Hello and welcome to my stop on Daughter of the Moon Goddess Blog Tour!
I am always excited to join #Coloredpages for a book tour. By now you know how much I love Asian inspired books, art and dramas. This book definitely took me into some of the Wuxia that I have watched recently. The writing is just so beautiful and captivating that it immediately draws you in. The characters are so well written and the landscape is so vivid.
Title: Daughter of the Moon Goddess
Author: Sue Lyn Tan
Publication date: 20th January 2022
Publisher: Harper Voyager UK
Genres: YA Fantasy
Synopsis
A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.
Purchase Link: Amazon | Blackwells |Book Depository
Review
Boy oh boy did I enjoy this. I cannot believe that I finished this book in one night. Personally, I think the reason I enjoyed this book so much was because I visualized (mind-eye) the characters of this book as the cast of Chinese Drama Love and Redemption. You cannot convince me that Prince Liwei is not Cheng Yi who plays Si Feng in Love and Redemption!
Read this book and tell me you don’t see Prince Liwei as Cheng Yi, I dare you!
We follow Xingyin who lives with her mother on the Moon (her mother is the Moon Goddess). As Xingyin powers grow, she learns the truth about her mother and her banishment to the moon. More importantly, the fact that Xingyin was a hidden child that no one except her mother’s trusted servants knew about. With a new threat hanging over their heads, Xingyin is forced to leave her mother behind and go down to the Celestial Kingdom.
In a foreign place riffled with secrets and political strife, she finds a job as a servant which is when she meets Prince Liwei, the son of the Celestial Emperor. He helps her win a place at his side, mastering martial arts, archery and magic. As the daughter of the man that slew the sun who was praised for his archery skills, she picks it up very quickly and soon she rises up the ranks of the military. Just when she begins to believe that she can save and her mother and still get the man that she is in love with, she finds out that her friend is a traitor and that Prince Liwei is to be wed to another. Her dreams of saving her mother now lies with the dragons and one thing was for sure, no one wakes the dragons without getting burnt!!!!!!!
When it comes to how I visualized this book – check out my post on Instagram @jungian.reader. The characters were so well thought out and it definitely inspiring me to watch a lot more Chinese drama that are based on the Moon Goddess mythology.
Book Recommendation based on this book
YA selections
Shadow & Bone Trilogy
A series that is very easy to get into with a world you quickly grow to love and characters that are just so infuriating that you cannot help but love and hate them at the same time.
Cinderella is Dead
A Cinderella fairy tale with well written characters that are easy to love and follow through the book.
Legendborn
I am so excited for the next book and cannot wait to see how these characters come back together. Strong and determined female characters and friendships.
Adult Selections
Jade City
This is a beautiful story of family, power and responsibility with a dash of smut! The battle scenes are so well written and it pulls you into the story, embodying the characters!
The Poppy War
If loved this book because of its beautiful description of landscapes and battle, it definitely teleported me into the characters and heightened my feelings for every character.
Strange Beasts of China
I appreciated the themes on influence, death, moral dilemmas, perceptions of fate, and most importantly human relationship with the supernatural or unnatural.
Rating
I gave this book 4.2 out of 5 stars
Author Information
Sue Lynn Tan writes fantasy inspired by the myths and legends she fell in love with as a child. Born in Malaysia, she studied in London and France, before settling in Hong Kong with her family.
Her love for stories began with a gift from her father, her first compilation of fairy tales from around the world. After devouring every fable she could find in the library, she discovered fantasy books – spending much of her childhood lost in magical worlds. When not writing or reading, she enjoys exploring the hills and reservoirs of Hong Kong, the temples, beaches, and narrow winding streets here.
Her debut, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, will be published by Harper Voyager in early 2022, with a sequel to come. It is an enchanting fantasy of love and family, immortals and magic – inspired by the beloved Chinese legend of Chang’e flying to the moon upon taking the elixir of immortality.
Thanks for reading