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A review by destdest
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
Did not finish book. Stopped at 78%.
Yet again I’ve been fooled by a beautiful cover.
It is not my intention to be overly harsh because writing is hard, but these are my true feelings. I’m a completionist at heart, so it has to be a lot for me to throw in the towel.
Unfortunately, I didn’t mesh well with the writing style. We’ve immortals, magic, DRAGONS, and court politics, but GOLLY do we have a boring bland MC. Very rarely do I throw out the Mary Sue title because it’s disheartening to hear as a writer, but Xingyin feeling sad for her parents is not a personality. It’s giving they are an orphan, so now they have built-in character development. She’s pretty, plays music, has magic, and can fight. Oh, but her flaw is she doesn’t know how to use her magic well. Okay, but she eventually learns, so now what?
Even during Part I where Xingyin decides to accept the cattiness of those girls, it just felt like she was going through the motions. She’s upset, but she tries to hold her head high. She’s sad because of her parents’ situation. Okay. That’s expected. Sad stuff happens character sad. Bad stuff happens character disappointed. I just … I don’t know.
Action and war play a part here as well. But every big bad villain felt cartoony. Some of the best villains you understand where they’re coming from or at least they make a worthy opponent/good foil to the hero. Xingyin "struggled" with the various ones, but none ever felt satisfactory.
And the relationship between Xingyin and Liwei is literal day-old stale bread. I generally enjoy childhood friends or royal character falls in love with MC who is of a lower class/not royalty. The author had the foundation to build their relationship until she started telling us they were close and these feelings they supposedly had. I felt no chemistry, ma’am. Maybe some geometry as best. when we had the fakeout that Xingyin killed Liwei... like girl, I FELT NOTHING.
Love interest #2 Army Dude was slightly better than Liwei, but I don’t why he fell for Xingyin either. She’s not that interesting nor is he to be honest. Major Wenzhi spoiler: Wenzhi being a demon felt abrupt. There was little to no foreshadowing at that. How was he talking he doesn't like that side of him that threatened the merpeople but then he's like secretly evil??? chile, is this a rebrand? The characters felt like chess pieces that just had to move to from one area to another to keep the story going. None gave deep connections, whether friendship or romantic. I don’t even care about the girl’s doggone mama, which is what the story hinged on.
Because I didn’t enjoy the reading experience, none of this was entertaining and it just dragged along. Many of my mutuals enjoyed this story, but I couldn’t see it in that light. Overall, this story wasn’t for me. Some of this may be my own personal enjoyment tainting the story, or the fact I’m more inclined to character-driven stories. I could’ve liked this more if I had seen it as a soap opera or an animation.
It is not my intention to be overly harsh because writing is hard, but these are my true feelings. I’m a completionist at heart, so it has to be a lot for me to throw in the towel.
Unfortunately, I didn’t mesh well with the writing style. We’ve immortals, magic, DRAGONS, and court politics, but GOLLY do we have a boring bland MC. Very rarely do I throw out the Mary Sue title because it’s disheartening to hear as a writer, but Xingyin feeling sad for her parents is not a personality. It’s giving they are an orphan, so now they have built-in character development. She’s pretty, plays music, has magic, and can fight. Oh, but her flaw is she doesn’t know how to use her magic well. Okay, but she eventually learns, so now what?
Even during Part I where Xingyin decides to accept the cattiness of those girls, it just felt like she was going through the motions. She’s upset, but she tries to hold her head high. She’s sad because of her parents’ situation. Okay. That’s expected. Sad stuff happens character sad. Bad stuff happens character disappointed. I just … I don’t know.
Action and war play a part here as well. But every big bad villain felt cartoony. Some of the best villains you understand where they’re coming from or at least they make a worthy opponent/good foil to the hero. Xingyin "struggled" with the various ones, but none ever felt satisfactory.
And the relationship between Xingyin and Liwei is literal day-old stale bread. I generally enjoy childhood friends or royal character falls in love with MC who is of a lower class/not royalty. The author had the foundation to build their relationship until she started telling us they were close and these feelings they supposedly had. I felt no chemistry, ma’am. Maybe some geometry as best.
Love interest #2 Army Dude was slightly better than Liwei, but I don’t why he fell for Xingyin either. She’s not that interesting nor is he to be honest. Major Wenzhi spoiler:
Because I didn’t enjoy the reading experience, none of this was entertaining and it just dragged along. Many of my mutuals enjoyed this story, but I couldn’t see it in that light. Overall, this story wasn’t for me. Some of this may be my own personal enjoyment tainting the story, or the fact I’m more inclined to character-driven stories. I could’ve liked this more if I had seen it as a soap opera or an animation.