"Daughter of the Moon Goddess" by Sue Lynn Tan

This is officially my first review of 2022. Before I dive into the story, please take a moment to appreciate the cover of this book. I must say the cover as well as the title were the first two things that drew me to this book. 

The story is inspired by the Chinese mythology in which a young girl has to overcome multiple obstacles and face numerous challenges in order to free her mother, the Moon Goddess, who is imprisoned on the moon. Even though this book is over 500 pages long, I find that I don't have much to say. Even though individual quests Xingyin goes on were interesting and at times action packed, I did not feel vested in the story. The love triangle became annoying pretty quickly and I also found that none of the other characters were well fleshed out. Maybe if the book followed multiple POVs, the story would have more depth. 

I did like the twist that occurred towards the last one third of the book. However, even there I felt the author missed some opportunities to give us a better idea of the world and magic, and also show Xingyin's character a bit more. She is an immortal warrior who's lived at the Celestial court for many years and understood at least some things about politics and ruthlessness of rulers. Yet, here, when betrayed by someone close to her, she acts quite childish and also at one time, I frankly had to suspend my disbelief when she was able to harvest poisonous flowers while being escorted through the garden by several guards. 

Overall, this book definitely feels and reads like a debut novel. I did think it was too long and even though I enjoyed individual quests, I kept wanting more in terms of character development and world building. 3 out of 5 stars. This is supposed to be a duology, but I am not sure if I will be picking up the sequel.

An e-ARC was provided by NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.