Oh my goodness, I could not get enough of this book! I’ve seen a few reviews saying it could have been split into two novels but honestly I don’t think I could have waited to hear the second half.

The book finishes in a way that feels like an ending of sorts, though there is hints of things unresolved, so I’m excited to see what the next in this series brings.

I cannot fault this book in any way. The characters are all multi faceted, the scenery is intricately described, and the themes of magic and love and grief are woven so seamlessly.

The first chapter has the reader hooked, and the twists and turns the story takes leaves them unable to put the book down.

I will be re-reading in preparation for the next instalment and will recommend this to anyone who will listen.

Ahhh this book was sublime. I woke up super early to read it and almost decided to skip work so i could stay in bed and finish it.

This book definitely reads YA in my view but is my favourite kind - it has a dark edge with real life consequences with a lack of the woe is me angst. Xingyin is wonderful because she refuses to wallow and is a pull herself by the bootstraps and make her way kind of gal.

There is a love triangle and for the first time in like ever, I found myself rooting for both guys. I would truly have been happy either way. I was actually hoping one of them would die to help force her decision. There are also lots of plot twists - some I saw coming and many I didn’t. The ending wasn’t a cliff hanger though there are some hanging questions and a lot of curiousity for where the author is going to take the next book.

I don’t want to give spoilers away so I’m going to put my synopsis of the full story in emojis :
🌛🌺😞🪜🥰🤺🌅🐚❤️‍🩹🐍👹💕⛓🤼‍♂️🧜‍♂️🐉🌤🧘‍♀️🤯🏹👿⚡️👩‍👧🤞🏾

Lol - I would highly recommend this and cannot wait for the next one. 4.5 stars

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is the beginning of a mesmerising story that follows Xingyin - a young woman who’s on a quest to free her mother from the most powerful immortal in the realm - setting her on a dangerous path where those she loves are not the only ones at risk…
Inspired by the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese Moon Goddess.

> A loveable, fierce female protagonist
> A brooding and swoon- worthy Captain,
> A handsome and charming Prince,
> A beautifully woven romance
> Mythical, magical creatures, celestial beings,
> Enchanting world building
> A brilliantly written plot and addictive narrative that will keep you gripped
> Heart-wrenching loss and sacrifice
> Thrilling battles and sweeping adventures (and archery!!!)

Already, this book has made it into my top reads of the year! Highly recommend 🤍


5 Dazzling stars ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨ ✨


Thank you Netgalley and HarperVoyger for my e-arc.

Review will be posted on my bookstagram (@starlight_and_blooms), Amazon, Waterstones and goodreads.

I was stunned to learn that this is the first in a duology, because, I honestly don't believe anymore could happen in a single book!

Initially I struggled with the Daughter of the Moon Goddess, but soon got sucked into Xingyin's story. It's a plot rich with Chinese mythology, adventure, intrigue and betrayal. Xingyin is forced from her childhood home with the Moon Goddess who has kept her daughters existence a secret. Xingyin is forced to try and make her own way in the Celestial kingdom. This is a fast paced novel, packed with adventure and it has dragons!

I really liked the characters and my heart broke along with Xingyin's. I'm really looking forward to reading the next instalment, mainly as it felt as though her story was at an end!
Thank you so much to the publishers and netgalley for an arc of this novel in return for an honest review.

I think i'm in the minority when I say I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. It started off really well but I just felt that there was too much plot in the story and not enough time to fully flesh them out. I really wish I had enjoyed it more but I think that others will enjoy it.

4,5/5 rounded up!

This was such a great way to start my reading year! What a book. I was lucky to read an excerpt in the Harper Voyager 2022 preview, and immediately asked for a full ARC when they became available, because I had been charmed by the chapter I had read. So I was pretty sure that I would enjoy the full book, but you never know…

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is full of amazing things. The characters are interesting, the plot is constantly moving forward, things keep happening… but what I loved the most in this book was the writing. From the very first pages, I knew that this would be a delight to read, and I was right! It’s lyrical, it’s beautifully crafted. Sue Lynn Tan’s prose really builds a world full of colors, scents, sounds… all your senses are given something to play with and it’s extremely satisfying to be so involved in a story as a reader. The descriptions are written in a way that brings so much texture to this world and helps you feel and see the place you’re entering. Each new location was fascinating to discover through Tan’s words. Very often, I felt like the descriptive words were feeding the action instead of simply giving it context.

Plotwise, Daughter of the Moon Goddess is pretty easy to follow. I wasn’t bothered by any irregularity in the pacing, and always found myself looking forward to reading more. I really enjoyed the action scenes and the various battles. Sue Lynn Tan called this a crossover between older YA and Adult, and that feels very accurate. There were elements that felt pretty new to young adult fantasy, and this may be another reason why I loved it so much. The influences of epic and military fantasy were among the most exciting aspects, creating situations with high stakes that kept me on the edge of my seat. I really loved the general themes of honor and loyalty, mixed with the main character’s quest to free her mother and to find out her place in the world. It was a very nice blend of young adult and adult fiction themes! Last year, I wondered if I had eventually lost interest in the YA fantasy genre, sometimes struggling to find something that I could really enjoy, but this is the proof that there are still books for me on the YA shelf. Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a mix of what I love in young adult fantasy, but with the stakes, intricacy and power of an adult novel.

I may have needed a bit more character development, and that is the only flaw I could find in this book—a very minor flaw. The various side characters were interesting, they all brought something unique to the plot and were easy to distinguish and recognize. As someone who sometimes struggles with large casts of characters, this was perfect for me. The first person point of view also explains the lack of nuance of certain side characters, but I’m hoping that the sequel digs a bit deeper inside Xingyin’s doubts and her personal desires.

As someone who doesn’t really look for romance in fantasy books, I liked how it was incorporated inside the story. It felt natural, never forced or rushed. But it wasn’t the main part of the story and didn’t erase anything of the plot. It simply moved slowly alongside the more important events, adding depth to the characters and giving us lovely scenes to breathe in before jumping back into the action. It was nice to read those scenes where the characters shared moments together, making the development of their feelings completely believable. Despite not being there for the romance, I enjoyed those scenes.

I can’t talk much about the mythology as I’m not familiar enough with chinese myths, but the various worldbuilding elements were absolutely fantastic. I just let myself be pulled inside this story with its legends and immortals, its creatures and locations, and that was so much fun.

Overall, I thought Daughter of the Moon Goddess was a very comfortable book to read: the writing flows nicely, the language keeps you curious and engaged, the plot makes you want to know what happens next, and the characters are like anchors to rely on.

This was a very joyful reading experience for me from the first page to the last. Daughter of the Moon Goddess is the first book in a duology, but it stands very well on its own which is something I really love about it. I will be waiting for the sequel, as I know that there are many roads left unexplored in this first book, but the story also feels complete enough for me to be satisfied, so I can open another book and travel to another universe while I patiently wait for the conclusion to this duology.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for this eARC!

content warnings: blood, violence, gore, death, war themes, mention of torture, alcohol consumption, misogyny, attempted assault, separation, kidnapping.

Inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Sue Lynn Tan's debut novel is the story of Xingyin, a quiet girl who has grown up on the moon because of her mother's exile. Now she must walk a dangerous path to win her mother's freedom, which will see her travel to the Celestial Kingdom and win victory over the brutal Celestial Emperor. The first book in a planned duology, Daughter of the Moon Goddess is one of the richest, most unique fantasy debuts I've read in a very long time and I loved learning more about Chinese mythology. The only area where I felt a little let down was the romance, which didn't quite do it for me, though it didn't take away too much from my overall enjoyment of the story.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a retelling of the Chinese mythology of the Moon Goddess, a mortal woman who “stole” her husband’s elixir of immortality and accidentally flew to the moon where she remained. It follows her daughter Xingyin who trains at the Celestial Kingdom and goes on dangerous missions to save her mother
As an own-voice reader, I felt like the reinterpretation of the Chang’E and her personal story was vulnerable and heartwrenching in the best way. The book weaved so much mythology into it, it lent a lot of detail to the worldbuilding. Other things I enjoyed about the book included it's beautiful descriptions of these mythical places and the theme of familial duty vs. individual desires.

However the pacing was inconsistent and often the story would jump by months or even years. This often led me to not fully catch up with the developments in the relationships of the characters and has led me to the next conclusion. Personally, the romance in this book was not for me, I didn't believe the chemistry between the characters and therefore the confessions of love felt unconvincing. Often the internal conflict Xingyin felt was very frustrating and her love interests behaved in very frustrating ways.
Finally the ending tied up a lot of loose ends and with the knowledge that a sequel is planned, it felt a bit underwhelming.

Overall this book is worth reading once, especially if you want something that dips into Chinese mythology and touches upon the Classics.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a retelling of the Chinese mythology of the Moon Goddess, a mortal woman who “stole” her husband’s elixir of immortality and accidentally flew to the moon where she remained. It follows her daughter Xingyin who trains at the Celestial Kingdom and goes on dangerous missions to save her mother

As an own-voice reader, I felt like the reinterpretation of the Chang’E and her personal story was vulnerable and heartwrenching in the best way. The book weaved so much mythology into it, it lent a lot of detail to the worldbuilding. Other things I enjoyed about the book included it's beautiful descriptions of these mythical places and the theme of familial duty vs. individual desires.

However the pacing was inconsistent and often the story would jump by months or even years. This often led me to not fully catch up with the developments in the relationships of the characters and has led me to the next conclusion. Personally, the romance in this book was not for me, I didn't believe the chemistry between the characters and therefore the confessions of love felt unconvincing. Often the internal conflict Xingyin felt was very frustrating and her love interests behaved in very frustrating ways.
Finally the ending tied up a lot of loose ends and with the knowledge that a sequel is planned, it felt a bit underwhelming.

Overall this book is worth reading once, especially if you want something that dips into Chinese mythology and touches upon the Classics.

CW: Bullying, Violence, blood, Murder, death, alcohol drinking, kidnapping, sexual assault, torture, grief

Wow! I really liked this book and it was such a great debut novel. The worldbuilding was so immersive and I cannot wait for the sequel. The writing was a little bit hard to get into at first but after that it was such a delight to read.

I was first drawn to this book by the cover. Then I heard it was based on a myth and I knew I needed to read it. The writing in this book is lovely, lyrical and fits the book so well. I enjoyed the writing style, although it did take some getting used to.
I liked the themes that were shown in the book, especially the themes of family and freedom. The themes were explored throughout the book and I liked what the author did with the themes. The characters were good, I enjoyed their stories. I liked seeing the main character grow while reading the book. I didn’t really care for the romance and neither love interest interested me.
Unfortunately this book also felt very long, it was a little repetitive and the pacing didn’t really work for me. It took me a lot longer to get through this book than I expected.
Overall I enjoyed the lyrical writing but the actual story just missed for me. I so wanted to like this book more than I did. It’s taken me ages to organise my thoughts about it because I wanted to love it and there were parts I loved but other parts just didn’t hit for me.

wow - just wow,
There was never a dull moment in this novel, it's jam-packed with stunning imagery, complex characters and a fearless protagonist, I haven't loved a character as much as I loved Xingyin in a long time! I really struggled to put this book down.
This was just such a perfectly beautiful book and I can't wait to recommend this to absolutely everyone and I'm already waiting for the sequel!!

Daughter of the Moon Goddess follows Xingyin’s quest to free her mother from eternal imprisonment on the moon, inspired by Chinese mythology and the legend of the Moon Goddess. Embarking on this dangerous task leads Xingyin into the Celestial Kingdom where she must hide her parentage and identity in order to protect herself from the powerful Celestial Emperor and the terrifying Empress.

I adored this book, racing through it in a few sittings. The story is captivating right from the first pages, Sue Lynn Tan is an incredible storyteller, weaving mythical and magical elements and creating a fantastical world which I immersed myself completely. Daughter of the Moon Goddess is an action-packed adventure, full of emotion, treachery, humour, peril, and the deep bonds of true friendship. I cannot recommend this book enough; I’m eagerly anticipating the next instalment so I can escape back to Xingyin’s world.

An astounding debut, thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an advanced digital copy for review.

This book is excellent. I don’t think I’ve stopped recommending or talking about this book since I finished it. Daughter of the Moon Goddess follows Xingyin, the secret daughter of the Moon Goddess , who flees her home and travels to the Celestial Kingdom, where she meets characters such as a prince, a Queen, and soldiers. Xingyin grows throughout the book, taking on creatures, quests, and enemies, all the while always thinking of her mother left behind on the moon.

The characters were brilliantly written in this book, I haven’t stopped thinking about them since turning the final page. I loved Xingyin as a main character: she’s strong, clever, and full of ideas and love. I loved seeing the various relationships she had with other characters throughout this book, and how they changed as she grew older. There were so many emotions flowing throughout this book, with every character feeling really fleshed out and ‘real’. I loved how loyal Xingyin was, and how driven and determined she was all the way through the book.

I adored the worldbuilding, settings and descriptions throughout this book. I planned on taking so many notes when I was reading this and completely forgot because of how engrossed in it I became! One of the only notes I remembered to make when reading just says: “The description of the Jade palace omg” and then loads of heart eye emojis. If that doesn’t tell you how much I loved it, I don’t know what will. The colours were so vivid and I could really picture each place mentioned all the way through this book. Everything in this book was described so beautifully and so magically, and I am already so excited for the sequel.

Overall this book was (unsurprisingly) 5 stars. I am so excited for my preorders to arrive, yes multiple – Waterstones special edition and standard edition from Blackwell’s, and I can’t wait to reread this one already. Sue Lynn Tan has written an excellent debut novel, which is the first in what I think will be an all-time favourite duology of mine.

Again, a massive thank you to Harper Collins UK for this eARC, I am so grateful that I got to read one of my most anticipated books early!!

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is out now in the US, and is out in the UK on 20th January.

Sometimes you read a book that’s impossible to CAWPILE, and this is one of those books. I just cannot get my head around how good this book was. It’s a few days later and I’m still thinking about it. The atmosphere, the magic, the writing is pure MAGIC. If there is one word that describes this book, it’s pure magic.

This is a fairytale through and through. I rooted for things I normally don’t root for, like the love triangle. The pining, the yearning, the angst. I was hooked on every single thing. I loved all three of our main characters, but maybe Wengzi the most. He is by far my favourite and I need more of his story. Hopefully, we’ll get a POV in the next book.

The world is beautiful and expansive, and every kingdom is distinct and unique. I hope the physical book includes a map because that will be awesome.

The book does have a bit of a slow start, but after the 30% mark, it really gets going. The writing is more telling rather than showing, but it works in the context of the story.

I’m so excited for the second book, I hope it goes where I think it’s going to go.

You know that an author has done a great job when you lose yourself in the fantasy world created by them.

This is exactly what happened with me when I was reading Daughter of the Moon Goddess.

To say that the world building was stunning is an understatement. The author brought the scenes alive by her beautiful prose.

In this book, we are following Xingyin, who is the daughter of the Moon Goddess. We follow her as she journeys through the Celestial Kingdoms of immortals to discover her hidden powers and find a way to free her mother from her imprisonment.

Xingyin is a solid MC, she is a good narrator. Plus she's honorable, brave and smart.

This book has many common tropes like "MC with hidden powers", "Forbidden Romance", "Love Triangle", but they are done really well. Mostly, such tropes are out in a book to add more drama to it. But in this book, they integrate well with the main plot.

To top it all off, this book has Demons and Dragons! I fricking love Dragons! There's also political drama happening in thr background, so that adds to the story.

My pain areas were the Male MCs. They felt one dimensional (though one of them showed potential at the end).
There was a lot of inner monologue which hampered the action scenes for me.

All in all, it was a solid debut. I am eager to know what would happen in the second book.

If you all are looking for an immersive and rich fantasy book then go for this.

daughter of the moon goddess which caught my attention because of the stunning cover, is a fresh, impressive debut about the daughter of moon goddess chang'e, xinyin as she embarks on a journey to free her mother from her exile.

i loved the visuals painted by the lyrical writing. it perfectly fit the atmosphere of the book as xingyin explores different kingdoms and tasks. while it took a while to get used to the writing, i was soon captivated by the descriptions, the fairytale (and cdrama!) vibes and the Chinese folklore imbibed in the story.

the themes of—family, striving for freedom, loneliness and honour—are very well explored in the book. i especially enjoyed reading about xingyin's courage and determination to act with honour and stay true to her goals. watching her grow throughout the novel is a delight.

despite my overall enjoyment, daughter of the moon goddess fell flat in many places. the pacing is irregular and given the length of the book it dragged a lot with the repetitiveness. the third act turned out to be the most interesting part of the story. while the characters' personalities was intriguing, i genuinely did not find myself caring about them or their motivations. ultimately because i didn't feel the urgency of the stakes. it's all passive to be honest. and xingyin having two love interests didn't help as i wasn't inclined to root for any of them. though i'm most curious about wenzhi!

in the end, daughter of the moon goddess is a solid debut which is sure to take readers on adventures along with xingyin accompanied by Tan's beautiful writing. though it's not strong on the emotions or characters, it is sure to appease YA readers. i'm eager to see how Tan moves the story forward in the sequel.

I liked the idea of this book and the focus on a different mythology than what we've seen before. The book is action-packed and travels quickly through time, sometimes jumping from one to another, but with the separation in the book (Part 1/2/3) it is easily understandable. Beautiful descriptions of the world. A book filled with magic, beauty, and love. The cover is also really beautiful!

Daughter of the Moon Goddess promises a tale of family, love, romance and fantasy with complex and nuanced characters but is really 10 YA tropes in a trenchcoat. Reading this book was like watching a car crash, where with the slightest change in course, the disaster could have been avoided. Because the book had promise, and it had potential. It just was not realised at all.

Despite what the previous line implies, I don't mind books being tropey. But what I do mind is when the execution is so poor that it gives those tropes a bad name.

This is classic quest fantasy and what I liked about it was that the protagonist's quest spanned several years and the integration of the Chinese culture, while limited to describing clothes and ornaments, is beautiful.

But the writing! It felt like I was reading an outline of a novel instead of an ARC. The author is a master at telling not showing. The constant ' we fought terrible monsters" "we studied at here" and then skipping months and years ahead stilted the potential of the tale. Because this story had so much potential if only the author had bothered to construct scenes instead of using literal outlines.

The characters were one dimensional, and lacked any agency until the very end of the book. The main character was a classic 'not like other girl', continuously deriding feminine activities and believing herself to be superior because she's violent. All men she meets adores her and every woman is insignificant compared to the MC. Authors should stop falling into that trench of writing 'strong female characters' who are only strong if they are violent, cold, callous and generally unfemine. INSTEAD TRY WRITING STRONG CHARACTERS WHO ARE ALSO FEMALE. And the constant self pity and false modesty was grating.

The love interests! The love triangle is so poorly done. We have no idea why either of these very eligible, handsome, and accomplished men fall for our MC because if it was me, I would be running to the other side of the sea. The dailogues between are stilted, and there are no scenes to even spark chemistry. Kisses and embraces come out of nowhere, leaving the reader suprised, because we didn't know this he liked this woman until that moment.

I can't speak for the mythology and rep, but I hope, at the very least, that it is done well. Its Asian ToG but without the compelling characters. There's the same shoddy worldbuilding, fluff prose, showing not telling and plot holes.
And this is not Adult. Its YA but very badly done YA.

Had so much promise but ultimately not worth it.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

1.5*

I feel like every now and then, a book comes along that’s so beautiful it’s impossible to accurately review, Daughter of the Moon Goddess is one of those books.

I don’t know how to eloquently put into words my feelings about this book. Some people were made to be storytellers, Sue Lynn Tan is one of those people. From the very first page I was captivated by how beautiful the writing was.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is rich in legends and mythology, a medium paced, character driven story inspired by the legend of Chang’E. The characters aren’t perfect. They’re flawed and they know they’re flawed, but they’re determined to grow and do better and Xingyin is an amazing character that anyone can get behind.

The romance. Well. It hurt… in the best way! I feel like all good romance plots hurt the heart. There were twists, lots of them, that I didn’t see coming. I ate a whole packet of very sugary sweets to recover whilst I held my head in my hands.

This is one of those books I will immediately purchase in all formats so I can read it again and again whenever my heart desires. I’m so desperately excited to see where book two goes.

I liked this book but didn't love it even if it's a fascinating story, the characters are interesting, and loved the world building.
I had some issues with the pace that was uneven and there were some repetitions. I struggled a bit at times but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I look forward to reading the next book.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine