Good book. Lots of interesting mother-daughter issues. ( )

Four generations of women work hard to support themselves with their small café, while giving to the community in their northern California town.

I got caught up in the family dynamic fairly quickly. Bess Moon (known as Gammy) is the matriarch, who really needs to step away and rest. She’s been solely responsible for her daughter (and granddaughter) since her husband died early in their marriage. Alice / Allegra is Gammy’s free-spirited “hippie” daughter who ran off for a “summer of love” when she was barely sixteen, coming home pregnant and raising her child, Mariah, as best she could with Gammy’s help. Mariah managed to get her master’s and land a teaching position at the local college, though she, too, got pregnant while she was a teenager. Her daughter, Lindsay, is a genius attending an expensive private school and interested in science.

As happens in real life, things get messy. Major illness, loss of a job, bullying and strained budgets are stressing all the Moon women. Not to mention a couple of men added to the mix.

Secrets will come out. Fights will be had. Tears will be shed. At the end, I’m certain the Moon women will find a way to deal with whatever life throws at them. ( )

I really loved this book. It was full of colorful characters that I fell in love with! The story follows four generations of women with all their faults and different ideas about a lot of things. Sprinkle in a few men and add leukemia to one of the women and see how they deal with what life has given them. Will their family unit survive or crumble? ( )

terrible writing, all around not good ( )

What made this book better than average was the refreshingly honest voice of Lindsay, the daughter of the Moon clan. Love for her is what finally brings the rest of the women together. ( )