Toni Logan

"Share the Moon" basically contains 3 lesbian love stories told against the beautiful setting of a vineyard:
1. Kate and Nora: depicts a mature love that is cut short after the death of one partner. Does love too die out?
2. Kali and Victoria: depicts a new dreamy love almost bordering on lust. Does such love work in the long run?
3. Jamie and Ruth: a paranormal love between a human and a ghost. Can such love sustain itself?

Needless to say, it was Jamie and Ruth whose story intrigued me the show more most. The closest to a human-ghost love recently was in Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, and I was hoping that "Share the Moon" delivered equally well. But this book arrives at its finale with too many loopholes and unexplained plot holes. At the end, I found the Jamie-Ruth love story plain weird. Ruth seems to have an odd mix of ghostly and humanly qualities, depending upon when the author requires which characteristic.

The premise of the book is good. I can't help but wonder how this story would have been in the hands of a seasoned writer. There was so much potential to the idea of falling in love with a ghost. How I wish "Share the Moon" could have delivered on its promise!

Oh, and I also wish there had been a mention of the erotically explicit writing on the book details page on Netgalley or Goodreads. The summary made it sound like a sweet paranormal romance but boy! Was I surprised right from chapter 1! I'm not a prude but I like to know in advance if a book goes over the top sexually. I felt like I was reading a lesbian version of Mills and Boon where lust dominates the narrative. Might work for some, didn't work for me. I've long passed that age. After a point, the explicit sex scenes and the repetitive reference to hardened nipples just got on my nerves.

In fact, the entire book felt like it was trying too hard, not surprising for a debut author. There are too many main characters and to do justice to each isn't a joke. I wish new authors didn't succumb to the pressure of writing everything they want in their first book itself. This book would have done much better had it focussed only on one love story and kept the others as secondary characters.

There are a few positives to the book also. It is a quick-paced read and has a lot of humorous moments. The vineyard descriptions are beautiful. I enjoyed Kate and Nora's love story the most. One line that I really liked was: “Life would be pretty goddamn boring if we all colored within the lines.” These factors make it a one-time read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I hate giving a book a single star but I really didn't like it at all. I wanted to. I'm a fan of a well done faux marriage/romance story but there was just so much going on with The Marriage Masquerade - and not much of it dealing with a growing attraction or love - that I just wanted to be done with it. I'll explain a bit of what stood in the way of an enjoyable read for me...

The biggest issue is the fact that a year went by and Taylor and Jaden never really talked with each other about show more anything of consequence. There was never any discussion of love or showing the couple growing together. Suddenly five months had gone by and each were feeling lust and love but never spoke about it. Then a year was gone and it was pretty much the same thing.

Instead of spending time with Taylor and Jaden, we were told about how awful the grandfather was (super awful), how broken Taylor was, Jaden dealing with an ex, figuring out why Sam had a job when he didn't do anything, who this mysterious grandmother was, best friends Annie and Alex, and Jaden's recovery with the help of a huge sea turtle. But not much relationship building. And absolutely no communication.

While I always appreciate an ARC, I can't recommend this one. show less