When The Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker | Book Review

Synopsis

The Creators did not expect their beloved dragons to sail skyward upon their end. To curl into balls just beyond gravity’s grip, littering the sky with tombstones. With moons.

They certainly did not expect them to fall.

As a valued Elding Blade of the rebellion group Fíur du Ath, Raeve’s job is to kill. To complete orders and never get caught. When a renowned bounty hunter is employed by The Crown to capture a member of the Ath, Raeve’s world is turned upside down. Blood spills, hearts break, and Raeve finds herself at the mercy of the Guild of Nobles—a group of dual-beaded elementals who intend to turn her into a political statement. Only death will set her free.

Crushed beneath a mourning weight, Kaan Vaegor took the head of a king and donned his melted crown. Now on a tireless quest to assuage the never-ebbing ache in his chest, his hunt for a moonshard lures him into the belly of Gore’s notorious prison where he stumbles upon something that rips apart his perception of reality. A shackled miracle with eyes full of rage and blood on her hands.

The echo of the past sings louder than the Creators themselves, and even Raeve can’t ignore the truths blaring at her from a warmer, happier time.
However.
There’s more to this song than meets the eye, and some truths …
They’re too poisonous to swallow.

When the Moon Hatched is a fast-paced fantasy romance for fans of witty banter and strong, sassy protagonists. Beneath the cover is an immersive, vibrant world with mysterious creatures, a unique magic system, and a love that blazes through the ages.

My Review

SPOILERS AHEAD.

I’ve been trying to get through this book for about 2 months now, and now that I’ve finally finished I can confidently say that it is not worth the hype. 1/3 or more of the book didn’t even need to be there and doesn’t really make sense to the story. Like, I see the vision the author wanted this story to go in, and I thought the writing was beautiful but it was just so poorly thought out and executed. Most of the chapters of Kaan’s sister didn’t need to be in the book at all. They contributed NOTHING to the plot, no relevance whatsoever. I feel like her chapters were just fillers to make the book unnecessarily longer than it had to be. I’m not sure why the author felt the need to add her POV at all. She’s not a main character and had nothing of value to contribute to the story that we needed her POV.

And also, Raeve getting taken by a tribe and forced into some kind of mating trial because she’s been prophesied to be the one to stop all the moons from falling from the sky, we get absolutely NO answers as to why that is, or why some sacred dragon chose her. It’s NEVER brought up again after the fact which has left me scratching my head and thinking it didn’t even need to be in the book at all.

And then there’s the fact that Raeve is bound by runes and is essentially a slave to some kind of vigilante group – what happened to that? Did they just assume that she was dead after she got captured and throw away her the rune that binds her? That’s kind of just forgotten about after she is taken from prison.

While reading this I just felt like the plot kept bouncing from one thing to another, never quite making it full circle, never being fully explained, never really fully making sense to the point it felt like I was dreaming the whole time I was reading this. I don’t even have hope that most of these things will be explained in the sequel, as there was no real hint that any of this would be explained later on.

There were also inconsistencies, such as Raeve having no issues with butchering a dude to pieces in the beginning of the book, and then unable to stomach an animal sacrifice being made at her mating trial. And the guy who she passed at the very beginning of the book who was watching her, I don’t think it was ever confirmed or made clear of that was Kaan or not. Was he Kaan? Who knows! Just some mysterious fellow watching her that seemed like maybe he might be significant at some point? I can only assume it was Kaan but I really don’t know for sure, unless I missed something.

And then there’s this whole thing with her being so ridiculously, unbearably stubborn about her emotions and feelings – like she’s terrified to unpack anything, yet, she’s also curious about her past that she gives into these impulses to uncover it. Like, girl, pick a lane. I just hate when female protagonists are written to be flaky and annoying like this. If you’re emotionally jaded and can’t face your emotions and past, then at least be consistent with that. But what’s annoying is the author allows Raeve as a character to open up by following this curiosity of her forgotten past, and normally doing this would cause a character to slowly let down their walls and we’d see some actual character development and progression in healing taking place as this is happening, but nope. That is not what happens. Raeve is constantly ping ponging between being this emotionally constipated character, yet, for some reason, follows her curiosity to uncover parts of her past that jades her, then goes right back to being emotionally constipated whenever it comes up in conversation. The author just won’t let her organically develop as a character, so what is even the point of having her past revealed to her if she’s going to explore it and then immediately ping pong back to being her emotionally constipated self? There’s absolutely no point if no character development is going to happen.

And another spoiler, we DON’T find out how Raeve/Elluin even dies and forgets everything, or who brings her back to life, unless that was revealed at the beginning of the book with her vigilante captor, but that doesn’t even explain how she even got there in the first place from where she was before. It all just doesn’t make much sense and I’m genuinely just tired of trying to figure out all the plot holes in this book and make sense of them.

Anyways. There were so many plot holes in this book, it is truly bizarre to me that the majority of readers seem to have loved this book and just waved off the plethora of plot holes that litter this book. There are parts of the book that are enjoyable to read, but it was just so poorly executed and so much doesn’t come full circle to make any sense to how it contributed to the plot at all. The only character I consistently liked was Kaan. He’s top tier book boyfriend material. I just hate the main character and how the author executed this book. It had so much potential to be an incredible story, but it fell flat imo because the plot was absolutely everywhere and the character development for Raeve was atrocious. It was just so poorly done. I won’t be reading the sequel, to say the least.

The Cozy Cat Rating: ★★.5