“The light of the moon was full and bright. On a night as this, my heart was content, awaiting the promise of tomorrow.”

daughter of the moon goddess was a solid debut ya fantasy novel with everything expected of lush magical world-building, enticing lore, political intrigue, and a varying cast of characters that all partake in impacting our main's development, xingyin. the beginning of the xingyin's story definitely pulled me in as she recited the tale of her mother, chang'e, yet readers find out more depth to it with her mother being wrongfully eternally imprisoned by the celestial emperor and empress and having to hide xingyin's existence. as daughter of the moon goddess and a legend mortal warrior who slayed relatives of the celestial empress, who of course holds a grudge and her mother taking the elixir to save herself and xingyin's lives. so as it reaches a point where more suspicion is upon chang'e, so we follow xingyin's journey outside the moon into the celestial world where she hides her true identity and heritage. and by luck, she's discovered by prince liwei son of the emperor and empress. then on we see her form friendships, chase her ambitions within the celestial capital palace with long-term plans to free her mother and be able to go home, and unexpectedly form romantic bonds that in my personal preference i felt had a bit too much focus on at times especially with xingyin's inconsistent feelings and indecision. that being said there were some tropes i felt indifferent to and overdone at times, but that could be due how i didn't really feel its impact as they occurred. but nevertheless, if you're looking for a stunningly written world to escape to and follow adventures and a quick easy read, i would definitely recommend picking up lynn tan's debut. i'm definitely interested in perhaps picking up the sequel and finale to see where xingyin's adventures and heart take her.

Thank you to Harper Voyager for providing an e-arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.