While I have not been in any long-distance relationships myself, I have several friends who have, and know well the particular pressures and challenges it presents to a couple. While the characters in Moonlight in the Morning are not in a long distance relationship, per se, it does deal realistically with the issue of merging two lives when doing so is not necessarily convenient.

Jecca Layton is a struggling artist in New York, supporting herself by managing an art gallery but not able to sell, nor make, much of her own art. When the gallery owner, a flighty socialite, decides to take the whole summer off and close the gallery, Jecca has three months to make art, and decides to do so in her best friend’s hometown of Edilean, Virginia. It’s a small, remote town, a far cry from either her own upbringing in New Jersey or her current life in New York City but it has its own appeal and beauty that she is excited to capture.

Also excited is Jecca’s friend’s cousin, Tristan, the handsome ladies’ man town doctor who has carried a torch for Jecca ever since he met her years ago. She barely remembers him, but after a chance meeting in the dark in which they talk but never actually see each other, the connection and attraction is instant. However, his life is very firmly rooted in Edilean, while hers is in New York.

Tristan and Jecca are a great couple. His years-long crush on her managed to be cute instead of creepy (though sometimes got verrry close to that line), and the connection they share felt very real. Things between them get very intense, very quickly, but once again it felt strong and believable, not rushed or unrealistic.

There are a lot of great side characters, my favorite of which was Tris’s niece Nell. She played an important role in Tris and Jecca’s relationship and the three of them made an adorable little family. One of Tris’s best characteristics is his affection for his niece and Jecca’s two roommates, a pair of older ladies with whom he is very close.

In the end, I was really pleased with how the author balanced each of their needs. There is a touch of “small towns are better than big cities,” but not in an overt way; it comes across as more of Jecca building relationships with these specific people, not that cities are inherently inferior. They both make sacrifices, and both find happiness and peace in their choices. It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it, which is the best possible solution their particular dilemma. It was all very balanced, and I was happy about that; I feared one or the other (more likely Jecca) would be the one to give everything up, but that wasn’t the case at all.

I enjoyed many things about this book, and despite its lack of overt suspense or action, found it difficult to put down or get out of my head between bouts of reading. This is a very romantic story, but it dealt with realistic issues in a believable way. This is the best kind of story, in my opinion; it can be difficult to meld romance and realism, but this book does it well.