Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

101 reviews

lucyatoz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Xingyin is the daughter of the Moon Goddess Chang'e and has grown up on the moon with Ping'er', her mother's attendant, for company. However, she finds herself needing to flee from her moonlit world to that of the Celestial Emperor and Empress, their immortal enemies. First she becomes a servant in a noble family's household, where she is ostracised until she meets a young man. Xingyin has the opportunity to learn alongside him, inside the Celestial Palace, as companion to Prince Liwei. This starts her journey back to her mother, though not before she masters archery and becomes the First Archer in Captain Wenzhi's army, finding herself in many battles, and then embarks on her most perilous quest, to gain the pearls of the Four Dragons for the Celestial Emperor which will she her mother freed from her imprisonment.

I borrowed a copy of this novel from my local library and listened to it on cloudLibrary. I read this for prompt 15, part of a duology, for the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2024.

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ctara2123's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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lennie_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-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? No

4.5

Thank you to Netgalley for my ARC.

Full disclosure, I did listen to the audiobook from the library.

Xingying is the titular Daughter of the Moon Goddess and the book opens with Xingying being forced to flee to moon (a place she has never left before) and make her way in the Celestial Kingdom whilst keeping her identity a secret.

There is a LOT that happens in this book. The events could've comfortably filled more than one book but also, with some light tweaking, this could very easily have been a standalone book.

I really liked Xingying, and whilst some things did seem a bit easy or convenient for her, she still puts in the hard work. And I also appreciated that things took time, like her studying with Prince Liwei or working on her archery. It felt a bit more 'realistic' and it also made the bond between Xingying and Liwei more meaningful (to me anyway!).

This book is very descriptive - it tells of beautiful scenery, lush food and exquisite outfits which really set the scene and help you envisage the very vivid world that Sue Lynn Tan has created. However there is possibly a bit too much focus on outfit descriptions 😅

From speaking to other people who have read the book, I think it's a good thing that I knew this was a love triangle from the get go because I was already anticipating romantic drama and angst. Although some plots points still came as a surprise and had me gasping out loud 😂

Despite saying that this could have been a standalone, I do have an idea of what's going to happen in book two so I'm intrigued to find what's going to happen (and if my theory is correct!).

Also the audio narrator was fantastic.

CW: war, injury, imprisonment, kidnapping

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wpapnik's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

I really liked this book! The tone and pace of the book reminded me a bit of The Selection by Kiera Cass. It was a pretty easy read and overall enjoyable. I did find the political systems and history to be a little hard to follow - thus making it more difficult to immerse myself in the book. Regardless, it found it to be a nice read and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel!

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lizboyce's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this story. I have not interacted much with Chinese mythology and was captivated by this story and world. You follow the main character’s hero’s journey as she navigates tricky politics, love, friendship, and even betrayal.

At times it was a bit slow but the pacing picks up at the end. There was a twist I didn’t see coming at all, which is always a fun feeling. Overall I would recommend this book and did quite enjoy reading it. The only reason I did not give it a full 5 stars is because I think to fully appreciate the story, you should enter in with some background knowledge of the myths this book is based on. I had to stop more than once to google certain myths so I could better follow what was happening.

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weareinheritors's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This is a very YA book, for decent and for worse.

The world and descriptions of locales and some people are great, I really would've loved to see more. I also liked the magic and, of course, always love me some

dragons

.

The plot feels rushed and a little too easily resolved, but intriguing all the same. I don't like how *easy* it was to resolve a lot of long-standing worldbuilding issues (

dragon pearls, really?!

). Like, I expect a little Mary Sue-ness in a YA novel, that's fine, but it was too easy for the MC. And there is ittle to no character growth, especially for the MC.

I really didn't care for any of the main characters (Shuxiao is a real one, though. I want more of her, please). The sorta-kinda rebound love "triangle" almost made me DNF (specifically the

West Lake Inn and godawful shared room, one bed trope 🤮—that thankfully didn't follow through

).

I'll read the sequel for the worldbuilding, but I'm not rushing into it.

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lavender_chai's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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runefiction's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

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amandaboyer's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.25

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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

5.0

I had the physical book and listened to the audiobook. Although there were minor discrepancies between the two, it didn't take me out of the story.
I freaking loved this, and I'm def gonna read the next book. It is longer than most books I have read, and I think without the audio, I would've struggled getting through some parts (a lot of the building, slower parts). But it was enjoyable all the way through. No spoilers, but my heart hurts a little at all that transpired with Xingyin's personal connections. I loved seeing her grow and all the things she had to do. A great mix of supernatural, fantasy, adventure, and love.
The cover art is also beautiful.

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