Daughter of the Moon Goddess will sweep you off your feet into a land of magic and delight.
—Amanda Khong, Bookish Brews
Bookish Brews Snapshot
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
Xingyin has spent her life growing up in solitude with her mother, unaware she is being hidden from the powerful Celestial Emperor, but when her magic flares and she is discovered and must flee fro her home and leave her mother behind.
✒️ Debut Author 🐉 Dragons 🎶 Lyrical Prose 💞 Young Love
- Genre: Fantasy, Retelling, Young Adult
Book Review
Beautiful, stunning, lyrical, magical, sweet, action-packed, vivid, captivating
Daughter of the Moon Goddess has one of the most stunning book covers that I’ve seen in a long time. Once the cover was released, I knew that I had to read this book. If the prose and story were anything like the beauty of the cover, I knew it would be worth it, and it did not disappoint at all. This beautiful story magically draws us into the Celestial Kingdom and the vivid world of Chinese immortals. An absolute delight for anyone who loves fantasy, fairy tales, and beautiful prose.
After living her whole life unknowingly in hiding from the Celestial Empire, Xingyin’s magic flares and he discovers where she is hiding. In order to stay safe, Xingyin must flee from the moon, leaving her mother, Chang’e, behind. Untrained and alone she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom while hiding her identity and begins a quest to save her mother from the most powerful immortal in the realm.
I found myself wrapped up in the Celestial Kingdom but yearning for her to save her mother along with Xingyin. To me, this story shines so bright in the balance of emotions of Xingyin wanting to save her mom and living in the kingdom that tore them apart. How do you live in a country that is responsible for tearing you away from your mother? How do you deal with yourself when this country becomes important to you? When we live somewhere, that place slowly becomes part of your home. But how do you balance the deep desire to stay true to your family while knowing that your home and the people that you are close to are the very thing that tore you apart? This book doesn’t answer these questions, as there is no right or wrong answer to any of them, but it does really spotlight the complexities of that situation.
The beautiful writing of Daughter of the Moon Goddess whisks you away into the land of magic and wonder. The writing is as luscious and as vivid as the magic and it is purely stunning. It helps ease us into the complicated situation that Xingyin finds herself in by flowing from one conflicting feeling to the next. Figuring out what is the right thing to do is more complicated than we ever know and this gorgeous story uses the writing to pull you from one side to the other trying to decide with character. The ebb and flow of the prose is a constant reminder of each side of the internal conflict, and that reminder is showing us that there is no one single way to bring honor to your family.
Sue Lynn Tan does a beautiful job giving us the simplicity of life alongside epic stories. We get the delight of living in the palace, caring for the prince, and falling in love. But we also get the big, epic, magical tale of retrieving pearls from a dragon. The balance and seamlessness between the simple beauty of life and the epic adventures is a wonderful reminder that even the simple things in life are grand as long as they are lived.
Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a dazzling debut by Sue Lynn Tan. It is magic wrapped up in love and delivered with beauty. The story is so thoughtful and exciting it is nearly impossible to put down. This story will captivate you and the prose will whisk you away into a land of magic and beauty.
