Book Review :: When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker

When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker
ISBN: 006341581X
Series: Moonfall #1
Published by Harper Voyager
on 13 January 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Goodreads

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 an assassin for the rebellion group Fíur du Ath, Raeve’s job is to complete orders and never get caught. When a rival bounty hunter turns her world upside down, blood spills, hearts break, and Raeve finds herself imprisoned by the Guild of Nobles—a group of powerful fae who turn her into a political statement.

Crushed by the loss of his great love, Kaan Vaegor took the head of a king and donned his melted crown. Now on a tireless quest to quell the never-ebbing ache in his chest, a clue lures him into the capitol’s high-security prison where he stumbles upon the imprisoned Raeve …

Echoes of the past race between them. There’s more to their story than meets the eye, but some truths are too poisonous to swallow.

Last updated on 3 October 2024

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What is When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker about?

When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker is about a world turned upside down when the dragons – once thought to rest in peace beyond the sky – start falling back to earth. It’s chaos, and at the centre of it all is Raeve, an assassin for the rebellion group Fíur du Ath. Her job is to stay under the radar, but when a rival bounty hunter crashes into her life, everything spirals—leading to her capture by the powerful fae Guild of Nobles, who turn her into their political pawn.

Meanwhile, Kaan Vaegor, grieving the loss of his great love, has taken a king’s life and claimed his crown. His search for peace pulls him into a high-security prison where he discovers Raeve, and their pasts start to collide in ways they never expected.

Their connection runs deeper than they realise, and as the truth unravels, some secrets may be too dangerous to face. Dun dun dun *que dramatic music*

“Sadness is like stones that stack inside you, making it harder to move. Ignorance is my self-preservation tonic, and I’ll swear by it until I die.”

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My thoughts on When the Moon Hatched

When I first finished When the Moon Hatched I gave it a 5-star rating immediately. But as I’ve been writing this review (or trying to!), I’ve bumped it down a rating.

I did really enjoy it! Don’t get me wrong, but I’ll unpack a few things that I didn’t like about it and what brought it down a star for me in a moment (feel free to jump there if you want).

“Chase death, Moonbeam. And I pray your bloodlust brings you the same sense of peace I feel just knowing you exist.”

Things I liked about the book

At the beginning of the book, there is a (drum roll please) glossary! When I’m reading a physical book, especially fantasy, I always look for extra pages like glossaries, indexes, pronunciation guides and maps before I start reading. Most of the time they’re at the back.

When it comes to digital copies of books, then it’s harder to flip to the back to see if there’s a glossary – not impossible, I know, but it’s not something I’m in the habit of doing simply because of the nature of the ebook.

Having the glossary right at the beginning, knowing it was there, was super helpful. A little overwhelming at first, yes, but a great way to get you ready for the 700-ish page fantasy you were about to dive into.

There’s also a family tree at the back of the book … but maybe don’t look at it, for spoilers. 😉

I also enjoyed the characters. Raeve is a loner, she’s moody and witty and sassy, but she’s pretty bad-ass. A lot of main characters annoy me in stories, but I found myself quite liking her. And Kaan is broody, and patient, and grieving … which tells you pretty much all you need to know. Their slow-burn romance didn’t take up the entire book, which was good (while I’m all for romance in fantasy, for sure, sometimes you lose the story in the romance … I think this had a good balance).

The magic system! I remember absolutely loving Tamora Pearce’s Circle of Magic series, which may seem weird to bring up here but bear with me for a moment. I think that series was the first I read when I was young where the different characters had different magical abilities. Someone could control the weather, someone could control plants … So when I read stories where there are different elements in the mix, or characters have control over some things and not the other … it’s both nostalgic and exciting.

While there were things about the magic in this book that I didn’t love (the singing to various gods of that element thing was odd – I get it, but it was odd), overall I had a great time in the depths of the magic in When the Moon Hatched.

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Things I didn’t love about the book

The prose. You’ll notice if you read multiple reviews of When the Moon Hatched that this comes up a fair bit. While some part of the prose were really beautiful, others were definitely overwritten. There was a whole section on Raeve crying that was unnecessary – yes it was poetic and what-have-you but it was like ‘she’s crying, we get it, move on’. The book would have been a lot shorter if the writing had been cut down a bit.

The other thing I wasn’t a fan of was the diary entries throughout the story. They’re popped in there for this mystery, this backstory we don’t really know about … but I definitely found them to be interrupting and often found myself skimming through them. While it all came together at the end, these entries throughout were distracting for me. And I’m not a big fan of diary entries or letters in stories anyway. But that’s my personal preference.

This review from Emms on Goodreads says “I liked the story, but not the book” – and I thought that was an interesting take. I think I tend to agree. I had a great time ready the story, learning about the world and the magic system, and seeing that romance over the course of the book grow … but the book was annoying. The writing, the diary entries, the sheer length of it when it didn’t need to be that long, the confusing The Other chapter (IYKYK) …

Also, dragons should have featured more. Just saying.

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So as I wrote this review, hopefully, you can see that I dropped it a star. Having said all of that, overall, I genuinely liked this novel and will be picking up the next one, The Ballard of Falling Dragons when it’s released.

I wanna know! Have you read When the Moon Hatched? What did you think?