This story filled my heart with joy. I got completely caught up in this magical world of witches, werewolves, and very adorable spirits. I adored everything about Nova and Tam's adventures in dealing with demons and navigating family and romance.

It has everything:
- Incredible diversity. The main characters include a Chinese-American witch who uses hearing aids and a nonbinary werewolf.
- Action! A witch and a werewolf tracking down a demon in the forest and experimenting with magic.
- Nova's amazing extended family and friends, including her supportive grandmas and her scientific-minded best friend thrown into a world of magic.
- Gorgeous illustrations with a stunning level of detail, down to the weird items and books in the magic shop, and an artistic flair that adds so much to the romantic tension between Nova and Tam.
- Heart-melting sweet relationship dynamics of all kinds.

This book is a perfect way to start off the Halloween season (or continue it, if you've been celebrating since August).

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Diamond Book Distributors in exchange for an honest review.

I am LIVING for this wave of cute fantasy graphic novels with great representation in them. Mooncakes is the story of Tam, a non-binary werewolf who comes back to their old town and reconnects with their old childhood friend, Nova. Nova is a deaf witch who has been investigating some mysterious demon activity in her town and, when Tam gets dragged into the demon activity, it's up to the both of them to put a stop to it.

Firstly, this graphic novel has a great art style. It's cute but not so much that older readers would be put off by it. The colours and particularly the way the magic is shown in the universe creates a lovely atmosphere that sets the tone for this world. Secondly, I fell in love with pretty much all of the characters. They aren't the most developed in the world (which to be fair, is standard for a graphic novel) but they're so likeable and every character has a key role to play in the narrative which was a neat touch. I adore Nova and Tam and could honestly read a good dozen or so stories about them.

Overall, Mooncakes is the perfect read for anyone who loves cute fantasy stories with great art and lovable characters. It joins a proud group of witch-themed graphic novels which makes it a fantastic Halloween read for those who aren't necessarily into horror. It is definitely worth checking out.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

I was given this free review copy graphic novel at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This witchy romance was so cute. I loved it so much! The artwork was amazing and went perfectly with the story. The story was interesting. I loved the world. I could not put it down. I started it late at night and immediately picked it up and finished it the next day. I would read more by this author.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2946550588

This was such a cute graphic novel. The art style was amazing and I loved Nova and Tam. They were the cutest. A part of me wishes I would have waited to read this closer to Halloween because this is definitely the perfect Halloween graphic novel, but I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read it now.

The premise was so cool and original. I loved that we had witches and werewolves and even a scientist-esc person to add skepticism to the store.

All in all- this was a great story.

Everything about Mooncakes was absolutely wholesome. I loved every single character to death and I had a smile on my face the whole time I was reading this. Mooncakes is full of good representation: LGBTQ+ rep, disability rep and much more. It just felt amazing reading something like this.

I also really enjoyed the magic. The art style was wonderful and it made everything feel and look more whimsical.

This was such a cute short story! There was representation that is much needed, a cute romance that even I got on board with (I am honestly not the biggest romance fan), and witchcraft!
We follow Nova, who has a pretty complicated life. In this story, we see her deal with things that she didn’t even know she would ever have to deal with, find herself, and come to terms with everything.
This graphic novel has some amazing strong friendships, an interesting family, and a pretty good plot.

A cute and fun graphic novel, Mooncakes written by Suzanne Walker and with beautiful illustrations by Wendy Xu is a story about magic, love and acceptance. Nova Huang is a teenage witch who lives with her granmothers and works in their magical bookshop. She also happens to be deaf. When she hears rumors about a mysterious wolf in the nearby forest she goes to investigate and is surprised to find an old friend, Tam Lang. Her friend is a werewolf and is in hiding from a group of magicians who want to use wolf magic for nefarious purposes. When Tam turns to Nova for help, it seems like their friendship has become something more.
The story, while simple is well thought out and executed, and I loved the diversity of the characters, and the decision to have one of the characters have a disability which not only does not limit her, but can be an asset at times. One of the major characters is non binary, and that is also handled with ease, it is simply introduced as a fact. I loved the positivity and acceptance demonstrated throughout the book, from gender identity to sexuality to the validity of found family, The artwork, as I have already said, is very cute, and the colour choices are appealing.
I really enjoyed this ARC which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC.

I requested a copy of this book because I kept hearing how good it was... and it is!

Besides featuring, witches, a werewolf and magical spirit creatures, the most awesome thing about the story is that one of the protagonists wears hearing aids - and it doesn’t stop her from doing anything.

This cute and sweet graphic novel is a lovely book to get you into the Halloween spirit without the scariness that can sometimes come with it. Not only do we have witches, werewolves, and magic, we also have family, romance, self discovery, and supportive friends. Nova and Tam are easy to root for as friends and as a couple, and I loved seeing Nova's personal journey to becoming the best witch she can be, and to finding the strength within herself that others see in her. This story does have some predictable elements, and sometimes I did feel like the magical systems were rushed or took a back seat to other themes, but there were many positive aspects that solidly outweighed the bad. The biggest was that Walker and Xu were so intent on bringing in so many aspects of diversity to the page. Nova has Chinese heritage, and she has hearing aids, and Tam is non binary, and all of these things are matter of fact aspects of their characters and aren't used in any of the main conflicts.

MOONCAKES is a sweet story that could be a good choice for the upcoming Hallowen season if you don't want to delve into anything too scary!

I thought this book was really good. However, I thought the authors' decision not to show us more of Nova and Tam's childhood relationship hurt the book. It made the book feel slight and the relationship seem underdeveloped. Still, I thought the plot and the characters were engaging and fun. I will definitely recommend this to the kids I work with.

<em>Mooncakes </em>by Suzanne Walker and illustrated by Wendy Xu was actually quite a bit darker than I expected it to be simply based off of the artwork and cover. Which, admittedly, is kind of funny because the synopsis does introduce this book as one in which the main characters fight a dark and deadly force. A very magical story, <em>Mooncakes </em>follows Nova Huang and Tam Lang as they reconnect after years apart and something sinister blows in to shroud their small town.

I both loved this book and I didn't. It was a very cute story, for the most part, and had some action filled moments but I never felt as though I had enough time to get to know the characters well enough. I didn't connect with a single one and I feel that if this had been a novel as opposed to fully a graphic novel, I would have had that connection. The plot was good, but everything moved far too quickly for me. And, to be fair, pacing is something that I've noticed can often be a huge problem with graphic novels. To date, there have actually been only a few that I was really excited about the pacing of. Unfortunately, for me, <em>Mooncakes </em>falls into the category of having just <em>okay</em> pacing. And it took a lot away from the story.

Moving away from that, however, the characters were brilliant in so many ways. I <em>loved</em> Tam the most; a character with a dark past and something to run from, Tam is the one who held the whole story together. Tam is also the one who moved it along the most. Everything about them was wonderful. I felt a little less connected to Nova, who seemed somewhat flat in comparison. And Nova's friend, whose name I have forgotten, was actually kind of annoying. I did love the grandmothers, though.

The artwork, though, is what really did the best work for this story. It was beautiful through and through. As a reader, you definitely feel more engaged with these characters because of how well they were portrayed by the artist. That cover alone is enough to pull you in and make you want to know more. I have to admit, though, I was rather thrown by the title; the mooncakes barely had any place in the story at all.

Ultimately, this was a cute and well-done story. I enjoyed many aspects about it from the plot to the characters. The pacing was way off and made it difficult to connect, but I think this is partially due to the form of novel this is rather than the story. Often, graphic novels run into this problem when they don't treat their story like something episodic or have a long, full story. At least, in my experience.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

Blog review to go live on 09/21/19

UM HELLO. Have I ever loved anything more? Because the amount of warmth and love coming out of my heart is positively enormous. I am not a graphic novel reader. I am just not. But somehow, I landed on this one, and BOY OH BOY WAS IT A GOOD DECISION. I love this so, so much. Insanely much. The illustrations are absolutely GORGEOUS. I mean WOW. I want to stare at them for ages. And the representation in this is so great. A queer, hard-of-hearing witch falls in love with a nonbinary werewolf??? And Nova has two grandmas, lovingly called the Nanas, and my heart positively melted. I love the dynamic of childhood friends - friends - lovers, and their relationship, and just everything about them. I love that there is emphasis on Nova's hearing aids, and how Tam used to use she/her pronouns but now goes by they/them. And I love that Nova's best friend is a skeptic scientist but still supports her friend anyway. And it's about witches?? and magic?? and demons?? all wrapped up in a precious graphic novel that is BY FAR one of the BEST things I've read this year. I am absolutely beaming just writing this up, honestly. I want to read it all over again. I want to buy it for all my friends. Why oh why do I have to wait for October to do this??? (I will wait, because this is worth it, but still). Anyway, not so much a review as a plethora of gushing, but I have high standards and this just blew those out of the water. So uh, do yourself a favour and read this, okay. You won't regret it and you'll want a good cuddle after. In a good way.

Great representation for LGBT+, Asian, and Hard of Hearing folks. Positive relationships, challenging topics addressed quickly and effectively and extremely well paced story for all of this. Love the colorful art and how endearing all of the characters' relationships are.

I wanted to thank Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review this wonderfully heartwarming story.

For starters, this book had wonderful representation for hard of hearing and LGBTQ rep. Nova is hard of hearing and wears a hearing aid. Tam is non-binary and goes by they/them pronouns. They are referred to as such for the duration of the story as well. Nova had two grandmothers who were in a relationship and this wasn’t questioned and there was no homophobia in this respect, or any other.

The friendship between Tam and Nova is pure and wonderful. Their relationships is even more so. I fell in love with their characters and found myself rooting for them and crying with them as well.

The art in this story is GORGEOUS. The drawings are cute and it’s very colorful and pleasing to the eye. I found it very engaging and it kept me wanting more. Most of the ARC I received had color but the last few chapters were not, but either way, the art style still kept me engaged.

The plot felt high stakes and engaging as well. It felt believable and I loved the characters and how they stood up for each other.

I highly recommend this story to anyone and everyone who wants a heartwarming coming of age story about queer witches set in New England in the months of autumn.

This graphic novel was really cute and a lot of fun! I loved the artwork and the fall / witchy vibe it had. I also really loved the wide range of diversity present in the story. However, the overall plot fell a bit flat for me, and I found the relationship between the main characters happened too quickly for my liking. I feel like we were told by other characters that Nova and Tam were headed toward a romantic relationship before the characters themselves showed romantic interest in each other, which was kind of jarring. There were a also few things about the plot I wished were fleshed out more, like how Tam spent an entire year as a wolf and about where other witches like Nova go for their apprenticeships.

I enjoyed this graphic novel overall despite its flaws and will definitely check out anything else the authors put out in the future!

This book was absolutely adorable and fun to read. I love all the different representation in this book. We have Nova who is hearing challenged, but do not let that stop her from becoming a badass witch. Her love interest is a gender non-conforming werewolf named Tam who goes by them/they, and Nova's best friend is a bit on the fluffy side. I believe her grandmothers are gay and in a very loving relationship, but that's not really discussed but is open to interpretation. They sleep in the same bed, so you take it as you will. The illustrations are gorgeous, and I'm pretty certain Wendy Xu did the art for The Prince and The Dressmaker which is also a must read. This is absolutely a must-read when it comes out. Thanks, NetGalley for allowing me to read it before it's released.

This was a super quick cozy queer read and the perfect beginning to my fall tbr. Nova and Tam are such an adorable coupling, and Nova's grandma's are such great maternal figures. The art work was beautiful, especially when it came to the character design. I also loved the disability rep with Nova's hearing aids. This review is kind-of all over the place, but I hope your take away is to go read this lovely book that made me feel like I was receiving cuddles the whole time I was reading it. I can't wait to read more from Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu in the future.

I really enjoyed this comic. The main characters are really cool and together they're beyond adorable.
I mean, I'll never complain about more material about queer wichtes and werewolves, just keep 'em coming.

All the side characters in this story are very likable too, from the witch grandma couple (being together, doing magic, owning a bookshop with a magical section and having a lovely home and loving family - they are honestly living the life!) to the loud and nerdy and supportive human bff who makes a great contrast with her blunt disapproval of magic, but still battles evil to help her besties special someone.

Also I really feel like going out to the woods to spot some pretty animal-plant-spirits.

This graphic novel was the absolute cutest I’ve ever read! I loved how it wasn’t super hard to follow. Honestly I wasn’t expecting to see a diverse character and what was I surprised by, exactly that! I feel like I need a sequel to this ASAP even though I’m unsure if there are plans for one.

Delightful take on magic and triumph. Cheerfully LGBT friendly and disability supportive as well. Great art and story line. I could not stop reading until the end. A real must for children with hearing impairments.