Nothing like waiting until the last minute right ?

I loved this book ! Daughter of the moon Goddess was everything I had hope for & more . The characters , the plot , the details Sue went into to .. chefs kiss !

I will say it took me a while to actually get into this one . Maybe it was a personal reading slump , not sure . But once I got a certain point in this book I just couldn’t put it down .

Xingyin was a strong female lead to be reckoned with . Liwei had my head spinning and going back and forth . I never knew what he was thinking for feeling .. and then there was Wenzhi . Everyone likes the Villian , and I have to agree .. a little .

I felt betrayed by Wenzhi , so hurt & he’s a character . But that’s what I loved about this book !! The way it made me feel , the way I was devouring these pages . I can’t wait to read the sequel ✨

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I'm a sucker for fairy tales and mythology! Daughter of the Moon Goddess has this fairy tale sense with the sweeping world, epic characters of heroes and villians, monsters, universal themes, and a hero's journey. I was absolutely charmed!

I thought the complexity of the characters and their relationships was spot on. The adversity our main character faced was wonderfully terrible. This girl struggles! I was rooting for her from the beginning, and I bet you will too.

I recommend this book! It's appropriate for all your teens through adults, though the intended audience is YA>

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Coming out January 11th, 2022 from Harper Voyager; 512 pages

Content Warning: violence, blood, gore, alcohol consumption, death, separation, attempted assault (brief), kidnapping, bullying (provided by author on Goodreads)

About the Author: Sue Lynn Tan writes fantasy inspired by the myths and legends she fell in love with as a child. Born in Malaysia, she studied in London and France, before settling in Hong Kong with her family.

Her love for stories began with a gift from her father, her first compilation of fairytales from around the world. After devouring every fable she could find in the library, she discovered fantasy books – spending much of her childhood lost in magical worlds. When not writing or reading, she enjoys exploring the hills and reservoirs of Hong Kong, the temples, beaches and narrow winding streets here. (Bio taken from author’s Goodreads profile.)

Find Sue Lynn Tan on the following platforms:

“How foolish I had been to think everything would work out, just like in the books I had read […] I was no princess and fairy tales did not exist for the likes of me.”
Xingyin has been living in solitude on the moon since her mother had been exiled. Unaware that her solitude was an attempt to keep her safe from the Celestial Emperor, Xingyin flees when her magic begins to flare up. She makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, and under a secret identity begins training and learning more about her magical abilities alongside the emperor’s son. With the mastery of her abilities, Xingyin sets out on a quest to challenge the Celestial Emperor and save her mother. Confronting mythological creatures, magical beings, and powerful enemies, Xingyin must decide to save what she loves or the realm of her world.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess had so many elements that I enjoy in fantasy stories! Forbidden romance, folklore inspiration, unique worldbuilding, and a fierce female lead made it difficult to put this book down. Xingyin and her adventure reminded me of a Greek Hero’s journey, and the characterization that Sue Lynn Tan develops her with makes it easy to believe in her. We witness her rise to the stakes of her situation when it seems like her world is in chaos. I think this is the perfect book for readers who love Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas and The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart. As action packed as this book was, I can’t wait for the next one in the series!

(Pine Reads review would like to thank NetGalley and Harper Voyager publishing for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

4.5 stars

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a stunning debut novel that explores the boundaries of duty for family, love, and kingdom amidst the gorgeous prose and wuxia imagery. Xingyin is the daughter of Chang'e and the hero Houyi and has lived her entire life on the moon. Unbeknownst to her, Chang'e has hidden her existence from the rest of the Celestial Kingdom, and her life begins to unravel when the Empress arrives. Xingyin finds herself on a journey that pushes her limits as she trains alongside the emperor's son, masters archery and magic, and embarks on quests to break her mother's enchantment.

This story is immersive and magical with characters that grow on you as their journey unfolds. It took me a minute to place why this read differently before I belatedly realized that we are reading from Xingyin's perspective in first person. After that, it became almost second nature to slip into her point of view and experience all that she's goes through on her journey to reunite with her mother. The novel itself is broken into three parts and while the pacing sometimes felt inconsistent when furthering the plot, it personally didn't bother me because I was so enamored with the world. I loved how Xingyin was determined in her actions and despite all the curveballs that the Celestial Kingdom might throw at her, she doesn't lose sight of her family and her goals.

While I've only watched a handful of Chinese historical dramas, Daughter of the Moon Goddess made me feel like I was watching those beautifully choreographed scenes come to life in the pages. The little nods to the cinematography and stunning fights made my heart so happy to see them unfold in a fantasy novel. Like the wuxia dramas that I watched with my mom, there's treachery and betrayals, political manipulation and dangerous bargains, all of which made me gasp every time. At the end of the novel, I can truly say that I was 110% invested in Xingyin's story and watching her relationships develop and how she learns to harness her powers and her love for her family and friends (and a certain prince?) made her a relatable character that blossomed under all the hardships she experiences.

It almost pains me to be finished with this story because it was truly a magical experience. I can only wait anxiously for the sequel as I cannot wait to be reunited with Xingyin and go on more magical journeys with her.

This is officially my first review of 2022. Before I dive into the story, please take a moment to appreciate the cover of this book. I must say the cover as well as the title were the first two things that drew me to this book.

The story is inspired by the Chinese mythology in which a young girl has to overcome multiple obstacles and face numerous challenges in order to free her mother, the Moon Goddess, who is imprisoned on the moon. Even though this book is over 500 pages long, I find that I don't have much to say. Even though individual quests Xingyin goes on were interesting and at times action packed, I did not feel vested in the story. The love triangle became annoying pretty quickly and I also found that none of the other characters were well fleshed out. Maybe if the book followed multiple POVs, the story would have more depth.

I did like the twist that occurred towards the last one third of the book. However, even there I felt the author missed some opportunities to give us a better idea of the world and magic, and also show Xingyin's character a bit more. She is an immortal warrior who's lived at the Celestial court for many years and understood at least some things about politics and ruthlessness of rulers. Yet, here, when betrayed by someone close to her, she acts quite childish and also at one time, I frankly had to suspend my disbelief when she was able to harvest poisonous flowers while being escorted through the garden by several guards.

Overall, this book definitely feels and reads like a debut novel. I did think it was too long and even though I enjoyed individual quests, I kept wanting more in terms of character development and world building. 3 out of 5 stars. This is supposed to be a duology, but I am not sure if I will be picking up the sequel.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Have you found your favorite 2022 read yet?

I absolutely have and it’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess.

Debut novelist, Sue Lynn Tan’s reimagining of Chinese myth is everything and more. She has dipped her pen in an ancient legend, and crafted her very own. It’s a crackle, a spark that kindles into an inferno of lush and vivid prose that will sweep readers into a realm of immortals, magic, and an adventure as epic as the stories told by firelight hundreds of year ago by a revered storyteller whose words conjure pictures as real as the moments lived by those who listen.

A masterpiece that you experience in the thrum of this story. The beat of its heart mesmerizing. With notes that are achingly familiar, exquisite in its tenor as the sounds flood your every sense, pulling and tugging you towards the edge of something breathtaking.

You won’t be able to resist this story and you shouldn’t. There’s something bewitching about it. We are passengers racing across a terrain foreboding and treacherous. An adventure you want to be part of, to experience with every fiber. Discovering the vastness of choice after choice made by characters who occupy the pages with a resonance that is unforgettable.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a spellbinding debut with a protagonist who jumps off the page fully formed with a vulnerability and tentativeness, but inner strength that makes her real and whole.

The romance, the adventure, the characters, every page is monumental, puncturing us with an effervescence for the second book.

Happy Reading ~ Cece

I was really excited about this book, The cover and the premise really caught my attention.
I liked the worldbuilding and how the story is woven with Chinese mythology. But the pot was very slow and there where to many hand waving time skips "months passed" for me. There where also a lot of covenant story moments, such as how Xingyin came to be at the celestial court. The romance was ok, there wasn't any chemistry and there was also a love triangle what was unnecessary. BUT this book did make me want to research Chinese myth and that's always a win.

I would recommend this book, if you want a story that is based in Chinese mythology.

This book is INCREDIBLE. I have never read Chinese mythology before, and I need MORE. This story has so much packed in! Every section could have easily been a book, and the author was generous enough to only make it a duology! (We need more of those and less trilogies!!!)

One thing I really respected with this story, is that there is no sex, at all. And for a YA fantasy, that’s amazing. So many right now do. But it’s still an enemies-friends-lovers type story! However, I’m not fully sure what to classify this book as. It’s definitely at least older YA, but it’s not new adult or adult.

Since this is a duology, I was hesitant to start the first one since book two isn’t close to coming out. But! I can honestly say the ending doesn’t make you curse the world because it’s a satisfying ending while you await book 2!

This book comes in at just over 500 pages, and I honestly wish it was longer. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and if I could give it more I would!

Have I read my favorite book of the entire year in the first week of January? I'm starting to think that might be the case.

At first I was attracted to the absolutely stunning cover of Sue Lynn Tan's debut, but within pages I was sucked into Xingyin's story. This is one of the best written fantasy debuts I have ever read. The plotting and pacing is immaculate especially considering how many stories it tells. In many ways I would argue this is almost a coming of age narrative that is also a chosen one story and at its base, the story of a girl trying to save her mother.

Xingyin at the beginning of this story is the coddled and sheltered daughter of the moon goddess who, at the risk of being discovered, must flee the only home she has ever known. She ends up in the Celestial Empire, the place governed by those that imprisoned her mother in the first place. Through chance and her own courage she ends up training at the palace as the companion of Prince Liewi. From there, she trains and comes to terms with her powers while trying to find a way to free her mother.

This book spans years as well as intricately woven together plots that have Xingyin doing some of the most incredible feats of magic while also engaged in some of the more compelling and breathtaking battles and fights I have ever read. There were times my heart was in my throat as I read and at one point I even threw the book across my bed. I like to think of myself as someone that is good at catching twists but this one caught me completely off guard.

I would be remiss to not mention romance because of course it is there. Prince Liewi is Xingyin's companion and friend with the potential for more. There is also Captain Wenzhi who fights along side Xingyin and is also nice on the eyes.

I'm really not over how fantastic I found this book - the fighting and battles, the romance and most importantly the way Xingyin grows throughout the book while remembering that she is there for her mother but what is she willing to sacrifice of herself in order to achieve that goal.

It is my understanding this is to be a duology but I don't know where we can possibly go from here but I am eagerly anticipating finding out.

Thank you so much to Harper Voyeger and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a romantic fantasy novel starring Xingyin, the title daughter of Chang'e, Chinese lunar goddess. The story stars Xingyin as she has to disguise herself to live amongst the Celestial Kingdom--a magical kingdom of immortals, as she goes on various adventures to save her mother and reverse their fate.

Along the way, she meets several other characters that help her train her magical powers and it also progresses as a wonderful coming of age novel with romantic elements. The pacing was gorgeous, I never felt bored during this book, there was only some slight dragging during setup which is expected for a fantasy novel. While I am not certain if this is a fantasy romance or romantic fantasy, the two are weaved together so beautifully I hardly care.

I enjoyed the well rounded characters, the look into the authors own interpretation of Chinese mythology, the action and the adventure. The characters are flawed and whole, and I found myself both disliking and still a aligning with some of the characters. While some of the plot can seem a bit muddled, this is only mild in parts of this book and the overall finish is both satisfying and leaving me wanting more. I recommend this for any fan of mythology, action, or romance. The descriptions alone are so beautiful.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a lush, epic fantasy based on the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese Moon Goddess. In this novel you will find:
✨Chinese mythology, mystical creatures and dragons
✨Friends to lovers to yearning from afar
✨Immortals, princes, warriors and a girl who will face them all to save her family

I loved the world of the Celestial Kingdom and reading the journey that Xingyin takes from a lost girl to a capable and fierce warrior. And I must say the romance and the PINING in this book is so delicious!😳 The stunning descriptions of the palace courts, magical clothing and foods build such a beautiful, imaginative world. Sue Lynn Tan’s writing style is elegant and the dialogues are formal yet so heartfelt. If you love C dramas or K dramas, you will love this! I can’t wait to receive my UK copy because the cover is gorgeous😭🌺

This was such an amazing read! It was a little slow to start, but in a way that allows you to settle in to the world and really appreciate the world building the author has put in. I loved that I, as the reader, was learning along with Xingyin during her lessons and quests.

Once you start getting into the main plot, there’s a LOT that goes on. It moves pretty quickly starting in part 2. The writing was very beautiful (I think this is gonna make a wonderful audiobook) and I was full immersed any time I was reading.

While love triangles aren’t my favorite I did genuinely care for all the characters involved (though I did have a favorite). I really liked that we had interesting side characters that Xingyin gets close to, that we learn more about the world and the magic through them as well.

Highly, highly recommend! I can’t wait to see where the second book takes us!

I was granted eARC access to Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan via NetGalley by the HarperCollins Canada influencer team and the latest #FrenzyPresents catalogue preview event. Thank you to the team at HCC for this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads and retail sites.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess was one of the titles presented in the latest FrenzyPresents preview that I was most excited about. I've read a lot of Asian-inspired fantasy lately and I enjoy it, so this seemed like the perfect next book to pick up. I was so glad to see the widget land in my inbox and only slightly intimidated by how little time I had left to get this 512 page book read and reviewed by publication day.

Sue Lynn Tan is definitely a legendary wordsmith in the making. The prose in this book is exquisitely beautiful, the dialogue flows well, the characters are interesting and multilayered, and it's easy to understand how this version of the world works. If you like YA Fantasy and/or Asian-inspired stories, and you like beautiful writing, you need to give this book a chance!

The reason this one didn't flat-out impress me is because the main characters embark on countless little quests that muddy the plot and feel quite repetitive after a while. The broad strokes of the plot are fascinating and easy to track, but all of the side quests made this feel more like watching a completionist play an open-world RPG than reading a polished novel. It's great, it just has too many samey pieces that pull interest.

Sue Lynn Tan is now firmly on my radar and I look forward to seeing how this duology concludes.

“Some scars are carved into our bones — a part of who we are, shaping what we become.”

A retelling of the Chinese fable of the Moon Goddess, Daughter of the Moon Goddess follows Xingyin in her quest to release her mother Chang’e from her imprisonment on the moon. After fleeing her lunar home before being discovered by her mother’s captors, Xingyin must overcome loneliness and degradation to find a way to secure her mother’s freedom. An opportunity presents itself when she finds herself in a competition to win a place as the celestial Crown Prince Liwei’s companion and training partner. After securing her position she is educated and trained by the best in the celestial kingdom. Taking after her mortal father, she becomes an elite archer and fights through many battles, love, betrayal, friendship, and heartbreak to retain her honor as she seeks a favor from the Celestial Emperor, her mother’s tormentor, to secure her freedom.

I enjoyed this book, it’s action packed, full of magic, and some romance. Xingyin is relatable, at times falling victim to imposter syndrome, and strong, even if she seems a bit doe-eyed at times. This book does struggle with pacing at times and took a little bit to get into but once the action starts I didn’t want to put it down.

4/5 stars

I would like the thank NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and the author Sue Lynn Tan for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

While the book has a slow start and Xingyin comes off as very naive and flat, as the story progresses, we get some amazing character growth and I end up falling for her stubbornness. It was so good that I ate this up in one sitting (who needs sleep anyway). The imagery is beautiful, many of the characters sweet, and the action is amazing! I felt like I went on a journey with Xingyin, and maybe I'm a bit heartbroken, but that's ok. Really this book reads more like multiple books, which was satisfying. The pacing just felt very well done.

Though I found the story slow to start, once I got to part two and the action started to come to the fore, I really got sucked into the story. This is a very rich, beautifully crafted retelling of the Chinese mythology story of Chang'e. I was drawn to Xingyin and Liwei's entwined story, digging their friendship which blossomed into something more, but I really felt myself pulling away at the introduction of a love-triangle. As much as I found Xingyin to be a strong, powerful, inspiring figure, it's always a little disillusioning to see people fall so quickly and easily for a YA main character, it takes the believability of the character down a few notches. I felt like this was just a huge plot device for most of the story and it continued to feel that way until the end.

Now, the story itself is very strong. I loved the worldbuilding that Tan has crafted within this book. I am a big fantasy fan, so learning about the world of the Celestial Kingdom and the magic system was so fun and made the book very enjoyable. I also enjoyed seeing the time spent in showing us Xingyin's growth from nothing into a powerful warrior, which often gets glossed over in these kinds of stories. She didn't become strong overnight, she works for it and we get to see her learn and take on new challenges, conquer those, and take on even bigger and more difficult challenges.

While I think that the writing is okay, it's the story that truly makes this work shine and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes next.

This book is.. a lot. I mean, a lot a lot. We have romance, we have action and adventure, betrayal, a mystery, and interwoven in all of that is a plan for freedom. It’s such beautiful writing though

Not that this book is bad BUT it doesn’t work for me: the entire second and third half of this is full of
Battle scenes and lost love and while I’m not against any of that, it’s not something I particularly enjoy reading. Especially the fight scenes, my eyes just glaze over things like that.

I got incredibly bored at the 80% mark and had to really force myself to finish. Like I said, this book is full of a lot of things and I just lost the overall plot of this story when we got to that part, I couldn’t actually see where anything was going.

I can see this book being very loved by some people but it was definitely not the book for me.

Daughter of the moon goddess was a whimsical tale, and I feel so connected to the protagonist.

Xingjian is the protagonist; she’s the daughter of the moon goddess through her childhood; she was shielded from the company of other people. She learns that she is a secret from the Celestial Emperor and other people since her mother steals the elixir of immortality. Resulting in her mother’s exiled to the moon, our protagonist learns that everything she knew isn’t what it seems. After her magic gets the best of her, at that moment, the life of Xingyin could never be the same as she needs to flee her home to save herself and her mother from the wrath of the Celestial Emperor.

Xingyin embarks on a journey to trying to keep
true to herself and trying to find a solution to free her mother from her exile. While growing into ranks, Xingyin feels love, hope, betrayal, heartbrokenness & deception but thanks to her clear values and her personality; she befriends others that help her in her journey. Even when Xingyin makes and shows her flaws, I root for her because the most important thing for her was family and her friends, to which I can completely relate. The romance of this book was good, but I love that it wasn’t the main focus entirely, and our protagonist always put herself and her mom above Liwei and Wenzhi. Her needs always come first, and her pride which I love.

The plot was fun, but sometimes it felt a bit slow because of the detailed description of our protagonist's places. The writing was beautiful and unique. And don’t even get me started on the plot twist. I didn’t even visualize that coming at all it punches my guts. The ending of this book feels like a standalone book, but at the same time, some of the plots didn’t get resolved by the end of the book.

Reading this book made me feel like a child again watching my favorite fantasy/ anime show. And I recommend this book to people.

I’m not exaggerating when I say Tan’s debut novel blew me away. Daughter of the Moon Goddess is bursting with enchanting worldbuilding, flourishing with lush imagery, and brimming with heartfelt emotion. Between the gorgeous descriptions, the lyrical writing, and the riveting plot, it’s impossible to not get swept up with Xingyin and her glorious, magical journey, filled with legendary perils and mythical obstacles, and infused with the essence that makes these tales of old still as impactful to this day.

What I loved most about this book – and made it truly such a joy to read – was how loaded the story was. There was never a moment’s rest or an unnecessary passage. Every single sentence of this book was intentionally and purposeful. Some in the most surprising of ways!

This is not a book you can passively read. It’s chocked-full of so much content – important details despite their size, and threads to storylines woven together so adeptly you don’t realize until exactly the right moment – that if you look away for just one minute you’ll miss out of so much lore, action, and foreshadowing.

But don’t fret! This book is so gripping you’d be hard-pressed to find your attention wandering.

If you’re a fan of YA fantasy this is one book you won’t want to miss out on. Filled to the brim with so much excitement and feeling, it’s hard to believe it’s only the first of two installments. I cannot wait to read its sequel and to see what’s next in store for Xingyin. It’s sure to be just as captivating.

Thank you to Turn the Page Tours and the publisher, Harper Voyager/Collins, for sending me an ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is inspired by the story of Chang'e, the Chinese moon goddess, who was banished to the moon after taking an elixir of immortality intended for her husband. It follows Chang'e's daughter, Xingyin, who has to flee the moon to remain hidden from the Celestial Emperor, first working in a household in the immortal realm and then becoming the learning companion to Liwei, the Crown Prince. As she learns to fight and wield her magic, growing close with Liwei, she begins to focus on how to gain respect in the realm so that she can free her mother, going on a variety of quests and facing betrayals and hardship as she tries to do what's best for her family.

Everything about this book is amazing. I cannot recommend it enough for any fantasy fan.

Xingyin is such a wonderful heroine; I absolutely adore her. Her character development over the course of the book as she grows stronger and more confident in herself is so compelling to watch. She faces numerous moral quandaries over the course of the book, always trying to find a balance between what's best for her family and what's best for all of the other people that she cares about. She's absolutely amazing.

The other characters are all really well-written as well. I love Liwei, even though he's very frustrating sometimes. He's caught between his relationship with Xingyin and his duties to his kingdom for much of the book, which is interesting to read about. Wenzhi, a captain in the army and another love interest, is a compelling character as well. Xingyin's friends, mentors, and all of the other characters feel complex and three-dimensional too.

In addition to Tan's skill at writing her characters, her world-building is spectacular as well. The magic system is well-written, and I really appreciated the inclusion of elements of Chinese mythology and folklore, such as dragons and the story of Chang'e. Additionally, despite there being a complex hierarchy and relationships between different kingdoms and beings in the book, Tan always weaves in that history in such a natural way that it feels like the reader is simply discovering those stories alongside Xingyin. The world is beautiful and magical and complicated, but it never feels like Tan is infodumping or like she is saying too little. She strikes a natural balance between the two.

The plot is wonderful as well. It's a bit more on the character-based side than the plot-based side, which is unusual for a fantasy novel, but that doesn't mean that the plot is underdeveloped or unimportant; it just feels less important to the reader than Xingyin's personal journey. I did really enjoy her quests as she gradually learns more about history that has been relatively hidden in her kingdom by the Celestial Emperor, as well as the growing tensions among the kingdoms in her world. Tan weaves all of the different threads together skillfully, never letting one plotline drop for too long, and bringing them all together in unexpected ways.

The love triangle trope in this book is really well-handled. Both of the love interests are compelling, and Xingyin's relationships with them are deeply woven into the plot, rather than it just being a random side plot as romance can often be in fantasy books. I was truly as deeply invested in that aspect of the book as I was in all of the other plotlines. It is skillfully and realistically developed, and I throughly enjoyed it.

The prose is simply beautiful to read. There are beautiful descriptions, and the writing is simply so well-crafted that reading this book is a joy. It feels like a fairy-tale in both its plot and its writing, and is truly just so well-done.

I honestly cannot rave enough about this book. It is a stunning debut, and a must-read for any fan of fantasy. Xingyin is a compelling heroine, her development is enthralling and believable, the worldbuilding is stellar, and every aspect of the plot is entangled so skillfully that one can't help but be invested in every aspect of the book. Although marketed as adult fantasy, I would say that it probably straddles the lines between that and YA, though I truly believe that anybody could enjoy it. I would recommend this to absolutely anybody and anybody who likes fantasy, mythology, or is simply willing to give any exceptionally-well-written book a try.