Book Review: Blue Moon Bay (by Lisa Wingate)

Blue Moon Bay is the story of Heather Hampton, and her return to her (unhappy) childhood home of Moses Lake, Texas. Forced to return home to facilitate the sale of some family land, she is confronted with the memories, fears, and secrets that her family has kept hidden for the past 20 years. Unraveling these fears and secrets will lead through trouble to a reconciliation with God.

Friends, this book was trying to be too many things and as such, was none of them very well. I think the main problem that I had was that point of view of the reader was simply the first-person view of the main character, Heather. As such, it was exhausting - for almost 400 pages, we had to endure every thought and idea that she had. Even when, as the reader, you were 16 steps ahead of her. Perhaps if the author had told the story from a first-person omniscient, allowing the reader to hear the thoughts of other characters, the story would have moved faster. The other main problem that I had with the story was that it started out as a book about a girl returning home to confront her past demons, then it turned into a mystery, then a thriller, all the while still trying to be a romance. I kept saying to my husband, "This book does not know what it wants to be!" and "Why didn't someone edit this book better?"

The story did have exciting moments, and I was glad to hear the resolution of the story, but I thought that overall lit was about 100 pages too long and that the story was too ambitious. Lets not even talk about my main criticism of Christian fiction: why don't the people just talk to each other. This book was a classic example of that, and considering how strongly this pet peeve is for me, the fact that it wasn't one of my two main problems is saying something.

I'm a fan of romance, mysteries, and thrillers. But unfortunately, I just didn't really enjoy this book. Two stars out of five from me.

(full disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House, in exchange for my unbiased review. I am not affiliated with Bethany House or the author in any way.)