Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Heart of the Sun Warrior

I love this duology so much! It’s just so lovely, and Natalie Naudus’s narration is perfect for it! I have loved listening to these books and being swept away to the Celestial Kingdom.

Without any spoilers, Heart of the Sun Warrior has the same charm as Daughter of the Moon Goddess. We see Xingyin continue to grow as a person and I love her character so much. She’s so easy to relate to and root for. We get to see Xingyin start to figure and decide what and who she wants in her life. I really liked the message that just because you love someone, doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice your every happiness for them. The ending turned out even better than what I had hoped for! Highly recommend this duology for lovers of mythology, legends and epic fantasy worlds!

CWs: Death, grief, war, violence, child death, blood, murder, fire/fire injury, injury/injury detail, death of parent, alcohol consumption (wine).

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clairew97's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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navayiota's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad 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

Somehow even better than the first. So worth the wait. I think this might be the first book to have ever made me romantically interested in a character. Wenzhi stole my heart and it was so unexpected, cause Liwei was and is still my favourite character. I think that it was all executed perfectly. Tan managed to capture the experience of being in love with two people which is usually too difficult to verbalise in an informal setting, nevermind in a book with such wonderful writing. Reading it was a healing experience. I never forgot about the first book and I will never forget about this one either. I don't do re-reads often but I might do it for this series.

How I wish there was a third book, so we could watch them fall in love again. I wanted more time with Liwei, he was such a pure soul in that way that only fictional people can be. I felt heartbroken for him when Xingyin picked Wenzhi, but it was also healing for me. Seeing someone do everything right, be the best version of themselves and still be rejected because the person they love does not love them back.. Xingyin not wanting him back does not make him any less valuable as a person. It doesn't blow out the light in his soul. He continues to exist. He is her friend. It gives one hope after heartbreak.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

HEART OF THE SUN WARRIOR picks up a little after DAUGTHER OF THE MOON GODDESS. Xingyin is back on the moon with her mother, but now neither of them is bound to stay. Xingyin is still the narrator, and her presentation is consistent with the first book. This wraps up the relationship triangle established in the first book between Xingyin, Liwei, and Wenzhi. It also establishes and resolves a new storyline, related to Xingin's mother and her parents' past. As the final book of the duology, it's self-contained enough for the main narrative to make sense if someone didn't read the first book, but the friendships, allies, and enemies who drive the story were almost all established earlier. It's very good at recapping when necessary in a way that feels very natural, but it'll definitely be more resonant to someone trying to remember what happened earlier, not someone who didn't read the first book at all.

The worldbuilding leans on things set up in the first book, expanding on a couple of new areas and spending much more on the moon and Xingyin's parents. Her mother is finally free to leave the moon and this makes way for opportunities long denied to her. It is immersive without getting bogged down in descriptions of each place. They have a distinctive character conveyed through Xingyin's reactions and worries, as well as the people in the various areas. It's not as travel-heavy as the first book, with a much more straightforward quest in a shorter timespan. The elixir of immortality is in play once again, and the quest, in this case, is to flee and not die from the king's wrath, while hopefully figuring out how to stop a plot against Xingyin's mother.

Xingyin is still torn between Liwei and Wenzhi, with both men making their interest clear but not pressuring her. Her complicated feelings are driven by events in the first book, and she's trying to sort out her thoughts and desires. They represent two different kinds of lives in addition to being different people, and she's strongly bonded to them. I like this better than a lot of love triangles, but I must admit that a part of me wishes this resolved like IRON WIDOW by Xiran Jay Zhao. It doesn't because Liwei and Wenzhi are not at all interested in each other, and so it remains a choice between people on Xingyin's part. Ultimately I like how it ends, I think it fits the characters and the narrative. Because they are immortal unless actively killed, this is very early in Xingyin's presumably long existence to come, and the ending is very aware of that. It helps to solidify the sense that this is one particularly important and eventful chapter in her life, but that this isn't the end by any stretch.

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fifteenthjessica's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Fist of all, Sue Lynn Tan's prose is gorgeous! Descriptions of the opulence of the immortals are a delight, and I wish I used sticky notes to mark my favorite descriptions so I can draw them later. Action features a solid balance of memorable spectacle and realism that keeps it grounded and weighty while still heavily featuring magic.

I didn't like the plot as much as I liked the first one though. The love triangle (the one weak part in the first book because Xingyin's feelings for Wenzhi never held a candle to her feelings for Liwei) is overall stronger and more prominent, but also gets old eventually. Towards the end of the book, when Xingyin pondered her feelings for the male leads, my eyes would glaze over. The resolution makes sense and fits with the themes of the novel, but it was drawn out by Xingyin's stubbornness.

And I feel bad for Liwei who feels very much like he was strung along for a book and a half. In spite of these complaints, I would buy a low stakes sequel about Wenzhi and Xingyin's new relationship (or anything by Tan) in a heartbeat.

There were also some loose ends that left me feeling unsatsifed. The two sisters from the Golden Desert that stay on the moon in the beginning are probably a sequel hook, but the lack of confirmation about what happened to

the dead in Wugang's army in the end was disappointing. Especially after it was heavily implied that poor Yanming was added to the army. Also, the resurrection of Houyi felt too easy, and characters from that subplot like Tao and Zhiyi feel more like plot devices then characters, which is a pity, because this adds a lot of much needed depth to Wenzhi and the Celestial Empress that makes you really understand their more antagonistic decisions in the last book.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Thanks to Harper Voyager for the free advance copy of this book.

- It's hard to review the second book in a duology, so let me just say if you haven't read the first book, DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS, yet, go get it now! These books are so beautiful and engrossing. Despite their length, you will fly through them.
- HEART OF THE SUN WARRIOR is chock full of action, but the emotional relationships also shine. Both family and romantic relationships are given care and weight.
- I won't give anything away, but know that this is a satisfying conclusion to an incredible duology.

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leahharlann's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

This reviewer received a digital ARC from Netgalley.

I loved the first book (Daughter of the Moon Goddess) and was thrilled to be able to read Heart of the Sun Warrior before official release! The sequel has just as many fantastical adventures as the first, with Xingyin traveling across the immortal realm to stop a new evil that threatens her loved ones. As someone who's enjoyed a few Chinese wuxia and xianxia dramas in my day, this story sits with the best of them. There's interpersonal drama, a despicable villain with a power that threatens even immortals, choosing between duty and love, making the honorable choices, and the raw honesty of the toll being a hero can take.

The early events of the book that set up the eventual plot that drives the majority of the book felt a little disjointed in pacing, but as someone who enjoys CDramas it fell within the kind of storytelling I've seen before so it didn't feel that out of place to me. Tan continually references and connects back to the first book, weaving the two together to make it feel like one long and continuous story where the characters grow even further.

Regarding the romance: I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed with the love triangle in DotMG. It felt like Wenzhi was introduced just as a tool to hurt Xingyin before being discarded, with Liwei as the de facto endgame despite the glaring issues.

So when Tan brought back Wenzhi with INCREDIBLE character growth and put him on even footing with Liwei for real this time, I was thrilled. I cried when he died. I cried when his rebirth was revealed. I cried a lot. His redemption arc is right up there with Prince Zuko from ATLA for me.

Tan did an excellent job presenting doubts and conflicts to Xingyin's relationships; not just trials to overcome, but very real differences in values and responsibilities that make you question if love really is enough to overcome everything. I normally dislike love triangles, but I give HotSW the award of 'Only Love Triangle I Will Ever Recommend' even though it generally ran alongside the main plot instead of being part of it.

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