A review by cass_lit
Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan

2.5

I really liked Daughter of the Moon Goddess. While I appreciated it not ending on a cliffhanger, that also made me not think it needed a sequel. Why would I want to jump back into drama and war when I could just pretend there’s peace and that Xingyin and Liwei are living happily ever after? But the cover is so pretty, and I wanted a complete set, and I should probably read the books I buy. 

My favorite thing about this duology is the setting, which takes a bit of a back seat in this one because we don’t need to be introduced to it again. Same with the mythology and lore. We also care much more about the…personal issues…in this one, and also the impending war. Yes, the political plot in this one comes far into the book. But you know what starts immediately? The roadblocks to Xingyin and Liwei’s relationship (aka his family). And then, the love triangle is back. I’m over both of them just because I’m over the drama. I didn’t like how it was done, I didn’t like reading Xingyin’s inner struggle with it, I didn’t like who Xingyin was in relation to it. 

Unfortunately, that really impacted my reading experience because it’s a bit part of the sequel. This book felt like more drama than plot. We had great side characters to follow (hello!!! big deal happened and I still no nothing about it!!!) yet I feel like alllllllllll I read about was Xingyin, Liwei, and Wenzhi. One of the beloved characters from the first book died early, so it makes sense that they’re not there. But what about the other in their party that sacrificed themselves to fight with Xingyin? Eventually, we had an interesting political conflict. But you know what STILL impacted Xingyin’s decisions? Not her mom or

the dad she literally just met after believing him dead

, no — don’t ask them for an opinion literally even once why would that be smart,but Liwei and Wenzhi. 

And, to add insult to injury, I didn’t like the ending. I went through all that with this sequel to not even enjoy who  and what she chose. And I get it, Tann is not writing for me and maybe this was the “right” ending. It was just an unsatisfactory finale to a book I struggled through after not even wanting to read it. I hate this after loving Daughter of the Moon Goddess.