The Night & Its Moon

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Why does this happen? The shape of the Moon isn’t changing throughout the month. However, our view of the Moon does change. I will be continuing to read the rest of this series. And I have high hopes for progress of the book qualities moving foreword. Grammatical errors abound, although I think this edition has fewer than the original, which is…something. To that end, I think much of this stems from the attempt at an omniscient narrator. There are times when the narration is so close to Nox and Amaris' perspectives that it feels like you're reading a third-person limited rather than omniscient, and then are jarringly reminded via scenes from other characters' perspectives. Third-person omniscient is an undertaking, and there's a reason it isn't often used anymore: it's incredibly hard to execute.

I wanted to highlight another critique I’ve seen that I wholly agree with but just didn’t know how to put into words. The fetishization of POC and the excessive sexual trauma the POC alleged main character (Nox feels like a side character despite being the leading love interest) in this book is disgusting. It, like many other heavy topics in the book, are dealt with poorly. Is this book supposed to be 3rd person omniscient? 3rd person limited? neither the author nor the editor knew. The attention to “tiny” description details: scents, foods, and scenery. The details of the music and nameless folks in the tavern came alive. I always want to be immersed in a book and Piper delivered with detailed descriptions. Dragons and Witches and Succubi, Ohh My! Let us also not forget to mention the fae. The Fae. The. Fae. If you like mythical creatures, immersive storytelling, and flawed characters this book is for you.

I love the premise of the novel itself, and I have high hopes that this will be a Paolini situation - new author continues their series and vastly improves as they go, going on to create a richer fantasy world than where they began. How poetic it would be to drift into the sea. Instead, she would bring the sea to her, as all the salt in her body poured from the bottomless well in her eyes.” (ALL THE SALT IN HER BODY is coming out of her eyes?) It’s good that we start with an external stimulus (vanilla) and then move to Emily’s thoughts (being afraid of the office), but the first half of this paragraph is jumbled. Emily’s choking is a reflex, so it should come BEFORE her rational thought about hating vanilla. I have both a desire and an obligation to share this apology and accountability with you and use my platform for good. I can only ask for the grace to show you that I can and will do better.

IMPORTANT NOTE: this is a slow burn romance with blooming side romances on the way to the ultimate God (or should I say Goddess) Tiered romance. So, do not expect spicy s3x scenes. I thought this would bother me- but instead it made my heart warm like the following quote: “Nox meditated on that love, holding it close to her heart, letting it fill her.” So many times in literature we forget the comfort of love and I think Piper CJ did that really well. Everything was so emotional that I physically ached. Everything they feel is so genuine and human. since people still want to delude themselves into believing that Ciri only having white hair is similar to the witcher lemme just point out everything that's similar to the witcher. The writing is fine and passable, but could be great - I know that the author is transparent about having paid her “editor” below the market rate to edit this book. But in my opinion she shouldn’t have paid anything to that person for this end result. Even just a simple handful of honest peer-revisions from multiple objective other people (although more time consuming) could have mitigated most of the missed errors in the final print copies of this book better than this “editor” did. And as much as I didn’t want the technical errors to detract from the reading experience; they did. I’m also put off by the marketing of this book as the only sort of bisexual representation in fiction. There’s a lot of queer fiction, and even whole queer bookstores, which is not to say there’s ENOUGH queer fiction. The author stated (in her B&N live interview) that she doesn’t actually read much romantic fantasy, which really put a bad taste in my mouth. You can’t claim to be representative of a genre if you don’t know what else exists in that genre. This book was written in 6 days and it shows. Piper is full of passion, telling the story of two girls who want nothing more than to be together. It's what drove her to write 20,000 words a day as she was drafting. Unfortunately, it appears to have been rushed not only in its writing, but in its entire production.TL;DR: Read this book if you like sapphic rep, rich imagery, fae and magic, deep world building, and slow burns. the steps in question are racism, hypersexualization of women of color, hatred of self workers and self-absorption Millicent shows up early, and things go haywire Amaris ends up abandoning Nox to run off with the strange assassin who showed up the night before. She also mutilates herself so she will no longer be ‘perfect’ and gives herself the same scar that Ciri has in The Witcher. How odd. Nox is left behind and has to go to the brothel in Amaris’ place. How unsurprising that Nox gets shafted yet again.

uaimh reev is a fortress set in the mountains where the reevers are trained and taught to kill monsters and protect the realm. kaer morhen is a fortress set in the mountains where the Witchers are trained and taught to kill monsters and protect the realm. both reevers and Witchers are sworn to take no part in king's wars. much like the brothers of the night's watch in game of thrones. This book is romantic, features fight scenes and swords, deep subject matter that can be difficult to read about (in a good way), but it also contains small quips that allow for the right amount of tension-diffusing humor. For example, "Whoever was at the door better be dying, or else she’d be the one to kill them." Overall I'd say the book is fine in this state. My major complaint was copyediting, and the book was rushed off to publication so I wasn't expecting it to have been completely revised/rewritten. The concept is a blend of Tolkien, Sarah J Maas, and The Witcher, which I think is fun. The writing itself could still use work, but that's something that takes years to hone. This story is outstanding - it is creative and unique and dynamic. I completely love the characters and plot. The magic system is also really innovative and clear-cut. Also, the cover and graphics of this book are pretty enough to make this a great addition to one’s bookshelf regardless of if they liked the story inside or not! It’s like a piece of decor. And, of course, the bi and queer rep is a beautiful thing to see. EDIT TO ADD: The author advertises this book as dual-POV, and it’s not. It does primarily follow the story of two main protagonists, but it’s a 3rd-person-omniscient POV that switches between all primary and secondary characters’ heads at random points in the text. The slow pacing makes this extra confusing to the reader.For fantasy selling points, this book features fae, dragons, magic in multiple forms, and a map of the world you're exploring through this story. Dialogue. Any well read person, regardless of their personal writing experience, understands the formatting of dialogue. There was no formatting in this sample. Also, dialogue tags and/or action indicators to who was speaking seemed to be optional. I had to read this several times before I understood that the hand in question was Millicent’s—at the end of the arm it’s supposedly slithering down (I think).