Published by Crescent Moon Press
Released January 12, 2012
264 pages
Where I got it: Book received as part of Debut Author Challenge ARC Tours
Rating: 2 stars

After teenager Rowan’s mother is killed in a house fire, and Rowan attempts suicide, her father can barely stand to look at her. Therefore, Rowan is shipped off to live with her grandparents in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Rowan’s always been different, able to feel what those around her are feeling. When a mysterious boy shows up in town, she is inexplicably drawn to him. However, he is a witch, and carries with him hints about Rowan herself and the death of her mother.

Perigee Moon was a tough read for me. From the publisher’s blurb, we are promised witchcraft and magic, secrets unveiled, and time-travel to boot. Throw in Ipswich, MA, a town that I find fascinating but have yet to visit, and I was sold. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to hype. Instead, it was an insta-romance, where girl meets sees guy, falls head over heels, guy rejects girl, then confesses undying love, and they cannot live without each other. I’m so over this plot. It’s pure fantasy, and the proliferation of permutations on this theme in young adult literature has caused me to abandon books once I see that this is where they are headed. Since I had this for a blog tour, I soldiered on, doing my duty to read the entire book to give an honest review, but I’d have rather stopped reading the moment Rowan meets Alex.

The book progresses with witch-hunt era diary entries by Alex about Rowan (he’s a time-traveling witch from the time of the hysteria in Colonial America), and Rowan’s desire for, and confusion about, the local bad boy. It was way over the top with gushing language, and I couldn’t understand the attraction. They really seemed to have nothing in common, other than Alex dreaming about her. Throw in a one-dimensional villain, and an all-too-brief discovery of magical powers, and you have the plot in a nutshell.

There are quite a few very enthusiastic five-star reviews for this on Goodreads, which I don’t really get, but maybe I’m just the wrong audience for this book. What I can say is that I’ve read at least a dozen books with very similar plots in the same genre, and this one just doesn’t stand out as a particularly well-written or compelling example.

One last note: as stated earlier, I received this through the Debut Author Challenge ARC Tours, but it was well after the publish date. The book didn’t say anything on it about being an advanced copy, so I’m assuming it was in its final form. There were quite a few typos throughout the text. For example, there was an instance when “than” was used in place of “then,” and once “honeysuckle” was one word in one paragraph, and two words in the next. If I was reading the final copy of the book, Crescent Moon Press really needs to hire a better copy editor, because there were very obvious mistakes that should never have been published.

Amazon link
Goodreads link

The Debut Author Challenge ARC Tours are hosted by Lisa from Lisa is Busy Nerding and Tara from Fiction Folio with loving support from Ginger from GReads! in conjunction with Kristi from The Story Siren.