I have been wanting to read this book for a while, so when I saw it on NetGalley, I immediately requested it. I was expecting more of an adventure story, however it mostly focuses on the romance. I was a little disappointed to find out it had a love triangle in it, as it is a trope I dislike to see in young adult books. However, that isn’t why I gave this story four stars instead of five.

While the love triangle was unexpected, what really irked me was how the two love interests would get angry and say something hurtful to the main character, and then turn around and blame their actions on jealousy. It felt like they were both being manipulative. I actually found myself liking the second love interest much more than the first for a while. But then he started to do things that also seemed somewhat manipulative. I just don’t like to see that in young adult books because I feel like it sets the wrong example for young readers.

Another thing that bothered me was how many things were happening at once. There were times when I found myself thinking, “Isn’t she supposed to be saving her mother?” For a long time I didn’t even realize her main goal once she started her training. It was almost like it was forgotten for half of the story, and then suddenly mentioned again. I often had a hard time keeping track of what was even supposed to be happening. It was almost like the book had fillers in it leading up to the main moment. Other times I felt like the book was unnecessarily dramatic.

However, despite all of that, this book was very interesting to read. I loved the concept and how the immortals and mortals were portrayed. I loved the creatures that we were introduced to and how Xingyin grew into herself. I really liked how the characters were more mature then some characters I’ve read in other young adult books. Xingyin is a very ambitious character and she was really easy to root for. At the end, some of the things I felt were unnecessary at first seemed to really connect together and show how each scene helped to move the story forward. It’s a really well-thought out story that is sure to entertain readers of all ages.

I really enjoyed the ending! I hope there’s another book in this series soon, because I would love to see what is going to happen next.

Overall, if you enjoy books like Red Queen and Shadow & Bone and you like magic, mythology, strong female characters, love triangles, mythological creatures, royal themes, plot twists and adventure, then you should definitely read this story!

A fantasy story inspired by the legend of the Chinese Moon Goddess. This story follows a young woman’s quest to free her mother from her immortal prison while also learning to grow, falling in love, and following her heart. Xingyin has always lived on the moon, living a peaceful and quiet life with her mother who mourns for Xingyin’s father. When Xingyin’s magic flares up her existence is alerted to the Celestial Kingdom and now she must go on the run as she discovers that her existence has been kept hidden from the Celestial Emporer and Empress and should she be discovered they might not only destroy her but her mother. Xingyin now is hiding in the Celestial Kingdom with no money, no home, and no prospects.. until she accidentally befriends the crown prince and enters into a competition to become his study companion. So begins the blossoming of a friendship that turns into first love... too bad he is betrothed to another already. While studying Xingyin also starts to develop her archery and weapons skills... to the point where she is talented enough to be a soldier and so in an attempt to break apart from Prince Liwei and their complicated situation she joins the army with Captain Wenzhi, hunting monsters, fighting together, and bonding... and finding that she now has a second love and possible new home to return to, and a person to help her forget Prince Liwei. Along the way she also aids another prince, Prince Yanxi and protect his family from merpeople war and discover new secrets about the legendary dragons. It doesn’t hurt that this prince also develops feelings for her. Soon Xingyin is going between her feelings for Liwei and Wenzhi (like a lot. like constantly, I was definitely rooting for Wenzhi despite everything, he just seemed like the more interesting option compared to Liwei and come on, when it comes to it all, they have more chemistry and a better dynamic). Xingyin must not deal with her complicated relationships and find a way to save her mother without getting killed by the Celestial Emperor and Empress. The story has dragons, demons, merpeople, magic, romance, and so much going on. This definitely read like a cdrama (DEFINITELY) it felt like I was watching a cdrama show and honestly, I didn’t mind. While the love triangle trope is one of my least favorites and a female lead who can’t pick one partner, and is constantly juggling two love interests is tiring, the overall story was interesting. So while the story takes a bit to get into and some of the love aspects were irritating, it was an overall interesting read with a magical feel to it. I am excited to see where the sequel goes and how this duology ends (still rooting for you Wenzhi to be endgame).

This unfortunately wasn’t for me! While I was hoping to be swept away, I didn’t connect with the character at all and the tropes at the beginning felt very cliche for YA. The prose is beautiful and perhaps I’ll feel compelled to pick this back up at a later date but for now I’m not invested enough in the story to continue this read through.

The writing was very whimsical and kept the pace throughout the book very nice. I will be picking up a physical copy to add to my library.

I received Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan as an ebook arc copy. Thank you @netgalley, @harpervoyagerus and @suelynntan for letting me read this ahead of release. I LOVED IT! The story follows the daughter of the Moon Goddess on a quest to free her from exile. This YA fantasy has heart, romance, adventure, soul searching, Chinese folklore, and just a dreamy presence about it. I highly recommend reading this one when it comes out in Jan.!

There was a lot that happened in this book and I enjoyed it overall. However, I do think it felt like something I had read before. It didn’t seem to bring anything new to the YA fantasy genre. I think the problem may have been that SO much happened I couldn’t appreciate the characters as much as I would have liked. I am looking forward to finding out how this tale ends.

did not finish @ 34%

Unfortunately, I am not invested in this book at all so far; I suspect it would get better once the plot picks up, but I also do not have the patience to stick around without actually knowing that it does pick up. This is entirely a personal preference though!

Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher and Sue Lynn Tan for allowing me to read Daughter of the Moon Goddess before its release. This is a fun story about a young girl who has to navigate a new world on her own but who is also trying to help her mother. I loved the setting and overall atmosphere of this, but I felt the story was just fine. This is a good debut and I look forward to seeing what other kinds of stories Sue Lynn Tan creates.

Rounding up to 4 stars! This was a very enjoyable read. Writing was beautiful, and it ended on a good note so it feels like can also be read as a standalone.

Wow! Just W.O.W!! This book was soooo good 💜 If you love books that feature friends to lovers (to enemies 😱), an abundance of fantasy, Chinese mythology, and a strong female MC, then this is the book for you! It is a story inspired by the legend of Chang’e and how her daughter, Xingyin, will learn how to harness her powers, discover her true identity, and will do whatever it takes to free her mother from exile. Can we also admire how GORGEOUS this cover is! 😍😍 Thanks again to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for feedback.

Xingyin lives on the moon with her mother (Chang’e), but recently found out that she was exiled by the Celestial Emperor, as she took the elixir of immortality. To keep her mother safe, Xingyin flees the moon on a journey to find out more about her past, who she is currently, and how to harness her blossoming powers. She ends up earning the opportunity to train and learn alongside the prince of the Celestial Kingdom, where over time, feelings occur between the two. When unexpected events occur, she leaves to join the army to fight legendary creatures and enemies, but along the way, another love interest enters into her life. Xingyin has to fight for what is right, when it comes to trust, love, and saving her mother. This story has many twists and turns and definitely keeps the pages turning, so be prepared to fall in love with this book, as you will be hugging it nonstop once you finish! Can’t wait to read the sequel to this amazing duology ✨

This was a lush, imaginative story with gorgeous writing but it felt slightly dense, with a style that was a bit too elaborate for my personal tastes. I really enjoyed the mythology aspects, but wasn't a fan of the love triangle and overall just didn't feel particularly connected to the characters.

A beautiful fantasy based on the Chinese folktale of the Moon Goddess unfolds with a breathtaking vision of how a story should unfold. A young woman lost from her home and hoping to free her mother from her imprisonment by the Celestial Emperor finds a way to become a companion to the Crown prince of the Kingdom. As part of her service to him she is able to learn how to fight, how to use her magic alongside him as he is being trained. she grows to love the prince; but his parents betroth him to a princess for political reasons. She leaves his service and joins the Army where her skills as an archer win her the right to be in campaigns to kill various monsters who threaten the realm. All the while she is trying to win the right to ask the emperor to free her mother. She has many adventures , finds love again and faces betrayal of the lowest type.
This is a thrilling and engrossing story. It unfolds so beautifully that you won't want to put it down. I am enjoying the influx of Chinese folklore that is currently being seen in literature. This book is one of the finest .

2.75 stars

I commend this book for giving me a variety of the most delectable flavors of asian fantasy I have not indulged in in a very long time. I find this colorful array enough in Cdramas, webnovels and manhua but to have read it in a YA fantasy book is honestly such a triumph. I am so, so happy that the genre is steadily expanding in stories rooted in other cultures, written by people from those cultures to boot! For me, this is especially true for Daughter of the Moon Goddess because a great part of my identity on a cultural level is East Asian (particularly Chinese + Taiwanese) and so I had so! Much! Fun! Reading this book.

If you're a fan of Cdramas and general Chinese high fantasy and are, in general, an avid reader of YA fantasy, you have to give this book a go. I'd recommend this strongly to people who enjoy the likes of Elizabeth Lim's Spin the Dawn and Julie Kagawa's Shadow of the Fox trilogy in particular. Tan's lyrical writing - which paints such a beautiful picture of the vast and Celestial world that she's created - also really reminded me of Joan He's Descendant of the Crane. The only difference between all the books I've mentioned and Daughter of the Moon Goddess is... well. This book is 400 pages long.

Which actually leads me to the next section of this review: why I hesitate to even rate it 3 stars. Although I really did enjoy the decadence of Chinese myth and legend in this tale, I felt like it could've been a lot shorter. I suppose it could be a nod to the length of Cdramas/manhua/webnovels—as Chinese stories do love their lengths. But this one book almost felt like a trilogy crammed into one. There's quite a bit of a pacing issue in this one, some parts were achingly slow while some parts flashed by like lightning, and though I wasn't too bothered by it (because I was too busy screaming about legendary monsters) the repetition of events and circumstances... tested my patience.

The characters... let's not even talk about them. While I did enjoy the central themes that each of their arcs put great emphasis upon—how far are you willing to go for your family, being chief of them—as characters they were... pretty lackluster. Though I feel like that could've been remedied had this book been separated into two instead of one.

This book was also chock full of my least favorite tropes. From love triangles, to constant indecision and petty jealousy (there was a lot of jealousy in these pages 😂), to the seemingly unlimited amount of hot princes that popped up in every corner that were either interested or invested in Xingyin to some vicious degree. It was all very... staple YA. And something you can even find quite a bit in high fantasy Cdramas actually! But... I'm just not the biggest fan.

Hence, the 2.75 star rating. :)

If unlike me, you do like those things however OR would simply love to go on a fun adventure across East Asian Legend Heaven, then by all means go ahead and read Daughter of the Moon Goddess. If you're anything like me, I promise you no regrets!!

Content Warnings: assault (sexual - implied), blood, death, mind control, murder, violence, war.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan is an extremely lush and beautifully written novel. I really loved how descriptive the author was in writing about all the different locations in this world. I could almost feel the loneliness and cold of the moon to being immersed in the studies with the other immortals. I do think the pace of the books was a bit slow in the beginning, leading up to the halfway point of the book and I wasn't a fan of the use of so many time skips but that's just my personal preference. I do think that Tan was able to write fleshed out characters so that I could clearly picture all of their flaws and motivations and I overall enjoyed reading this book.

Amazing!! I was totally hooked from the first chapter and finished this in just a couple of days. Wonderful storytelling, excellent characterization, and just a really lovely adventure story based on Chinese folklore with plenty of twists and turns. I think this is also a great fantasy for YA or for those new to fantasy, because the worldbuilding and magic were not overly complex--it was straightforward but still very exciting and unique.

I only had two issues with the book that bothered me a bit. First of all, at a few points in the story, the heroine's solutions to her problems seemed "too easy," if that makes sense. Not quite a Deux ex Machina situation, but nevertheless there were a few points during the book's climax when the heroine's path was a little too easily cleared.

Second, the love triangle. That dragged on for a liiiiiiiittle too long, heheh. I'm all for a good love conflict, but I think the back and forth between Liwei and Wenzhi went on for the majority of the book and it honestly got kind of old.

Overall, this is probably my favorite read of this month! The ending seemed set up for a sequel, which I really hope happens soon!

A child of the Moon Goddess, and an immortal herself,  Xingyin grows up on the moon, with just her mother & their family servant/long time companion. For the most part, the three of them are happy, if isolated. Xingyin senses a grief in her mother that she can't quite explain, and within herself she feels a growing sense to reach out ... for something more. She can't label it, and her mother has warned her against reaching for it, but the pull towards that other grows stronger as she grows up. And when she can no longer ignore it, she finds her whole life changed, forever.

In this reimagining of the myth of Chang'e The Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan takes the reader on a fantastical exploration of family loyalty and learning how to trust in yourself, & others. Xingyin is a multifaceted, kickass heroine who N E V E R gives up, no matter how many punches life manages to aim at her. Faced with challenge after challenge, with betrayals and misfortunes and family secrets, with a court full of royal, magical enemies, she somehow manages to embrace her own power time & time again. She builds relationships and friendships, all the while constantly questioning the validity of those relationships if she's never fully honest with anyone. "Don’t tell anyone who you are. But never forget either.” Her mother had warned her, and in theory, that sounds easy, but the practice of it is more difficult that she could ever have imagined. She battles this need for connection with her goal to complete her quest -> to rescue her mother from an unjust punishment.

Reading Xingyin's constant struggle to balance her need for human connection - for friendship & allies & love & understanding, even for mentorship & knowledge - with her inner secrets, her inner journey to free her mother was almost physically painful for me. I'm one of those people who has to change the channel or pause & walk a way for a few minutes when something particularly angsty is happening on-screen (I have never fully watched the Scott's Tots episode of The Office, if that means anything to you), so I found myself taking a lot of breaks while I was reading this book, but that's to its credit: If it wasn't so well written, I wouldn't have empathized with her so much.

Every word, every action, every step & misstep that she makes, Xingyin must somehow maneuver them all into a path for her mother's redemption, and - eventually- her own salvation.

I wanted only good things for Xingyin, and - as in most myths - that was unfortunately not happening. She faced trial after trial, setback after setback. But she rose to meet each of them with an inner fortitude that I greatly admired, and that was admired by other characters in the text, as well. Witnessing other people start to see Xingyin's true character - especially in the midst of all the misleading and brutal attacks against her - was one of the absolute highlights of this story.

Can we also just appreciate this cover art?

The book has multiple sections, and so many plotlines that there's definitely something here for everyone: Action & adventure? Check. Romance? Cheeeeck. Betrayal & heartbreak? Angry checks. Friendships forged in fire? Check. Legendary magical creatures? Check. Misdirection and sleight of hand? Oops: Double Check. Tan seems to have mastered the 'mythology' part of her fantasy mythology duology, as every secret has its own secret, and every character manages to have both a mysterious backstory you learn along the route to yet another quest for Xingyin, and a competing quest of their own. The fact that this is Tan's debut is ... astonishing, really.

The only negative thing I have to talk about with this book is the fact that it is first in a duology and THIS book isn't even out until January 2022, so who knows when the second book will be released? Now I have to wait forever to find out what happens next, and I am an impatient, at best, reader. Thanks, #NetGalley.

Still: if you like less frequented mythology, fantasies that hit the border of YA fantasy but don't exactly crossover (IMO), a heroine that holds her own and then some, and a really rich world building experience, add Daughter of the Moon Goddess to your pre-order list now. (Can we Also just take a minute to appreciate this gorgeous cover art?)

Daughter of the Moon Goddess was a fantastic debut for Sue Lynn Tan. Our main character, Xingyin, is an immortal so the pacing was really unique in this book. The story takes place over many, many years while Xingyin struggles to try and free her mother from her exile on the moon. The immortal realm and their magic system was well developed and fascinating to read. There are a lot of cool characters in this adventure that each added on to the twists and turns!

The writing style was absolutely magical, and sucked me right into the scenes I was reading. Xingyin and Liwei have some beautiful platonic and romantic moments together, with prose I'll remember as quotes for a long time.

My one and only qualm was with the pacing of events. As I was reading I was never quite sure what the arc of the story was headed towards because every event and battle seemed like *the* most important. I kept thinking "this seems early/late for a climax" which was a bit off-balance feeling. This book an awesome epic with A LOT of plot crammed into the pages — so just be ready for that and I think this work will blow you away. Seriously, it almost felt like a standalone story, you get a lot of content when you pick up Daughter of the Moon Goddess! It’s marked as a duology so I’m curious to see what’s in store for Xingyin in book two!

Daughter of the Moon Goddess reminds me a lot of the archetypal hero's journey that we see a lot in literature. Basically: the hero (in this case Xingyin, daughter of the moon goddess) leaves home to go on a journey, goes through harrowing trials and character growth, and may or may not return home at the end a changed person. This gives the story a very mythical quality, which is perfect for a story steeped in Chinese mythology and full of immortals. Xingyin may have originally been forced to leave home to escape the anger of the Celestial Emperor, but she uses this to her advantage and decides to try and win her mother's freedom (her mother took the elixir of immortality meant for her husband and was imprisoned for it). Along the way, Xingyin becomes good friends with the crown prince, joins the celestial army, and goes on a monster hunting montage all on her quest to free her mother. Xingyin is an amazing character and a fantastic hero, her drive and adherence to her pride and morals make for an interesting journey for her. My only negative was that it seemed like every guy she meets falls for her. Some act on it and some don't and there's a bit of a weird love triangle that I didn't really care for, but it doesn't overshadow how amazing this book was. I can't wait for the sequel!

First off - WOW.

Secondly, before you even read what I have to say about this beautiful book - PREORDER IT. TRUST ME.

After receiving an eARC from NetGalley for my honest review, I was left with so many thoughts and feelings upon finishing, Daughter of the Moon Goddess. This story follows the tale of Xingyin, the daughter of Chang'E, the legendary goddess who was banished to the moon after imbibing an immortality elixir once meant for her husband, in order to save her unborn daughter. The cover alone made me request the eARC and when I read the excerpt, I was hooked. This is an absolutely beautiful tale introducing the reader when Xingyin has to flew the moon where she has been raised by her mother in secret. She then travels to the celestial realm where she undergoes trials to become the prince's companion. The reader follows her as she tries to find a way to save her mother from her imprisonment on the moon by getting into the celestial emperor and empress' good graces. There is also a friends-to-lovers trope between Xingyin and the Prince, Liwei.

I just highly recommend you pick up this book when it releases and dive in. It is absolutely beautifully written and I was shocked to learn this is Sue Lynn Tan's debut novel. CONGRATULATIONS! This book was incredible.

I simply loved this book. I don't think anything could have been written better in it. The love story? Fantastic. The mythology? Fascinating. The adventure? Had me sitting on the edge of my seat!! This was entirely too beautiful for words! 5⭐