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kallis's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Keishin had lived all his life believing that time wasn't something you could hold, but tonight it fit perfectly into the paper cup warming his hands. Fifteen minutes looked and smelled exactly like a steaming latte. At the end of this time, when he had sipped the last of his dark-roasted seconds, he was going to wake Hana, as she had requested, from the nap she was taking on his shoulder. She had said that they needed to be on their way before the sun was up, back to chasing clues. And being chased. But for now Keishin's cup was full, and he had time to watch Hana sleep.
thank you netgalley and delrey for the eArc!!
the absolute CHOKEHOLD this book had on me????
I could barely put it down.
this gives such exquisite Studio Ghibli vibes, specifically, having two characters stumble into each other in a seemingly random way but actually have more connections than you could have ever expected, traveling into a fantasy world that's not completely foreign to our own, and having rules that don't necessarily make sense, but you don't care. like it's almost more enjoyable when it doesn't make a lot of sense and you just take it for what it is and enjoy the story.
Water Moon follows a young woman named Hana who is preparing to take over running her father's pawnshop when he retires the next day. however, their pawnshop is not a normal pawnshop. this pawnshop is hidden inside a ramen restaurant. the only people who may enter are the ones the universe deems as having a choice that has weighed on them too heavily and they would be happier if they lost all memory of it. once they enter the pawnshop, it will be Hana's duty to explain this to them and hopefully convince them to agree.
however, when Hana wakes up the next day, the pawnshop is ransacked and her father is missing. then a man enters the pawnshop-Keishin. instead of trying to run business as usual, Hana accepts Keishin's offer of help and the two explore her world to try and find her father before the Shiikuin (hive-mind creatures in masks that enforce the rules of Hana's world) can find him.
what then kicks off is a magical adventure through puddles, pieces of art, museums, night markets, songs and more, all while Hana and Kei try to ignore the connection they feel growing between them.
plot： ★★★★★
this story is so unique. it's a huge reason why I felt like it was so fun to read. there's nothing out there that's quite like it. I also loved the added mystery element. the missing person's case and the mystery of Hana's mother, and really, even the mystery of Kei's mother.
writing： ★★★★★
the highlight for me was definitely all the fantastical elements. traveling through song and art and puddles, everything created such vivid imagery for me. I also love Kei's way of reasoning through things in his mind, but I didn't like how it felt like we rushed over what happened to Ramesh. it was obviously really impactful to Kei and it just felt like we flew right over that part of the story. there are other small moments where I noticed us rushing through things, like a paragraph break and suddenly we're jumping ahead by a little bit. it felt jarring to me whenever it happened.
pacing： ★★★★★
the story is medium-fast paced. the story kind of gives you the option to take it slow and absorb the writing more as you go. like... it's not a demanding read. if you wanted to binge this in a day, you easily could. but it's not so intense that it feels like you HAVE to keep reading at high speed to keep up.
romance： ★★★★★ （3.5 rounded up）
the romance was very sweet. I do wish we could have gotten a little more though, like. just more time. more scenes seeing them be cute together. bc it low-key bothers me that Haruto had the most top tier romantic line and he wasn't even the main love interest, like??? you're just going to let him outshine Kei like that???
the romance was very sweet. I do wish we could have gotten a little more though, like. just more time. more scenes seeing them be cute together. bc it low-key bothers me that Haruto had the most top tier romantic line and he wasn't even the main love interest, like??? you're just going to let him outshine Kei like that???
characters： ★★★★★
the story really keeps its focus on Hana and Kei. the side characters are definitely kept on the side, so we do not really get to know anyone else that well. that said, I really liked both of them. by the end of the book, I felt like I understood Kei and his feelings or motivations really well. he's very transparent with how he thinks and feels. Hana is a bit more withdrawn. I think this dynamic added some fun to their relationship throughout the story.
over-all： ★★★★★
while the vagueness of the world-building didn't bother me exactly, I did feel a little empty by the end of the book. I wanted to know more about why and how Hana was able to accomplish everything by the end. I didn't love how years of story happened completely off page. that said, I still enjoyed the book a lot and I would absolutely read it again someday.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Grief, and Abandonment
jennavaladez's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book broke my heart and stitched it back together again. 😭
A beautiful and aching tale of navigating regrets, purpose, and the weight of choices. The world the author builds is magical, in the same vein as the imagery from a Studio Ghibli film.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Definitely going up there in the list of my all-time favorite reads.
“Happiness does not exist in a place. It lives in every breath we take. You need to choose to take it in, over and over again.”
A beautiful and aching tale of navigating regrets, purpose, and the weight of choices. The world the author builds is magical, in the same vein as the imagery from a Studio Ghibli film.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Definitely going up there in the list of my all-time favorite reads.
“Happiness does not exist in a place. It lives in every breath we take. You need to choose to take it in, over and over again.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Grief
m_a_j's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Pregnancy
lauramcc7's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
spellbindingtomes's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment
cassidy_rain's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
“Every hope deserves to sparkle in the sky.”
What a whimsical adventure this story takes you on! It feels like a fever dream, in the best way. Water Moon follows Hana; she’s taking over running her family’s magical pawn shop, as her father is retiring. The pawn shop only appears to those who need it and people can only pawn their regrets. On her first day taking over, she awakens to find the shop ransacked and her father missing, along with one of the pawned regrets. Hana embarks on a dangerous and magical journey to locate her father before it’s too late.
The writing style is very poetic and beautiful and I love the imagery in here. Nothing is quite what it seems. I really enjoyed all the different “worlds” that they traveled between. For a cozy-ish fantasy, there’s actually a lot at stake here! The story jumps around timelines a bit, which takes time to orient to but it’s very rewarding when it all comes together in the end. I really admire the author’s creativity and originality.
Thank you to Netgalley, Samantha Sotto Yambao, and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
What a whimsical adventure this story takes you on! It feels like a fever dream, in the best way. Water Moon follows Hana; she’s taking over running her family’s magical pawn shop, as her father is retiring. The pawn shop only appears to those who need it and people can only pawn their regrets. On her first day taking over, she awakens to find the shop ransacked and her father missing, along with one of the pawned regrets. Hana embarks on a dangerous and magical journey to locate her father before it’s too late.
The writing style is very poetic and beautiful and I love the imagery in here. Nothing is quite what it seems. I really enjoyed all the different “worlds” that they traveled between. For a cozy-ish fantasy, there’s actually a lot at stake here! The story jumps around timelines a bit, which takes time to orient to but it’s very rewarding when it all comes together in the end. I really admire the author’s creativity and originality.
Thank you to Netgalley, Samantha Sotto Yambao, and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Abandonment
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Pregnancy
thebankofbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I had the absolute pleasure of reading this book as an ARC on NetGalley. It was so incredibly magical, very Studio Ghibli in so many ways. Water Moon is a captivating read, and every chapter brings forward a new type of magic. This book examines the power of choice in such an ethereal way - what you believe is an insignificant choice, might just change your life for good.
~
Hana and Keishin are such a strong characters from the very beginning - they have this all-consuming drive to KNOW, to understand. And from the very beginning, they’re fighting to keep the other one safe. They have this instant connection, this unbeatable pull towards one another, and in a world where Hana has never had her own choice before, Keishin is her first, and most important, one ever.
~
Everything about Samantha Sotto Yambao’s world building is stunning. We get to explore the beauty of this world through an outsider’s eyes - and we’re just as captivated as he is. It is a breathtaking novel, and I already want to reread it, knowing what I know now. It is heartbreaking, but also incredible hopeful, and it is so full of beauty. I cannot recommend it enough.
~
Water Moon is a must-read, so keep your eyes peeled on the 16th January. (I may have preordered an exclusive copy of it as soon as I finished reading this arc)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Grief, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Death, Infertility, Violence, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
kabrahams's review against another edition
4.5
(Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my eARC as well as Libro.fm for my ALC!)
I initially had a bit of a hard time getting into this novel, but I'm so glad I stuck with it because I ended up loving it! The prose is so beautiful I kept highlighting lines, the world feels so unique, and the plot had me feeling a full range of emotions. It is cozy at times, terrifying and heart-wrenching in others. My eyes were watering at the bittersweet ending and I have a feeling this is a story I will revisit.
It is hard to sum this plot up and I think it is best to go in not knowing too much. Hana inherits a magical pawnshop from her father, but with it comes secrets and dangers that she wasn't expecting. Soon, she's on a journey through time and space with an unexpected friend in hopes of discovering the truth of her past.
This story won't be for everyone but if you like thoughtful books full of other worlds and unexplained magic like "The Starless Sea," I think this will be a treat for you! It truly feels like something fresh in the fantasy genre, and I read a ton of fantasy!
I initially had a bit of a hard time getting into this novel, but I'm so glad I stuck with it because I ended up loving it! The prose is so beautiful I kept highlighting lines, the world feels so unique, and the plot had me feeling a full range of emotions. It is cozy at times, terrifying and heart-wrenching in others. My eyes were watering at the bittersweet ending and I have a feeling this is a story I will revisit.
It is hard to sum this plot up and I think it is best to go in not knowing too much. Hana inherits a magical pawnshop from her father, but with it comes secrets and dangers that she wasn't expecting. Soon, she's on a journey through time and space with an unexpected friend in hopes of discovering the truth of her past.
This story won't be for everyone but if you like thoughtful books full of other worlds and unexplained magic like "The Starless Sea," I think this will be a treat for you! It truly feels like something fresh in the fantasy genre, and I read a ton of fantasy!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief and Pregnancy
Minor: Abandonment
katebrownreads's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
a magical book about a pawn shop where you can sell your regrets. An odd day leads to a missing father, a strange new customer, and an adventure to solve the mystery and find her father. Primarily a fantasy, a little cozy (but not at times), and some romance. Loved the book! It had some twists I didnt see coming and totally held my attention the whole book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy
sleepyreaderthings's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Water Moon is an absolutely whimsical book with a cast of characters that would fit in a Studio Ghibli movie perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for a better story when it comes to reading my first ARC.
“Scars don’t make you any less than what you are. They are simply stories”
“It was easier to chew on misery if you did not know what happiness tasted like”
Set in two distinct worlds, the story follows Hana, from the, for lack of a better word, magical world, and Keishin, from our current day world. Keishin stumbles into what he thought was a ramen shop only to discover he walked into a pawnshop that has been ransacked. He soon finds out that it isn’t a normal shop, and instead of trading jewelry and collectibles, this pawnshop trades choices and regrets. He soon discovers that this world he has stumbled into defies all the laws of science that governs his own world. This is a quest-based story that follows Hana and Keishin as they run around searching for Hana’s father who has mysteriously disappeared.
In this story, we follow our characters as they fly in a sky of paper cranes, jump through puddles and land in a different location, and are folded into paper to get from point A to B. But we also hear about grief and stories of loss. I cried hearing about Keishin’s father and what cancer did to him. I deeply relate to the language that was used in describing how terrible cancer is and what it does to one’s body. Seeing what it does to your dad: “The man in the coffin was going to look like a stranger either way. Cancer had made a feast of his father, gnawing at him until all that was left was skin and bones.” While this was a relatively small part of the story, it had such a big impact on me. I saw myself in Keishin and how he has coped not only with the death of his father but also with how he has faced other deaths like his mentor’s. Grief is crazy, and it can result in coping mechanisms that you wouldn’t expect. I think grief was a common theme throughout this story, whether it was about a parent dying or a relationship ending. We saw characters ask, “How can you be at peace if a part of you is missing? It will be a hole that you will try to fill all your life without ever knowing why that hole exists in the first place.” And the the story also touched on the flip side of things, when someone isn’t dead: “I wish I could grieve you. Grieving ends. But I can’t grieve. You’re not dead.”
While I’ve highlighted some heavier topics that this story covered, I also want to say that it was fun and fast-paced. I loved the short chapters! I didn’t spend all my time crying or being sad—quite the opposite actually. There were so many dumb lines that had me laughing, with this one being a top moment:
“‘We will not walk into any trap.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because we will be swimming into it.’”
There was romance and friendship mixed in with everything else in this story, and honestly my only critique is that I wish it had been more slow burn. I felt a connection between Hana and Keishin, but I would have loved a longer timeline. Granted, that isn’t super realistic considering most of this happens in what, a week maybe? I can’t take points off though because the story just made me feel so much in every other aspect. Definitely a book to remember, and I wm excited to see a physical copy once this releases!
“Scars don’t make you any less than what you are. They are simply stories”
“It was easier to chew on misery if you did not know what happiness tasted like”
Set in two distinct worlds, the story follows Hana, from the, for lack of a better word, magical world, and Keishin, from our current day world. Keishin stumbles into what he thought was a ramen shop only to discover he walked into a pawnshop that has been ransacked. He soon finds out that it isn’t a normal shop, and instead of trading jewelry and collectibles, this pawnshop trades choices and regrets. He soon discovers that this world he has stumbled into defies all the laws of science that governs his own world. This is a quest-based story that follows Hana and Keishin as they run around searching for Hana’s father who has mysteriously disappeared.
In this story, we follow our characters as they fly in a sky of paper cranes, jump through puddles and land in a different location, and are folded into paper to get from point A to B. But we also hear about grief and stories of loss. I cried hearing about Keishin’s father and what cancer did to him. I deeply relate to the language that was used in describing how terrible cancer is and what it does to one’s body. Seeing what it does to your dad: “The man in the coffin was going to look like a stranger either way. Cancer had made a feast of his father, gnawing at him until all that was left was skin and bones.” While this was a relatively small part of the story, it had such a big impact on me. I saw myself in Keishin and how he has coped not only with the death of his father but also with how he has faced other deaths like his mentor’s. Grief is crazy, and it can result in coping mechanisms that you wouldn’t expect. I think grief was a common theme throughout this story, whether it was about a parent dying or a relationship ending. We saw characters ask, “How can you be at peace if a part of you is missing? It will be a hole that you will try to fill all your life without ever knowing why that hole exists in the first place.” And the the story also touched on the flip side of things, when someone isn’t dead: “I wish I could grieve you. Grieving ends. But I can’t grieve. You’re not dead.”
While I’ve highlighted some heavier topics that this story covered, I also want to say that it was fun and fast-paced. I loved the short chapters! I didn’t spend all my time crying or being sad—quite the opposite actually. There were so many dumb lines that had me laughing, with this one being a top moment:
“‘We will not walk into any trap.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because we will be swimming into it.’”
There was romance and friendship mixed in with everything else in this story, and honestly my only critique is that I wish it had been more slow burn. I felt a connection between Hana and Keishin, but I would have loved a longer timeline. Granted, that isn’t super realistic considering most of this happens in what, a week maybe? I can’t take points off though because the story just made me feel so much in every other aspect. Definitely a book to remember, and I wm excited to see a physical copy once this releases!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer and Grief