Book review: 'Night on Moon Hill' is an enthralling read

"A NIGHT ON MOON HILL," by Tanya Parker Mills, Walnut Springs Press, $17.99, 301 pages (f)

The pool was inviting, and to Daphne Lessing, a university professor and renowned author, her ritual of revitalizing swims are a therapeutic vice.

Daphne’s life is one of precise order and routine — avoiding social contact in her private life in spite of her career. That will soon change not by the author’s choice, but by another's choice that initiates the change.

As a result of the changes, into Daphne’s self-imposed solitary lifestyle comes 10-year-old Eric, who has Asperger’s syndrome. Feeling that she doesn’t fit into the regular world, she also feels inadequate to care for another, too, as she seeks for peace in her upturned world.

“A Night on Moon Hill” is filled with suspense, surprise, a touch of romance and heart-warming moments to cheer for.

Beliefs and the culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are touched on briefly, and a few of the characters are LDS, but it is easily a book anyone of any faith can read and connect with.

Author Tanya Parker Mills has created a book that is sure to make a lifetime impression to all who read it.

It's a clean book that doesn't include swearing or graphic violence. It does include some heavier themes of teen pregnancy, mental illness and suicide.

Mill’s “A Night on Moon Hill” is a 2012 Whitney Award finalist in the general fiction category. The Whitney Awards Mills is also the author of “The Reckoning,” a 2008 Whitney Award finalist, a 2009 Indie Book Award winner for multicultural fiction, and 2010 winner for mainstream/literary fiction in the Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards. "A Night on Moon Hill" is Mill’s second novel.

Mills and her husband, Michael, are the parents of a daughter and a son. Their son was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at the age of 6.

Mills graduated with a B.A. in journalism from BYU, has worked for a PBS affiliate, a Catholic women’s college, a nonprofit relief agency and has held the position of assistant editor for trade publications with Sunset Magazine.

For more information on Mills, go to www.tanyaparkermills.com.

Becky Robinette Wright is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Virginia.