To The Moon And Back

by ChaFay Tucker

When the sun and moon collide, sparks fly, and the darkness turns to the light.
Deysie Hyde has had enough of love. With one too many failed relationships and a traumatic breakup that leaves her broken, she swore to herself that she would no longer lay her heart out to anyone ever again. Until she meets Jaxon Armani. He is the definition of a ray of sunshine. Optimistic. Gentle. Caring. Outgoing. Everything that she isn't. When he attempts to ask her out, she's quick to shut him down but that doesn't stop him from trying. While his outgoing personality, piercing eyes, italian accent and his need to call her Moon, she's resilient to give in to his charms even if it is tempting. Will Deysie allow him the key to her heart and give herself another chance at love or will she refuse and keep herself guarded?

272 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2025

Reviews

[Akaku Red · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a slow reader but i still devoured this book! 🫶🏽
Chafay’s writing is beautiful and smooth 💕 She pulls you into the story from the very first page.
I loved the dialogue between Jaxon and Deysie 🙈
One of my favorite lines was when he said, “Then I’ll chase after you,” after she admitted that honesty might make her run. Ugh, i had butterflies!🤭

The way Jaxon constantly reassures her with lines like:
“You now know what i want, Deysie.”
“And what do you want?”
“You.”
Made me blush. 💕

His persistence, her resistance, and the slow unraveling of their connection was done so well. And honestly they were both in love right away, but Deysie kept denying her feelings, but i do get why she felt this way. She was a relatable character especially work wise, haha. 🤣

It was a wonderful journey of healing, learning to trust, and letting someone in.
Chafay really captured the emotional chaos of falling in love after heartbreak 🫶🏽

[kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't even know where to begin with this review. Firstly, I'd like to commend ChaFay for putting this story out there. However, I think that it needed a lot more work before she released it. Maybe longer than a few months between releases, I think.

Not only is the prose all over the place, but there are consistency issues that are glaringly obvious. Such as the timeline being skewed in several places. We learn that Juniper and Charleigh (wlw couple & friends of Jaxon and Deysie respectively) have been dating for four years, but that doesn't make sense as they started dating only a month or two before Jaxon and Deysie, making them have the same timeframe for their relationship. It's implied but not confirmed or denied that Deysie broke up with her boyfriend five years ago OR they dated for five years. Unclear.

The characters are flat and boring, and the 'drama' that happens is all solved within a chapter or two, making me wonder why it was even there in the first place. There is no reason to call this grumpy x sunshine. This is emotionally damaged with bad coping mechanisms x emotionally damaged with bad coping mechanisms. Jaxon spends more time worrying about Deysie than Deysie ever does worrying about him. I wonder why he even likes her, she is about as flat paper, just like he is.

Amongst the lack of editing (for grammar and spelling), there are also issues regarding common phrases and sayings. The amount of times I read "hurted" or "catched" was too many for me to believe that this book was edited in any sort of meaningful way. This reads exactly like a first draft that did not undergo any for of dev. editing or copyediting by the author or anyone else. I'm not sure why the other reviews are all so high.

Deysie and Jaxon are characters are completely incompatible. There is nothing that draws the two of them together and for as much as Jaxon gets on his soapbox and starts preaching about how much he likes her, his reasoning in the beginning was VERY shallow. He said it best in one of the later chapters, these two are very toxic.

Deysie did NOT need a relationship. She needed therapy. And Jaxon is giving the type of person that is not content to be alone and single for more than a few days. It's literally giving White Savior how Jaxon always wanted to fix Deysie's problems. It was the same thing over and over. Talking about needing to talk it out and then NOT doing that for any other reason than the Plot. I do not think that the arc of Deysie's character development, what with the implied SA and the emotional/verbal abuse from her ex was handled well AT ALL. It felt contrived and like something thrown in there to make the ex sound worse than he was, which we could already tell he was bad. There was no need for that. Then suddenly that problem was just poof, gone because Jaxon knocked him out.

Also the fact that the plot for both of their main exes was the same? Celine pretty much did the same thing Dan did and neither were fully addressed by in passing. Why did we even include this, it added nothing to the story to be done twice.

The friends towards the end of the book were actually awful as well. Actually, they were awful towards the front of the book as well. Pushing someone who is clearly still hurting into a relationship? They should have pushed her into therapy. THEN, the "pulling the plug" portion of the plot felt completely out of nowhere. There is absolutely no reason that the doctors would say "he's getting better" then turn around and suddenly say "we should consider letting him go" after three months. That's absolutely unheard of. I'm not sure if any research was actually put into this or if it was added for shock value and reading the acknowledgements, I feel that this book would have been misleading if Jaxon actually died because that's not how a romance novel works. Especially one so poorly written that the plot felt like it was barely there. This book was just a collection of Things Happening in no particular sort of way, and that's what frustrated me as well.

All of that is to say, this book needs a lot more polishing before it can really stand on it's own. And even then, I don't know what story was trying to be told here.

[Dark Bedroom Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You need someone to guide you to the light but they can’t do that unless you want that for yourself.”

Interracial Romance ∙ Slow Burn ∙ Strangers to Lovers ∙ Reverse Grumpy x Sunshine ∙ Angst ∙ Opposites Attract ∙ Trauma & Healing ∙ 1st Person, Dual POV

Dedication: “For the ones who think they’re not deserving of love. The ones who were made out to be the villain. You are loved. You are cared for. And you are enough. Your Prince Charming is out there somewhere.”

This book pulled out every emotion I had and in the end, I closed it with a peaceful smile. ✨️ It broke me apart and then carefully put me back together. I laughed, I cried, and I didn’t expect it to cut so deep...
This is a beautifully written, heart-breaking love story wrapped in the dark shadows of life. The world is easy to step into, and the characters will meet you with warmth.🪄
It reminded me that love has its own gravity. No matter how hard we try to stay away, it finds us, pulls us closer, and if we let it - heals even the deepest wounds.

Deysie (FMC). There were moments I wanted to shake her for that blind stubbornness, for not letting herself feel… for not even giving life a chance to show her something different. But the deeper I got into her story, the more I understood her why. And let’s be honest - if a man with golden-retriever energy crosses your path… there’s no staying away anyway.💘
Jaxon (MMC). Whew... 🥵 This man loves with his whole soul. Assiduous, patient, and relentless in the most beautiful way. There were moments I thought he’d step back, and I’m so glad he didn’t.✨️
And I hold the same belief as him - never end the day angry, because you never know if that might be the last conversation...
Their connection? Pure fate. Intimate. Electric. The kind of love that feels delicate yet powerful enough to change everything.⚡️

This book had been sitting on my TBR for a while, and now I regret not picking it up sooner. But maybe it came to me exactly when I needed it most - like syrup for the soul.🍯

⭐ 4.5/5 | 🌶️ 0.99/5

[Murielle Hendrickx · Rating 5 out of 5]

It wasn’t exactly the kind of genre I usually read, but after a recommendation from my daughter, I decided to give it a try and read it at a relaxed pace. I truly enjoyed it — the slowly building trust between Deysie and Jaxon was beautifully written. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves stories about true gentlemen and those who never give up.

[Daphne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed To The Moon and Back. Romance isn’t usually my thing, but this book was genuinely cute and hit all the right emotional ups and downs.

To The Moon and Back follows a double pov of Deysie and Jaxon. Their dynamic was really interesting because Deysie is quite grumpy and closed off, while Jaxon is open, honest, and pure sunshine.

Deysie is a character you either relate to or learn from, which makes her feel real and layered.
I also really liked both Jaxon and Deysie’s friend groups. They added a lot of depth to the story and created some interesting dynamics that made the world feel more alive. The slow burn between the two was torture in the best way possible.

I definitely recommend this one for romance lovers, especially if you like characters who challenge each other and grow together.

[Hales · Rating 5 out of 5]

ChaFay never fails to tug at heartstrings!

I don’t want to give spoilers in my review, because it’s a new release! BUT ughhhh I don’t even know what to say, I love this with my whole heart and soul. I read this in one day! It would have been in one go, but alas life. If you’re thinking about this book, you absolutely have to read it. All the stars.

[Sloane Neveah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!

Okay, first soooo much happened ! Deysie girl was so hard on herself, but I'm so glad Jaxon helped her see the beauty within herself he fell so hard!! He did not give up! I don't want to spoil anything, but it had me biting my fingernails but beautiful!!!

[elysians. · Rating 1 out of 5]

“To the Moon and Back” had a great premise, but the execution was done poorly. After reading other reviews, I looked forward to this book, but as I went through it, I realized it didn’t feel like the author really took her time with it. It had the potential to be a heartfelt and moving story, and I believe with more time, careful editing, and deeper character development, it could be something special.

It felt like this novel was written quickly, skimmed over in the editing process, and then immediately published. There were countless errors within the book that made it hard to digest at times. It was riddled with awkwardly written sentences, grammatical errors, and robotic dialogue that seemed more fit for a sitcom. Many of the “deep and profound” moments were out of place and caused the rhetoric to fall short. There was no buildup to these moments since the characters barely knew one another before our male MC, Jaxon, started professing his undying adoration for our female MC, Deysie.

I found it odd that as soon as Jaxon met Deysie, he was already obsessed with her in a way that did not seem authentic. I love a good “he fell hard and harder” trope, but here it seemed as though the author simply wanted them together, like dolls being pushed together and made to interact. Their “development” with each other seemed more like idea/word dumping instead of showing us how they bonded and slowly fell for one another.

The characters needed to be developed more because I still felt like I didn’t actually know Jaxon or Deysie by the end. They both had hobbies, but once again, it felt more like telling than showing. The character development was a bit vague, where it feels like you kind of know what they like, about their past, and their families, but then again, not really. This made the chemistry between them lacking. There were countless areas in the novel where I thought it would have been cute if they had more chemistry. I get the feeling that Jaxon was made Italian at the last second, and this became a personality trait for him. More research on the Italian culture could have been done to make that detail about him more authentic. “Jaxon” typically isn’t an Italian name, so finding out he was Italian surprised me.

Many of the conflicts throughout the novel seemed like checkpoints rather than natural development – a way to add drama unnecessarily. Deysie’s past traumas were continuously hinted at, often through the same recycled lines, to the point that it became stagnant. Instead of showing her journey toward healing, learning to love herself, and being loved again, the story stalled, and by the end, even Jaxon couldn’t help her do that. Topics like that are sensitive and very real, and more research should have been done on how it could have been handled. Similarly, the drama with Jaxon and his ex was rushed, like another checkpoint was hit, and it didn’t add any value to the story.

By the time I reached chapter 30, I was left wondering what the author could do for twenty more chapters and was disappointed by the random arguments and tension between the two of them. It was another moment of telling instead of showing that added no real value to the narrative. The random arguments were a setup for the car accident, another dramatic checkpoint that felt rushed and poorly developed. It felt more like a way to distract from the fact that Deysie and Jaxon weren’t good for one another, and there was no other way to resolve it. Reading the endnote, maybe Jaxon should have died because then it would have forced Deysie to go to therapy and heal properly.

In the end, “To the Moon and Back” had such potential, but ultimately suffered from underdeveloped characters, unnecessary conflicts, and a lack of careful editing.