What a devastating read. I loved how well the author was able to put you in both main characters shoes while facing a divorce.

However, I didn't feel drawn to either character. I was more sad for the situation rather than the characters feelings or issues.

The prose was wonderful and I loved how the story revolves around the Half Moon.

My thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Books for an e-ARC of this novel.

The Half Moon centers around Malcolm and Jess, whose marriage is crumbling under financial woes and infertility. In the course of one week, their future will be decided as the fate of their marriage hangs in the balance.

Mary Beth Keane so beautifully weaves this story together, patient with her pacing and crafting such real characters. She gives us such an intimate view of their marriage, the heartache of infertility, the crippling weight of debt, it almost feels to personal to read, all while layering their backstories perfectly into her prose.

This novel is for any fan of character driven novels that leave them feeling different than when they first picked it up.

Loved Ask Again Yes and The Half Moon did not disappoint! The book centers around a married couple’s relationship (Malcolm and Jess). Malcolm is the owner of a bar (the half moon) and Jess is an NYC lawyer. The couple struggled with infertility, which led to turbulence in their marriage. This book has so many relatable points and works with the theme of how little decisions or events in life can determine the rest of your life trajectory. The book is mostly told from Malcolm’s POV but we get a bit of a glimpse into Jess’s world as well. Would highly recommend and I’ll read pretty much anything from this author!

Much like "Ask Again Yes," "The Half Moon" tells the story of a couple torn apart and brought back together. Malcolm owns a struggling bar and is caught up in a cycle of debt he is unable to pay. His wife, Jess, is crushed by her infertility and begins to wonder if she might be happier elsewhere. The book unfolds over the course of a week, as Jess and Malcolm navigate a terrible snow storm. Through flashbacks, the reader gets a glimpse of their earliest love and its eventual unraveling. Mary Beth Keane is nothing if not a hopeless romantic so this book does find its end with a warm gentleness. I found this to be a sensitive and moving portrait of an aging couple, with beautiful prose about the habits we form in relationships. I mean, this sentence alone: "She thought of the show she'd fallen asleep to earlier that week, on National Geographic, about spiders, how they're born knowing how to weave a web, without ever having seen one, without imagining what a web could be for."

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I don’t know how else to describe my first book by Mary Beth Keane except to say it totally knocked my socks off! This is a story of love and marriage, of friends and family, of loyalty and despair, and learning how to trust in the one you love. Being a long-time married person, I am fascinated with the workings of couples, relationships, and successful marriages.

Malcolm and Jess have been married for quite some time and have been trying for a baby for several years. On the surface, they seem a bit mismatched as Malcolm the long-time bar manager just bought a bar without Jess’s approval and Jess is an attorney who feels less than a woman after multiple IVF attempts to get pregnant. Once madly in love, they are having communication problems and are drifting apart.

With problems at the bar increasing, Malcolm does not give Jess the attention she needs, and their marriage begins to unravel leaving Malcolm clueless. Their friends try to help, but he is stoic and continues in his usual way. It was interesting reading their story and trying to understand how they came to this point.

I really enjoyed the book and Keane’s writing style, so much so that I am looking at her backlist. I thoroughly recommend this book and thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest opinion. I gave it four and one-half stars rounded up to five!

Very real story about the heartbreak and strength of a marriage in trying times. Malcolm and Jess share their highs and lows in the span of a week, yet the author takes us back in time and leaves a glimpse of their future together. I enjoyed this book immensely as it was so authentic. Trigger warning: pregnancy loss.

Mary Beth Keane's previous novel Ask Again, Yes is a stunning look at life among the working and middle class in suburban New York City. Most of the characters are police or related to someone in law enforcement, and this is central to the plot. The Half Moon shares this trait-the title refers to the bar owned by Malcolm, and is important to the story, also set in the NYC metropolitan area. Malcolm is the hero of The Half Moon-he's a middle aged man struggling to keep his bar afloat while his lawyer wife yearns for more. It is Malcolm that will keep you vested in the novel, and you'll feel the same anger and frustration he does at giving his all to his wife and business, but still watch them fall apart. Malcolm and Jess have tried unsuccessfully for years to have a baby. Malcolm has mostly accepted their childless status, not so much for Jess. Among their friends and coworkers having a baby is a given-but for Jess and Malcolm their "no kids" status has them floundering as though they were dropped in a foreign country without knowing the language. While every marriage is unique, most breakups happen because of money, in laws, or cheating- in The Half Moon it's lack of money and a wayward spouse. Miss Keane writes with unparalleled depth and insight into a failing marriage. Especially for Malcolm her words are intense as any thriller. The plot veers into The Godfather territory-with burly gangsters threatening Malcolm for an unpaid loan, and underhanded dealings by some of the secondary characters. This is a small distraction from a beautifully told family drama, but is necessary for the conclusion. Few write from the heart as well as Mary Beth Keane-and that's something you'll never have to ask again.

THe Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane gradually becomes an interesting novel but the first half is so redundant with telling of Jess' s side of the story as well as Malcolm' s which is initially the same. After Trigg' s disappearance the action picks up to some extent, but it is mainly a marriage in trouble because of finances.

Mary Beth Keane (MBK), author of Ask Again, Yes, is back with her latest novel: The Half Moon.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT?...
The Half Moon is a work of fiction about a couple, their relationship, owning and running a bar, the people who spend time in it, and the insecurities that face adults in relationships.

YOU'LL LIKE IT IF...
-You like storylines that are realistic and relatable
-You prefer character studies over an action-packed plot
-You're intrigued by marriages and how they can fall apart

THE BOTTOM LINE...
Although great character development is on full display, instances of jumping back and forward in timeline isn't as smooth as it could be and it''s difficult to ignore. If Ask Again, Yes didn't exist and this is the first book you've read from MBK, it may not be enough to convince you to keep up with her future work.

Thank you to Scribner for providing an copy via NetGalley.

Malcom and Jess are separated and the evening the story opens there is a blizzard starting. The couple tried for years to have a child and are now both at a crossroad in their lives. Malcom is pursuing his dream of owning the bar and Jess is a successful attorney. Also that evening a regular customer of the Half Moon goes missing. The entire story takes place in one week.

The author wrote Ask Again, Yes which I’ve recommended to anyone who loves a family drama and character driven novels. AAY was a Book of the Month selection and hopefully this one will be as well because now I need a copy for my bookshelf! Thank you to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for an early digital copy.
Expected pub date: May 2, 2023
Pages: 304

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of The Half Moon in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own.

I will be honest, this is not usually a genre I gravitate toward, but a friend highly recommended this book, so I thought I'd give it a read.

In a super short synopsis, this story follows Malcolm & Jess (husband & wife) over the course of a week as they come to terms with where their lives are at and what they previously wanted and currently want out of life and what they need to do to make that happen.

Sadly, I'm still not a fan of this genre & type of story. I just couldn't really get immersed in it as much as others who really loved it. I want to say that this is SOLEY a "Me" thing. This story has stellar reviews and I am definitely the odd man out. Because of this, I am giving a middle of the road star rating at 3.

The story was slow to start and I have a hard time with slow starters. It pretty much has me dreading picking it up from the beginning. The story did pick up and I did relate and feel for the characters, but it just didn't move me as much as it did other. Again, that's just me!

If this is a genre you like and the storyline is something that sounds good to you, DEFINITELY give this a read. I am sure you will love it it. It just wasn't for me.

I loved the story of Ask Again, Yes and was excited to read Mary Beth Keane's new novel, The Half Moon. It is the story of a couple: Malcolm who is finally able to buy a bar where he has bartended for many years, The Half Moon, and Jess, a lawyer who is brokenhearted over failed IVF attempts. The writing is beautiful, but the first half of the book is heartbreakingly depressing: financial despair, infertility, miscarriages, broken dreams and infidelity.

The story takes place over the course of one week in which two winter storms shut down their community and a patron of their bar goes missing. I did not feel that this plotline was well weaved into this story. I appreciated that the author treated both Malcolm and Jess fairly. Both of them had good aspects and attributes that needed attention.


Thank you to Net Galley and Scribner for generously providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I initially hesitated when I was offered an advanced review copy of this one as I had awarded Ms. Keane’s first novel, Ask Again, Yes, only 3 stars, and I tend to grade high. In my opinion there were a lot of positives to that book but also several disappointing issues as well. In the end, I decided to go ahead and try The Half Moon, and I am glad I did! I admit the start was slow as it took me a while to warm up to the protagonist, Malcolm. Once I did, I became totally immersed in the story.

This book is about the deterioration of a marriage after both partners develop problems with their individual lifelong dreams—Malcolm’s being to own and run a bar and wife Jess’s to have a baby. The bar is not doing well, and there is no baby after years of trying. The journey is arduous for both, with neither grasping why the other is reacting as they are to their failing dream. Friends and family become involved, making the situation more complex. There are also side tales of a mystery of sorts, an affair, and dirty dealings.

I loved the masterful way Ms. Keane wrote the character of Malcolm. I felt I really got to know him by the end of the book. He is not perfect by any means, but I grew to understand him. I also really liked his wife, Jess. She is smart and knows when to change course in her life. She also cares deeply for Malcolm flaws and all.

I thought the storyline as well as the characters were realistic. The former however is depressing at times, and I wondered how anyone could come out of it okay, especially Malcolm.
I appreciated the way the ending was written. It was believable and not all tied up nice and neat, just like real life. But it was hopeful, which satisfied me. I do wish there had been an epilogue though.

Overall, this is a depthy tale of a marriage in trouble. I was impressed and will seek out Ms. Keane’s next book without any prodding. Highly recommended for those looking for something real.

I would like to thank Ms. Ashley Gilliam of Scribner (Simon & Shuster) Books, Net Galley, and Ms. Mary Beth Keane for an advanced copy. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

Wow! This was an amazing book. I loved Ask Again, Yes so I was thrilled to be able to read Mary Beth Keane’s new one. I was fully expecting to give it 5 stars, but I felt like it dragged a little in the middle. It’s a solid 4.5 though. Amazing character development, non linear timeline, and brilliant writing style.

This made Mary Beth Keane an auto-buy author for me. She writes such well developed characters even those that only play a minor role in the story. This is a story about the choices and different paths we take in life. It is about love and loss, marriage and family, and hope and disappointment.

I really loved this novel about relationships and choices. It sucked me in right away and I read it in a day. Highly recommend.

If one were to do a survey of the larger stressors life can put on a marriage, Jess and Malcolm have had more than their fair share. Infertility, financial strain, the ups and downs of owning a local bar called The Half Moon, and--most recently--swirling rumors of a one-sided infidelity.

Set over the course of one week's time against the backdrop of a debilitating snowstorm in the Northeast, "The Half Moon" is a slow burn character examination of an ordinarily-imperfect marriage across its origin, past, and fractured present. Despite being a fairly straightforward general fiction novel, the amount of sheer concentration it took to read this book was frustrating from the onset; unfortunately, I attribute this both to Keane's heavy-handed narration and the nonlinear timeline jumps that occur throughout the story with nearly-imperceptible context clues.

All in all, the premise coupled with Keane's praise for "Ask Again Yes" was enough for me to dive into "The Half Moon" without a second thought. Regrettably, I could feel myself forgetting this book as I was reading it. For such an ordinary story, it needed extraordinary heart, characters, or prose to make it stand out; and I'm sorry to say that for me, all three were lacking.

This is a wonderful family drama. Real feeling characters with every day life problems. I found myself routing for Jess and Malcom. They really screwed up, but they deserved happiness. Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley

This novel is a slow burn. It takes place over a week in a small town in the North East that suffers two snowstorms. It concerns a married couple in their forties, Malcolm who owns a rundown bar, the Half Moon, that barely provides him with a living, and Jess, a lawyer. They have been unsuccessfully trying to get her pregnant at huge expense and their failure is now causing Jess to question her life and marriage which enters a crisis. Mary Beth Keane uses flashbacks effectively to flesh out their past lives and parental background. We get to hear Malcolm's and Jess's inner thoughts; both come across as sympathetic.

The presence and effect of the snow storms on everyone is vividly depicted. Keane's strongest gift is her creation of psychologically complex characters, All of them suffer from life's frustrations while retaining a sense of responsibility to one anther. Keane does introduce one bar habitué who proves criminal in the end. This entire subplot seems extraneous, an attempt to add tension that feels artificial. Her forte is not plotting but psychological depth, and that is what makes this novel worth reading.

My thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

5 huge stars!!! Mary Beth Keane is a master at character development and her latest novel The Half Moon is the perfect example! This heartstring pulling novel centers around Malcolm and Jess, a couple who are in a disaster of a marriage that neither can recognize. Going between the past and present, we get a fly-on-the-wall view of the twists and turns Malcolm and Jess took to get to their current state of affairs. With finding themselves at an imperative crossroad, I was absolutely captivated as to what Mary Beth Keane had in mind for them! I found myself so invested in their marriage that I devoured this book! The Half Moon would make a fantastic book club selection—I highly recommend this novel!