Cover Image: Valley of the Moon

Valley of the Moon

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Member Reviews

Lux Lysander was a daddy’s girl until puberty. As she began developing physically her father began distancing himself. An unplanned pregnancy completed the estrangement. Needing a break from stress, Lux decided to take a weekend alone camping at the Valley of the Moon. During the night she stepped out of her tent, into some fog , and ended up in the Greengage farm in 1906.

After initial confusion, Lux enjoyed learning about the community. Over the next 13 years she travelled intermittently back and forth from her time to Greengage. She felt most at peace during her time at Greengage. If she could stay, would she?

Lux finds friendship, acceptance, and love in Greengage. Her story shows personal growth through maturity. The ending is surprising and bittersweet. Romance and time travel - what a great combination!

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A book set in two times, perfect for people who love The Time Travelers Wife and Somewhere in Time. It's about Lux, a mother in the 1970s who finds a community and falls in love with a man born before her time.

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I had a hard time with this book. Originally I wanted it because it was time travel, the more I read the more I didn’t like the “voice” of the book. For me this made it hard to really get into it and enjoy. Frankly I think I was expecting more.

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This is a book filled with intrigue and magical realism. Those who love Sarah Addison Allen's books will really enjoy this one. I loved the juxtaposition between the two worlds. So fascinating.

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I loved this novel about Lux- a woman who thinks she's found the perfect place in Greengage until she must make a decision. It's a strong evocative read with a great character. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

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I tried to get into this story but eventually lost interest.
I LOVED the cover and the description of the book but in the end the story fell short for me and I was unable to finish.

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Very interesting and unique book. In 1906, a small farming community find itself enclosed by fog after the San Francisco earthquake, which inexplicably kills anyone trying to leave. In 1975, a woman named Lux accidentally stumbles through the fog into the community - where it's still 1906! Chapters alternate between Lux's perspective, and that of Joseph, the founder of the farming community. It was a little slow at the beginning, and I found the character of Lux somewhat irritating, but the end of the book was absolutely phenomenal and moving, and raised the book to 4 stars.

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Thank you for the chance to review this book, however, unfortunately, I was unable to download this title before it was archived

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I was intrigued by the idea of this book- I'm a sucker for time travel. I'd say this was an entertaining read, but not an exceptional one.

You probably already know the idea behind the book- a small commune-like community is mysteriously isolated after an earthquake in the 1920's. A fog surrounds the farm and anyone who tries to go through the fog dies. Fortunately, this is a remarkably self-sufficient farm and enough food can be grown to support everyone stuck there.

Lux, a single mom living in San Francisco in the 1970's chances upon fog while camping and discovers this community. After some experimentation, the "rules" seem to be that she can come and go as long as the moon is full- that's when both times seem to align. She's the only one who can do this, at least as far as they can tell. She might "slip" in returning to her time and come back later than she expected, and when she's in the 1970's the fog doesn't always appear.

The underlying theme of the novel seems to be that you never know when life as you know it will be disrupted or when you will lose someone. Unfortunately, I'm not sure this theme was really explored well. Lux, although a single mom herself, never thinks about how her own mother might be feeling about Lux's estrangement from her parents. She has no idea how to repair her relationship with her father. She almost ruins her relationship with her son. And the fog device was used to make dramatic shifts in the plot when the author needed something to happen. I wasn't always pleased by how this worked- too deus ex machina for me.

Lux falls in love with the 1920's commune/farm. However, she never seems to think about how to translate that love into something she can do back in her own time. She decides to go back to school, but not for anything related to agriculture or the land- instead she picks banking, mostly because she got a job at a bank through a temp agency. Lux seemed to be marking time in her own era, only truly coming alive when going back to the past, but didn't seem to want to change her present life into something more like the farm. And in the 70's there were certainly quite a few communes in northern California to pick from if you wanted.

So, the main character didn't seem to learn lessons from her experience, although I as the reader thought about these things. There's also a romance that I really thought was unnecessary.

On the other hand, I was interested in Lux and her journey, warts and all. The descriptions of the farm made me want to go there too, I'll admit. Although I don't think the themes of the book were explored thoroughly enough, and sometimes the author used a heavy hand in manipulating the plot, it was a relaxing read for a bit of an escape. Ironic, I suppose- using a book about time travel to escape for a bit into another time ( at least in my head!).

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This story pulled me in from the beginning Lux could have had everything in her life but her rebellion caused her to be alone. She had her friends and her son, however she was estranged from her family. When her parents called to take her son for the summer she decides to take a camping trip but when a strange fog shows up she will be transported to a different place and her life will change forever. She will now have two separate lives on in the present and one in the past.

This was a beautiful written story that nails the time differences. It makes you want to believe that there is another world out there.

** I received my copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

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What a wonderful idea for a story! Love across time.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.This book turned out to be just ok to me. I really like the time travel component, but I didn't feel there was enough time devoted to that. Overall, I didn't find the characters very interesting and I found the storyline to move along at a rather slow pace.

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Greengage, California 1906: Joseph Bell is the keeper of a farm, which over the years has grown into a large community of people. They live happily there, until the big San Francisco earthquake of 1906 happens. The community is overshadowd by a toxic fog. No one can go out or they will not make it out alive. They are not sure when help is coming their way or if there ever will be help.

San Francisco, 1975. Lux is a single mother living with her son Benno in an apartment. She is a waitress and is in for some vacation time. Her best friend Rhonda advices her to go on a retreat in the woods, while Lux''s grandparents will take care of Benno. Later that week she is camping in the woods and going for a little walk, and walks to what she sees as a fog. She sees some light in the distance, and when she walks closer, she sees a building with people inside. When she gets closer and looks inside, she sees people in old fashioned clothing. She decides to enter the building..and steps right into the world of Joseph Bell and his community who are stuck in 1906! At firsthand is wondering why they are there in those Little House on the Prairie clothes, are they shooting a movie, do they have a theme party? Joseph explains to her that they can't go past the fog.
It seems that the community has been stuck there for 17 years, waiting for help or for the fog to vanish. The strange thing is: only Lux is able to go through it back and forth. And so she informs Joseph and the community about her world in 1975, and how that world is in her time period.

Back home, Benno and her inner circle are growing more curious about where she is traveling to all the time, and when she finally tells them the truth, they found it hard to believe, this change a little when she takes Benno with her in the end. The strange thing is, that in 1975 no historic record can be found of Greengage, like it never existed. Every day she is more strongly drawn in by the sweet simplicity of life in Greengage, and by the irresistible connection she feels with a man born decades before her. Soon she finds herself torn between her ties to the modern world, her adored son and the first place she has ever felt truly at home..

I had this book on my ereader for quite a while, and recently I finally had the time to start reading it. From the beginning the author has made it a highly entertaining and gripping story that you just can't put down. It was so crazy that Joseph was stuck in 1906 and Lux could walk into that time period.Like some sort of backward science fiction.
I was a little dissapointed with the ending, but further on, without giving too much spoilers away, this book that travels back and forth in time is one not to miss!

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The beginning was a bit confusing but settles quickly with the story split between Joseph in 1906 and Lux now. I enjoyed when Lux tried to explain technologies and the situation in the world to Joseph. It made me ask myself how I would try to explain stuff to people not familiar with our world.
The excitement in the story was the wait. It was not always possible to move between the time periods with a full moon. The way Lux reacted was often a bit to much. I was wondering why she wanted to go back so badly despite all the trouble it gave her.
The book was very heavy on political correctness . Equality between men and women in 1906 preached by Joseph. The attention that Joseph is not the leader because he is a man but because he is a natural leader. I do support all this but it was a bit to much at moments. The pace of the story was a bit of a problem for my reading too. The jumping timeline. The differences in the speed of the lives.
I liked Benno the most. I would have loved to know more about his thoughts and how he experienced things. The atmosphere in the book is fun though and it is a good read for a rainy day.

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