The Moonlight Lies is not your typical fantasy story. The world is facing a grave threat, and a prophecy describes the Chosen One who can save it. Well, the Chosen One said no, and Cassie decided to take on the mantle for herself.

The book description describes it as perfect for fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I have to agree. The world-building is very similar, with different nations having powers over elements or seeing the future. Those born under an eclipse from one of the different moons can also get extra powers. Cassie, however, is a goblin and has no powers at all.

In her quest to recover different artifacts from each nation and achieve all the powers, reaching the level of the fated Chosen One, those abilities don’t just fall from the skies. I really appreciate how, just in Avatar, she has to learn and practice and truly earn each of the artifacts.

Her companions on this journey, Roland, Elidi, and Gaffer, are very well-written and truly make you care for them. Every part of their personality serves to right Cassie’s misconceptions about herself and gets her closer to being worthy of being the child of prophecy.

While I loved the plot and the characters, I was a bit confused by some of the world-building. Each country and power has its own particular name, sharing the name with its moon. The race also has a nickname, which makes it a lot of fantasy names to remember. I am still somewhat confused on if Cassie is an actual goblin or if that is a nickname for her race.

This was a very well-written book, and on the my favorite fantasy book of late. It is a fun subversion of tropes, but not so much that it feels like cheap satire. I am not sure how to feel about the ending, but it is definitely a worthy read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aengie Scevity for the advanced copy. This review is left voluntarily and honestly.

Unfortunately this wasn't an enjoyable read, I liked the characters and the premise was good. It started off slow at the start and I just didn't like the writing style and it felt rushed at the end.

I went into this book liking the concept of if but as I read I really felt sad for Cassiopeia having to take on a role she didn't want at such a young age, to be shunned and hated for how she was born. It made me emotional a few times, and her being such a young age made it hurt even more she had so much in her shoulders and accepted it but she also scorned herself. She was isolated and dealing with a lot of self hatred and didn't always feel understood and that just resonated to some degree, this book is well written and the ending had me bewildered and left with heartache.

This is a great book! it was a joy to receive a arc for it. the only major issue is some of the drawings look like they could be ai? I don't want to say for sure but if it is the case It will be disappointing. It leads towards middle grade, still it was cozy and fun.
Cassie was well developed but I wish the side characters were as well. the crew of them was adorable but we don't learn that much about them. It is one reason why id hope for a sequel. the rep in this book is so important I hope tweens can get their hands on it.
The ending actually left me shocked. I am hooping for a sequel. The girlfriends need a happy ending! I liked the stories takes on fantasy tropes. It remains with its own special take on them.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'm giving this a 3.5 star rating rounded up to 4 stars.

Cassiopeia, or Cassie for most of the book, is a goblin with no power of her own and red hair, a bad omen amongst her people. She is traveling with a companion to find the prophesied hero that will save their civilization from a moonfall event, but after he says no, she decides to take on this monumental task herself somehow. The story features her wistfully taking on this false role while gathering the pieces of magic needed to complete the task at risk of her own peril.

This was quite an interesting story! At first, I didn't really like the book and I suspect it was mainly due to Cassie having a rather brutal personality. However, as she warmed up and as I learned more about the story, I began to really enjoy this book and became far more invested in the story. There were some minor typos and wording choices that were a tad off but the story itself made up for it with some wonderful cozy moments and a lovely found family theme. Overall, I really enjoyed this read!

This review will be posted on Goodreads and my book Instagram before the publication date of Aug 1. Links will be added to this page as those are posted.

A whistle-stop, fantastic book that could have been a series in of itself.

This book grabs you and never lets go. You race through the story, through the world and the people. There are five moons in the sky, and six races - each moon gifts a race a power, such as foresight, control of stones, of water and so on. If you're born in certain conditions, then you might have other powers beyond your races. But then you have the sixth race. Called 'Goblins' this race doesn't have any innate power and its from this race that our heroine comes from.

Cass very much has a chip on her shoulder - not only is she a Goblin, but she has red hair, which among her people is considered an ill omen, to the extent that people ignore her, insult her, refuse to touch things she has touched. She is struggling against the world, so when the chance comes for her to prove herself, she grabs it.

What follows is a race across the world to gain artefacts from each race in order to stop the 'moonfall' and possible end of the world.

Along the way she makes friends, finds a family of her own and is forced to confront her own internal hate that has been created because of how people treat her. The reason behind her red hair being considered a curse, long forgotten, is brought to light and its a sucker punch.

The other characters are good, but because of its short length, not enough time is spent developing them. I meant it when I said this could have been a series, a trilogy, just covering this plot, because the world, the magic, the idea of the moons is such a cool, well developed one that we don't see nearly enough of.

That ending though! I want to have a nice chat with the author because I feel personally victimised by that ending. I really hope there is a second book, because I don't know how my heart would cope to think that was the final ending for these characters.

As a Goblin born under no moons with bright red hair, Cassiopeia Brown possesses no magic and very few friends. That is until she becomes the child of prophecy, largely by default. This book follows Cass and her mentor Gaffer as they search for magical artifacts and pick up extra help a long the way.

The stand out element of this book is the unique magic system. while the different moons and powers they are associated with took me a while to understand at first, the author does a great job of building the magic system along with the storyline. I also loved how the characters in this book interacted, providing a real found family element. The chapter titles and Cassiopeia's monologue were funny adding a humour to the book which made it really easy to keep reading.

Overall this book is really well written and perfect for YA audiences looking for a unique fantasy book with an underlying sapphic romance. I cant wait to see where the author takes this story next!

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review,

The Moonlight Lies is such a great and well written story. I received it as an ARC, and I must say I was a bit confused and it took me a while to understand all the moons and powers that appear but it was very interesting and it kept me hooked!

I loved the characters, the world building and the found family trope a lot. I also liked how it represents the racism, xenophobia and the prejudices people from this book have against the main character. I really hope this story gets a second part because I NEED it after that ending. I highly recommend this if you like fantasy and adventure!

DNF at 27%.
I think the book has a lot of premise, the plot appears logistic but the writing style is not appealing, there is a lack of exposition, many errors within the text (grammatical and syntactic) and the characters are not appealing either.

The Moonlight Lies is such a adventure. It's fun to read, I read in less than a day cause so much was happening and I had to know what was going to happen next and how it was going to end. I really hope this story gets a second book!

Cassie is a redheaded Goblin in a society that looks down on both of those things. When the boy that's supposed to be the chosen one and stop a moon from falling refuses, Cassie has no choice but to take his place and pretend she's the prophesized savior. Along the way she trains, opens her heart, and collects artefacts to help her harness powers to hopefully fulfill the task.


This was a awesome read, I highly recommend to anyone that loves a good fantasy adventure.

(Received this as a arc)

It was a very fast pace and exciting adventure. All the characters were relatable. I had a fun time reading it.