Under the Orange Moon by Adrienne Frances

Under the Orange Moon
by Adrienne Frances

Here is a guest review of Under the Orange Moon by Lisa Grantham….

Dylan Matthews is the only girl out of five kids. Her family has always been very protective of her especially her twin brother, Jonah. Not only did she have to contend with four brothers, and her parents but also Jonah’s best friend, Ben McKenna.

You see Ben is practically part of the family and has been for years. Ben’s Dad is a very powerful man who left Ben and his mother years ago, but yet they never divorced. Ruth McKenna is not a well woman. Though it didn’t really go into a lot of details about it I suspect she has always been this way and thus the reason Ben’s Dad left. Ben’s parents are just a hot mess. Warren left Ben and Ruth and has been living with a woman and her kids for years. He isn’t trying to hide it from anyone. Ruth is an alcoholic and addicted to pills. She is rarely sober and treats Ben like dirt.

Ben found the family that he always wanted with the Matthews. The Matthews treated him like one of the kids. I loved that he called Linda Matthews Mom 2. He spent the majority of his life growing up with the other Matthews kids. He also found the love of his life in Dylan though he never told her, nor do I think he even realized it himself until Ruth forced Ben to come home for the holidays five years after he left Phoenix.

Ben is now in law school at Harvard. Though he has kept up with the Matthews he has not been home in five years. When he sees Dylan for the first time since the last night they spent together, he is in shock. Dylan has grown into a beautiful carefree woman. She is now an art instructor and also a part time bartender. She doesn’t need the money, but she likes bartending just the same. She has become close friends with her boss.

Ben pursues Dylan during his three weeks home. You see Ben always growing up slept in Dylan’s bed though Dylan or any of the other Matthews never knew about it. Or did they? He felt a connection to her unlike any he has ever felt before or ever will again. Can they pursue a secret relationship? Ben is afraid that Jonah, his brothers and Linda won’t approve of the relationship, and he just can’t give up the only true family that he has ever had.

“You’re the girl who loves pink but won’t admit it because you’re afraid it will make you sound too girly. You’re afraid of moths because you think they’ll eat your hair, and hate chalk.”
“You secretly love Harry Potter movies, and when you were ten you fell off your bike and I carried you home. When your dad died, you only wanted me and cried in my lap. I stopped skateboarding because you were better and I was embarrassed. God, you even throw a football better than me. And, finally, I’m an asshole, but you loved me anyway”

Ben realizes that he can’t go back to Boston without Dylan. He can’t be without her ever again. He leaves her bed planning to talk to her about moving in with him later that night. However he never gets that chance. Ben’s whole world comes crashing down around him, and he pushes away the only people that love him, the Matthews, and especially Dylan.

“He was his father; his mother had always been right about that. He was selfish, heartless, and incapable of putting anyone before himself.”

Will Ben find his way back to the only family he has truly ever known? Will the Matthews forgive him for everything that happened? Will Dylan?

Under the Orange Moon made me feel like true love was possible. Dylan’s soul mate was under her nose most of her life. Makes me wonder if maybe we overlook those childhood feelings as adolescent when in actuality they mold us into the person we are meant to be.

Total 4.5 Hookers for me.

***I won this book through a contest and didn’t know anything whatsoever about it before I read it. I absolutely loved it. Gosh don’t you just love surprises like that.