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thepetitepunk's review
3.0
Thank you to Hear Our Voices Tours and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC and finished copy in exchange for an honest review!
You can see my stop for the HOV Tour here, which includes some of my favorite quotes from this book!
This fantasy adventure follows Narra Jal, a cursed girl who must enter high-stakes competition to save her mother. There’s magic, plot twists, and world building, with a steady cast of characters who complement each other with their contrasts. The romance is subtle, as to not overpower the story, but still definitely there! If you’re looking for something fast paced, this one is for you. There’s always something going on, right from the very first page. Although I’m not typically a fantasy reader, I was so excited to see a YA book rooted in Filipino culture…and I was not disappointed. The Moonlight Blade is unapologetically Filipino; it’s been so long since I’ve seen Filipino food so casually mentioned in the pages of a book so this was refreshing to see!
You can see my stop for the HOV Tour here, which includes some of my favorite quotes from this book!
This fantasy adventure follows Narra Jal, a cursed girl who must enter high-stakes competition to save her mother. There’s magic, plot twists, and world building, with a steady cast of characters who complement each other with their contrasts. The romance is subtle, as to not overpower the story, but still definitely there! If you’re looking for something fast paced, this one is for you. There’s always something going on, right from the very first page. Although I’m not typically a fantasy reader, I was so excited to see a YA book rooted in Filipino culture…and I was not disappointed. The Moonlight Blade is unapologetically Filipino; it’s been so long since I’ve seen Filipino food so casually mentioned in the pages of a book so this was refreshing to see!
jadebrard's review
3.0
It’s a yes but also a no but also a yes but also a no. I can not make up my mind.
Magic is one of the focus of the story while it also just linger in the background. Love too.
Basically it’s a coming of age story.
Magic is one of the focus of the story while it also just linger in the background. Love too.
Basically it’s a coming of age story.
cbird85's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
joonbug314's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-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
3.0
alyp01's review
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
atrailofpages's review
4.0
This story follows Narra, whose mother leaves for their home of their birth, Bato-Ko and never returns. One day, Narra receives a notice that her mother has been arrested. Even after promising her mother never to go back to Bato-Ko, she convinces her family to leave and go to Bato-Ko. Narra is determined to rescue her mother, and to do this, she enters a competition called the Sundo which allows her access into the palace to rescue her mother.
I will start by mentioning what I liked about this book: I liked basically the last 1/3 of this book the most. It became much more action-packed and there were some twists that even I didn't see coming that made me reread the page to make sure I read it right. I loved the biggest twist in the book, at least to me the biggest one, and that twist made the book for me to be honest. That twist saved the book from me giving a lower rating, which I will explain below. The other thing I really liked about this book was the romance. The romance at first confused me, but once you finish the book, my gosh it makes so much more sense and I really liked it in the end!
This is more of a 3.5 star read mainly because I really did not understand what was going until about halfway through this book. The story was kind of all over the place, and scenes would change without me realizing, or we would suddenly be in a different area and I didn't understand how that happened. I wish the history of this world was explained better. I actually have no idea how to explain the magic system as well. I never really connected with any of the characters, but I would say Narra and others grew a lot by the end of the book, which again, you would really need to read the entire book to understand. I also did not enjoy the romance until I finished the book. Then I actually really liked the romance! One other thing that confused me was I don't understand why Narra felt like she had to join this random competition in order to rescue her mother. I guess it was so that she had a way to be inside the palace, but I guess I just did not understand the point of the competition aside from adding some extra action and suspense.
Kudos to the author, though, for ending the book the way it did. It explained a lot, and I ended up giving this book a higher rating than I originally was planning! I received a free digital copy to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I will start by mentioning what I liked about this book: I liked basically the last 1/3 of this book the most. It became much more action-packed and there were some twists that even I didn't see coming that made me reread the page to make sure I read it right. I loved the biggest twist in the book, at least to me the biggest one, and that twist made the book for me to be honest. That twist saved the book from me giving a lower rating, which I will explain below. The other thing I really liked about this book was the romance. The romance at first confused me, but once you finish the book, my gosh it makes so much more sense and I really liked it in the end!
This is more of a 3.5 star read mainly because I really did not understand what was going until about halfway through this book. The story was kind of all over the place, and scenes would change without me realizing, or we would suddenly be in a different area and I didn't understand how that happened. I wish the history of this world was explained better. I actually have no idea how to explain the magic system as well. I never really connected with any of the characters, but I would say Narra and others grew a lot by the end of the book, which again, you would really need to read the entire book to understand. I also did not enjoy the romance until I finished the book. Then I actually really liked the romance! One other thing that confused me was I don't understand why Narra felt like she had to join this random competition in order to rescue her mother. I guess it was so that she had a way to be inside the palace, but I guess I just did not understand the point of the competition aside from adding some extra action and suspense.
Kudos to the author, though, for ending the book the way it did. It explained a lot, and I ended up giving this book a higher rating than I originally was planning! I received a free digital copy to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
pagesofnay's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
shanzehimran's review
3.0
I need to begin by saying that I am not Filipino, and so cannot comment on the Filipino representation in the book. It was however, refreshing to read books about other ethnicities and cultures.
The book had an incredibly interesting, strong and ambitious premise (themes of fate vs. free will, reincarnation, prejudice and political corruption) but severely lacked in its execution. I was confused for a lot of the book, and skimmed the end, only understanding at surface level what was going on but wasn’t able to figure out the subtleties and nuances. It came down to writing style, there was a lot of description that didn’t make sense, things coming out of nowhere, and a lot of information about the MC’s past lives that blended in together, without real structure or storytelling. More often than not the author would state a particular thing as something else and I could not make the connection, or the positioning of places and settings was impossible to figure out. It got exhausting to read and it turns out I’m not the only one.
That being said, the premise was enjoyable, and I wanted to know how it ended, even if it got tiring trying to figure it out. The romance subplot was done in a more unique way than I usually see fated lover stories, and the male MC is one of my favorite characters in the book, which isn’t something that happens often for me. I hoped to see more development in the end, but the ending was rushed by the author, to my disappointment.
The title of the book appears once in the book (and possibly a second time immediately after, I can’t remember because I was skimming) and I still haven’t figured out what it had to do with anything and why the book is called that at all. This book would have been infinitely better if it went through an editing process that streamlined the writing so that the descriptions were more than a string of sentences that seemed to sound pretty put together.
The book had an incredibly interesting, strong and ambitious premise (themes of fate vs. free will, reincarnation, prejudice and political corruption) but severely lacked in its execution. I was confused for a lot of the book, and skimmed the end, only understanding at surface level what was going on but wasn’t able to figure out the subtleties and nuances. It came down to writing style, there was a lot of description that didn’t make sense, things coming out of nowhere, and a lot of information about the MC’s past lives that blended in together, without real structure or storytelling. More often than not the author would state a particular thing as something else and I could not make the connection, or the positioning of places and settings was impossible to figure out. It got exhausting to read and it turns out I’m not the only one.
That being said, the premise was enjoyable, and I wanted to know how it ended, even if it got tiring trying to figure it out. The romance subplot was done in a more unique way than I usually see fated lover stories, and the male MC is one of my favorite characters in the book, which isn’t something that happens often for me. I hoped to see more development in the end, but the ending was rushed by the author, to my disappointment.
The title of the book appears once in the book (and possibly a second time immediately after, I can’t remember because I was skimming) and I still haven’t figured out what it had to do with anything and why the book is called that at all. This book would have been infinitely better if it went through an editing process that streamlined the writing so that the descriptions were more than a string of sentences that seemed to sound pretty put together.
mrsclappreads's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
tense
slow-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
3.25
thenextgenlibrarian's review
“All my life, I have been shunned, when my only crime is daring to exist.”