“The world began with five.”
Sarah A. Parker, When the Moon Hatched, First Line
Lets Talk Data
I always like to start out these reviews with a bit of data, because in my heart, I love a good bit of categorization and that involves knowing the data.
- Author: Sarah A. Parker
- Genre: Romantasy, Dragons, Magic
- Spice: Yes.
- Trigger Warnings: Listed at the back of the book
- Pages: 690
- Published: 11/24/2024
- Series: Moonfall #1
- Goodreads Rating: 4.02
- StoryGraph Rating: 3.68
What I Liked
This book has a lot of world to it and the beginning of the book provides you with a glossary, pronunciation guide and gives you the lore of the beginning of this world. This is something that I love to see in Fantasy books, especially when the world is as large as this one. I did not look at it very closely when I began the book, which did make the world more confusing for me as a reader. I struggled to wrap my head around the ages and day cycle, even though that information was provided to me from the beginning. I do not fault the author for this (which is why this isn’t in the don’t like section) because I feel like it was more of a failing on myself as a reader.
The way that Sarah A. Parker writes and the language she chooses for descriptions of everything from facial movements to emotional states, is enchanting. The descriptions of the people are especially fantastic. I can see each person so vividly that it feels like I have met them in real life. These are real people, but they aren’t. That being said, sometimes I struggled with these descriptions. There was so much there to take in, that it almost felt like information overload.
Survival is funny. Some wear it like a whisper, others like a scream. Mine’s a scorched skeleton of flame-forged rage that keeps me upright. Keeps me moving forward.
The last thing I wanted to mention were the presence of the diary entries and the, what I’ll call, inserts. The diary entries were something that I didn’t quite understand the purpose of, but honestly still enjoyed. The further you get into the novel the more you understand their purpose and the more you get invested in the story told through these pages. These entries help to enhance the novel and really allow you to feel part of the world. The inserts I mentioned are images of notes and signs. Something like that is always nice to see and brings me joy as a reader.
What I Didn’t Like
Let’s just get this out of the way right now. Where are my dragons I was promised? I feel like, when a book is advertised to me as having dragons, I expect a bit more than what I got here. It felt a bit more like “a world where dragons exist” and less like “a world where dragons are at the forefront and fundamentally important”. That’s not to say the dragons are not considered important in this world, because they are, but the writing did not make me feel like that through the dragons themselves. They felt a lot like side-characters whose names you’ll forget in a few chapters. I want more and I hope with the coming book(s) that we get some more.
My other issue is more of a love-hate thing than a total dislike. This book is huge. It packs in so much information and I know I’m not going to remember half of it once the next book comes out. There were times where I would look ahead in the book to make sure it was still worth me reading. I was enjoying the story but there were times when I needed to know that something interesting has come along. That could be a me issue and honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case. I did end up ruining the ending of the story for myself doing this and so the twist fell a bit flat. I want to read the next book but I don’t feel a hunger for it. As it currently stands, I’m not mad at having to wait because reading a large book like that is draining. At least for me.
Final Thoughts and Rating
This book took me almost the entire month of March to read. I am a relatively slow reader in that I only read a little bit every so often, so this book was a lot for me but I wanted to take on the challenge of a larger book (and also my TBR tin picked it). I enjoyed the writing and the characters but at times felt like the world was too big and there was too much information being thrown at me. I’m interested in what happens to the rest of the story but I’m glad to have a break. I feel like, if I just instantly went into the second book I would potentially burn out and I don’t want that. Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable read and I’ll definitely continue with the series when it comes out. I give this book a 4 out of 5!
That’s it for the review today! If you have any thoughts or comments or anything you’d like say to me at all, please leave a comment down below. As always, you are not required to. I think that this book is worth the time it takes to read and I hope the other books are also worth it when they come out but with the way that Sarah A. Parker writes, I’m not too worried. Just, please, more dragons next time.
Reading with teafortiffany 
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