Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor's son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.
To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.
For the first half or so of this book I kept thinking of Zoe Marriott's Shadows on the Moon (a compliment, I promise - Shadows is my favourite Zoe book and one of my favourite books overall.) It's not just the obvious, Asian-inspired-fairytale flavour, though, it's the tone, the language used and the things the character goes through. Around about half way through, though, those comparisons dropped away as this book became very much its own creature. Still just as good as Shadows but not quite so familiar any more.
I love that, although this is the first of two, there's no cliffhanger here. It would have been easy to stop at (spoiler) the point where Xingyin is heading back to face the Emperor, which would have made a brillant cliffhanger and I'm so glad Sue didn't go for it. There are some threads continuing through, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they're tied up, but I didn't want to throw the book across the room in frustration, which is always nice!
This is a great read for anyone looking for a new fantasy read (or for a beautiful cover to look good on your shelf!)
Daughter of the Moon Goddess publishes on the 11th of January, 2022 in the US (top image) and on the 20th of January, 2022 in the UK (lower image). I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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