As their deep friendship turns to love, Latina teenager Miel, who grows roses from her wrist, and Italian-Pakistani Samir, a transgender boy, fear their secrets will be exposed by the beautiful Bonner girls, four sisters rumored to be witches.

Rating:  ★★★★★ – it was amazing
Genre:  young adult fiction, ya fantasy, magical realism
Pros:  chock-full of representation, lyrical prose, beautiful imagery
Cons:  occasionally dense

When the Moon Was Ours is a lovely story that I officially recommend to everyone.

The writing is beautiful and flows like a song. Even when things are happening in the story that are hard, the writing is so lyrical you don’t entirely hate to read it.

I’ve never described my favorite thing about a book as “the colors” before, and in any other context it would make no sense at all. But the imagery used by McLemore paints such vibrant pictures in the mind! Reading this book left me with a swirl of colors in my imagination.

There were a few times where the prose got a bit dense and I would find myself needing to reread a passage to figure out exactly what was occurring or impatient to get past the descriptive language to the action again. Luckily, these instances were few and far between. Overall the book was a joy to read.

The absolute best part of the book was the representation. Reading a book with so much racial diversity and LGBT+ representation right at the forefront — not shoved into a passing remark or a single character — was like a breath of fresh air. And what’s more, it was all handled with loving sensitivity.

If you are one of the many readers challenging themselves to read more #OwnVoices novels, a fan of the Magical Realism genre, or just a lover of well-told stories, you absolutely must get your hands on a copy of When the Moon Was Ours. It is a unique and thoroughly enjoyable tale of magic and romance.

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