What a gorgeously written retelling! I had only ever heard one version of the Chang'E myth and I loved it but this version, the addition of a daughter and an empire, was a magical and engrossing read! Probably my favourite book of the year so far!

Xingyin is so relatable and her honor and love story is one I could read over and over again. She is a selfless, sheltered person in a selfish world and I am SO happy that there will be a second book! I need more Xingyin in my life.

For me, This was definitely closer to YA than adult fantasy. Quite a beautiful world, inspired by Chinese mythology and I would say more character driven than plot focused. A strong start and decent ending, with a bit too much meandering and filler for the middle portion. There is also a love triangle, which can be overdone, but was done well enough in my opinion. I think the author has huge potential but the characters need a bit more depth and the plot needs to be a bit more concise. Beautiful book cover!
*Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is the exciting, colourful, past faced story of Xingyin, her mother has been punished by the Celestial Kingdom to attend to the moon and can never leave, hiding her daughter as a secret until one day Xingyin must escape being caught. Fleeing to the kingdom, Xingyin meets Liwei, the Crown Prince, and she endeavors to do everything she can to free her mother from her punishment.

It's pretty hard to breakdown the plot of this book as so much happens, what I have described is just part. The pacing of the plot makes this interesting, there’s not a lot of filler, it travels fast to take the protagonist through quite a journey, however I felt like the book tries to do too much, the distance this book goes in feels like this 1 book should have been the duology. Stepping stones in this plot, from Xingyin fleeing the Empress soldiers and her home, to working as a maid, to studying with Liwei, to becoming the First Archer with Wenzhi, to monsters and dragons and love triangles and politics and betrayal … these are (mostly) interesting points that I felt weren’t covered enough, I would have rather had a few plot points supporting the book that were bulked up that you could feel and digest much better.

For example the love triangle. This is a 500+ page book but it just glides over building up the romances, personally I didn’t get why Liwei and Wenzhi fell in love with Xingyin or vice versa, you don’t experience that journey, it just happens. Liwei is the crown prince, he meets Xingyin when she is an attendant, there’s a brief conversation and then the 2nd time they meet he’s already making exceptions for her, changing the rules of the competition established to find his study companion just so that she can enter, the next time he’s fixing the result of the competition so that she can pass one of the challenges … Why is he defying his parents and the order of things for a girl he just met who, actually hasn’t been that nice in return? Then as the 2 study together, time is sped up so it covers a very small part of the book and we just have to take the author’s word for it that they fall in love during this time. It sometimes feels like the author wants things to happen and just makes them happen rather than you experiencing them develop on the page. This love triangle flip flops, you think you know where Xingyin’s heart lies and then you get whiplash, I suspect more of this in book 2!

The world building is amazing, Xingyin’s adventures introduce a variety of characters, of various worlds and origins, monsters, dragons, you have magic, characters riding clouds, you are taken to different settings that are colourful and deep and it’s what makes books so wonderful – that escapism. The writing too is very beautiful, it’s easy to read, how it flows on the page

My main issue though is Xingyin herself, I just didn’t particularly like her. Now I fully appreciate that you don’t always have to like characters in a book to appreciate a book, however the author does not hide how much you, like apparently near everyone who meets this girl, is supposed to love her, and the people who don’t love her are bad people. The 2 most handsome men in the palace fall in love with Xingyin (despite her saying she is ugly), she’s incredible at the flute, she goes from never using a bow before to becoming the ‘first archer’, she can fight like the Crown Prince, she can defy and speak back to her superiors and the royal and face no consequences, she can make demands on how she works … For many reasons this book is amazing but Xingyin did not feel real, she didn’t grow or develop, it just happened and I couldn’t get behind her because she was just too amazing at everything.
And that’s not to say she was perfect, it’s just that she’s never held accountable for how she treats people, how she lies to and uses people she loves, how she’s a hypocrite embracing Wenzhi in front of Liwei and her mother is her motivation but she can’t bear to see him honour a betrothal set by his parents, how Liwei wasn’t even allowed to be hurt when he finds out she effectively used him, when she maintains she created her own success when Liwei literally changes the rules and rigs a challenge … There is no humility to her, there is no compromise, she is competitive and challenges people for the sake of it, and people just accept it.
Liwei and Wenzhi had the potential to be more interesting characters, as would her mother, but they literally exist in this story to tell Xingyin’s story, Liwei is the moon eyed love interest, Wenzhi has potential but his primary characteristic is her … For a book with fantastic world building, I just wish the world wasn’t completed built around Xingyin.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange of an honest review. I don’t know where the 2nd installment in the duology will take us but I’m intrigued to find out.

i really great and unique book !!! i loved how this book explored the tale of chang'e's daughter in a magical way. the setting was amazing and so were the characters. the plot did feel a little bit wonky at a few places but i hope the next book will be as good as or even better than this one !!!

Staggeringly beautiful work of myth and humanity. I was transported, by the gorgeous world building and prose so perfectly crafted I barely noticed myself reading. I absorbed it in a matter of days.

Sadly this book wasn't a win for me. I loved the writing style but honestly it was the only thing that made me finish the book. I found the pacing a bit weird and even during "action scenes" i wasn't hooked. I think the whole story could have been told in only one book instead of being a duology. Also one of my main issue is that i didn't really like the main character so i couldn't connect with the story. It might be a me problem and not a book problem.

Chang’e, goddess of the moon, has been imprisoned by the Emperor and Empress of Heaven, alone and far from all immortals and mortals alike. Little do they know, she has a daughter, the child of her husband Houyi, with whom she was pregnant when she ascended to godhood. Chang’e has kept Xingyin’s existence a secret from everyone, but as her daughter’s abilities grow and develop, this is becoming impossible. When a sudden burst of power draws the attention of the rulers of Heaven, Xingyin is pushed out of the home she has always known, and into the wide world of the immortals, full of inequalities, cruelty and power struggles. She must navigate this, keeping her true identity secret, to try to find a way to free her mother from her prison, and return home herself.

This was a novel that felt like it didn’t start strong, and didn’t really seem to get better, but somehow grew on me as I read it, so when I look back, despite remembering being quite ambivalent about it, I have a great deal of fondness. I think it’s a book that would do well out of a second read, not because it would provide new twists or foreshadowing you didn’t catch the first time, but simply because you’d have settled into the tone and pace of Sue Lynn Tan’s writing. There’s a quality of the traditional fairy tale or myth to her prose that’s a little alien to a lot of modern fantasy novels – a level of distance from the protagonist, and remoteness to how we see inside their thoughts – that is a tad difficult to embrace at first, but which slowly becomes familiar, until you don’t really notice it at all. By the end of the book, I liked it a lot, and I was deeply embedded in Xingyin’s point of view and emotions, but at the start, it felt difficult to get a grip on her, and to have a grasp on how she felt about things, especially when the start of the book is, in many ways, some of the most emotionally tumultuous.

However, it never felt hard to keep reading, because despite that slightly distant tone, there was a lot to recommend the rest of the book to keep you going, not least the physical descriptions. Tan did a great job of giving you a sense of the clothing and the atmosphere and environments of her setting, and so looking back, I’m able to conjure up a vivid visual memory of several of the locations throughout the story. Even while the abstract felt a little ill-defined, the concrete was always perfect and palpable.

This also comes through in Tan’s descriptions of the other characters outside of Xingyin – we know how they dress, their mannerisms, for instance, and they all speak in noticeably different voices – yet all patterned within that slightly remote, cold tone. It’s as though Xingyin has a level of personal calmness, a remove, from which she is narrating, that at first implies she’s not particularly emotionally affected by the story. As you read through, and see through her actions how deeply she feels some of what happens, this reveals itself to be untrue, and you come to a familiarity with her character perspective, and so a comfort with the style, and hopefully an enjoyment, that was somewhat elusive at the start.

That being said, there are still a few rough edges. Some of the less prominent secondary characters are extremely one dimensional, even though the two main ones are well fleshed out. The romantic relationships early in the book were extremely obvious, pretty much from the moment each character is introduced. Tan does well to build some real tension into them, but it feels an uphill battle after the blatantness of the introductions.

There’s an equally inevitable feel to Xingyin’s progression into the imperial court. Once again, Tan does a great job of trying to give us tension and drama in each individual moment – and there are some lovely, well-drawn, memorable moments created – but the overall feel of the arc is one of inexorable success. We all know she’s going to make it to the court, we all know she’s going to turn out to be strong, and talented, and that takes some of the fun out of it. Even if, in most stories, we know, the story does enough work to make us doubt it, and so you get some actual drama along the way. Here, although Tan tries, the initial setup makes it feel just too much of a done deal, and possibly that feeds in to why, at first, the book didn’t hook me in.

But the middle and final thirds of the book do cast doubt on some of the assumptions you make – while her initial goals feel inevitable, the later parts of Xingyin’s journey do have that tension and that drama, and so as the story progresses, it gets easier and easier to be sucked in, and to wonder what comes next. Some things do still feel inevitable, but enough rugs have been pulled, or minor twists in the path, that you start to wonder, and that makes the whole thing that much better.

All in all, Tan has created a lovely, fairytale-like story, in a beautiful, richly described world. The beginning may be slightly stilted and predictable, but by the time you reach the end, you are willing to forgive it at least some of its flaws, because a lot of the rest of the journey more than made up for them. It’s an enjoyable read, and one that suggests future books – and I believe a sequel is forthcoming – may well be worth looking into.

This was such a vivid, and beautiful read. It tore my heart apart and repaired it all in one sitting. I loved it so much!!

Daughter of the Moon Goddess weaves a smart and enchanting retelling of beloved Chinese mythology from a debut author! We follow the journey of a young immortal girl, Xingyin, trying to find a way to one day return home and reunite with her mother, Chang’e (the Moon Goddess), on the moon. In the meantime, Xingyin navigates both the beauty and the cruelty of the Celestial Kingdom; where she contends with surviving in a place where status is revered, experiencing first love, figuring out her sense of purpose and fighting forces who threaten the peace and freedom of the entire kingdom.

Between the setting and the author’s prose, then both the UK cover and the US cover, I can only describe this book as beautiful. It is an enchanting otherworldly experience where immortals are transported through moving clouds, there’s a rainbow of different coloured dragons, a realm of demons and at the heart of it all, a girl who is discovering herself and who she wants to be. She also comes to possess a magic bow that enables her to wield and fire flaming arrows… It’s pure magic and adventure.

Admittedly for a good portion of the book, it felt the book was overly long and I couldn’t see why this was marketed as adult fantasy, as it felt akin to reading many young adult fantasies, especially with some predictable elements. I’d definitely describe Daughter of the Moon Goddess as being on the lighter end of adult fantasy, which I ended up cherishing, as it’s one of those stories you can escape to where your heart won’t implode with pain.

But dragon’s pearl will your heart feel a whole range of emotions! The cast of characters were exceptional; the core characters quickly took root in my heart, and those who were meant to make my blood boil, certainly did. Xingyin is easy to love even when she’s being naive, Liwei is someone you want to simultaneously hug and throttle (just maybe the want to hug prevails, though) and days after finishing the book, I still can’t decide whether I want to kiss or kill Wenzhi. The love triangle this book pulled off?? I honestly didn’t think I was heavily invested, and then BOOM, the book was coming to a close and I was whining “no, no, no please don’t end here! Not like this!”
Daughter of the Moon Goddess has one of the most delectably crafted love triangles I’ve read in a while.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is packed to the brim with twists and turns in a vividly painted world. For a debut book, Sue Lynn Tan has assured she is a powerhouse talent and that the sequel, Heart of the Sun Warrior, will be worth the wait. I’ve already marked my calendar to see how this wondrous story ends!

Thank you kindly to the publishers for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for this honest review.

The writing is beautiful, very lyrical and pretty, but the plot was a bit all over the place, with too many subplots and predictable scenarios. I found the characters predictable as well so I wasn't kept to the page as much as I would've liked to be sucked into the story. I liked the writing and the legends/myths. Think the book would've been better if shorter and more concentrated on the original plot and direction of the character.

loved the narrator, they did such a good job!!!

This is a great book! So good. I feel like people that liked Six Crimson Cranes would like this (because I did!)

This has got to be one of my fave reads of the year so far - I absolutely loved this! Xinjiang is possibly one of the most inspiring women I've ever come across; her commitment to a promise is unmatched. She does everything in her power to ensure she doesn't break promises, and I admired that. Xinjiang is such an empowering character, I loved the Mulan vibes she gave. This was such a magical read, and its safe to say my mind felt incredibly relaxed but also excited at the scenes my brain envisioned from this. I read this book at quite a busy time in my life, and it truly was an escapism like no other - I just have to pick up a physical copy. Sue Lynn's writing style is incredible, its such an immersive experience, and this book was full of twists and turns, right till the last page. I loved the story line, it was incredibly meaningful whilst also being poetic and romantic. This won't be the last time I pick up a book from Sue Lynn Tan.

This one is so tricky for me to rate because there are parts that I definitely love and parts that I absolutely hate. It kind of averages out to 3 stars but normally I’m ambivalent about books I rate three stars - like it’s okay just not great, but with this book I really really enjoyed some parts and utterly hated ( like 1 star loathed ) others.

Sorry to people who loved this book - it just wasn’t for me.

I’m going to keep this non spoilery for the most part but I’ll include some marked spoilers at the end

I loved the combat and plot for the main character in this book. Xingyin is confident, resourceful but also selfish and scared. I really enjoyed her fallibility too. The other thing I found really interesting was how the author approaches immortality, as nearly all of the characters were. She managed to acknowledge and utilise this without taking all threat to the characters and suspense away. Where I really noticed this was with how time was viewed in urgency. Xingyin is desperately trying to free her mother, the Moon Goddess, but her sense of urgency covers years - because to an immortal what is a few years ?

The atmosphere as well was just so expertly crafted, you could almost feel the soft breeze wafting cherry blossoms and the epicness of court. Even with the difference between the immortal and mortal realms really has a vivid tangible difference.

The main thing that really annoyed me was the romance and the love interest both of them really annoyed me and tbh I cannot understand what Xingyin saw in them.

Xingyin’s character was also a bit annoying to me sometimes - it may be that she just felt very immature which tbh is very accurate for her character so just ignore me

SPOILERS BELOW

Honestly the romance reminded me of Mansfield park - like you have Liwei who basically lies and sort of cheats on her while expecting her to be okay with it ? And gets jealous when she tries to protect herself and move on ?

And then you have Wenzhi who was absolutely lovely to her right up until he turned into the Demon Prince and we found out he’s been lying and manipulating her all along - though I maintain before the whole kidnapping thing he treated her so much better than Liwei did.

So yeah … not great choices. I appreciate that at the end they didn’t rush things too, showing Liwei courting her properly but I’m still mad Xingyin isn’t mad at him 😂

i started this book but it’s literally so long and slow that I ended up pausing it.. i don’t wanna leave a bad review because I only review a book once i’ve read it so when I probably pick it up again in the future and finish it i’ll come back and change it…

Good debut, interesting world and magic system liked the chinese mythology found it to he a bit confusing at times and struggled with the time jumps would have like the original moon goddess story in a bit more detail in this book but overall enjoyed it .

A huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc!

First of all, WOW!

This was amazing, I already had this book preordered, but now I want to collect as many copies as I can. This was so rich in culture and mythology and explored stories that the west either forgets about or are not familiar with. I loved it.

Daughter of Moon Goddess is a beautiful story based on the Chinese legend of Chang'e and Houyi. This book is not a retelling because the story takes place years after the story of the legend ends.

The story centres on Xingyin, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Chang'e. Due to the nature of her punishment and the empress's hatred, Chang'e kept Xingyin's existence a secret from the Celestial Empire. But one day when Xingyin's magic accidentally flares, it causes a small shift in the energy surrounding the moon. Soon after, the Celestial Empress arrives to interrogate Chang'e. She lies to protect her daughter but the empress continues to have her suspicions.

Xingyin had to run from the moon to keep herself and her mother, Chang'e, safe. Despite being untrained and alone, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, where she conceals her identity and embarks on a journey to save her mother and finally free her from her imprisonment.

The characters of the book are well thought out. I enjoyed meeting them and watching them grow throughout the book.

Xingyin's relationship with her mother is the essence of the book. It's Xingyins' love for her mother that makes her grow and become stronger. Xingyins' growth in this book was astounding. Discovering her power, becoming a master archer. Becoming a renowned soldier in the emperor's army. It is all surreal.

Prince Lewei is the sweetest and most eye-catching part of the book. Lewei and Xingyin's slow-growing relationship from friends to lovers with a twist of forbidden love is just like a delicious slice of cake.

However, the love triangle wasn't well done. While Liwei was the light, the other guy in the love triangle, the infamous Captain Wenzhi, is the dark.

There was a point where I loved them both. Both of them were perfect but then the betrayal happened. I did not expect that. I was surprised.

The plot of the book was action-packed and complex with intricate world-building. The flow of the book was steady but at times it was a bit jerky and sudden. Because of this, it felt flat and dragged in a few places. The third part of the book was the most action-filled part of the book. Compared to the third part, the other parts were a bit slow.

Overall, Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a story worth reading and enjoying. The story doesn't end in a cliffhanger but there are a few questions left unanswered. I am eagerly awaiting the release of the next book in this duology.

Absolutely stunning from start to finish. I did not want this book to end at all. It had me captivated right from the very first page and I cannot stress just how much I need the sequel right this second. Phenomenal stuff.

I absolutely adored this book!

The Daughter of the Moon Goddess is inspired by the Chinese legend of Chang’e which is used as the starting point to tell the story of her daughter, Xingyin. It follows Xingyin as she leaves the isolation of the moon and attempts to navigate the Celestial Kingdom and free her mother.

I still can’t believe how much is packed into this book, it’s incredibly fast moving but somehow it never felt rushed to me. The book gets the balance between action, character development and romance just right.

Xingyin is well developed and has a strong motivation which drives all her actions. The supporting characters are also interesting in their own right and I would have loved some of Xingyin’s friends to feature more. There are two love interests for Xingyin and I couldn’t decide who I liked more!

I loved how much this book drew from Chinese mythology and culture, it really featured strongly and, coupled with the beautiful writing, this story is incredibly atmospheric. The Celestial Kingdom and Immortal realm is a wonderful setting, different areas are explored along with their history and politics resulting in the the world building feeling truly epic.

This is such a strong debut fantasy and I’m so excited for the second part of this duology!

Daughter of the Moon Goddess was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and It didn’t disappoint.

Inspired by the legend of Chang’e the Chinese moon goddess. Daughter of the Moon Goddess follows a young woman’s quest to free her mother and how her misson pits her against the most powerful immortal of the realm.

This book is gorgeous from its lyrically written and vivid descriptions to the incredible story at its heart. Filled with Chinese mythology and starring a fierce main character who will do anything for family. I don’t know what more you could want.