Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - When the Moon Hatched

I enjoyed this book and found myself wanting to keep picking it up. The fantasy elements mythical creatures and world building were super interesting, and the angst built between Raeve and Kaan really had me excited, it’s very much slow burn though… I’m hoping that book one is a little spicy, and as they series progresses you get more and more spice along the way as the relationship develops.
This book was definitely only 🌶️🌶️ at most.

The glossary/guides were a nice feature to have, and allowed me to reference back when a character, or creature came into the story that I couldn’t remember, but the entire family tree and glossary contain spoilers for the characters and storyline that could have been removed and added to the glossary when the plot point features in the book.

Upon reflection, although I enjoyed this book, it seemed that not a lot happened plot wise. We spent a lot of our time learning about Raeve, her background and her obsession with Rekk Zharos but not much of the secret elements were shared by the author in this first book. I ended the read feeling a little bit frustrated that I didn’t have a big cliffhanger making me ITCHING for the next book. The book did end on what some would call a cliffhanger.. but not one that made me gasp in anticipation!
Will I read the next book, yes. But with an expected release date of August 2025, I’m not that disappointed that I have to wait.

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rachelbooks's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow. This book was stunning. The world was lush and interesting. The characters were unforgettable. Kaan and Raeve. <3 The writing was artistic and stuffed with imagery. Emotionally raw. I loved it!

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that_awkwardpart's review

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adventurous emotional funny

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Absolutely beautiful story. I'm in love with the world full of different people and living conditions. Such a unique magical system. And the dragons ♥️.
This was exactly what I needed. I got lost in the story and this beautiful world. I fell in love with these characters and my heart broke over and over .
I can't wait to see where the story will lead us . It's definitely a must read!

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crybabybea's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

This book is a great light entertainment romantasy in the same vein as ACOTAR or Fourth Wing. I, however, feel duped because it was being sold as a high fantasy with romance and incredible world-building. If you love love love fleshed out fantasy, political strife, and detailed magic systems, you probably will not like this book. It falls apart once you look at it too closely. Fun for what it is but I have to rate it low because it's not what I look for in a fantasy. If I were rating this just solely as a romantasy I still wouldn't rate it very high. I felt ACOTAR was even written better than this which is a very low bar.

I wrote a 3,000 word essay for how much this disappointed me, so here are the bullet points:

Shallow world-building. There are cool, unique things that happen but they serve no purpose for the world (such as the dragons turning into moons).
- World building is lazy and the author relies on you reading a 20 page glossary to understand rather than fleshing out the world herself
Dragons are part of the world but don't serve any purpose beyond transportation.
No political strife, except for the FMC telling you how awful the king in her region is, despite having a crazy cool premise with a dragon mythology-based elemental magic system whose users are denoted by their colorful beaded earrings.
Nothing happens in the plot except the very slow burn romance which doesn't pay off at the end
Magic doesn't really serve any purpose except to sound cool
The conlang is messy and doesn't work well
The writing itself is clunky, full of heavyhanded metaphors that don't land
- Writing repeats itself multiple times with the same cadence and word usage
Characters with no real personality beyond the tropes they represent, could be replaced with any other romantasy main characters and it would make no difference
Poor LGBTQIA+ representation (despite it being praised in multiple reviews)
Because of all these issues, the book is 250 pages longer than it needs to be.

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elntastic's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! I had no expectations, which I believe is always a good start, and was definitely not expecting such a good book. The story and world-building is truly amazing and original. I love how everything was explained thoroughly and that there were so many different unique creatures. Definitely nice to finally read something completely new. What made me read this so fast was mostly the urge to finally understand the full story behind Reave. Although most was explained there are still a lot of questions and I‘m really looking forward to finding their answers in the second book.

One thing I did not really enjoy (hence only 4.5 stars) were the sex scenes between the MC and FC. It was just too physical and there was no kissing or romance in it. Just wasn’t for me. But I do love the story between Kaan and Elluin and I hope that Raeve will go back to him.

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manaledi's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book really sucked me in for many hundreds of pages and I wish the next one was out already. A slow start and some very slow world building but the characters are strong and the tension is well done.

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loudmouthbooklover's review

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I didn’t enjoy the writing style. And she just kept describing everyone’s features way too in depth including hers. I’m not the biggest fan of present tense first person and to cap it she kept talking about Kaans smell, over and over and over and over again. I get it he smells good.
Plus I can’t stand insufferable characters and I found Raeve to be that. She had complex moments, but after getting saved by someone she just wants to slit his throat.
It felt very predictable as well, the banter felt recycled and I was like I already know this is heading to yall wanting to sleep together. I get it but you wanna kill the dude.

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wannabe_lee's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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