About the Book

Book: Under an Indigo Moon

Author: JL Crosswhite

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release date: December 28, 2022

It was supposed to be a fresh start for her…

…He’d never expected to find love again.

Will they find a second chance or will small-town secrets spell disaster?

Former big-city architect and single mom, Carissa Carver, found just enough to hope to begin a new life with her boys in Holcomb Springs. She dropped all her savings into a vacant Victorian in an online auction, hoping to flip it and build a better life.

However, it didn’t take long to learn nothing was as promised, including a chocolate Lab that came with the house, who adopted her son with Asperger’s. Could her boys handle being uprooted one more time?

But when things go missing, her house is vandalized, and she finds human bones in the basement, she wonders what she’s really gotten them into. Is this one more bad decision or something truly dangerous?

Deputy Jonas McCann came to Holcomb Springs to heal after the death of his wife and daughter. The last thing he needs is matchmaking by the meddling librarian, even if Carissa and her boys stir something long dormant in his heart.

As more strange things happen, he is drawn further into his desire to protect her and the boys he’s come to have a heart for. Can he solve the mystery before they get hurt? Does it have anything to do with the missing teenager? Or are those just ghost stories and small-town rumors? Especially the ones about the indigo blue moon.

Author JL Crosswhite will have you on the edge of your seat, unable to turn pages fast enough.

3/5 Stars

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About the Author

JL Crosswhite’s favorite thing is discovering how much there is to love about America the Beautiful and the great outdoors. She’s an Amazon bestselling author, a mom to two navigating the young adult years while battling her daughter’s juvenile arthritis, exploring the delights of her son’s autism, and keeping gluten free. Learn more about her adventures and how she gets inspired for her books at JLCrosswhite.com

More from JL Crosswhite

It may surprise you, but I actually started writing Under an Indigo Moon about fourteen years ago (my books can germinate for a long time!). It started out as a women’s fiction book called Under the Blueberry Sky. It even finaled in the Frasier contest for first chapters in 2011.

But as I began planning the Holcomb Springs series, I knew I wanted to tell Carissa and Jonas’s story. While there are parts of me in all of my characters, Carissa has a unique place in my heart as the mom of a special needs kid. Her six-year-old son, Jayden, is based a lot on my experiences with my son who’s on the autism spectrum.

Because I had written much of the early part of the book a long time ago when I was closer to those long and difficult days, re-reading and writing those scenes took me back. My son is a young adult now, and I was amazed at how much I had forgotten about the day-to-day challenges of living with someone who sees the world so differently. And now I can look back and see how far he has come.

Jonas McCann was a bit of a mystery to me. Because my original envisioning of this book was as women’s fiction, there wasn’t a romance thread. So I had to create one. I’m fortunate to have law enforcement officers in my family to draw from. But as I got to know Jonas, he became as beloved to me as all of my characters (They feel like my children; I can’t pick a favorite!).

One of the highest compliments I received was from a book-coaching client (my day job) who read Beneath a Star-Lit Sky, the first book in the Holcomb Springs series. Her husband is a small-town sheriff, and she felt I really captured the role. That meant a lot to me. Even though I write fiction, I want my characters to feel like real people with real problems and challenges.

Under an Indigo Moon takes place in a fictional world—Holcomb Springs—that already has a lot of threads and tie ins. It’s book 2 in the Holcomb Springs Small Town Romantic Suspense series, but it ties in with the two previous series I’ve written—Hometown Heroes and In the Shadow. I don’t know about you, but I love seeing characters from previous books pop up again in later books.

You can certainly enjoy the book without knowing about all the “Easter eggs” hidden inside, but isn’t it more fun to be in on the jokes? So make sure you grab Claire and Alex’s story in Inn at Cherry Blossom Lane (grab it here for free) and the short story that introduces us to the Holcomb Springs group in “An Evening to Remember” (grab it here). There are clues in the story that play out in the book.

I hope you enjoy Jonas and Carissa’s journey as much as I enjoyed writing it—a story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

My Thoughts:

I was excited to dig into JL Crosswhite’s book Under an Indigo Moon because I love romantic suspense. This is a Holcomb Springs Small Town Romantic Suspense series, although it can be read as a stand-alone. However, there are a lot of characters that seem to have little relevancy if you don’t read the other stories first.

Because I hadn’t read the previous books, I had no idea until halfway through where Holcomb Springs (the setting of the story) was. Main character Carissa arrives in this quaint town with her two boys, everything she owns in a moving van, and a lot of hope that things will work out. She’s bought an old rundown house (sight unseen) with the idea of flipping it. I can’t imagine making a leap like that, especially with children that depend on me, but I’m not much of a risk taker. It doesn’t take long to realize Carissa is, either.

Then there is Jonas. He works for the sheriff’s department and has his own sad past. Now he focuses on his work and tries to avoid an unwanted semi-stalker-chick. When Carissa comes into town, the mystery of a high school senior who went missing years earlier revisits Holcomb Springs. That’s where the “suspense” of the story comes in.

As a writer and a rule-keeper, I’ll be the first to admit I give tough reviews. Structure is as important to me as the story itself. Under an Indigo Moon has a compelling plot, and I love everything about home remodeling. But I wanted to go deeper than the “punch list” of issues, and this didn’t satisfy that need. However, it’s not a DIY story, so that shouldn’t be expected. Carissa running through what needed to be done over and over again, though, felt repetitive and unnecessary. It slowed the story down.

One other thing I struggled with was that nothing of significance happened until close to the middle of the book. There were little breadcrumbs of possible issues dropped along the way, but they were talked about in a passive narrative way rather than being shown. The first thing I learned as a writer—show, don’t tell. Even the relationship between Carissa and Jonah was a lot of “head” thinking they made individually, so a lot of telling. Close to the end of the novel, they had what I thought was an important date that included Carissa’s boys. But both thought about it after the fact, rather than the author giving us a firsthand view. It made it difficult for me to connect with the characters—and to feel the emotions they shared. Even so, I was rooting for them.

If you enjoy small town stories, old houses, and a little mystery, you’ll want to read Under an Indigo Moon.