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thomasvd's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture
Moderate: Miscarriage, Animal death, and Death of parent
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:
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, and Torture
sandyanger's review against another edition
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
@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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Injury/Injury detail
wannabe_lee's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Torture, War, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Violence, Animal death, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse
Minor: Animal cruelty
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