Reviews with content warning for Murder - When the Moon Hatched

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker

45 reviews

crybabybea's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

This book is a great light entertainment romantasy in the same vein as ACOTAR or Fourth Wing. I, however, feel duped because it was being sold as a high fantasy with romance and incredible world-building. If you love love love fleshed out fantasy, political strife, and detailed magic systems, you probably will not like this book. It falls apart once you look at it too closely. Fun for what it is but I have to rate it low because it's not what I look for in a fantasy. If I were rating this just solely as a romantasy I still wouldn't rate it very high. I felt ACOTAR was even written better than this which is a very low bar.

I wrote a 3,000 word essay for how much this disappointed me, so here are the bullet points:

Shallow world-building. There are cool, unique things that happen but they serve no purpose for the world (such as the dragons turning into moons).
- World building is lazy and the author relies on you reading a 20 page glossary to understand rather than fleshing out the world herself
Dragons are part of the world but don't serve any purpose beyond transportation.
No political strife, except for the FMC telling you how awful the king in her region is, despite having a crazy cool premise with a dragon mythology-based elemental magic system whose users are denoted by their colorful beaded earrings.
Nothing happens in the plot except the very slow burn romance which doesn't pay off at the end
Magic doesn't really serve any purpose except to sound cool
The conlang is messy and doesn't work well
The writing itself is clunky, full of heavyhanded metaphors that don't land
- Writing repeats itself multiple times with the same cadence and word usage
Characters with no real personality beyond the tropes they represent, could be replaced with any other romantasy main characters and it would make no difference
Poor LGBTQIA+ representation (despite it being praised in multiple reviews)
Because of all these issues, the book is 250 pages longer than it needs to be.

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sandyanger's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

WHEN THE MOON HATCHED 🌕🐉
@sarah.a.parker.author

This book is not for everyone. I, however, loved it.

“Sadness is like stones that stack inside you, making it harder to move. Ignorance is my self-preservation tonic, and I’ll swear by it until I die.”

Raeve is a valued Elding Blade for the rebellion group Fiur du Ath. Her job is to kill. When a renowned bounty hunter is employed by The Crown to capture a member of the Ath, Raeve’s world is turned upside down.

As painful as Raeve’s life has been, she loves living. Loves her beautiful world. But she does not allow herself to love, for fear of what she would lose. Of what she’s lost before.

This is book one in an unfinished series, but well worth the pain. I have already read it twice and will read it again right before the next book is released. I loved it that much. The writing is lyrical and can be dense at times—you need to be able to focus when reading. But the picture it paints is worth it. Sarah did such a beautiful job of making me feel for her characters. I had tears streaming down my face at points, which is always a reading goal for me 🙃

I found this very heavy on the fantasy and world building in the beginning. It comes with a glossary. For some people this will be a deal breaker. I get it. I started with reading the glossary and honestly couldn’t get through it without the context of the story, but it was helpful at times to refer to.

The spice is not plentiful, but it was spicin’.

SOME FACTS
* Fantasy heavy-there is a glossary
* Beautiful, lyrical writing
* Witty banter
* Multiple POV
* There are dragons

TW
* Graphic violence
* Sexually explicit
* Torture
* Implied threat of sexual assault
* Cruelty towards animals
* Abduction of an adult (implied off page and post-recounting)
* Death in childbirth (implied, off page)
* Abductino/trafficking of minors (implied, off page)
* Miscarriage (implied for a secondary character, off page)

TROPES below, proceed with caution:
* Strong, sassy, stabby FMC
* Emotionally available MMC/emotionally UNavailalbe FMC
* Revenge
* “Who hurt you?”
* One “horse”
* Enemies to lovers
* Forced proximity
* Slow burn
* Dark past
* Elemental magic

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elntastic's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I had no expectations, which I believe is always a good start, and was definitely not expecting such a good book. The story and world-building is truly amazing and original. I love how everything was explained thoroughly and that there were so many different unique creatures. Definitely nice to finally read something completely new. What made me read this so fast was mostly the urge to finally understand the full story behind Reave. Although most was explained there are still a lot of questions and I‘m really looking forward to finding their answers in the second book.

One thing I did not really enjoy (hence only 4.5 stars) were the sex scenes between the MC and FC. It was just too physical and there was no kissing or romance in it. Just wasn’t for me. But I do love the story between Kaan and Elluin and I hope that Raeve will go back to him.

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manaledi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book really sucked me in for many hundreds of pages and I wish the next one was out already. A slow start and some very slow world building but the characters are strong and the tension is well done.

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heyheyhailey1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Though the book starts out with *A LOT* of world-building, these complex pieces fall into place to create a really beautiful, new world. The magic system, creatures and realms of the Burn, the Fade and the Shade make for a really intriguing and creative backdrop for this character-driven story. I think there are a lot of different parts of this world to explore throughout the series.

I enjoyed the character growth and occasional other POVs to break up the story. Personally, I am always down for a badass FMC with emotional baggage. My only gripe with this book is an overuse of the “forgotten past” trope. I definitely got lost a few times trying to keep up with what I was supposed to understand already vs. was supposed pick up as I go. You don’t end the book knowing how everything fits together exactly. I found it annoying that Raeve seems to know things that the reader doesn’t get any insight into which is frustrating and strange in a first person POV.

SPOILERS !

I understand how Raeve needed to evolve through her grief to remember her past. I think the character has legitimate reasons to push things away rather than reckon with them, and generally enjoyed piecing her identity back together as she learned to be more vulnerable. HOWEVER I do not understand how one character has THREE separate histories that the reader knows nothing about. I am leaving book 1 with more questions than answers. Who the hell is Fallon? What is the Other and where did it come from? I am going to have to google if we found out what her dragonflame healing was from because I don’t know if I missed it or if this also a secret at this point in the story?

I will definitely read book 2 when it comes out, excited to discover more pieces to the puzzle about Raeve’s past and their implications on her future.

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summer_myers's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I just happened across this book on Kindle Unlimited and I am glad I did. This book has an interesting world of dragons, magic, other worldly creatures, revenge, and a dose of remembering one’s self. When I first started the book I was a little confused by some of the names for things and what was going on, and how does a brooding king fall into this.* I definitely recommend referencing the first few pages of the book that tells you what/who everything is. It will help you understand better when first starting out in the story.* Once I got a little further into the story it started making more sense as to where all the pieces that I read in the summary fit in. I would say the story starts out at a fast-ish pace. It opens with Raeve going in undercover for her “job” and snowballs into her being put on trial for death all within the first few chapters. After that the story slows down ever slightly.
Raeve’s character was an interesting one. She is shown first as someone that would cut you and not think twice about it, but later showed that she does have some of a soft side. I’m very curious about what happened in her past. We are shown glimpse but never told the whole thing of all the terror she endured. The glimpses are just enough to tease you and have you asking for more.
Kaan was an okay character for me. I know he is suppose to be the male character everyone fawns over, but I was just left with indifference. I wanted more stern, combative personality to him rather than the soft side that was shown. He does have a fierce side to him that we see when he has to be political and comes to protecting his domain, but I would have liked for more “enemy-to-lover” personality I guess with him.

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loudmouthbooklover's review against another edition

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I didn’t enjoy the writing style. And she just kept describing everyone’s features way too in depth including hers. I’m not the biggest fan of present tense first person and to cap it she kept talking about Kaans smell, over and over and over and over again. I get it he smells good.
Plus I can’t stand insufferable characters and I found Raeve to be that. She had complex moments, but after getting saved by someone she just wants to slit his throat.
It felt very predictable as well, the banter felt recycled and I was like I already know this is heading to yall wanting to sleep together. I get it but you wanna kill the dude.

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cactuscloudsreads's review against another edition

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From the first page I had the feeling this book did not go through a rigorous editing process. I struggled for TWO WEEKS until I just couldn’t go on. There is no plot. The voice is inconsistent. The premise of the world that is what got me so excited literally doesn’t go anywhere. The dragons exist but do nothing. I can’t believe I read 566 pages before quitting.

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spatterson7's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

Content Warnings

jrp618's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A

4.0

The prose was absolutely brilliant. Vibrant world. Perfect MMC. The book has a glossary and it was so helpful when I wanted to search something on my kindle. The only thing I wish was that there was another chapter to end the book of Kaans POV. Also the spice was spicin

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