2.5/5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the world building and learning about the magic system! However, I felt like the pacing was way too fast, at least in the first half. It felt like the author prioritized information and events over character building and getting the readers to care about each character.

At some points, I had to push myself to trust the process and continue reading. I do think that the writing and story improved in the second half of the book. I also believe this is the author's first book, so I have no doubt that they will continue to grow as a writer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Cedar Street Press for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest thoughts

3.5/5
Thanks to Cedar Street Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

Tilly Nyx is a 16 year old in NYC with memories of her mother, sister and she living a very different life until her mother and sister were murdered. She was brought to NYC by the mysterious Time Keeper and placed with a family who kept her essentially living in poverty. All she possessed was a map that her mother insisted she not tell anyone about. Then the Time Keeper is killed and everyone Tilly thought she knew turns against her and she is plunged into a different world full of magic, prophecy and a dangerous opponent focused on finding her.

This story is full of many of the themes I so enjoy in fantasy stories; unknown abilities, found family, magical training and an implacable foe. The world building is well done and I liked that most of the story takes place on the ocean with a large fleet of ships, some with unique magical features. The magic system of casting sprites of different kinds to complete different tasks, like lighting a room or compete in battles against other sprites was fun to read. There was a lot of action and the story moved at a fairly brisk pace as well, and unfortunately at times this also worked against the story. So much was going on with war games, searching for answers and training that it took away from getting to know and get attached to the characters. It just never felt like we got much depth with the characters as there was so much to absorb that they felt a bit flat. Overall, the story kept my interest and there are many positives to this debut and I will certainly look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

* Thanks to Cedar Street Press and Netgalley for an advance copy for review purposes *

Tillly Nyx lives a pretty unremarkable life along her unpleasant relatives, until she discovers her role in stopping a terrifying evil that was involved in the death of her mother. The world this book is set in is fascinating - mostly water, with people living and working on ships, and an elemental magic based system that makes a lot of sense. However, the story is a little too similar to Harry Potter and I am not entirely sure who the target audience for this book is. The first 60-70% of the book seems to be aimed towards a very young audience (think Philosopher's Stone), and the last section gets significantly darker (the climax of the Goblet of Fire). I also did not connect much with the characters, Tilly is a blank slate, with zero growth, Mei is Hermione,

This is about a young girl named Tilly discovering a secret that's been kept from her since she was a child. It was hidden to protect her. As the story unfolds there is a lot of magic, action and adventure. It is well written, has good world building
and enjoyable characters.

Thank you BooksForward for this ARC.

***ARC received from Cedar Street Press and NetGalley in exchange for honest review, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***

Blood Moon Prophecy follows the story of Tilly, a young girl who has her entire world turned upside down when old evils come back to haunt. This book has a lot going for it a more classical magic system, a world that is mostly water based and a prophecy wrapped in a riddle of an ancient nearly dead language and yet Blood Moon Prophecy just didn’t fully deliver for me even with all its positive points.

Tilly is your typical chosen one hero and for the most part she was an okay heroine. She’s a bit of a brat at times, disregards the wisdom of others due to her own arrogance that inevitably backfires on her and seems to have free run to do whatever she wants that is typical of a chosen one in a YA book. But she is a good friend who is quick to learn from her mistakes and at least tries to do better so while there were times that I didn’t always like her I could at least understand her and in the end Tilly was fine for a heroine. I just wish we knew what she looked like, I cannot recall much of the book where it describes her physical appearance other than her knees. Mei, Nav and James make up the rest of Tilly’s crew and while they are side character stereotype I did like them a lot. James is a bit standoffish at the beginning, Mei a little distant but they all come around to being a strong group that cares for each other.

There are other characters that kind of get lost in the jumble of characters because wow, this book has a lot of characters. Some stick around, others pop in and out every few chapters and some seem to be mentioned and never spoken of again. Its a bunch of ships which means that there will be a lot of background characters but they don’t all need an introduction, its just too many names to remember only for them to not show back up again.

The writing is fine, the magic system feels more classical with sprites and potions that the characters use along with characters favoring elemental based magic. Also who can wield the magic is broken up while one group favors land and air, the other water and fire is interesting. I do wish it had gone a little more in depth into the system, maybe not make Tilly the only fire magic user she doesn’t need to be that unique. I did love how the two worlds were interconnected and influenced each other.

The book starts out really strong, the first chapter is really good there are some good tense moments in there. Unfortunately after that for a good section things slowly fall apart before the book sticks the landing. There is just too much happening too fast right at the beginning that doesn’t make much sense to me. The book gets lost until the maybe the 30% mark trying to fit way to much into the story that doesn’t work and wasn’t needed. That was one of the other issues in the middle of the book, it has so much stuff happening the actual plot seems to take a back seat and I slowly began to lose interest. Thankfully it does pull itself back together before the big climax I just wish it had allowed more time to focus on that as it feels like the book rushes into the final moment that was good but still felt a little compressed since it didn’t allow itself the time needed to fully go over everything.

In the end this is a good debut novel that sets itself up for a sequel which I would be back to read, I am interested in seeing how the rest of Tilly’s story turns out.

2 stars, zero spoiler review.

I was expecting YA but I don't think I was expecting fanfiction quality YA.

The writing is very much fast paced - faster than the speed of light at times. Sort of like an 'and then, and then, and then' situation where you can't even grasp who's doing what or what's even happening without rereading 2 or 3 times to parse out the action. Almost the whole book reads like that.

The plot is a bit tried, but that's ok. Don't fix what ain't broke and all that. But the magic system was a pleasant surprise, probably the best thing to come out of the book!

My Summary: Tilly was orphaned at 5 years old after she broke one of her mothers rules resulting in her mother's death. The circumstances surrounding the death were shrouded in mystery. She was sent to live with a distant relative by a mysterious figure known only to Tilly as the Time Keeper and he promised that he would come back for her in exactly 11 years. Well, he's five days late and strange things are beginning to happen around Tilly, culminating in the arrival of people who reveal to Tilly that she's part of a magical lineage and that she needs to untangle a web of clues left by her mother in order to fulfill the Blood Moon Prophecy. Will Tilly be able to master her newly discovered magical heritage in time to prevent a terrible monster from destroying more of Tilly's world than it already has?

My Review: I loved the magical world established in this novel. It was unlike anything I've read before, which, given my penchant for reading high fantasy novels is saying something! The magic in this universe is created by casting sprites allied to one of the four elements: water, air, earth, fire. The resulting sprites are then these visible animals/creatures that are slightly smoky around the edges and can protect you or fight the sprites of others in battle.. If you manage to defeat your opponent and they don't retract their sprite, you can snatch a small amount of their power and capture it for your own, lending this sense of urgency to any battle you enter into. I also loved the overall story and cannot wait to find out what happens next to Tilly and whether she is able to finally find some more of the answers from the clues left behind by her mother about her family's story. That said, and I'm not sure if this is an artifact of having read an advanced copy that had not yet received its final copy editing, there were a number of instances that I had a lot of difficult following who was speaking because in the same paragraph, you would have multiple sentences and ideas spoken by more than one character that were immediately next to one another with no indication of the voice. I also did not love the beginning of the book, when Tilly finds out that she is magical and the family she is living with goes straight to attacking her with magic without giving enough backstory as to why these people, who have sheltered Tilly for the past eleven years - albeit treating her like a Cinderella - would suddenly hate her so much as to try to cause her physical harm or death so suddenly. A little more backstory would have improved that section of the book. Especially given that their son continues throughout the rest of the book as an antagonist - so I would have loved to understand more of the dynamics of that relationship, especially as it comes out of the gates so vitriolic.

Overall: I liked the story and would absolutely read more - it is a powerful first novel by the author. I do think that some of the writing demonstrates at times that this is a first novel as it got much more cohesive and easier to follow as the book progressed, suggesting that this author will only continue to get better as we follow Tilly through the rest of her adventures.

I volunteered to read and review this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Cedar Street Press and NetGalley for the DRC.

#NetGally #YA #MagicalWorld #BloodMoonProphecy #Mystery #Fantasy #2022 #DRC

Blood Moon Prophecy is a debut novel for author Dilani Kahawala. This is a two star novel for me.

I somewhat enjoyed the plot and the short chapters, there were parts that reminded me of multiple popular YA series. I did not connect with the characters at all and found the main character, Tilly, irritating. At times, there were too many characters that just confused me.

I do recommend this to people who enjoy more descriptive and fast-paced novels, it just wasn't for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me the opportunity to review this arc.

Tilly is a young woman who has suffered so much for being only 16 years old. She watched her mother die, was taken from her home and given to a family that treats her like a servant. Until one day, she is rescued by a man and woman who will become her friends and teachers. She finds herself back in her home "world" with magic and where life happens on board a ship. Tilly is recruited as a first year cadet on board a ship whose purpose is to uncover Tilly's past, because that past might help save the world from an evil entity.

If this plot sounds familiar to you, then it did to me too. This is a different take on Harry Potter. There is magic, children in school, and even different ships competing against each other. The magic system in this book is unique and slightly confusing, but I kind of like how it works. The names of people and places in this are sometimes difficult to remember because they are foreign names to me. But I really liked the characters, especially in her close friend group.

I definitely will recommend this book to anyone who reads fantasy and especially loves Harry Potter. I cannot wait for the next book.

I received an e-ARC from NetGalley and thought this was a fun YA Fantasy.

Blood Moon Prophecy follows Tilly when she learns she is half-Obsidian, a race that isn’t well received in this magical world that she’s now a part of. After encountering a dangerous being from her past she finds herself at the center of being able to save this magical world.

Dilani creates a fun elemental magic system full of sprites and a world of magical islands with a ship centered society. The characters are fun and the plot is interesting with each character bringing something to the table.

At times the story felt rushed or unclear which left a chaotic feel to the characters and plot. A lot of things were left unclear about where characters went or who they were and I’m not sure if that was intentional. The ending definitely gave the opportunity to turn this into a series.

I like this book. In the introduction it's told that the book is perfect for fans of "The Mortal Instruments" and "Percy Jackson", which intrigued me enough to pick the book up.

*It's getting a bit spoilery from here*

I can see the comparison to "The Mortal Instruments" with the whole mother hiding stuff from the main lead Tilly (and the whole memory wiping thing). There's also something in Kahawala's writing style that reminds me of Cassandra Clare's. It gives me YA in the 2010s vibes, where the main lead never has a healthy relationship with their parents and are forced to bear the heavy burden of being the chosen one.

I can also see the comparison to "Percy Jackson", when it comes to the found family/friendship along the way trope. And the banter between the friends is everything.

Another fandom I would compare this book to is Harry Potter. Why, you may ask? Well, for starters there's the chosen one trope. Then there's the great evil trying to get the main lead,

I have nothing against these tropes or the YA vibes. If anything a part of me loves the nostalgia I feel, when reading this book.

All in all, it's a nice book.

A thing that may be a lil warning to others out there is that this book is action packed, fast paced, and with a lot - but small - chapters. For me this is understandable as the book is targeting a younger audience, but keep this in mind as many find it troublesome to keep up with.

My thanks to Netgalley and Cedar Street Press for this ARC. This review contains my honest thoughts on this book.

I adored this book. I loved the main character Tilly and her sweet friend group. The magic was fun and different, the at-sea setting was unusual, and I adored the connections discovered in the end. So many things were explained in the end that I did not see coming. I will say that the final scenes regarding the maze were a bit hard to picture at points, but I don't know that this took anything away. A good fantasy story for sure!

Tilly Nyx begins this journey a mere orphan, abandoned and miserable. As she explores a wildly imaginative world, she finds new friends, new rules, and new magical powers - but will she uncover the intricacies of the Blood Moon Prophecy? You are meant to feel for Tilly, the orphan girl who is more than she seems. There is definitely a Harry Potter vibe and I'm sure many of the younger readers will enjoy this adventure.

First I’d like to say, Thank You for access to this ARC!
Blood Moon Prophecy is a ya fantasy that follows Tilly Nyx and her friends as she discovers the world her mom hid her from. A supernatural world full of ships and aquatic creatures; magic sprites and flying transportation.
I have been craving a fantasy read for a while and this did exactly what I needed it too. I enjoyed watching Tilly experience a new world and come out of her shell. You watch her grow into the woman she was always meant to be and come into the power she has always doubted.
While I did enjoy the story line, the pace was at times chaotic and hard to keep up with. Fantasy books are usually difficult to follow because you are literally discovering a whole new world. This one at times explained too much and yet not enough all at the same time. I still have no idea what Tilly looks like. One of the only descriptors you get is her “knobby knees” and “dark hair”.
Besides this, I was still able to become fully immersed in the world and enjoy the story!

Blood Moon Prophecy follows Tilly Nyz, a teenager trying to unravel her memories of her childhood and the secrets that her mother held. There’s ships and magic and lots of secrets.

The book was action packed and engaging. It has a really strong opening chapter. But that just made it all the more disappointing when it became clear just how derivative the plot was. The storyline is very reminiscent of the Harry Potter books, making the whole book just feel a bit tired and overdone. Additionally the world building was a bit confusing.

Overall, the book was alright but it’s not something I’d see myself rereading and I’m not sure that I’ll be interested enough to pick up the next book at whatever point it is released.

I was lucky enough to read the Arc for Blood Moon Prophecy by Dilani Kahawala through Net galley. This being my very first arc review I am thrilled. I wasn’t sure what to expect, then this book hit me right in the Nostalgia. The plotline is reminiscent of Harry potter and the Mortal instrument series, not in a bad way. The author has her inspirations, and you can see those inspirations through the plot, and writing style. So this would be a great read for anyone who has enjoyed those series and you’re looking for something similar.

First things first the plot. Kahawala did great with her plot points and ensuring there was enough mystery and intrigue throughout the stories while still giving us some revelations before the grand finale at the end of the book. The writing style reminds of Cassandra Claire and J.K. Rowling while still having her own flare. Tilly our main character was believable as she makes her way through her own angry teenager journey. This book plays into the found family trope, and there is little to no romance with the characters focused on other things.

This book shows great character development as the characters develop throughout their adventure together. Creating a found family/a team. This was great to watch them grow together, and confront who they each are, their abilities, and their weaknesses. This was a great read, and I highly recommend. I'm looking forward to the next book.



Rating: 4 Stars!

3.5 stars
While I enjoyed this book overall, I feel like I didn´t connect with it the way I expected to. THe world-building is intriguing, the characters are nice to like and it is perfectly paced. The ending was pretty big and made room for a highly anticipated sequel. I just didn´t feel things as strongly for the characters, at least not in the way I´m used to. Nonetheless, it is a very enjoyable read, with lots of action and twists. The strong relationships also stood out for me, they were very nice to read about. My thanks to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC
'Blood Moon Prophecy' was an elaborate and gripping debut by Dilani Kahawala. Only, it left me unsatisfied.

The novel follows Tilly Nyx as she navigates the world after her mother's death. With disjointed memories from her youth and a mysterious map, she mourns a life she can't remember. Yet someone is trying to kill her. Tilly is forced to confront a world of oceans, ships, and magic, to follow her map and unravel the tangle of secrets attached to her past.

From the first chapter, Kahawala brilliantly captures the reader in a tense action sequence, exposing the gruesome horrors that are after our protagonist. But most of the novel operates at this high intensity, taking away from the climax. I found this disappointing as a reader; nothing quite beats the 'ultimate battle' at the end of a fantasy novel.

'Blood Moon Prophecy' boasts the largest number of periphery characters I have encountered. Although this aids world development, I lost track of the characters, devastatingly taking away from the most impactful reveals. In a novel filled with mystery and the promise of a satisfying resolve, I couldn't enjoy the detail Kahawala had so skilfully implemented because the world was too populated.

Although some elements didn't deliver the comprehensive fantasy I was looking for, Kahawala delivered a fitting coming-of-age story composed of detailed world-building and the touching sentiment of family, both inherited and made.

From the first chapter of this book I knew it was going to be quite the story with a lot of twists and turns. Through the eyes of Tilly the MC there is so much she and therefore we do not know. But slowly things get revealed one by one was fantastic. Things I assumed about characters were NOT at all what ended up happening and I loved being surprised because the author does such a good job at turning your attention elsewhere.

Also, I love the setting of an island world and its maritime ways. The vast naval community that is built between ships was just so interesting. And all of the food described in this book make me super hungry with how it is described and how vast the array of meals is.

Every character brings something to the story in one way or another even the ones that are made to be distrusted.

The ending is, of course, a cliffhanger, but still ends in a way that if you didn't pick up the next book you could be satisfied with the end in general.

Great book im so glad that you wrote this i love fantasy and your an amazing writer and the book is amazing keep writing more like this.