Under an Indigo Moon: Celebrate Lit Tour

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.

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 Book Review

“The area vaguely included their new town in Wildernessville, California. real name, Holcomb Springs. But it could have been the other side of the moon as foreign as it felt to them being from Arizona.”

Carissa is ready for a fresh start. Her youngest needs more therapy, so she feels like that provides a good reason to move. Packing up her two sons seems overwhelming. But soon starts to connect with other members of the small town California community. If only, there was not a mystery attached to the house that she purchased. Perhaps getting to know the deputy sergeant will be helpful on many accounts.

This book tells the story of a brave single mom who wants to do right by her kids. One of her boys is on the autism spectrum, and this is a direct nod to the author’s son. If your child does not like change, relocating can be difficult. While this certainly presents complicated circumstances, I love how the author shows that taking care of your children, even one who has some challenges, is always a worthwhile pursuit. I feel like this book opened my eyes to a new perspective.

While there is some suspense in this book, I would say that it is mostly of the cozy variety. And I really liked that angle. Trying to determine what happened to a missing young man several years ago does drive part of the plot. But it does not take over the storyline. This case seems like one that could actually happen down the street from any reader, but I certainly hope that it doesn’t.

Romance for a single mom is definitely complicated. I like how Carissa and Jonas are able to connect even with kids. Putting other’s needs before your own is an important part of any relationship.

I am a fan of J.L. Crosswhite’s books. She is a must-read author for me. I already read book one in the Holcomb Springs series, and I look forward to reading the next book too. While I did time my reading of this book to correlate with the tour, I actually was able to borrow this book through Kindle Unlimited.