Beyond the Moon by Catherine Taylor: Review

I received a copy of Cather­ine Taylor’s Beyond the Moon through His­tor­i­cal Fic­tion Vir­tu­al Book Tours for review pur­pos­es. As always, this review reflects only my hon­est thoughts on the book.

Beyond the Moon
by Catherine Taylor

Pub­li­ca­tion Date: June 25, 2019
The Cameo Press Ltd
eBook & Paper­back; 496 Pages

Genre: His­tor­i­cal Fiction/Time Travel

 

 

Out­lander meets Bird­song is this haunt­ing debut times­lip nov­el, where a strange twist of fate con­nects a British sol­dier fight­ing in the First World War and a young woman liv­ing in mod­ern-day Eng­land a cen­tu­ry later.

*Shortlisted for the Eharmony/Orion Write Your Own Love Story Prize 2018/19

In 1916 1st Lieu­tenant Robert Lovett is a patient at Cold­brook Hall mil­i­tary hos­pi­tal in Sus­sex, Eng­land. A gift­ed artist, he’s been wound­ed fight­ing in the Great War. Shell shocked and suf­fer­ing from hys­ter­i­cal blind­ness he can no longer see his own face, let alone paint, and life seems increas­ing­ly hopeless.

A cen­tu­ry lat­er in 2017, med­ical stu­dent Louisa Cas­son has just lost her beloved grand­moth­er – her only fam­i­ly. Heart­bro­ken, she drowns her sor­rows in alco­hol on the South Downs cliffs – only to fall acci­den­tal­ly part-way down. Doc­tors fear she may have attempt­ed sui­cide, and Louisa finds her­self invol­un­tar­i­ly admit­ted to Cold­brook Hall – now a psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal, an unfriend­ly and chaot­ic place.

Then one day, while secret­ly explor­ing the old Vic­to­ri­an hospital’s ruined, aban­doned wing, Louisa hears a voice call­ing for help, and stum­bles across a dark, old-fash­ioned hos­pi­tal room. Inside, lying on the floor, is a mys­te­ri­ous, sight­less young man, who tells her he was hurt at the Bat­tle of the Somme, a WW1 bat­tle a cen­tu­ry ago. And that his name is Lieu­tenant Robert Lovett…

Two peo­ple, two bat­tles: one against the invad­ing Ger­mans on the bat­tle­fields of 1916 France, the oth­er against a sub­stan­dard, uncar­ing men­tal health facil­i­ty in mod­ern-day Eng­land. Two jour­neys begun a cen­tu­ry apart, but some­how des­tined to coin­cide — and become one des­per­ate strug­gle to be together.

Part WW1 his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, part times­lip love sto­ry — and at the same time a med­i­ta­tion on the themes of war, men­tal ill­ness, iden­ti­ty and art — Beyond The Moon sweeps the read­er on an unfor­get­table jour­ney through time. An intel­li­gent read, per­fect for book clubs.

For fans of Diana Gabal­don, Amy Har­mon, Beat­riz Williams, Kate Quinn, Kristin Han­nah, Kate Mor­ton, Susan­na Kears­ley and Paul­li­na Simons.

Praise for Beyond the Moon

“A poignant and stir­ring love sto­ry… Taylor’s accom­plished, genre-bend­ing book suc­ceeds as a WW1 his­tor­i­cal nov­el and a beguil­ing, time trav­el romance… The sharply writ­ten nar­ra­tive deft­ly moves back and forth between the past and present.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A time trav­el romance, yet so much more than that. It is also an unflinch­ing por­trait of the hor­rors of war, and a look at the tor­tur­ous extremes a human soul can endure. It is a son­net to the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of love, even as it is also a crit­i­cism of the futil­i­ty and point­less destruc­tive­ness of war.” — Shaylin Gand­hi, author of By The Light of Embers

Amazon | IndieBound | Bookshop

My Review

When I start­ed this nov­el, I did­n’t think I’d be a fan, to be com­plete­ly hon­est.  It took me a while to real­ly get into read­ing it. But, once I did?  I need­ed to keep read­ing and to learn more.

Beyond the Moon has the fea­tures of a romance, but I’d hes­i­tate to label it as one–this nov­el is so much more than the sto­ry of a cou­ple.  The his­to­ri­an in me loved div­ing into the his­to­ry, while my (utter­ly ama­teur) inter­est in psy­chol­o­gy made those aspects all the more intrigu­ing; I’ve done a lot of research into the Great War and shell shock, more specif­i­cal­ly,  so this was right up my alley.

In addi­tion, the book’s “sup­port­ing cast” (so to speak) was equal­ly as entic­ing as its main char­ac­ters.  By the end of the nov­el, I want­ed to know more about so many oth­er jour­neys, too.  As I write this, it’s not long since I put it down and I’m still spec­u­lat­ing about who may have end­ed up with a hap­pi­ly ever after (and who did not).

This book is a bit long to fin­ish in a sit­ting, but I’d rec­om­mend read­ing it in ses­sions as close togeth­er as possible–I end­ed up read­ing a bulk of Beyond the Moon with­in a few hours and it was all the eas­i­er to fol­low along with the nov­el­’s par­al­lel time­lines. But, no mat­ter what, I have no doubt that you, too, will be drawn into Robert and Louisa’s stories!

About the Author

Cather­ine Tay­lor was born and grew up on the island of Guernsey in the British Chan­nel Islands. She is a for­mer jour­nal­ist, most recent­ly for Dow Jones News and The Wall Street Jour­nal in Lon­don. Beyond The Moon is her first nov­el. She lives in Eal­ing, Lon­don with her hus­band and two children.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Blog Tour Schedule

Mon­day, Decem­ber 9
Review at Pas­sages to the Past

Tues­day, Decem­ber 10
Review at @bookishbellee
Review at Gwen­da­lyn’s Books
Fea­ture at I’m All About Books
Fea­ture at Books In Their Nat­ur­al Habitat
Review & Guest Post at Jack­ie & Ange­la’s Book Reviews

Wednes­day, Decem­ber 11
Review at 100 Pages a Day
Insta­gram Fea­ture at Just a Girl and Her Books

Thurs­day, Decem­ber 12
Review at @thisbibliolife
Inter­view at Jathan & Heather

Fri­day, Decem­ber 13
Review at Read­ing is My Remedy

Sat­ur­day, Decem­ber 14
Review at Books and Zebras
Fea­ture at What Is That Book About

Sun­day, Decem­ber 15
Review at Rose is Reading
Review at Car­ole Rae’s Ran­dom Ramblings

Mon­day, Decem­ber 16
Review at @ya.its.lit
Inter­view at Lib­er­ty’s Lit­er­ary Loves

Tues­day, Decem­ber 17
Excerpt at Let Them Read Books
Review & Guest Post at Tales from the Book Dragon

Wednes­day, Decem­ber 18
Review at A Chick Who Reads
Review & Excerpt at The Book Junkie Reads

Thurs­day, Decem­ber 19
Review at Pen­cils & Pages
Review at Impres­sions In Ink

Fri­day, Decem­ber 20
Review at A Darn Good Read
Review at Red Head­ed Book Lady
Excerpt at His­tor­i­cal Fic­tion with Spirit

Giveaway

Dur­ing the Blog Tour, we are giv­ing away two paper­back copies of Beyond the Moon by Cather­ine Tay­lor! To enter, please use the Gleam form below.

Give­away Rules

– Give­away ends at 11:59 pm EST on Decem­ber 20th. You must be 18 or old­er to enter.
– Paper­back give­away is open to the US only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All give­away entrants agree to be hon­est and not cheat the sys­tems; any sus­pi­cion of fraud will be decid­ed upon by blog/site own­er and the spon­sor, and entrants may be dis­qual­i­fied at our discretion.
– The win­ner has 48 hours to claim prize or a new win­ner is chosen.

Beyond the Moon