Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Valley of the Moon
    Unavailable
    Valley of the Moon
    Unavailable
    Valley of the Moon
    Audiobook11 hours

    Valley of the Moon

    Written by Melanie Gideon

    Narrated by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    An utterly original, thoughtful and deeply compelling novel for readers who loved ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’.

    In the heart of the Sonoma Valley, on the edge of a sun-drenched meadow, lies the idyllic community of Greengage – where the residents wear simple clothes, lead quiet lives and whose manners could almost seem to be of another time.

    Into this world stumbles single mother Lux Lysander, trying to lose herself in the peaceful beauty of the Californian countryside while her young son visits his grandparents. It’s a world far away from the unpaid bills piling up and the overwhelming sense of struggle to make ends meet.

    Soon, Lux finds herself drawn into the lives of the people of Greengage, discovering not only the secret at the heart of their community but also a sense of belonging she didn’t know she was looking for. Torn between this life and her own with her son back in San Francisco, can Lux turn her back on the only place that has ever truly felt like home?

    ‘Lovingly handcrafted, delectable and transcendent’—San Francisco Chronicle

    ‘Beautifully written . . . a wonderful story about belonging, love and the aching certainty that there’s something more out there. . . . Sure to appeal to fans of Time and Again or The Time Traveler’s Wife’ Shelf Awareness (starred review)

    ‘Captivating’ Booklist

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJul 27, 2017
    ISBN9780008227807
    Unavailable
    Valley of the Moon
    Author

    Melanie Gideon

    Melanie Gideon is the bestselling author of Wife 22 and The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After, as well as three young adult novels. Wife 22 has been translated into thirty-one languages. She has written for The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Shape, Marie Claire, The Times of London, and other publications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and son.

    Related to Valley of the Moon

    Related audiobooks

    Contemporary Women's For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      You’re The Dirty Rascal

      Apr 6, 2023

      You’re The Dirty Rascal
      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Apr 1, 2020

      It’s always an exciting moment when the Queen of Crime announces her latest book – and, in this case, a new series. Lynda La Plante’s brand-new hero DC Jack Warr finds himself drawn into a chilling investigation after moving to London. When a badly b

      1 min read

    • Article

      Book Club weekly Book Club

      Jan 24, 2021

      Want to make There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job your next book club read? Here are some talking points to spark a discussion. • Does this novel have a message for its readers? If so, what do you think it is? • Was there a job that our narrator tack

      1 min read

    • Article

      Evidence

      Mar 6, 2023

      Evidence
      25 min read

    • Article

      Shanda

      Jan 1, 2024

      Shanda
      13 min read

    • Article

      Spilt Milk

      Nov 4, 2019

      Spilt Milk
      10 min read

    • Article

      My Story The Secrets We Keep

      Oct 7, 2020

      My Story The Secrets We Keep
      4 min read

    • Article

      Night Visions

      Sep 10, 2022

      Night Visions
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Story The Secrets We Keep

      Oct 7, 2020

      My Story The Secrets We Keep
      4 min read

    • Article

      Elena Ferrante Beautiful No More!

      Oct 7, 2020

      Elena Ferrante Beautiful No More!
      6 min read

    • Article

      Dagstuhl

      Nov 13, 2019

      Dagstuhl
      11 min read

    • Article

      Character Studies

      May 18, 2021

      Character Studies
      5 min read

    • Article

      Haunted House Whodunnit

      Sep 20, 2023

      Haunted House Whodunnit
      2 min read

    • Article

      Who Was My Mother?

      Sep 12, 2019

      Who Was My Mother?
      7 min read

    • Article

      One Carrot

      Jul 2, 2020

      One Carrot
      5 min read

    • Article

      Rag Doll

      May 3, 2018

      Rag Doll
      11 min read

    • Article

      You Girls Are Good

      Mar 31, 2022

      You Girls Are Good
      16 min read

    • Article

      Counter Waves

      Oct 23, 2020

      Counter Waves
      8 min read

    • Article

      Stay and Fight

      Jul 9, 2019

      Stay and Fight
      16 min read

    • Article

      Heave’s Whisky

      Feb 27, 2024

      Heave’s Whisky
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ferrante Elena Beautiful No More!

      Oct 7, 2020

      Ferrante Elena Beautiful No More!
      6 min read

    • Article

      Giving Up Paradise: Lies, high heels, and piety.

      Jun 13, 2013

      For millions of refugees, life is nothing if not uncertain. They come to a new world with two purposes: escaping one set of realities, and building a new set. This story is about a family who fled Somalia during the Civil War of the 1990s. They settl

      13 min read

    • Article

      Death On The Limpopo

      Sep 16, 2019

      Death On The Limpopo
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Valley of the Moon

    4/5

    144 ratings55 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I loved this book until the end, which was too precipitous and left me feeling like it hadn't finished. Except for that the writing and story line were satisfying. I had not read anything by Gideon before but will now.
    • 5/5
      Time travel books are among my favorite books to read. Valley of the Moon is a little different from the usual in that time does not pass equally in the two different times and that adds tension to the plot for the heroine, Lux. She stumbles through a fog one night and finds a community called Greengage (how Brigadoon) and finds herself very happy there. But her son and family are "on the other side." Can she truly just leave them to pursue her own happiness?Lux does pass back and forth between her own time and the world of Greengage but the weird way time passes in the other world have grave consequences for Lux emotionally. She is going to have to make a decision.The book is very well written and the story is quite compelling. Lux is a very interesting character if a titch selfish.
    • 5/5
      Lovely story of love, life, forgiveness and time travel. I especially liked the fact that it took place in Sonoma County, CA where I live. Fun to see places mentioned that I travel through frequently. I requested this book as an early reviewer book when it first came out but did not win a copy that time around. Lucky for me it was on the sale table at our local bookstore and - SCORE! Lucky me;) Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Valley of the Moon by Melanie Gideon is a lovely book. It is a time travel story. I do not usually enjoy time travel as a plot device, but in this case it works. The book revolves around Lux Lysander, a young single mother from 1975 San Francisco. One night, while camping, she walks through a heavy fog and finds herself in 1906, just after the earthquake that devastated San Francisco. She emerges at Greenage Farm, a communal living farm (not a religious commune).

      The founder of Greenage Farm is Joseph Bell, a progressive thinking man who feels every person and every job has equal worth. He runs the farm with his wife, Martha. The earthquake has moved the farm out of time. It is surrounded by a dense fog, that kills anyone who tries to go through it. Only Lux has the ability to move freely through the fog. She is welcomed by the inhabitants of Greenage and soon finds a sense of peace and belonging with them.

      Soon, Lux is traveling regularly through time. But each time she returns to her own time, she can never be sure of how much time has passed. It could be days, it could be years. Although this description feels very science fictiony, this book is a sweet, gentle story of a woman finding her place in the world. Lux is a struggling single mom, trying to do her best for her child. My favorite parts of the book were the flashbacks to Lux’s childhood, and her relationship with her father. I enjoyed reading this book and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

      I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.
    • 5/5
      Time travel books are among my favorite books to read. Valley of the Moon is a little different from the usual in that time does not pass equally in the two different times and that adds tension to the plot for the heroine, Lux. She stumbles through a fog one night and finds a community called Greengage (how Brigadoon) and finds herself very happy there. But her son and family are "on the other side." Can she truly just leave them to pursue her own happiness?Lux does pass back and forth between her own time and the world of Greengage but the weird way time passes in the other world have grave consequences for Lux emotionally. She is going to have to make a decision.The book is very well written and the story is quite compelling. Lux is a very interesting character if a titch selfish.
    • 5/5
      WOW! I'M so glad that I won a copy of this from librarything! Granted it's taken me way too long to finish this! I absolutely LOVED this novel! It's unlike any other book I've read. I adored the characters. Ms. Gideon outdid herself with this novel. Beautiful writing and a fantastic premise! 5 Stars from me!
    • 2/5
      This is a time travel story similar to Brigadoon . At first I really liked it. But it grew increasingly difficult. The female lead is very self-centered. The 1906 descriptions were quite spare , making it hard to remember what time period you're reading about . I was hoping for a compelling story, but was disappointed.
    • 4/5
      This is one of the more original time-travel stories I've read since I got sucked into Outlander. While hiking in 1975, Lux stumbles through a dense fog to a farming community stranded in 1906 as a side affect of an earthquake. Lux is able to travel back and forth between this community and her world of the 1970s, only time moves unpredictably between the two worlds, sometimes years and decades pass in a single night. Lux slowly starts to feel more at home in the past, but she remains obligated to her own time by family and friends - obligations that start to pull at her from both sides. Overall, this was a great time travel book, and I hope to read more from this author.
    • 3/5
      This book started out slowly but picked up quickly. Even rhough time travel plays a big part in the story, its more about the relationships that each of the main characters have in their past, it's also about their relationships to each other. The ending was quite a surprise, but very satisfying. This book was so well written , characters were well developed, no confusion between time lapses and points of view. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.
    • 4/5
      I'm a fan of time travel books. This is time travel from a slightly different slant than Jack Finney, but it's not that different from The Time Traveler's Wife. The writing is well-done and the time travel "device" works well if you don't look too closely. I loved the characters, to be honest. Lux, the main character, lives a full and well-considered life and I enjoyed watching her personal evolution. Lovely story. I look forward to more by this author.
    • 5/5
      Books based on the idea of time traveling are not usually my cup of tea but Valley of the Moon is an incredible exception! This beautifully written novel is probably one of the most unique books I've read in a long time. Lux is a single mom living in San Francisco in the 1970s and trying to raise her son Benno on her own. When Benno is sent to visit his grandparents on the east coast, Lux takes advantage of her time alone to go camping. Waking at midnight during a full moon she stumbles through a dense fog to find herself in Greengage, a community stuck in 1906 after the great earthquake. Members of the Greengage community are not able to pass through the fog to the future but it appears that Lux is able to travel back and forth. Her life between the two worlds is fascinating Melanie Gideon does a superb job of crafting a story with strong characters and emotion. The book was hard to put down and I was totally surprised by the twist at the end. I look forward to reading more of this author's work! Thank you to LibraryThing for a copy of this book.
    • 5/5
      An ARC was provided in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence my thoughts in any way.Valley of the Moon is about a woman named Lux who somehow finds a portal to the past. She meets a group of people who are trapped in 1906. They are unable to leave their world but Lux can travel back and forth. I really loved this book. I’ve read other time-travel books but this one was original in plot and execution. The characters are well thought out and written. My only critique is that there were some sections that felt a bit rushed and maybe could have been explored more. I will definitely look forward to reading more books by this author. 4 ½ stars.
    • 4/5
      Excellent book! Really engaging story about time travel, family, and finding happiness.
    • 3/5
      An interesting slant on time travel, despite some plot holes. Thanks to LibraryThing Early reader program and to the publisher for sending this my way.It was a nice opportunity to visit San Francisco of the 1960's and later again.
    • 5/5
      It took me awhile to get in to this book at first. I would say about a third of the way in it really starts getting good. There were two paragraphs in the book, one in the first chapter the other was closer to the end, that just seemed out of place and the context of the paragraph confused me a little as to what just happened. I think it was just the wording. Other than that I think it is a beautifully written story. I love the main character Lux. She goes through so much in the book and develops wonderfully. The time travel aspect is very interesting. It felt very different from other ways of time travel and I liked that they weren't in control of it and just when they thought they had it figured out, something would change to contradict what they assumed. Near the end of the book is very heartbreaking and I wasn't expecting it. The end of the book tied everything up nicely though and it kept me up thinking all night. I love when books do that!

      I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Ballantine Books and Melanie Gideon for the wonderful story!
    • 5/5
      A lovely story of time travel starting between the 1900s and the 1970s.In 1975, Lux, the young mother to 5-year-old Benno, puts her son on a plane for his first vacation to her mother's house in Rhode Island. To console herself, she goes on a solo camping trip to the woods south of San Francisco.She awakens in the middle of the night to a dense fog surrounding her little campsite. She walks through the fog, following a light. That light is the daylight at Greengage, a farming community set up by Joseph Bell in the late 1800s. Joseph and Lux theorize about how time passes differently between their two worlds. She is free to come and go, but only between full moons.The lives of the two characters are deeply affected by the appearance of each other. The struggling young mother finds peace and acceptance at Greengage. Her visits strengthen that feeling.During one visit, Luz stays beyond the full moon due to a tragedy at Greengage. That one difference changes her life forever.
    • 4/5
      Did you ever see the movie Brigadoon? Did you like it? If so, you will probably enjoy Valley of the Moon by Melanie Gideon. Lux is an overwhelmed, stressed, single mother. One night, on a camping trip, she wanders through a dense fog. She emerges into a 1905 farming community. This novel has a page turning plot line. The theme of time is ever present . I will not spoil the book by explaining the time travel aspect. Although I enjoyed the book, it did have problems. The ending was predictable and a little too sappy for me.
    • 4/5
      Entertaining novel set in two worlds--that of early twentieth century California and that of present day--1975 into our future. A working farm, Greengage, and its egalitarian, idealistic residents are cut off from the rest of the area by a mysterious impenetrable fog ringing it in the aftermath of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Into this self-contained world stumbles Lux Lysander, an unwed mother of a son. She finds acceptance among these people, especially their patriarch, Joseph Bell. She is able to enter and leave at will on certain full-moon nights and time stretches and bends for her; time advances slowly on the farm but proceeds much faster outside the enclave. Through Joseph's encouragement, she gains confidence in herself and is able to rise above her poverty-stricken circumstances in the outside world through education and a career, not the dead-end waitress job she had held before. A bewildered Joseph is brought to her world, returns shortly to his, and leaves her with a piece of his. Will she return to his and where will she find her final happiness? The book explores the nature of time passing, loss, longing, and the various aspects of love. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this book. I see lots of others who loved this book. I'm not among them. I thought the characters were weakly developed. I didn't feel a strong connection with them. The transitions were difficult to follow and confusing. The plot seemed like a story I've heard many times before. In short, this is a book I expected to enjoy as a light summer read, but I walked away disappointed.Of course, it could just be me.
    • 5/5
      This was a great fantasy, time travel story. I didn't want to put it down. The main characters were well developed and showed true characteristics of their time period. Family situations of estrangement and reconciliation with parent/child were carefully written. I would love to read more by Melanie Gideon.
    • 3/5
      A special thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

      This book is told from the perspective of two narrators who are separated by nearly a century. It is 1975, and we meet single mother Lux Lysander, who lives paycheque to paycheque on one floor of a a three-story house with her son, Benno, and roommate Rhonda. Lux goes on a solo camping trip to Sonoma, also know as the Valley of the Moon and is transported through time during a full moon to 1906 by way of a dense fog. She ends up in a small, well-run farming community led by our second narrator, Joseph Bell. Bell is a Londoner that values men and women alike and has deemed all jobs as equal. He founded "Greengage Farm" in honour of his late mother who committed suicide after his father has her committed the second time. This community is stuck in time after an earthquake hits and leaves it behind a dense fog that you cannot pass through. Lux seems to be the only one who can pass through the fog and time and does so whenever there is a full moon.

      Sounds hokey, right? Well it is, a bit. Some of the narrative really grabbed me, there was some great writing there. I loved the backstory of Lux and her father and wished that that was a standalone book. There were also many unanswered questions which as the reader, you must suspend your disbelief.
    • 5/5
      I loved every minute of this book. From the past to the future, the romance to the supernatural, every character and aspect of this novel is perfection. I fell in love with the characters and the concept and in the end all I wanted was to be able to dive back in again from the beginning.
    • 4/5
      Lux is a single mother of a young child living in San Francisco in the early 1970's. Her boyfriend, the child's father, was killed in Vietnam before she knew she was pregnant. Working as a waitress and without much money to support herself or her son, she is thrilled when her roommate agrees to watch her son for the weekend so she can take a break and go camping. Upon awakening in the middle of the night, Lux stumbles through a deep fog to find herself in a communal community in the early 1900's. This agrarian society, socially advanced for it's time, is called Greengage. The individuals living there were separated in time during a cataclysmic earthquake, only connecting with the present during the full moon. Lux is the first person to cross over to Greengage since the earthquake occurred and the residents are shocked but also pleased to have her join them temporarily when she is able to cross over. However, Lux's time in Greengage has real world consequences when she returns, as her passages back to modern society are unpredictable, placing her at unexpected points of time in the future when she expects to return only a day later. After falling in love with Joseph, Greengage's leader, Lux finds it almost impossible to maintain her role as a parent in the present time and stay in touch with Joseph and the people she loves in Greengage at the same time. In alternating chapters told by Lux and Joseph, the story emerges of two different worlds with Lux caught in the middle.This book reminded me of the musical, Brigadoon, with a town trapped in time that emerges out of the mist every hundred years. This story was interesting enough to read until the end but I thought that some of the details were not consistent with the time periods. For example, I was confused why Joseph in Greengage spoke with modern language. Why were technological advances put in the wrong years? These and other inconsistencies seemed to fall flat and they distracted from the storyline. Otherwise, it was an interesting time-travel story, particularly good for a book club discussion.
    • 4/5
      Valley of the Moon is a tale of a young woman named Lux who is a single mom of a little boy...she is estranged from her father, has a job going nowhere as a waitress and just doesn't seem to have a whole lot to look forward to. Her Mother wants her grandson to come visit and reluctantly, Lux lets him go. Feeling lonely and with time on her hands she decides to go camping when around midnight she awakens to a thick fog and that's when the story really takes a weird turn. This book was a little slow starting for me but after a bit I didn't want to put it down...4 stars!!
    • 3/5
      This fantasy begins in 1906 outside of Sonoma, which was named for a Native American word that Jack London (in real life) claimed meant “Valley of the Moon,” a name with significance for the story. One of the narrators, Joseph Bell, explains how he founded the nearby farming community he called Greengage after his mother’s favorite plum. He wanted it to be a place that honored his late mother’s ideals of equality, mutual aid, and respect. But something odd happens coincident with the great San Francisco Earthquake that struck on April 18, 1906. Although the quake was one of the worst and deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States, Greengage remained untouched, except for one development: a deadly fog now surrounded the valley, and no one could leave without perishing in the fog. As far as they can tell, the 278 residents of Greengage are trapped forever.The narration by Bell alternates with that of Lux Lysander, a young single mom in 1975 San Francisco, who sends her son Benno off to see his grandparents in Newport, Rhode Island. To relax, she goes camping by herself in Jack London State Park, situated on the eastern slope of Sonoma Mountain. At midnight, during the full moon, she gets up to go to the bathroom, and sees a thick fog and a beckoning light ahead. She finds herself walking into Greengage Farm in broad daylight.After some mutual disorientation and at least a temporary suspicion of insanity on both parts, Lux and Joseph figure out that they are indeed from different time periods, but only Lux can go back and forth between the two worlds. Moreover, time is calculated differently on both sides. While months and even years pass between Lux’s visits to Greengage, at the farm, only a month between full moons elapses. Lux ages, but the residents of Greengage stay roughly the same. Complicating matters, the fog doesn’t always appear on the full moon, and so although Lux tries to be in the right place every month, she can’t always return to Greengage. But over the years, she goes back whenever she can.For the next ten years, Lux goes back in secret, respecting Joseph’s request never to tell anyone. But the secret strains her relationship with Benno, so finally she begins to take him along as well. He likes it there too, but he is more tied to his own world in the future than is Lux. Lux not only loves the pace of life and the ethics and idealism of Greengage; she and Joseph have an immediate chemistry with one another. But Joseph is married to Martha, a woman Lux adores and respects. New developments force Lux to make a decision however. Which world does she want, and how will she reconcile her two “families” in each place?Discussion: This book combines some elements of both "Brigadoon" and "Time Traveler's Wife," but with many more explicit references to contemporary culture, and with the characters, especially Lux and Benno, not always as likable as in the other two stories. The items Lux chose to bring back to Greengage each time she returned didn't make much sense to me. (Claire Fraser in "The Outlander Series" is much more intelligent.) And there was a bit at the end that was illogical (not that a time travel book in general is necessary logical), but just some changes that went unnoticed that should have been immediately apparently to those involved. Those omissions made the story seem a bit muddled and caused the book to end on a discordant note for me. But for the most part, I enjoyed it.The metaphor of time speeding up in the technologically advanced world compared to the farm, and of time seeming to fly or stand still depending on what you are doing and where you are in life is well done - not always explicit, but waiting for the reader to notice.Evaluation: This is an appealing and creative time travel romance, despite its similarities to other works in this genre.
    • 4/5
      Lux lives with her son in California. A single mother with a mixed race child, she struggles to find acceptance with both her family and society. One day, while camping in the Sonoma Valley, Lux stumbles across Greengage, a community stuck in the past. Lux finds that she can travel to Greengage only when there is a full moon and a heavy fog descends around her campsite. However, while only a month passes in Greengage, years may pass in her world.This book took a while for me to get into it. Lux didn’t initially resonate with me, but she did grow on me by the end. The Greengage community was pretty fascinating, as well as Lux’s determination to straddle two worlds. I would be interested in reading another book set in Greengage, or perhaps a sequel. Overall well worth picking up.
    • 3/5
      The book is about a young mother, Lux, who finds herself able to time travel to a place called Greengage in the early 1900s. Greengage is an idealistic working community where she befriends the residents, who are apparently stuck there in time. She is torn between the current world with her son and the lifestyle of Greengage. The reader learns of her issues with her father during her rebellious youth. I did enjoy this book, but felt something was missing.
    • 5/5
      “Time is a construct, one we all inherently begin to abide by the moment we are born. Yes, we will live our days hanging from its invisible scaffolding. Morning. Noon. Night. Weeks. Months. Years. Time civilizes us. It brings order to chaos. Without it, there isn’t any gravity, and no longer pinned to the world, we float away.” These are the thoughts of Joseph, one of the main characters in this book. He founded the settlement of Greengage around the turn of the century (19th to 20th). The San Francisco earthquake in 1906 does something to Greengage – and catches it in a time warp. The citizens find that they can continue their lives as they always have, but they cannot leave their village. If they enter the thick fog that surrounds them, they die. Lux is an unwed mother living in San Francisco in the 1970’s. After seeing her son off to see his grandparents (from whom she is estranged), she decides to get some alone time and goes camping in the Sonoma Valley. She wakes in the middle of the night to a cold, dense fog. She sees a light in the distance and walks toward it, arriving at a settlement she hadn’t known was there. The settlement seems to be stuck in the past – and, in fact, she discovers that in the settlement it is 1906, not 1975. The simplicity of the life there appeals to her. Lux learns that while she can leave the village and return to her own time, the people of the village are trapped. Over the years, Lux visits Greengage often, becoming torn between her love of the village and her love of her 1970’s son. I loved this book and was sorry to see it end. It is a beautifully written time-travel book. The story draws you in – the characters are believable and likeable. I wasn’t crazy about the ending – but the rest of the book was wonderful. (I won this book from the EarlyReviewers program through LibraryThing.)
    • 3/5
      I thought the premise of this book was really great, and I wasn't even too put off by the poor plot mechanism (a fog that seems to have a mind of its own in that it comes and goes as needed at exactly such intervals that will create maximum plot tension, really?) that Gideon uses to make it happen. No, what bothered me about this book is that all the characters seemed completely affectless. This seems strange to say since many of the characters demonstrate great emotion, from joy to extreme grief, but I never bought it. Characters appeared grief-stricken over a death of someone who was "like a sister," except that up until that point, I'd thought the characters didn't even like each other that much. About 25 pages from the end of the book, I was caught up in one character's emotions, but it only lasted for about 3 pages, and then I was back to Flatland again. For all that, I liked the book, and read on to find out what would happen and how it would all be resolved (out of curiosity, rather than any concern for the characters), but this was not a book that kept me up at night.
    • 4/5
      I am very grateful to have received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. This fact does not change my review. I requested Valley of the Moon by Melanie Gideon because I enjoyed Wife 22 when that was published. Valley of the Moon stars Lux, who has found a hidden community that remains stuck in the past. Her own life in the future is in shambles and she has a strained relationship with her parents while she can barely make ends meet to take care of her own son as a single parent. How can she resolve being torn between two times and lives?This book is beautifully written as was its predecessor. Gideon is masterful at creating three dimensional but flawed characters who grow and change with their circumstances. Lux is sometimes hard to like, but I never lost hope for her. The time travel has issues (as all time travel books do), but it was easy for me to forget about that because this journey is all about the characters. Definitely a worthwhile read, but make sure to have a lot of tissues handy!