BLOG TOUR - WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS BY ANNA-MARIE MCLEMORE

When The Moon Was Ours is described as a love story tinged with magical realism and filled with gorgeous prose, and has already garnered three starred trade reviews praising the novel as “lovely, necessary, and true” (Booklist). McLemore’s newest novel grapples with tough questions of identity and cultural differences in a small town. Within the pages lies a story of a girl hiding the truth, a boy with secrets from his past, and the four sisters who could ruin them both.

To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town.

But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

Embedded in the love story, Sam faces how to claim his identity as a transgender boy, and Miel and Sam struggle with how to define their love, both to themselves and their community. McLemore tackles this relevant issue thoughtfully, coming from her own experience in her relationship with her husband, who is transgender.

McLemore’s recently told Publisher’s Weekly, “at the heart of this book is my belief that transgender characters, queer characters, characters of color, deserve fairy tales”, and WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS conquers timely topics like race and gender while delivering an unforgettable, timeless love story.

Filled with roses, glass pumpkins, and magical moons, WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS will sweep you away with its fairy tale feel. Following her fantastic debut novel, WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS will thrill readers of McLemore’s debut novel , as well as establish a whole new group of admirers for this immensely talented young writer.

Anna-Marie McLemore’s debut novel The Weight of Feathers was heavily praised by critics, received a YALSA Morris Award nomination, and was a book club pick for Las Comadres Friends National Latino Book Club. WHEN THE MOON IS OURS is Anna-Marie McLemore's second book which I am personally really eager to read and I hope that I enjoy this one as much as I did her debut book, which was The Weight Of Feathers. I totally admit that I devoured it! In my opinion it was stunning, amazing, beautifully written, had fantastic characters that you really came to care about as well as an astounding plot  . . need I go on? So yep I recommend you read that one too!  

Still unsure? 

Drop by my earlier post to read my review of THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS here

Title: When The Moon Was Ours

Author: Anna-Marie McLemore

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Magical, Contemporary, Romance

Publisher: Thomas Dunne,St Martin's Press

Release Date: 4th October 2016

BLURB from Goodreads

When the Moon Was Ours follows two characters through a story that has multicultural elements and magical realism, but also has central LGBT themes—a transgender boy, the best friend he’s falling in love with, and both of them deciding how they want to define themselves.

To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. 

But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

Goodreads Link

PURCHASE LINKS

Amazon US

Amazon UK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANNA-MARIE MCLEMORE was born in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and grew up in a Mexican-American family. She attended University of Southern California on a Trustee Scholarship. A Lambda Literary Fellow, she has had work featured by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, CRATE Literary Magazine’s cratelit, Camera Obscura’s Bridge the Gap Series, and The Portland Review.

EARLY PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

*Longlisted for 2016 National Book Award’s Literature for Young People*

“With luminous prose infused with Latino folklore and magical realism, this mixes fairytale ingredients with the elegance of a love story, with all of it rooted in a deeply real sense of humanity. Lovely, necessary, and true.” —Booklist, STARRED Review

“Luxurious language infused with Spanish phrases, Latin lunar geography, and Pakistani traditions is so rich it lingers on the tongue, and the presence of magic is effortlessly woven into a web of prose that languidly unfolds to reveal the complexities of gender, culture, family, and self. Readers will be ensnared in this ethereal narrative long before they even realize the net has been cast.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review

“A love story that is as endearingly old-fashioned as it is modern and as fantastical as it is real.” —School Library Journal, STARRED Review

“This is a beautiful exploration of claiming your gender and identity, your body, and your name, and how best to support a loved one going through that process.”

—B&N Teen Blog, “One of the Most Anticipated LGBTQ YA Books of the Second Half of 2016”

"McLemore dances deftly across genres, uniquely weaving glistening strands of culture, myth, dream, mystery, love, and gender identity to create a tale that resonated to my core.  It’s that rare kind of book that you want to read slowly, deliciously, savoring every exquisite sentence. I adored this book."

—Laura Resau, Américas Award Winning Author of Red Glass and The Queen of Water

"Lushly written and surprisingly suspenseful, this magical tale is not just a love story, but a story of the secrets we keep and the lies we tell, and the courage it takes to reveal our authentic selves to each other and to the world."

—Laura Ruby, Printz Award Winning-Author of Bone Gap