Reviews with content warning for Blood - When the Moon Hatched

I think this book is way overhyped. It’s hard to even get into it, and after finishing it, it feels like the first quarter or so was completely wasted and unnecessary, because the things that happen happen, and don’t really matter ever again. It feels completely forced. But I kept pushing through, because I saw potential in the story. But that’s all it was. Potential. Everything in this book feels forced and throughout the whole thing I constantly felt like I was the only one left out on an inside joke, and like I was constantly missing important things (that didn’t actually happen). The fmc keeps making stupid decisions that are never explained and feel so random it actually gave me a migraine sometimes and the whole (SPOILER) memory loss trope feels completely forced and unnatural. I also never got around to not finding the supposed love story between Kaan and Elluin/Raeve totally toxic and desperate. To me it doesn’t in the least feel like they were made for each other. (SPOILER END)
So generally would not recommend. It is also extremely hard to get into to the book at all and not just because it’s not a necessary plot line, but because of the world building. That’s usually not even a bad thing, but again so forced… uh 🙄 even after reading the glossary at least eight times I still had unexplained questions to EVERYTHING….
Okay gonna quit raging but I could go on… in my opinion just not worth 550 pages…

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vic_to_ria's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.75

I liked it.
It was good.
Not great but I think it’s just my preferences that make me not love this book as much as other people will and have.

The world building was interesting and the magic system was so fascinating !! That’s honestly my favourite part of this whole thing- ALSO THERE ARE DIFFERENT TYPES OF DRAGONS AND THE LORE IS JUST *CHEFS KISS*

If this is someone’s intro to Romantasy or you’re just reading for vibes this book is for you as it has all the fantasy/romance trope energy.

But this brings me to what I had problems with
1. Our main girl is like locked up for 70% of this book so she can’t use the really cool magic they spent forever setting up- which is not a spoilers as it’s in the summary???
Which brings me to
2. I felt like the summary ruined the book for me cause it basically sums up the first 20 chapters. And that’s a lot to read knowing this one thing will happen and it taking so long.

3. I guessed the plot twists way too early so I was just waiting for them to be revealed and how it would alter the characters dynamics…… but it didn’t really??? So I was disappointed.

4. Another thing I didn’t love was that 95% of this book is in first person which isn’t necessarily my favourite writing style as it can get pretty repetitive and in this case (to me) boring if the character refuses to grow as a character for whatever reason. I found the main characters pov at times so boring as it was just a repeating the same characteristics and actions over and over that I was skimming until something interesting happened. I was craving for a different POV after 11 chapters in and already gotten too use to the main pov. The POV does change but not so much until the last 20% of the book.

5. Just structural changes could have been made to enhance the experience. In my opinion this book could have been so much shorter, and it could be just because it’s from first person pov so every little thing needs to be described but at times it feels like it just never ends with the repetitive monologing we have heard since chp.1. I also feel like the POVs should have been split up better- going 20+ chapters with the one same character is so tiring when I know someone more interesting is there with them. Also there is a mention of one character in the beginning chapters and then they are never mentioned again until the last couple chapters but I feel like having this other character pop in throughout would have established our main character better and the journey they needed to go on a bit better (IYK YK)

Overall it wasn’t bad by any means, good in so many ways, it was just a long journey (while fun it was long ok) that has a good cliffhanger for the next one so be warned it is a series.

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rachel_jones03's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This was a very long and somewhat complex book. It required a lot of concentration for me to follow who was what and what was the relationship between everyone, past and present. But I think that it must’ve been necessary, given it was the first book in a new series, and characters and backstories have to be established. In that, the author was successful, and I’m looking forward to the second book, wherever it comes out.

I’ve found fantasy books involving fairies are usually pretty raunchy (why are fae so horny? 😂). There were only a couple of sex scenes, and they were as explicit as expected.

Our protagonist is strong and fearsome, though I think her undoing will be her hardened heart. I hope she and Kaan make it in the end.

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