The Half Moon: The compelling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author

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This may be the most accurate portrayal of marriage I have ever read. Marriage can be messy. It can be all consuming and lonely at the same time. With marriage comes compromise but sometimes a person can only compromise so much. I loved both Malcolm and Jess. Neither one was perfect and both made mistakes but through it all they were still good people at their core. People you want to see happy and successful in their endeavors. My heart broke for their predicament. Keane took such care in crafting not only this story but the characters. Slow burn, quiet stories like these don't always work for me but I was completely invested in this couple and their outcome. For me, the ending was absolutely perfect. 4 stars! I’m drawn to quiet, contemplative stories about ordinary people dealing with hard things. While this didn’t have quite the impact of the author’s novel, Ask Again, Yes, I did enjoy it. The story is a heavy one, but, thankfully, the ending had a hopeful tone. Amidst a raging blizzard, one of the bar's regular patrons mysteriously goes missing. This event prompts both Jess and Malcolm to question their life choices. They wonder what they could have done differently to alter the course of their lives. Are they truly happy? Are they content with the individuals they have become? Most importantly, they ponder the question: "What is it they plan to do with their one wild and precious life?"

The Half Moon - Mary Beth Keane

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. With their mounting debt looming over them and their unsuccessful attempts at parenthood a long standing resentment has begun to fracture the pair. Why should one of them have to give up their dream for the other? Student Loans, failed medical treatments, and the cost of owning a bar that has been in disrepair for years-has caused their debt to pile up, and their dreams are crumbling fast.

I might have liked the small town depiction of this story (with its nosy characters who know everything about others and nothing about themselves) had I not been reading another novel set in a small town that has handled the same brilliantly. This felt staid in comparison. There’s nothing I can do about that,” Keane adds, speaking on the pressure to compete with such a market hit. “You just have to write the book that you want to write at the moment.” His smart and confident wife, Jess, has devoted herself to her law career. After years of trying for a baby, she is facing the idea that motherhood may not be in the cards for her. Like Malcolm, she feels her youth beginning to slip away and wonders how to reshape her future. Main characters who are in their forties but behave as if they are in their twenties. Jessica and Malcolm have many secrets from each other despite their long relationship. This should have made them realistic, but their baseless self-pity and shoddy decision-making made me loathe them instead of rooting for them. When I can’t feel sympathetic even towards a woman who is desperate to be a mother, the book is a lost cause. This is a rather melancholic look at a struggling marriage, a failing business, infertility, and the loss of a couple’s hopes and dreams.

The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane | Goodreads The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane | Goodreads

I never read the description wasn’t sure where this was going - it was a well written story about life. The up’s, the down’s and the in between’s and how you chose to make it work-you choose 4-ever. 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. Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. Malcolm Gephardt, handsome and gregarious longtime bartender at the Half Moon, has always dreamed of owning a bar. When his boss finally retires, Malcolm stretches to buy the place. He sees unquantifiable magic and potential in the Half Moon and hopes to transform it into a bigger success, but struggles to stay afloat. Following up on her success with Ask Again, Yes, Mary Beth Keane provides us with The Half Moon. The Half Moon is the bar that Malcolm owns. After 24 years of bartending there, he had finally been given the opportunity to buy it. But things aren’t going well. The bar isn’t profitable. Malcolm and his lawyer wife, Jess, have separated. They’ve spent years and over a hundred thousand dollars on trying to have a baby. But it was never in the cards and Jess is trying to decide what’s next.Malcolm's dream is to own his own bar. It has to be the "Half Moon" where he's tended bar for years. When this bar is offered for sale, he'll be the buyer, at all costs.