a small town didn't quite know what was happening seemed unbelievable. Then, the almost mob-like secondary story line, the way characters never actually resolve any problems-just push them behind and move on-, and the oh-so-convenient offer that puts a bow on things at the end...it just all felt shallow and wasn't enjoyable for me.

Overall: 3 stars

I'll tell my students about: language, trauma, sex, infertility, adultery, alcohol, crime, fraud, infidelity, divorce,

**Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the free ARC prior to publication. All opinions expressed are my own.**

I really enjoyed the Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane. This is a story that is driven by it's characters. A domestic drama that encompasses marriage, separation, infertility, infidelity, and most importantly disappointment.

The half moon started off slow for me but eventually moved along well. There were some unexpected twists that I did not see coming which made it all the better!

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for this ARC of The Half Moon.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing an early copy of The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane

Author Mary Beth Keane has created another realistic and absorbing world of ambition, let-down and ultimate redemption in her new book The Half Moon. Flawed characters are at their best as they struggle with the realities of life that are not a part of their dreams.

Malcolm Gephardt is the owner of The Half Moon bar after taking it over in a less-than-sound business deal with retiring owner Hugh. Malcolm's goal is to make the bar a huge success; Malcolm's wife, Jess, nurses a very different goal: to become a mother. When these goals come into conflict, Malcolm and Jess turn from each other. Several secondary characters have their own parts to play and are completely believable in their relationships with Malcolm and Jess.

Mary Beth Keane writes in a direct but caring style and the reader will be engrossed with the turn of events that will lead to new insights into possibilities not previously imagined.

The Half Moon is a novel that tries to tell a small story that is occasionally hidden under big plot points, but ultimately falls short of successfully pulling it all off. At its core, this is a novel about Malcolm and Jess falling apart and maybe back together after several years of marriage, a marriage that has been strained by fertility problems and money problems and fidelity problems. For some reason, though, Keane is also telling a story of Big Plot Events that didn’t really work for me—arson, money laundering, and runaway criminals fill the back half of the book in a way I found baffling rather than satisfying.

At this point, I would read Keane's grocery list. This is a gorgeously written novel about family, love, and complexities of life, all set against the bar, The Half Moon. I absolutely loved it.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is about a marriage falling apart under multiple pressures and feels believable. But it's also a character driven story and nearly all the time is spent up in the heads of the two characters. That's not my jam and it didn't help that I didn't feel connected to either of them. This book was tiring to read - the format required you to pay close attention and the time jumps were clunky.