Thank you netgalley and the publisher, for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review.

This duology is currently one of my favorites. I fell in love with the first book and this did not disappoint.

After freeing her mother from her punishment, Xingyin returns to her home to heal her body and spirit, but cant escape the troubles that find their way to her once peaceful home. The trials of the celestial court and a horrific new enemy bring Xingyin back between the two men who love her, and the fate of the world and all she loves rests in her hands again.

I love the writitng style of this book-it puts you right into this beautiful built world, and Xingyin's voice is so clear-i love that she is not a faultless heroine, and she struggles with grief and rage and jealousy. I love the story and omg that ending was so ding dang perfect. What a great series. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

A wonderfully bittersweet ending to the duology. I loved daughter of the moon goddesss and went into the sequel with a bit of nervousness as to whether it would live up to my expectations. I should not have doubted, because sun warrior went above and beyond. Xingyin Has significant character growth and her journey is real and empowering. The world building in this series is simply amazing and I could not love the story and characters any more than I do.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for allowing me early access to this eARC in exchange for my review.

Also, Thank you to Sue Lynn Tan who caused me such great emotional damage in this book. I am very much hurt, but also this one of my favorite books I’ve ever read

*** Very Spoiler-ed Review ***

“Trust me with your heart again and you will see the truth of mine. For you are the reason I rise each day, for you I live and breath.”

Wenzhi is now my book boyfriend. I’ve never had a fictional man that I’ve fallen for more than him. Sure, he did some shady things in the last book, but I love a good “Lovers to Enemies” story.

The angst in the relationship between him and and Xingyin was ✨ perfection ✨ I’ve never highlighted so many good quotes from a single character before. However, I had no hope she was going to chose him over Liewei which I knew I was going to be upset about (like being Team Jacob, but you know she has to chose Edward).

THIS DID NOT JUSTIFY THE PAIN I FELT WHEN WENZHIN SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR HER TO BE HAPPY AND LIVE WITH LIEWEI. I’ve never sobbed so hard for a MAN than I did in this moment. I was absolute devastated. I went through all the stages of grief. Which made created an unparalleled amount of LOVE and EXCITEMENT. UGH.

IM SO UPSET THIS BOOK IS OVER. I WANT MORE OF THEIR HAPPILY EVER AFTER. PLEASE. I AM BEGGING.

This was definitely more of a rant than a review… I am sorry.

tl;dr: READ THIS SERIES!!! 10/10 DENTISTS RECOMMEND!!

A wonderful follow up, I really had no idea where this one would go after the end of the first one. But I'm so happy this sequel exists! We learn more about the world and the mythologies and I hope there is more to come from Sue Lynn Tan's world!

On the whole, I enjoyed this book, although I think I preferred the first book in the series. I really liked the use of Chinese mythology as a backdrop for the story of Xingyin, although she herself is an original character. The world is interesting and the writing does a nice job of conveying the atmosphere.

However, there were a few things that made this edition weaker than Daughter of the Moon Goddess for me personally. Although both are narrated in first person, Heart of the Sun Warrior leans heavily on Xingyin's inner monologue to explain her motivations for her actions, to the point that it gets into a place of telling rather than showing. For example, a theme that spans throughout the book is the flexibility of morality; Xingyin does some things that are similar to things that she scorns others for, but justifies it through her desire to save her family. She does recognize the hypocrisy of this, but the theme would be more subtle and meaningful if the reader were able to notice it themselves rather than Xingyin telling them (multiple times).

Another issue that I had is that Xingyin seemed to have more agency and choice in the first book; there were challenges, but they could be approached in a variety of ways. In Heart of the Sun Warrior, especially the latter half, there is only one magical artifact that could possibly solve that problem. That magical artifact can only be accessed by going to this specific place and talking with this specific person to get another magical artifact, and so on. It honestly feels like a multi-step side quest in an RPG style video game, where there aren't any choices to be made; you just have to go from step 1 to step 2 to step 3 and so on. While it certainly raises the stakes (if this fails, we're doomed!), it also feels limiting; Xingyin doesn't get as many chances to show her ingenuity and problem solving skills (which I know she has from book one) because the path is laid out for her.

The love triangle continues in this book, and although I'm ok with the way it was resolved, I honestly wasn't convinced that Xingyin should end up with either man, nor was I overly compelled by their relationships. This may go back to the fact that we primarily see these relationships and know what they mean to Xingyin because she tells us in her inner monologue, so we don't get the chance to draw our own conclusions.

I realize this skews negative for a 4-star book. I still enjoyed the read and appreciate it as an edition to the fantasy genre. I especially like the centering of a female heroine against the backdrop of Chinese mythology. However, while Daughter of the Moon Goddess was a solid four star read, some of what I perceive as a lack of subtlety in the execution of the book makes Heart of the Sun Warrior a weak four star read, at least for me personally. I still would recommend that people read it themselves form their own opinion. It's definitely a book worth checking out!

This book is a breathtakingly beautiful sequel to Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess. Ever intricate and vivid, Tan’s depiction of the Immortal Realm and the characters within are captivating.

Xingyin is still the heroine of my dreams: flawed and stubborn, yet with an unending love for her family (both real and found) and a deep sense of duty. Xingyin’s journey, much like that in the first book, is filled with adventure, battle, love won, love lost. What its predecessor was missing that this book pays in full is a mirror to humanity.

Tan pulled no punches with diving into how love and grief live in tandem within each of us, emphasizing the impacts and manifestations of the two in characters we came to love or loathe in Daughter of the Moon Goddess: Xingyin, Liwei, Wenzhi, and the Celestial Empress. The undeniable universality of Tan’s poignant themes will stay with you long after you have closed the book and your tears have dried.

I am thankful to HarperCollins publishers for providing me with an ARC of Sue Lynn Tan’s Heart of the Sun Warrior.

I read DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS recently and thought it was gorgeous, but I wasn't as obsessed with it as I hoped I would be. Surprisingly, when I picked up this sequel, I found myself increasingly invested in the characters and their lives, entanglements, hopes, and losses. The ending subsequently ripped me up and turned me inside out in the best possible way.

Starting off with some minor gripes - the fantasy worldbuilding and the mythology still do not feel very defined, although there is a sort of breathless dreaminess to it that laughs in the face of my desire for concrete details and, like, rules. This is probably a matter of personal taste; I'm sure there are other readers who feel differently and like that the narrative spends the brunt of its time in Xingyin's head; I just wish I could plant my feet in something solid here.

Now, to gush: the themes of grief and second chances resonated with me strongly. Lots of media these days has been chewing on the notion of grief, but I haven't seen much that quite manages to capture the enduring pain of losing someone young alongside all of the possibilities they contained. It really yanked the rug out from under me. The palpable pain depicted on the page made the happy ending much sweeter as a result, and I thought the endpoint was absolutely perfect. Bittersweet and rife with possibility.

This is one of the first fantasy series I've read in a while that I've immediately wanted to revisit now that I have a renewed appreciation for the characters and their conflicts. Excellent sequel.

I was given an Arc copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was so excited to be given a copy of this book and I couldn’t wait to start! Daughter of the Mood Goddess is one of my favorite books of all time. So I had high hopes for this book and it did not disappoint!

I did feel like this one was easier to follow than Daughter of the Moon Goddess. It felt like it flowed much easier.

I wasn’t ready for this series to end!

I will recommend this to everyone I can and I have already pre ordered a physical copy for my shelf!!

"As long as you are mine as I am yours, we have all the time in the world"

I was fortunate enough to be granted an ARC of this book, and I am so glad that I was able to experience this book. I will be purchasing a hardcover as soon as it comes out. I felt like the first book ended wonderfully and I could not wait for this one. I knew that I was going to experience sadness and heartbreak before I made it to the end, but it is all worth it by the end.

I enjoyed this book more than the first one. There was a more cohesive story line as opposed to the multiple story lines that happened throughout Daughter of the Moon Goddess. There is one main goal for Xingyin through the book and everything is leading to this final conclusion of her story. The conclusion that I wanted for her at the end of book one changed while reading this book and by the end I was so overwhelmingly happy with how it ended. It was totally worth the wait.

I cannot wait to read whatever Sue Lynn Tan comes out with next.

This was an excellent follow-up to Daughter of the Moon Goddess. I read and reviewed this book for Booklist, the ALA-published librarian review magazine, and the review will be published in a future issue.

Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan is a wonderful conclusion to the story begun in Daughter of the Moon Goddess.

What worked well for me
-Character Development was handled exceptionally well
-There is a good amount of falling action and conclusion time after the climax avoiding the rushed pacing I have experienced in other recent fantasy titles.
What didn't work as well for me
-The Central conflict of the plot takes a good while to show up leading to difficulty connecting in the first third of the book.
-There is so little time between the events of the first and second book that it almost feels like it is really just one larger book at some point in its development.
Who I Recommend this book for
Heart of the Sun Warrior is a lovely continuation and conclusion to a story begun with Daughter of the Moon goddess. This book could be read for its story alone but will be best enjoyed by fans of book one.

Thank you to Sue Lynn Tan and NetGalley for an ARC of this book! You can preorder Heart of the Sun Warrior now or find it at your closest bookstore when it releases on Nov. 15, 2022!

WOW. What a phenomenal sequel. This book surpassed my wildest expectations and took me on an incredible, emotional journey.

Similarly to Daughter of the Moon Goddess, the pace moves very quickly as Xingyin and her companions race from one quest to the next. But Sue Lynn Tan also took the time to weave in beautiful, honest conversations between characters that absolutely tugged at the heartstrings.

I cried at least three separate times while reading this but also squealed with joy at different moments. You truly never knew what was coming next, and that raised the stakes so much. I not only felt invested in Xingyin’s journey but fought and loved and lost right alongside her.

Tan’s world building was as exceptional as ever, with a magic system and lore that I loved immersing myself in. The ending was beautifully done and has me BEGGING for a novella or epilogue.

All in all, this was by far one of the best sequels and overall books I read this year. 10/10 would recommend.

This was definitely among my most anticipated reads for this year, and I'm so glad to say that it did not disappoint.

I am simply obsessed with this world and Sue Lynn's writing. The imagery in the way the different places in this world are described is just so vivid and breathtaking and I desperately hope there will be fan art and illustrations of the kingdoms and palaces visited in this book. While the plot that took us there did feel a bit meandering at times, I just adored the way this book allowed us to see more of this world and go beyond the bubble of the Celestial Kingdom we were in for book one.

Beyond that, I just adore all of the characters in this story. They are really the heart and soul of this book, and I've come to care for them all so much. While Xingyin has clearly matured a bit between book one and two, and has learned to temper her fire more than she did in her youth, I love that she is still such a strong character always prepared to fight her own battles rather than waiting for someone else to save her.

I will confess that I didn't love this book quite as much as I did the first one. This book really played up the love triangle more intensely — and differently — than it did in book one, and love triangles will just never quite be my cup of tea. I also felt like The Boys just didn't get to shine as much here as they did in the first book. Because in Daughter of the Moon Goddess we were of course getting to know them and their motivations before Xingyin came into their lives, I felt like they got to be more of their own person and develop their own distinct personality traits. In this book, it felt like both of them really only centered their personalities around being in love with Xingyin, and didn't get to do much to prove their worth apart from her. That said, the way the book ended and the love triangle was wrapped up was so much more satisfying than I expected or could have hoped for, and I really have to give Tan credit for subverting expectations of the way such triangles are normally resolved in YA fantasy.

I immensely appreciate the way Tan wraps up her books. In both this book and DotMG, I really enjoyed the amount of time we're given after the climax of the story concludes to sit with the characters and reflect on how things turned out. The last 50 pages of this book read a bit like a very extended epilogue, and I thought it was so artfully done in the way it allowed us to just be with these characters as they celebrated their victories and mourned their losses. I basically sobbed through the entire thing and thought it was a lovely wrap up to a stunning duology. This is just such a beautiful saga about love and family and loyalty and responsibility, and I know I'll be coming back to reread it some day in the future.

*checks notes*

Are we sure this is YA? If so, this is YA fantasy as it should be. Full of adventure and self-discovery, with a fully realized world and 3D characters who are flawed and broken, but who you still want to root for.

I am in awe. I am bereft. I didn't think that I needed a sequel to DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS, but HEART OF THE SUN WARRIOR proved me wrong. There are so many things to say.

The action! I finished the first third breathless, amazed at the climax, and that was just the beginning. Tan gives us three distinct acts that are so gripping, you can't put it down. I lost a lot of sleep from this book because I just wanted to read more and more and more.....

Character development! No false hero/villain binary here. These characters felt so real, and their emotions so raw. I could hardly believe this was a YA novel.

The ending! Endings are hard. Like really hard. I was so curious about how she would end this, and it did not disappoint. Fulfilling, heartfelt, emotional.....there are so many words to describe.

Out 11/15 from Harper Voyager! Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for the ARC.

I cannot express how excited I was to receive an ARC of Heart of the Sun Warrior (thank you Netgalley and Harper Voyager!). Falling back into Tan’s world with this sequel was so effortless. Honestly, when we wrapped up Daughter of the Moon Goddess, everything felt… resolved, so I wasn’t sure where this would take us. I’m unfamiliar with the mythology of Chang’e and had no expectations entering Heart of the Sun Warrior. That said, I did struggle to understand the story arc for the first third of the book - the action is well-paced, but I kept wishing that the central conflict had been made just a bit more explicit earlier on.

Minor plot commentary aside, this book is just as stunning as its predecessor. The IMAGERY. I could get lost in this world, and Tan’s prose is so poetic and insightful that I often just paused to appreciate a phrase or a description - Xingyin commenting on the forgotten beauty of a half-moon, visualizing a “painstaking effort” as “trying to untangle a folded cobweb…”, reflecting on the role death plays in an immortals’ war (“Death would feast well, gorging itself over the immortal table it had once been cast from”).

And the character development! The character arcs for Xingyin, Wenzhi and Liwei in particular are so well-paced, and Tan’s execution of the love triangle is so surprising and original that I wasn’t even frustrated with it? I am no fan of love triangles, but this one works, particularly because it’s less about the conflict between characters and more about their personal growth - I loved the evolving alliances and the constant flux between each of the three.

The. Ending. It was so layered and so entirely unexpected. I can’t stop thinking about it. I've pre-ordered my copy! Solid 4.5 stars from me, can't wait to have the matching set!

I loved loved the many new adventures we got with this book!!! I loved seeing the old friends and meeting the new ones. Xingyin is recovering from her trials in the first book and definitely deserves some peace and quiet. She's grown a lot since the last book and has definitely learned from her past mistakes. We do not get to see Linwei and see what Wenzhi is up to. We also meet several new characters that I love and revisit many old ones. The plot itself is a lot and quite fast paced, similar to the first book. I enjoyed the expansion of the Celestial Kingdom. I am satisfied with the way it ended, however I think we can definitely get more stories out of this world.

TW/CW: Death, violence, fantasy violence, death of a child, talk of sexual assault, grief, PTSD

RATING: 4.5/5 (can't give half stars on Netgalley!)

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Following after Daughter of the Moon Goddess, this book picks up with unrest in the Celestial Kingdom and the rise of a General Wugang, a villain who wants to bend the entire immortal world to his desires. Xingyin and her friends and allies rise against him in an attempt to save their world by any means necessary.

Like the first book in the duology, Heart of the Sun Warrior is an excellent book. It’s quick moving, exciting, tense, and has something for everyone. The writing is beautiful and the characters are all multi-dimensional with faults and strengths. I love all the mythology that is woven through it, and the way the magic works in this world. It’s an epic sort of fantasy that grabs you and sucks you in so that at times you almost forget you’re reading.

The only reason this book didn’t get a full five stars is because I really disagreed with the ending and with how the love trial sorted itself out. Otherwise, I absolutely loved this book.

Heart of the Sun Warrior is everything I could have wanted as a follow up to Daughter of the Moon Goddess. Tan gives us a sweeping mythological story told in raw human terms. Taken together, these are two of the best books of the year!

We pick up in this second book not long after the first book ends. After successfully freeing her mother, the Moon Goddess, from and unjust exile, Xingyin just wants some time for peace and rest. Leave the poor girl be! She has been through enough I think! . . . But of course, that is not to be, and new problems quickly work to pull Xingyin into more conflict, danger and adventure.

One of the best things about these novels is Xingyin's reluctance to get involved coupled with her sense of duty and honor. Her characterization is so well written you feel for her at every turn, every point in which she makes the difficult but right choice to do something she knows will cost her dearly and the heartbreaking consequences that come with doing so. I didn't think the stakes could possibly be higher than they are in DOTMG but Tan finds a way to ramp everything up to an even higher level this time.

While romance is not the center of the story, it is intricately connected to many of the other aspects of the plot. must say I am normally not a fan of love triangles. I usually find them contrived at best. However, Tan had me 100% with Liwei and Wenzhi. Both love Xingyin dearly, both have betrayed her to some extent, both have REALLY REALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL families that come with the package. There is certainly more at stake here than "who will Xingyin wind up with?" but Tan balances this beautifully as the story unfolds.

Ultimately Heart of the Sun Warrior is an exploration of courage and what being a hero even means:

"Perhaps at its core, heroism was a less pretty tale, words like honor. and valor gilded over necessity and the harsh truth--that there was no choice. 'I must do this.'"

And yet, there is always a choice. The fact that the right thing is so clear to Xingyin is precisely what makes her such a badass and a hero.

I absolutely loved Heart of the Sun Warrior. It is a beautiful conclusion worthy of Daughter of the Moon Goddess. Don't miss. it!

Heart of the Sun Warrior moved me to tears. This story is heart wrenching and so beautiful. Sue Lyn Tan weaves an intricate story of love, forgiveness, and deception. If you loved Daughter of the Moon Goddess, run, don't walk to read this masterpiece!

HUGE thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this e-arc in an exchange for an honest review. Wow, I'm not sure where to begin! I really did enjoy Daughter of the Moon Goddess. It was a solid debut fantasy novel but it was one of those books where you could feel that it was a debut, which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially in this case! Sue Lynn Tan weaves a beautiful and atmospheric world and her book stands out amongst the influx of Asian-inspired fantasy novels 2022 has seen (but could always use more of). Her characters were more fleshed out in Heart of the Sun Warrior than DOTMG, which I really appreciated seeing, especially as this is a duology. I still found myself confused by certain continuity issues and I couldn't fully wrap my head around the magic system. I'm glad that I didn't have to wait too long to see the love triangle resolution and while there are people who hate it, I didn't mind it (I think love triangles are overhated but maybe I'm just usually on the winning side though haha). I definitely recommend this book as a gorgeous, lush, and romantic Asian fantasy and not to mention the covers!! I am so excited to have this gorgeous book in my hands come November.

4 stars.