whimsydearest

In  Tales of the Celestial Kingdom  by Sue Lynn Tan, we revisit the enchanting world and characters of  The Celestial Kingdom  duology through a new collection of short stories.  As a nice thematic touch, the book is divided into three parts: Dusk, Twilight, Dawn. The Dusk section serves as a prequel to the series and follows the legend of the sunbird from both Change'e and Houyi's perspectives. The Twilight section takes place during the events of  Daughter of the Moon Goddess  and  Heart of the Sun Warrior . Here we get a story about Wenzhi and Xingyin fighting a bone devil together, which I was happy to see since my one complaint about the first novel is that their relationship didn’t get enough screen time or development. Then Dawn serves almost as an extra epilogue to the series—allowing readers to further glimpse into the characters’ lives following the events of the sequel. Lastly, I want to mention that the book gorgeous illustrations on t...

Heart of the Sun Warrior  by Sue Lynn Tan is a difficult book for me to review since I absolutely adored the first book in the duology. I came into its sequel wanting to love it equally as much, but what I was met with instead was a frustrating read. I think my main issue is that the sequel feels more meandering and haphazardly strung together as if some of the sub plots detract from rather than support the main story. For instance, Xingyin continuously entrusts strangers with her life while, on the other hand, she’s still reeling from Wenzhi’s betrayal in the first book. This is inconsistent character writing to me. It doesn’t add up. I would presume that Xingyin would be more distrustful of others at this point and her poor decision-making feels more artificially set up to create unnecessary conflict than staying true to her character arc. However, the story does finally pull it together and redeem itself in the final third act, and, I’ve got to say, the ending is beautifully bit...

Long ago, the Celestial Emperor exiled Chang'e to the moon for drinking the Elixir of Immortality, so in order to free her mother, her daughter (Xingyin) embarks on a quest to infiltrate the Celestial Kingdom and gain the emperor’s favor. However, there she catches the eye of the crown prince and he selects her to become his tutoring companion. As love starts to blossom between the two of them, she finds herself torn between her feelings for him and the guilt of betraying her mother. Based on Chinese mythology, The Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan is an emotional and spellbinding tale about immortals, dragons, and the enduring bonds of love. First off, the romance is well set up and slowly unfolds. I didn't even mind that there is a love triangle in this one between Xingyin, the prince, and the captain because both sides of the relationship were allowed to develop and the drama it caused had actual plot significance. Overall, this is a sappy and melodramatic comfor...