Genre: Contemporary romance

Synopsis: Brendon Lowell loves love. It’s why he created a dating app to help people find their one true pairing and why he’s convinced “the one” is out there, even if he hasn’t met her yet. Or...has he? When his sister's best friend turns up in Seattle unexpectedly, Brendon jumps at the chance to hang out with her. He’s crushed on Annie since they were kids, and the stars have finally aligned, putting them in the same city at the same time.

Annie booked a spur-of-the-moment trip to Seattle to spend time with friends before moving across the globe. She’s not looking for love, especially with her best friend’s brother. Annie remembers Brendon as a sweet, dorky kid. Except, the six-foot-four man who shows up at her door is a certified Hot Nerd and Annie...wants him? Oh yes.

Getting involved would be a terrible idea - her stay is temporary and he wants forever - but when Brendon learns Annie has given up on dating, he’s determined to prove that romance is real. Taking cues from his favorite rom-coms, Brendon plans to woo her with elaborate dates straight out of Nora Ephron’s playbook. The clock is ticking on Annie’s time in Seattle, and Brendon’s starting to realize romance isn’t just flowers and chocolate. But maybe real love doesn’t need to be as perfect as the movies...as long as you think your partner hung the moon.

Content/Trigger Warnings: Sexually explicit scenes

I wanted to enjoy Hang the Moon, and I did… but I really saw more than a few themes that I was annoyed with or found to be problematic.

First and foremost, this book was marketed as queer #ownvoices but the main character is not queer. (*Since initially writing this review, I have read that the MC is bisexual, but I think I missed that claim in the book somewhere - my intention is not bi-erasure, the MC's sexuality was not apparent to me.) Her BFF is queer, but does not have an incredibly significant role in the book itself, so it’s not the main storyline. Every story should have queer characters and multi-cultural characters, so a book should only be marketed as such if the MC or main couple falls into that category. It felt a bit like queer baiting, which is incredibly uncool. 

I also found it kind of weird and slightly irrelevant that the best friend’s girlfriend works in astrology but somehow that’s a gateway into every chapter? Working in astrology was a side note to the story but the author tried to make it more meaningful by starting every chapter with a breakdown of favorites or characteristics of the different zodiac signs. It was fun and I did enjoy those tidbits, but I just didn’t understand the purpose.

The book just contradicts itself a lot. Annie complains about how in romance, you never see past the “happily ever after” into the real life stuff but you don’t get that in this book either. And she acts like changing her own path is being based off a guy but that’s not even what could be happening. She’s not considering herself or her friendships or any of the other reasons she wants to change her path. She was just really frustrating. Like I get that we’re reading her innermost thoughts but she seemed less relatable and more “woe is me.” Total eye roll.

All that being said, the plot was cute and I thought Brendon was a great love interest. I also really liked the best friend and especially her girlfriend.

The writing was good and I enjoyed the sweet rom com of it all. I would read Alexandra Bellefleur again. I just found there to be a few too many issues for me to fully love this one.