A Midnight Feast is Book 4 (a novella) in the Fly Me To The Moon Series. This series is set in the early days of the space race. I enjoyed Earth Bound from this series. A Midnight Feast is also good, but not as well developed.
This story is about Margie Dunsford, a recurring character in the series. She is the undisputed leader of the astronauts’ wives. She cooks for funerals, she cleans for exhausted new moms, and she advocates for the astronauts and their families. She also manages her own home and raises her six children. She married Mitch, a pilot and later an astronaut, during WWII and since then he’s spent most of their marriage on deployments or in astronaut training or on missions so she’s done almost all of this on her own.
The story begins in 1965, with Margie planning a Thanksgiving dinner for multiple families only to have everyone, including her now adult children, cancel at the last minute. This means that Mitch and Margie are alone together for an entire weekend for the first time in years. Unfortunately, those years pulled the couple apart to such a degree that Margie and Mitch can barely speak to each other. The story unfolds in a series of flashbacks from the couple’s first meeting in 1945, through deployments and Mitch’s involvement with the space program, showing what went wrong in their marriage. It then catches up to 1965 and winds up with a special New Year’s date in 1966.
I liked the way this novella demonstrated how misunderstandings, suspicions, and frustrations can conspire to divide people. From what I’ve read of military life, Margie’s frustrations with Mitch’s “fun dad” role when he’s between deployments and his desire to make the most of this time by having fun with the family are realistic. The different locations, the need for structure, and Margie’s pride in her role as a support to all the other wives were so well developed. Mitch’s life, though, was much less developed. I often found it difficult to understand what he did or how he felt about things.
I also appreciated that the marital problems are not solved in a single weekend. First, Margie and Mitch have to commit to making changes. Then Mitch has to work to restore Margie’s trust. And, after a lifetime of controlling everything around the house, Margie has to let Mitch participate and allow herself to pursue her own dreams.
The reason this is a B- and not a higher grade is that I didn’t feel like the positives of Margie and Mitch’s marriage were established well enough for me to actually root for them. Both partners could have solved a lot of problems simply by communicating, which was realistic but frustrating given the length of the story. Also, the book wraps up a little too quickly.
Generally speaking, I enjoyed this book. It was unusual and refreshing to see a romance between people who had been married for twenty years! However, I think that the structure, while it worked overall, needed more balance between the characters and some expansion at the end. Overall, it was a good holiday read, although I did feel bad for Margie and Mitch having to eat all that turkey after their “just the two of us” Thanksgiving!
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I love this series, and this book is one of my favorites. As a not young person, I enjoyed the “more seasoned” characters. I think I enjoyed it more than Carrie did, because I did not feel the reservations she had about it. I also sometimes don’t enjoy novellas very much, but this one really worked for me. If you haven’t read this book, or this series, do so. It is a really wonderful atypical historical, taking place in an alternate history during the space race.
I’m deeply, deeply fond of Barry and Turner’s work and liked this one a bit more than Carrie as well; I love her more adult heroes and heroines and this is a lovely portrait of people who really love each other working their way back toward intimacy.
I bought all the books in this series after reading Earth Bound, but that’s the only one I’ve gotten around to yet. I can personally relate to a lot of things in this review, tho, so I guess I need to move A Midnight Feast up on my list. Thanks.
Add me to the list of those who really liked this one. One of the things that’s brilliant about the series is how unafraid Barry and Turner are to examine the relationships of the older couples. ‘Just communicate’ always seems like such good advice, such obvious advice, for the young hero and heroine of romance novels. It is so moving to see an “old married couple” who *still* can’t communicate. It’s hard work and easier said than done. This book makes that really clear. I only wish it were longer, Carrie is right, it’s all a little hurried.