Don't you just love when a book exceeds your expectations?

I discovered Barbara Davis in late 2023 when I was curating my 2024 One Woman Book Club. The Echo of Old Books became my first pick of that year, and I enjoyed it immensely, which meant I had high expectations for The Last of the Moon Girls when I added it to my book club list for this year, and it did not disappoint. If anything, this book was even better than the first, although comparing them is not really appropriate since they're nothing alike outside of both having a mystery to solve.

I did spend a bit more time with this novel than I did my February book club pick, though not as much as with my January pick. While this book is a mystery at its core, it also has elements of romance and self-discovery. I also appreciated the underlying theme of breaking generational curses.

To avoid spoilers, skip to the end of this post.

The Moon family has always been a part of Salem Creek, but not necessarily a welcome part -- there have always been whispers and gossip about the women's special abilities. But when two teenage girls are found murdered in the Moon's pond, all fingers immediately pointed to Lizzy's grandmother, Althea. There was no evidence, and the case was never solved and eventually closed. But in a town like Salem Creek, memories are long. For Lizzy, who was a teenager, the scandal was too much for her already lonely existence; her mother had already ran off never to be heard from again, so when she graduated from high school, Lizzy went to college and never looked back.

Lizzy did not escape the family's special abilities. Hers is her nose, giving her a particular affinity with perfumes which takes her to New York City. When she gets news that her grandmother has passed away, months after the fact, she knows she must return to the farm...if only to get it ready to put on the market and ensure the Moon journals don't fall into the wrong hands. However, the best laid plans often go awry.

When Lizzy arrives at her childhood home, she finds it occupied by Evvie, a beekeeper from Louisiana who came to meet Althea one day and never left. Then there's Andrew, the boy who grew up next door  and was always rescuing Lizzy whether she wanted him to or not, now determined to keep his promises to Althea to do some maintenance work around the farm. Not to mention the special journal Althea left just for Lizzy.

With the farm in no state to go on the market, Evvie having no place else to go, and a ton of unused vacation time piling up, Lizzy decides to extend her stay in Salem Creek and grudgingly accepts Andrew's help to fix the place up. But the unsolved murders of Heather and Darcy Gilman just keep eating at her, and Lizzy knows she can't just let it lie. Despite the whole town, including the sheriff, warning her off, she is determined to find the truth, even when things start to get dangerous. The truth eventually comes to light, and Lizzy must fight to survive it.

There's more to this story than just the murder mystery, though it does dominate the pages as the main plot. All her life, Lizzy has been told that Moon women don't have real relationships. Their responsibility as a Moon woman is to have a daughter and continue the family legacy. It's a "curse" that goes all the way back to the first Moon woman to come to Salem Creek. Lizzy is determined to be the last Moon girl, despite her nearly-impossible-to-fight attraction to Andrew. Of course, she believes she's protecting him from unavoidable heartache and protecting a future daughter from a lifetime of unhappiness, but over the course of the book, with the help of Evvie and Althea's special journal, Lizzy is able to break free from this generational curse.

I think the biggest underlying subplot is one of healing. Because she's a Moon, Lizzy grew up isolated with no friends. Her mother, Rhanna, young and burdened with a terrible gift she told no one about, was never truly a mother, so Althea filled that role. Yet, when Rhanna left in the midst of the murder scandal, it still hurt Lizzy. After Althea's death, Rhanna literally walks and hitchhikes her way across the country from California to come back home. Lizzy, of course, doesn't want her there, but Althea's journal helps bridge the gap between mother and daughter, and the healing that happens for both of them is bittersweet.

If you've been around the blog for awhile, then you'll know how much I enjoy a magical story. The Last of the Moon Girls was truly a magical story, even if the magic was subtle. If I were to liken it to other books that I've read, I would have to choose Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber, which made my list of best books for 2022, and The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, which was my January 2023 book club pick.