Book Review: Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Title: Daughter of the Moon Goddess
Author: Sue Lynn Tan
Genre: Adult Fantasy/Romance
Version: Hardcover
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Synopsis: GoodReads | StoryGraph
Notable Notables: Chinese mythology and culture
Recommended Readers: Fans of The Ghost Bride, Chinese fantasy, and romantic angst
CAWPILE Rating: 7.29
Rating: ★★★★☆

My Review

I read Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan much earlier this year for a book club with friends, so this review has been long overdue. I pondered how to write about this story, which features Xingyin separated from her exiled, immortal mother and set on a quest to lift her mother’s imprisonment while also undergoing a journey of self-discovery, romantic love, and familial loyalty.

In the end, I’ve decided to outline my thoughts to match the CAWPILE rating system. Let’s explore the highs and lows of Daughter of the Moon Goddess through the lens of characters, atmosphere, writing, plot, intrigue, logic, and enjoyment.

Books I’m Hyped for: July – December 2022

Alright, look.

I meant to post this hyped book list awhile ago. Like, back in June awhile ago. Clearly, I didn’t, and there are a lot of reasons for that which boil down to:

• I didn’t want to do it.
• I was feeling kinda unimpressed with books this year (and still am lmao).
• My reading life has been in shambles.
• And I Super Didn’t Want to Do It.

Frankly, posts like this are a pain in the ass because they require a lot of work that gain very little traction. Worse, a fair amount of books on these lists wind up not being very good once I finally get to them for the amount of work and no traction I’ve put into the whole experience.

So I likely won’t be doing these next year or ever again. I mean, the month of October only has one book coming out this year that I’m interested in. One. I wouldn’t normally post something like this this late at all, except I am, unfortunately, a completionist.

Here we go then: the July through December books I’m hyped for in 2022, many of which have already been released.

July

July 5

The Darkening by Sunya Mara

In this thrilling and epic YA fantasy debut the only hope for a city trapped in the eye of a cursed storm lies with the daughter of failed revolutionaries and a prince terrified of his throne.

Vesper Vale is the daughter of revolutionaries. Failed revolutionaries. When her mother was caught by the queen’s soldiers, they gave her a choice: death by the hangman’s axe, or death by the Storm that surrounds the city and curses anyone it touches. She chose the Storm. And when the queen’s soldiers—led by a paranoid prince—catch up to Vesper’s father after twelve years on the run, Vesper will do whatever it takes to save him from sharing that fate.

Even arm herself with her father’s book of dangerous experimental magic.

Even infiltrate the prince’s elite squad of soldier-sorcerers.

Even cheat her way into his cold heart.

But when Vesper learns that there’s more to the story of her mother’s death, she’ll have to make a choice if she wants to save her city: trust the devious prince with her family’s secrets, or follow her mother’s footsteps into the Storm.

ARC Review: Edgewood

Title: Edgewood
Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary Fantasy
Version: ARC – eBook
Page Count: 384
Publisher:  Wednesday Books
Synopsis: GoodReads | StoryGraph
Notable Notables:  A bard-like protagonist; lesbian side characters
Recommended Readers: Basic fantasy lovers and those who like stories about sentient woods
CAWPILE Rating: 4.57
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

My Review

Edgewood by Kristen Ciccarelli is a contemporary fantasy YA novel about a girl named Emeline, who is on the cusp of breaking into the music industry as an established folk singer. However, she can never quite escape the creeping woods of her hometown, which permeate her performances whenever she sings no matter where she is.

When she gets word that her grandfather and caretaker has gone missing—potentially taken as a tithe to the mysterious Wood King—Emeline races back to Edgewood to find him. Braving the mysterious woods, she finds the Wood King’s court and strikes a bargain: she will become the Wood King’s new minstrel in return for her grandfather’s freedom. To do that, she must work together with the king’s tithe collector, Hawthorne, to recover the Song Mage’s lost sheet music and discover the cause of the wood’s corruption.

Book Review: Redemptor

Title: Redemptor
Author: Jordan Ifueko
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Version: Hardcover – Illumicrate Edition
Page Count: 441
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Synopsis: GoodReads | StoryGraph
Notable Notables: Diverse cast with a Black girl as the main character; asexual representation
Recommended Readers: Liked the first book, Raybearer? See what happens next
CAWPILE Rating: 4.57
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

My Review

I was convinced after finishing Jordan Ifueko’s Raybearer that the sequel, Redemptor, would be a five-star read easy. Yet here I am, presenting it with a two-star rating and sighing tiredly to myself.

I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed.

This review may be best served to look back on my review for the first book and see what made me excited to continue with the second one. What was I anticipating? What was I hoping for? What did I want Redemptor to be? Maybe that way I can see why this much-hyped, lauded duology wound up being second-rate and unredeemed.

Obviously, spoilers for both books will follow here.

Book Review: Raybearer

Title: Raybearer
Author: Jordan Ifueko
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Version: Hardcover – Illumicrate Edition
Page Count: 476
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Synopsis: GoodReads | StoryGraph
Notable Notables: Diverse cast with a Black girl as the main character; asexual representation; good fae content; found family trope
Recommended Readers: Are you tired of Western-based YA fantasy books? Here’s your cure.
CAWPILE Rating: 7.86
Rating: ★★★★☆

My Review

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko is an engaging bildungsroman full of heart, spirituality, and magic as its wonderful protagonist Tarisai chases these ever-important questions: Who do I want to be? Where do I belong? Can I be loved for who I am?

From the beginning, Raybearer captured my attention, the novel opening with a small Tarisai meeting her fairy father, Melu, and his wings of blue fire, where he tells her a few truths about her reason for existing. Using three wishes, her mother, The Lady, has bound Melu and conceived Tarisai for a greater, darker purpose, but Melu insisted on giving Tarisai her own name in the hopes she can find her own path and avoid The Lady’s unclaimed third wish.

Book Review: Truthwitch

Title: Truthwitch
Author: Susan Dennard
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Version: Paperback
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Tor Teen
Synopsis: GoodReads | StoryGraph
Notable Notables: Original magic system, female friendship-inspired yet unbalanced
Recommended Readers: Casual fantasy readers
CAWPILE Rating: 2.29
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

My Review

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard was the latest pick for my book club I started this year with a few of my friends, and I had high hopes about delving into a once-hyped fantasy series I missed getting into back in 2017. The emphasis I was seeing from other reviews and the marketing of Truthwitch itself boasted female friendships as its main focus, bolstered by original world-building and a developed magic system about different kinds of witches. Unfortunately, reading the book led me to a crushing reality: over-hyped book was over-hyped and perhaps did not get better with age.

Book Review: Lakesedge

Title: Lakesedge
Author: Lyndall Clipstone
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Version: ebook – ARC
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Synopsis: GoodReads | StoryGraph
Notable Notables: Original fantasy world, a death god is here
Recommended Readers: Young adult readers who like emotional stories
CAWPILE Rating: 4.57
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

Violeta Graceling travels with her younger brother, Arien, to Lakesedge estate, expecting to be at the mercy of the Monster of Lakesedge. The lord of the estate, Rowan Sylvanan, is said to have drowned his parents and brother in the lake. However, once she arrives, neither lord nor lake are what they seem. She discovers that Rowan has a connection to the Lord Under, a sinister death god that makes bargains for a terrible price. She vows to save Rowan, the estate, and herself, all while discovering why she is also being drawn to the Lord Under.

I was so, so hopeful for Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone, a novel that promised to be about monsters and magic, told in a lush gothic style—but was it truly a gothic work in the end?

ARC Review: Iron Widow

Title: Iron Widow
Author: Xiran Jay Zhao
Genre: Young Adult/Sci-Fi
Version: ebook – ARC
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Penguin Teen
Synopsis: GoodReads | StoryGraph
Notable Notables: Based in Chinese culture with a Chinese-coded cast; inspired by China’s only female emperor; polyamorous relationship
Recommended Readers: Fans of mecha anime and revenge stories
CAWPILE Rating: 7.14
Rating: ★★★★☆

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao is a stand-out, explosive debut that is sure to capture the imaginations and whet the appetites of readers searching for female revenge stories. With sci-fi being a rarer sight in the YA genre, Iron Widow takes a bold approach with its mecha anime-inspired roots along with being steeped in Chinese history.

In Huxia, boys dream of becoming ace pilots of Chrysalises, which are giant, transforming robots powered by syncing up with female concubine-pilots. It doesn’t matter that the girls die of mental strain, only that the mecha aliens beyond the Great Wall are stopped. Wu Zetian volunteers as a concubine-pilot to assassinate the male pilot who killed her older sister, only to emerge from the cockpit unscathed and with her co-pilot dead after overcoming him through their psychic link. Instead of being his One True Match and Iron Princess, Zetian is an Iron Widow, a much-feared and often silenced female pilot who can sacrifice boys instead. To subdue her, she is paired with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial pilot in Huxia, but she is not interested in being cowed. Instead, she plots to use Shimin and their newfound notoriety to survive attempt after attempt against her life until she can discover why the pilot system works as it does and stop more girls from being sacrificed for male dominance.

Book Review: The Captive Prince Trilogy

This is going to be a somewhat different post from me because it’s a review of not one book but three: the entire Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pacat, comprising of Captive Prince, Prince’s Gambit, and Kings Rising. I consumed these books in a month after a Herculean effort of trying to pace myself, to absorb what I was reading instead of blazing through it in a “head empty, no thoughts” mindset. This has been the first trilogy I’ve read all the way through in quite some time, and I had nothing but a good time, a realization that thrilled me to no end.

For a few years, I’d been eyeing these books, staying away for a few reasons that all amounted to my own unfounded assumptions and others’ naysaying. These books were in the romance section, which means they likely weren’t well-written. They contained just sex covered by the thinnest veil of plot. They were hugely problematic in the way they glorify sexual slavery, rape, and other issues. The list goes on, but finally, I’d had enough of believing the fears. I picked up Captive Prince because current fiction and romance have been boring me to death lately, and before long I realized I was utterly—wait for it—captivated.

New Books I’m Hyped for: July – December 2021

Welcome back to another post where I highlight books I’m excited for in a truly excessive fashion. Will most of these books be featured on other people’s lists? Probably. Will that stop me? No. I like what I like, and the sounds of these are very pleasing. We have an East Asian YA fantasy that is a retelling of The Wild Swans; an adult fantasy novel where all the protagonists are renowned villains; a work set in Victorian London featuring an African tightrope dancer who cannot die; and much more!

I’m looking forward to seeing which of these will be my favorite book releases between July and December 2021, especially compared to which ones the book community at large will fawn over.

[slaps the roof of this post] This baby can fit so many books inside it, so let’s get started!

July

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
(July 6th)

Shiori, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.

Raikama has dark magic of her own, and she banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.

Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and, on her journey, uncovers a conspiracy to overtake the throne—a conspiracy more twisted and deceitful, more cunning and complex, than even Raikama’s betrayal. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to contain—no matter what it costs her.