If you’re going to read a Tess Thompson book make sure you have your box of tissues handy, because you’re going to cry. With sadness, with joy, with anger, with frustration, with despair, with hope, with contentment. Just trust me, you are going to cry. It’s like those television commercials where you find yourself crying when you least expect it. With Thompson’s books you are so immediately invested in the characters that everything they do, everything that happens to them, is meaningful.

Mama Moon is the first of the Crescent Moon Ranch series, a series I hope goes on forever. A dozen years ago Stella McKinnon was full of promise, ambition and dreams. She was leaving Bozeman, Montana, going off to school to become a veterinarian, and would come back and care for all the animals in town. But she found herself in a situation and had to make a choice. And now she’s drained, washed out, worn out. Never left Bozeman, never became a vet, never followed her dreams because a rodeo cowboy named Rex Sharp caught her eye and captured her heart. Showed her what she thought was affection, something she never received at home. Rex never wanted to be a rancher, never really seemed to want Stella. He has a pattern of leaving Stella “because the pull of the rodeo is too strong” but coming back a few weeks or months later, having realized she was what he wanted all along. Or so he says. When he tells her he’s leaving again, this time feels different. Stella realizes that whatever love she felt for him is finally gone, eroded, she’s stopped seeing him through that filter of hope. The only good thing she’s ever gotten from him is her five young boys, and that’s the one thing she wants. That and the ranch that has been in her family for generations. The ranch she is perilously close to losing.

Stella vows to herself to do whatever is necessary to keep the ranch and make a home there for her boys. They are a handful – of course they are, 5 boys ranging from 11 to 3 – but they are good boys. Their mama loves them and has taught them well. Rex may be gone but Stella has her best friend Jennie to support her as she’s always done. She has friends, and Iris, who was more like a mother to her growing up than her own mother. She’ll make it. And flirting and dating and relationships are the farthest thing from her mind. She sees herself as “rode hard and put up wet” (I love this expression, reminds me of hearing this when growing up in the country), and what man in his right mind would want this pale, tired, wiped-out woman who, oh yes by the way, has five young sons.

But then she meets Jasper Moon, the manager of the new bank branch that just opened in town, Jennie’s boss. Kind of a city slicker (leather loafers – where are his boots??) but not really. He’s smart, sensitive, strong. Raised by a single mother he knows how to take care of things, and soon he discovers he wants to take care of Stella and those boys.

To say any more would take away the pure joy you’ll experience reading Mama Moon for yourself. Stella is a wonderful woman and deserves to be happy and cared for. Atticus, Caspian, Rafferty, Soren and Thad are adorable. Each of them unique but so much Stella’s sons. Jennie and Mark are there for Stella as always. Their daughter Annie and Atticus have a deep bond, one that seems destined to run forever. Jennie seems a little off, but Stella will try and find out why. Jasper settles into town as if he was born there: rebuilds his ranch house, enters the pie-baking contest, becomes a valued part of the community. But everything does not go smoothly. There are surprises, shocks even, betrayal, hopelessness. You’re going to need those tissues. But through it all, the goodness of people, the love of family, the desire to protect shine through.

Thanks to the author for providing a copy of Mama Moon as part of her review team. I never met a Tess Thompson book I didn’t love and don’t ever expect to. Mama Moon was emotional, inspirational, and utterly satisfying. I leave this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own. ( )