Reviews with content warning for Murder - When the Moon Hatched

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker

42 reviews

cosmic_kurt's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I will be picking up the sequel for sure. There were bits that I didn’t love and sometimes the MC really got on my nerves, but I do think she stayed true to her character arc even though I got frustrated with her at times. This book definitely is a gateway to an even bigger story, and has a lot of world building but I do think it was done pretty well. In the middle the pacing gets kind of weird but it does get better and it’s worth getting through that. I do wish the POVS were more evenly balanced but I think in the next book it’ll be easier to see from the other characters more. All in all, I would recommend this book!

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jdasilva's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Loved jumping right in and the world building around the story versus a long intro and background. Quick pace from the start that lagged a bit about 3/4 of the way through but picked up again towards the end. I was immersed and desperately hoping for an end tied up in a bow and I was just left with even more questions. Wish I could already be reading the next one!

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kitsune42's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

3.5

Loved the start of the book, but the paced slowed once FMC was kidnapped. Unique world with intersting creatures. FMC unwillingness to address her trauma really started to become annoying. Didn't feel any real connection between characters. Unlikely to read the next book in the series when it's released.

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rachelbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

Wow. This book was stunning. The world was lush and interesting. The characters were unforgettable. Kaan and Raeve. <3 The writing was artistic and stuffed with imagery. Emotionally raw. I loved it!

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elledanie's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Horribly written—pretentious, overly descriptive, and exaggerated figurative language confuses the plot & characters, making it difficult and slow to read. Just because it’s “high fantasy” doesn’t mean it gets a pass for boring, heavy prose—that’s not good high fantasy.

Didn’t give us anything to like or reason to care about the main character. Nothing enjoyable about the dragons either, check trigger warnings. MMC and his friends/family are the only saving grace.

Also, no resolution? Not necessarily a cliff hanger either since it wasn’t thrilling nor were we given much about these unknown characters to even care.

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that_awkwardpart's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Absolutely beautiful story. I'm in love with the world full of different people and living conditions. Such a unique magical system. And the dragons ♥️.
This was exactly what I needed. I got lost in the story and this beautiful world. I fell in love with these characters and my heart broke over and over .
I can't wait to see where the story will lead us . It's definitely a must read!

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mom_mac_89's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

5.0

If you can take the time to wrap your head around the world building in the beginning....

This book was amazing. Loved the dynamic characters, the plot twists, the super wide range of creatures and climates. The characters are super well developed throughout the book, and the relationships in the book are deep and evolving or past coming to light throughout the book. I cannot wait for the sequel to come out!

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crybabybea's review

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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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