When the Moon Hatched

Tall, musclebound man with “tawny” skin, dark eyes, and is covered in scars. Oh, and he has a huge, nay, absolutely massive pe——rsonality. Paired with a pale, very, very small (so tiny, so itsy bitsy), badass/snarky woman with unnaturally pretty eyes (and/or unique hair). And what do you get? A modern romantasy novel. Woo! Yay...

The only reason I even finished this book is for the worldbuilding.Which is amazing! A tidally-locked world, unique time cycle involving auroras, the dragons and most of the other little creatures. I loved the descriptors of the locales, the idea of the unique languages (for the most part), etc. I could nitpick a few things I didn't like, but they're so minor and I'm so happy to see a romantasy with actual worldbuilding that I'll let it slide (the bar is in hell).

I didn't like some of the linguistic choices. The usage of male/female made me cringe every time. But it's expected at this point, so whatever. Some words were just minor changes from normal words (dae - day, mahmi/pahpi - mom/dad, for example), which was kinda goofy.

There was a lot of cringe millennial dialogue. A. Lot. Of. Staccato. Writing. To. Convey. Aggression. A lot of fucks/fucking from all the characters. A lot of growling and snarling from the men. And yes, the MMC does roar when he cums, which made me laugh out loud because of course he does. No avalanches here though, so that's a plus (maybe they'll save that for book 2).

The FMC is whiny and insufferable. It got to the point where I debated if it was worth it to even continue. She's so “woe is me, I'm so damaged” and “I can't love, loving me is a death sentence” when she CLEARLY HAS PEOPLE THAT LOVE HER (Essi deserved so much goddamn better, RIP). She snarks after being tortured, for goodness sake.

The MMC is insta-love (you find out why later but it was still annoying) and even gifted her an unasked-for nickname (which is gross tbh). If there wasn't an actual plot-related reason to be so head-over-heels for her, I would have absolutely zero reason to believe he would try so hard for her. She is so aggravating and just pissed me off. The whiplash between reading Elluin and Raeve's perspectives hurt because I genuinely liked Elluin and hated who she has become. He is a consent king (mostly), so props for that over so many other MMCs out there. 

TL;DR - middling book with interesting worldbuilding and annoying characters. I'll maybe check out the sequel, so long as it doesn't turn into smutty garbage and actually continues the world building.

I can't say I didn't like this book at all. I enjoyed some elements of it.

I had a lot of issues with the pacing, the randomly interspersed non-main character POVs (if they had been better places they would've been much more impactful).

The mystery relating to the main character seemed a bit too weak to be dragged on through Till the end of the book. If that was the main point of the narrative I'm not sure what the whole point was to begin with.

I know this is just the first book, but even first books offer some sort of closure to some threads from the opening. This book delivers on very few of those promises if any at all.

I feel like this book does have a lot going for it, but something somewhere was missing to make the magic work.

At the end of the book, I'm still soo confused about the world building. In my eyes it feels a bit half assed. Sure we are given a massive glossary at the beginning of the novel, but it's hard switching between the book and the glossary to understand what the words mean. There were several instances where the world building could've been integrated into the narrative itself, but it didn't happen.

I'm still so genuinely confused about the magic system, and the point of the dragons and a lot of things about the world. A lot of it feels very haphazard.

I'm not sure if I'll read book 2 whenever it comes out.

I wanted to like this so badly but all I kept thinking about while reading this was, when is it going to end.

The dragons do barely jack all in this book and the amnesia is poorly written. Also the MC's feel like someone tried to mesh all the "famous" tall, dark, handsome and skinny, strong and sassy into the these 2 generic, forgettable "people."

Whatshername (I legit kept forgetting it and not caring), wants to be Yelena from Poison Study so bad. An infinitely better book by the way, with zero dragons however. Although this one didn't really have the beasts in a competent, substantial way either.

If this had minus the dragons and was about the political intrigue, wow would it have been better.

I don't think I'll be continuing this series.

I think I will re-read Poison Study by Maria V Snyder instead.

Well, I have many conflicting thoughts about this book, but mostly negative unfortunate... I'm not supposed to get the whole plot less than 200 pages in on a novel of 700 pages. Something is not right!

This was sold to me as a wonderful mix of fantasy and romance, told through beautiful purple prose. It has all of this, it just didn't feel well executed for me:
- Wordbuiling was very very lazy: Dae instead of Day, slumber instead of night (“who disturbs my Slumber?”

I disagree with everyone who says this writing style is lyrical and beautiful. I personally found the book overwritten and the style was distracting. I pushed through because I was interested and had a good enough time. There was quite a bit of repetition of super odd phrases (ex: pebbled skin, organ in my chest) that, again, was incredibly distracting. Despite that, I did find myself enjoying the story and wanting to read more. It's no more than what I expected it to be, and that's okay. I just hope the second book is edited more thoroughly and the MC has some distinct character growth. I can't handle the same amount of “everyone I love dies so I can't have love” inner monologue as was in this book.

While it took me longer to read this book than I would've liked (at no fault of the book), "When the Moon Hatched" had me sucked into the world and I became ravenous to know more. Why is Raeve the way she is? How did she end up where she was? Who the fuck is the Scavenger King?

I felt that the pacing of the book was good. It is a slower book that requires patience and love for slow burn. The writing is really not as pretentious as other reviewers make it out to be, or difficult in any way. This book reads like any other fantasy book I've read in my life and so I found it to be very enjoyable. The prose and syntax is easy to understand if you passed ninth grade English class and the pacing is at worst bearable if your attention span hasn't been completely destroyed by faery smut...

I like how the FMC stands her ground, but isn't too annoying with her snark or quirkiness. I really enjoyed towards the end of the book when she self-reflected on her actions, especially towards the MMC and how she is being somewhat difficult without listening to anyone. I appreciate how the MMC isn't the typical domineering "Shadow Daddy" and behaves like a sane man. I often struggle with the way a lot of female authors write men, especially male love interests. I get that to some degree, any book with a large romance element is a fantasy for many of us, but I do appreciate realistic behavior and thoughts from MMCs. Kaan is a typical man that lusts for a woman, but he is also a living being that hurts and yearns for the delicate touches from the woman he loves. He is normal and sane, doesn't just talk about how much he wants to fuck Raeve or growls at her every opportunity he gets.

I cannot believe that I have to wait a whole year before I get to read the second book, but I'll have to be patient.

When the Moon Hatched is a captivating read with a refreshingly unique world and magic system that stands out in the genre. Every scene feels crucial to the story, leaving no filler, which is a rarity in fantasy. The character Kaan sets a new standard for male protagonists – strong, compassionate, and easy to root for. However, the book's fast-paced world-building can be a bit overwhelming at first, as it doesn't ease you into the many locations, names, and terminology. Despite this, once you get your bearings, it's an immersive and rewarding journey filled with depth, intrigue, and fantastic character dynamics.

I have mostly avoided Romantasy books, but there was something about this one that made me want to try it and I'm so glad I did. I liked the layers of story and character. I listened to it as an audiobook and it was great to hear the different characters. I was never confused about who was speaking in the different chapters. I did watch a spoiler review before I read it, so that may have contributed to the ease of my following the plot.
It was not a perfect read. A couple complaints- 1. The descriptions were beautiful lush purple prose and then the dialogue was very basic. 2. I didn't like the way the epilogue and the last few characters were done. 3. The chapter of Rekk Zharos POV felt unnecessary. The information could have been given without his POV.
As the first official Romantasy I have read, this was pretty good.