I received a free copy of this book through an online book blogging program. It sounded interesting - historical fiction, one of my favorite genres - though as I say often in book reviews, I usually read European historical fiction, not American, but that was why I wanted to read this - something different.

Unfortunately, the book is very slow, the pace is even slower, the characters were flat, one dimensional, & as other reviewers have written, not anyone you could even connect to.

The plot is interesting, the setting is interesting, the cover was pretty nice, but unfortunately, no matter how much I tried to get into the book, I couldn't. I skimmed over sections, hoping the pace would pick up & maybe I could get into it - and that just never happened. This was a book I never finished. ( )

Ella Wallace is scrambling to keep her three sons and herself from the poorhouse after her opium-addicted husband vanishes. Morris attempts the classic Southern format ala Pat Conroy unfortunately paper thin characters and a story that should have ended 100 pages before it does makes for more Southern drawl than Southern tale. ( )

When a mysterious oblong box arrives in backwater Dead Lakes, Florida, its contents complicate things for Ella. It isn’t easy, but Ella Wallace is doing the best she can; she runs the family commissary and takes care of her three sons, Samuel, Keaton and Macon. Her husband Harlan, a gambler and opium addict, has run off and abandoned them, but not before losing her family land to the town bully, Clive Gillespie.

Clive wants Ella—always has—though he will settle for the town’s crazy girl in a pinch. Sixteen year old Ruby wears a red sequined turban and treats the town’s occupants to a one woman parade every Friday (and don’t you dare argue with her if it isn’t Friday) complete with high-stepping, and a pumping baton that is slightly dangerous to bystanders. When Harlan forged his wife’s signature and lost Ella’s land to Clive he set his wife squarely down in the path of both Clive’s ambition, and his long thwarted lust. Aided by Narissa, a Native American woman who just arrived one day and never left, and Lanier, a cousin to her missing husband, Ella battles Clive for possession of the land she cannot give up.

Clive has big plans for the land, home to a magical spring that is still visited by locals who believe the waters can heal. He lures a famous evangelical preacher (Hear me now!) and the preacher’s sickly wife to Dead Lakes with dreams of building ‘Eden’, a money making center of enlightenment and healing. But to make that happen Clive must first vanquish Ella, and that proves more difficult than he thought it would be. Turns out it requires hired thugs.

Man in the Blue Moon explores topics of spiritual healing, addiction, greed, gossip, faithfulness and the lust for power. Particularly enjoyable are the sly wit behind the conversation during a breakfast shared by Myer Simpson, the Reverend Simpson and the local school teacher. And the depiction of Clive as a small man who will do anything to get what he wants. In the character of Clive, Morris’s writing is at times chilling in its portrayal of a malevolence made doubly horrifying by its easy believability and its complete lack of conscience.

In an escalating battle that will leave three of the main characters dead, Michael Morris’s Man in the Blue Moon delivers a beautifully depicted tale of the struggle between good and evil that lingers in the imagination long after closing the book.

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http://www.adventuresinneverneverland.com/2013/01/22/man-in-the-blue-moon/ ( )

In MAN IN THE BLUE MOON, Michael Morris has given us a lovely novel that crosses many genres. It’s southern literature, historical fiction, an inspirational tale, and it has a bit of magic to it too. Rather than put it in one of those categories though, I’ll just say that it’s a great story with terrific writing to propel it.

MAN IN THE BLUE MOON begins with Ella Wallace struggling to support her children, keep the family land, and move on after her husband has left her for his real love: opium. With World War I as its backdrop, Ella’s story of survival gives Morris an opportunity to look at faith, family, and friendships, and how those elements intertwine in the context of small-town life.

As is the case with many of my favorite books, some of the secondary characters are the ones who grab my attention and take the story from good to great. My favorite, Reverend Simpson, hung in the background as a good conscience should, and any time he took to the podium of his church, I was ready to pay attention. Sure, some of the other residents of Dead Lakes, Florida were a bit stereotypical, but Morris’s writing ensured that I didn’t really notice that until I had finished the book.

It’s easy to see why PUBLISHERS WEEKLY chose MAN IN THE BLUE MOON as one of its Best Books of 2012 in the Religion category, describing it as “everything faith fiction ought to be and usually isn't: a fabulous (as in fable) and subtle tale of love, loyalty, grit, and on-fire imagination, a Southern stew lightly seasoned with the mystery of faith.” ( )