This is a story of a girl who has forgotten that she’s the Japanese goddess of the moon, the mortals she calls family, and the divine war she cannot escape.

This was an interesting book, although it wasn’t until the second half that I found myself intrigued. The writing style wasn’t my favorite - I prefer novels that build more connections between the reader and the characters, but this felt a bit distant - and while the setup portion of the book was important, it felt like it took a long time to get to the meat of the story.

However, I loved the focus on Japanese mythology, and not only did I enjoy the resolution, it was also very satisfying to find out what happened to all the characters years down the line.

This book took awhile to work through for me. I loved the aspect of Japanese mythology thrown in but the story just seemed to fall flat for me. Yuki doesn't meet the Ryu for a hot minute and so much yet so little happens. I had high hopes for this novel and was surprised to be let down.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

Rating 2.5 stars

This book was not what I expected. I started off really liking the book. Even though the pacing was kind of slow, I liked the cozy, historical feel to it. It gave me “Rurouni Kenshin” type of feeling in a sense of a swordsman trying to find their place in the world. In this novel it is about Yuki Tachibana, a swordsman, coming home after being exiled for four years. There is a lot of history and emotion behind her return. We find out that she was exiled due to a conviction in the disappearance of her childhood friend, Hina Kabayashi. However, not everything is what it seems and the truth behind the disappearance slowly unravels into something more magical and wicked.

I really liked Yuki’s character in the beginning. Her hopes were very simple, but relatable. All she wanted was to feel accepted and to be surrounded by family and friends. I loved how hard she worked to rebuild her family reputation and to restore her family dojo. The characters she meets along the way and the found family she slowly surrounds herself with was so well-done. I especially loved the mentor-student relationship between Yuki and Daisuke. Although it started off rough, a mutual respect slowly develops between the two through their shared past experiences. However, I felt the writing and character developments took a complete turn once the secrets slowly start to unravel, which is a shame, because that is when all the Asian mythology and action occur.

In terms of the writing, the transition between multiple POV felt disjointed. A lot of the plot and relationship development seem to happen off scene, and when we do find out about it, it is more telling in the form of an inner monologue than showing. There are also a lot of subplots happening. We are introduced to the Gods, we discover the moon goddess, there is still the mystery of the disappearance of Hina, and on top of that there is a fight to save the mortal realm. Although they do eventually connect, the subplots are very underdeveloped and the conflicts are resolved rather quickly, leaving an unsatisfying feeling. There is also a romance, but it is very insta-love, instead of a natural development. As for the characters, they started off with such promise, but then ended up being one-dimensional. Again, it has a lot to do with the fact that we don’t see their gradual growth. We see them go through a significant event, but in the next paragraph/chapter, they have already moved on. We never see the struggle or reflection, making it hard to connect or care for the characters. Also, the characters seem to be inconsistent. One scene that stuck with me was when it was suggested that Yuki’s father had something to do with the disappearance of Hina. I was surprise that Yuki, who greatly admired her father, wasn’t angry or defensive about the accusation. Instead, she calmly accepted it, and the story moved on. These inconsistencies continue throughout the second half of the novel, making it confusing and a struggle to read.

I really had a hard time getting through this book. Mostly because it was hard to understand the overall purpose of this novel. I felt like there was two different stories happening, because the fantasy portion happened so late and it had such a different vibe and direction than what was set up in the beginning. If the main focus was the fantasy, then I think it would have been better if it was introduced earlier on so more time can be spent on the development of the characters and the plot lines. Although I appreciate the Asian culture and mythology weaving in the story, it unfortunately missed the mark for me, which is a shame because this book had such interesting premise.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank You Netgalley, Nib and Feather, LLC, and Rachael Krotec for the ARC digital copy. Release date 6/7/2024. The cover is beautifully done. I was interested into this book because of the Asian Mythology aspect. I don't know a lot about any Mythology so I thought a YA would be a great start. It was slooow, however when the action was happening it was happening hard. I had a hard time with the going hard action and then everyday life. However this is a good book. It was long so I hate to say this but I wanted more descriptive information. I would love to see this go to Audio.

I would say this book is definitely a YA title. Its writing leans more a young crowd. But that isn't to say I did not enjoy the book. The action scenes were amazing and the themes throughout the book were great.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Woven Song is about the Moon Goddess falling from the moon and thinking she is mortal. It seems that disaster follows her and she is exiled from her home after being convicted of kidnapping/killing her friend. The friend's brother recanted his accusation to the Emperor after four years so Yuki returns home.

I really enjoy reading East Asian mythology and Woven Song had plenty. I gave four stars since I felt that there could have been more detail within the story. Some parts felt like a highlighted summary when it would have been interesting to really live through the character.

wow! what to say? let me first start off by saying in no way do i mean to be insulting. thank you to netgalley for the arc, and i <i>really</i> hoped i’d enjoy it because my experience so far with fantasy arcs have not been the best. spoiler alert: no. just no.

this book, to put it mildly, lacks direction. woven song is a novel that, despite it’s ambitions (and excellent cover art), ultimately fails to deliver a compelling story. it’s awfully inconsistent, meandering off-course in the middle of the story in such a way that leaves you confused on what krotec is attempting to do; certain parts just lack coherent pacing at all. what is supposed to be an action fantasy romance (or certainly feels like one from the synopsis) turns into something that feels more like a daily slice-of-life featuring some fantasy elements, set in ancient japan. on top of that, anything that could’ve been of substance is offscreen- i’m shown the resolution of many problems, but never the <u>process</u>. i can’t bring myself to be emotionally invested when so much of these characters’ journey is never shown. i don’t have a grasp of them, or what makes them tick: what i have is what only the story chooses to tell me. and what the story tells me, unfortunately, is not enough to make me love this.

because the story shows us only the characters as they are after they’ve bonded with each other (most prominently yuki and daisuke), i find myself hard-pressed to say that i’ve seen much of any character development at all. when you cut the entire process of a character beginning to open up and lower their guard in the face of affection, it just feels like an abrupt 180 change. the potential these characters could’ve had is hampered by the fact that we see absolutely none of their gradual change at all. characters like these come across as flat and one-dimensional. found family is found family, i’ll enjoy it all the same, but it feels insubstantial when all krotec does is establish her characters, plop them into my hands, and label them as family with none of their struggles illustrated. their journey is, for lack of better word, superficial- missing the depth to really make it compelling, especially the main character <strong>yuki.</strong> supporting characters are similarly underdeveloped, serving more as convenient plot devices rather than fully realised individuals.

woven song goes really hard on the themes of self-realisation and transformation, and while i did like the idea of a kami becoming human in theory before finding her real forgotten self, these themes feel heavy-handed. monologues about true identity and rightful places are thrown around but the lack of characterisation, as i mentioned, dampens their impact. these themes are hammered home in a way that feels slightly repetitive instead of being natural- and i really, really hate to say it, but the lack of subtlety detracts from the emotional impact of the writing.

going off the synopsis alone, you go into this expecting flowy, fantastical writing, a lush and descriptive plot that takes influence from traditional mythology and renders it almost tenderly in a way that feels like a folktale. what you get is not always what you imagined. given the themes it attempts to tackle, woven song surprisingly lacks emotional resonance; it fails to invoke the emotions in me that i can see krotec intended to. it’s abundantly clear that this really could’ve been an engaging read: the premise is beautiful, and it’s going to pull in many readers. but it’s burdened by a weak plot, cardboard cutouts of characters, and a lack of emotional connection.

(i’ve seen some people say that the honourifics in this story are not accurate, and the cultural elements are highly inconsistent. i’m not japanese nor do i know much about japanese customs, so i won’t speak on this, but i’m happy to discuss!)

I struggled a little with this book, I feel like it was trying to do too many things and this left the story feeling a little disjointed at points. For the first half of the book, I found the pace quite slow and a lot of the turns the book took confusing but it does pick up a lot and the second half is quite enjoyable. I liked most of the characters, especially Daisuke and was rooting for them but I also never felt a sense of jeopardy for them, the story felt quite low stakes, despite the dangers they were facing. I also liked the mythology aspect, I found learning about the kami very interesting. Overall, I think this book just wasn't for me, but I did enjoy aspects of it.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

“Woven Song,” by Rachel Krotec

After being banished from the imperial city, Yuki is now called back by the emperor. She hopes to reopen her family’s dojo. The truth of her banishment complicates what she wants and needs to do. Her life is intertwined with the dragon god, Ryu, and they need to work together to save the human realm from Izanami, ruler of the land of the dead.

This book has an interesting plot, and the lore was interesting. With samurai’s and yokai’s and Mononoke’s were unique and kept me in the story. It was a little slow at times with things I didn’t care about, and the good parts of the story moved too fast at points. 3 out of 5 stars.

-Yokai
-Samurai
-Mononoke
-Japanese Lore

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

Rating: 3 stars

To be honest, I found this book to be quite similar to many other books out there that explore Asian mythology. While the plotline may differ slightly, it felt too similar.
The writing is a bit dense and it does take some time to get into, but it serves as a good introduction to the world of Asian mythology (even if fictional) for a much younger audience who may want to delve deeper into the concept. or for people who want something easy to dip their toes into Asian mythology.

Although I did enjoy the novel I have to admit it is not my favorite in the category.
(on a side note, the cover is gorgeous and really deserves some appreciation.)

thank you to NetGalley and Nib and Feather, LLC for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

hank you to NetGalley for providing the ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

I really struggled with this book (as you can see with it taking a whole month to read).

The characters: I struggled to differentiate the characters. I like dual or multiple POV books but for me I like these POVs being separated out into different chapters. This for me makes actually differentiating the characters much easier. With this book I found a lot of the characters had the same narration and I couldn’t tell the characters apart.

The plot: I was mostly confused by the plot. Most of the time I wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Sometimes things were explained well whereas other times I felt more confused by the explanation. I can see what it was trying to do but I’m just not sure how well executed it was done. There seemed to be some gaps and some things that it felt like we skipped over. Although I feel like this is going to be a series so maybe the author is saving some of this for later books!

The world building: this was the one saving grace of this book - the world. Although it didn’t feel fully fleshed out and again we were given things without much explanation which made the world or parts of the world sometimes hard to imagine. However, overall this was much stronger than other elements of the book.

Overall: I’m not sure how I feel about this book or whether I would read any more books in this series. If you want a fantasy that draws on Japan (I think it wasn’t 100% what it was drawing on) or East Asian cultures then you may enjoy this book. However, personally this book was just not for me.

The writing style of this just did not do it for me. I felt like it dulled what, conceptually could have been a really good story. The POV's were good choices, but they just didn't feel like they had much emotion to them.

------WHAT I ENJOYED: -------
- This book had such an interesting concept; it is an amalgamation of different myths and legends from Asian culture, centering around the Gods. When we really got into the main plot throughout the second half of the book, the story was so exciting to me - it felt like an age-old tale of love and betrayal. I was just captured by the story once the different Gods had been introduced, and especially loved when we got to learn more about the different realms: Yomi, the Mortal World, and the Heavenly Realm.

-I also just loved the atmosphere of this book - the vibes were immaculate. It just felt very whimsical and classic; it almost felt like a tale being told around a campfire. The writing style that the author adopted really pushed this timeless feeling and it honestly made it feel like a legend was unfolding before my eyes. I think if you are someone who is into any Japanese media, especially anything from Studio Ghibli, you would love the atmosphere of this book!

- As well as enjoying the overall plot, I also really enjoyed the relationships between our main characters, especially with our FMC Yuki and her student, Diasuke. The found-family trope was strong with this pairing, and I loved it. Daisuke started as a rebellious teen who thought no one understood or wanted him, but he found love and acceptance when he was taken in by Yuki. The mutual respect and love they have for each other is just so precious; they helped each other grow whilst supporting each other through their shared trauma, and it created such a lovely relationship.

- The other main relationship I enjoyed seeing unfold was between Yuki and the dragon god, Ryū. Despite there being some pacing issues (which I will come back to later), I thought that this relationship was just so sweet. They cared about each other so much, and just had an unwavering trust in each other. And what can I say, I am a sap for disgruntled heroes who go around thinking "why do I have feelings?" when introduced to the female main character 🤷‍♀️.

--------WHAT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME:--------
- One small issue I had whilst reading was the way the author included definitions of things common to Asian/ Japanese culture within the story itself. The way this was written just kept taking me out of the story - I feel that if these definitions had been included within a glossary rather than the story itself, it would have allowed for more immersion into the culture being represented.

- But let's get back to the pacing issues because, I'm going to be honest, it really impacted how much I enjoyed this book. Mainly, I felt like the main plot simply came in far too late for me. The interesting fantasy plot that makes up the majority of the synopsis only started at just under the 50% mark. Before this, we are just seeing our character get back to normalcy and settle into her mundane life with her found-family. Which would be fine but I felt like I was duped by the synopsis! Like I kept looking back at the story it was describing and thinking okay but..."when?"

- The other reason that the pacing issues were such a big issue for me was because I felt that not enough time was spent on the main plot, leaving it feeling a bit underdeveloped. I think that the fantasy elements should have taken more of the spotlight throughout the book, especially as most of the first half honestly felt a bit redundant to me due to a lot of the plot elements being mentioned in the synopsis!

- This was especially frustrating to me as I felt like this first section really could have been cut down, but it felt like the author cut stuff from the fantasy sections instead. The main reason I think this is because there were moments, that only occurred in the fantasy section, when the author jumped between two points in a scene - for example, showing the build up to a fight, and then jumping straight to the aftermath, completely cutting out the fight itself. Not only did this make the narrative feel super jumpy throughout the second half, but it also meant a lot of the tension was lost in what should have been the more intense moments of the book. I seriously had to go back a few pages just to check that I hadn't skipped anything! Now, I don't know how much of that would be an editorial decision or if that was just how the author wrote it, but it left me feeling like a lot of the wrong stuff had been cut.

- Leading on from this, because the plot started quite late, a lot of the side characters felt very surface level because we just didn't get to see enough of them. This even felt true with Ryū to an extent; he was introduced super late, despite being a main character, and so we didn't really do a deep enough dive into his character. This left the relationship between him and Yuki, despite being super sweet, feeling a bit "insta-lovey" rather than feeling like an organic development. Honestly, what I did get from the fantasy plot I really enjoyed, but overall I was just left feeling like "I wanted more".

-------OVERALL:--------
Overall, I loved the atmosphere of this book and think that people who enjoy Studio Ghibli films would love the vibes. But, honestly, the pacing issues just really threw me off with this one, and left me feeling a bit disappointed! I still enjoyed elements of the fantasy plot, especially the mythological elements, but this just wasn't a perfect read for me, sadly.

Thank you again to the publisher, the author and NetGalley for the Arc in exchange for an honest review.

If you want to read an anime in book format, then this is the book for you.

This book combines aspects that I like of anime story telling with Asian mythology. I loved the relationship between the main characters and the found family trope, along with the happy ending but not what you expect it to be. The prose was more YA, but that fits with the style of story telling. Overall, this is a fun and enjoyable read for anyone who wants a light Asian Mythology book with anime story telling aspects, or who just wants something with a love triangle.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher & author for a chance to read an ARC of Woven Song.

Rating: 2.5 rounded up to 3 ⭐

Thank you to the author, publisher & Netgalley for an ARC of this book!

First off- this cover is gorgeous! Overall, this book would be a good fit for younger readers looking to dip their toes into fantasy books, especially those revolving around Asian mythology. I liked the interesting aspects of the Asian mythology weaved into this book which was done in an extremely accessible way. The writing is also fairly easy to follow & the plot is full of intriguing twists & turns.

My main critiques of this book are of the writing style which tends to heavily focus on 'telling' over 'showing'. Plot points/events alongside character ramifications often occur and are glossed over rapidly, giving a sense of whiplash. After a significant tragic event, the characters tend to cry and then move on in the next chapter/page without lingering or reflecting on the actual repercussions or their thoughts & emotions. There is also a few inconsistencies with the honorifics used. Another aspect which took me out of the book was the use of extremely modern slang in a historical setting such as 'punk'. Overall, I liked the main cast of characters, especially the mentor-mentee relationship between Yuki & Daisuke. However, I feel like their characters need to be more fleshed out & explored for me to become attached to them. There is decent character development in this book though and really cute found family.

This was a pretty interesting read. Loved the focus on Asian mythology and it was pretty atmospheric. Great writing though the characters could have been more fleshed out.

Dnf at 13%, chapter 6.

The goddess, Yuki, lives on the moon but she is drawn to the human connection, to feel the warmth of another person; but why was she banished to the moon? And how will she live as a mortal? And who is the dragon god, Ryu?

Bear in mind that I shelved this as ‘did not finished’; I was looking forward to reading this but it was just plain boring. I could not connect with the main character, or find the story fascinating at all.

Hopefully someone else will find this to be their next favorite read, but unfortunately it was a no from me.

Happy reading!♥️

I’ve been reading a lot of Asian inspired fantasies recently so I was excited to read this. Unfortunately this one was just not for me. The cover is very nice though.

As an Asian American I love reading books that have this specific kind of representation. This book was especially perfect to read during AAPI month!

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachael Krotec, and Victory for the chance to enjoy this advanced copy.

Overall rating: 2.5

Woven Song follows Kaguya-hime, the moon kami that falls to the mortal realm. She gets taken in, renamed Yuki, and is raised and trained in the dojo, where she becomes a skilled swordsman. After being accused of a murderous scandal and banished, she roams the world until she is invited back to her village where she encounters secrets, scandals, family, magic, and mystery.

I am once again on the fence. This book had a lot of good in it, from Asian and cultural mythology to soft, cozy fantasy. The interpersonal relationships between Yuki and the other characters was refreshing, and I loved the found family aspect within the novel. Furthermore, I found myself enjoying the characters. They all felt unique, and I loved the myriad of different voices, backgrounds, and perspectives that each had.

I made it through the book, but I did struggle at points. My biggest gripe was the writing. The writing style felt underdeveloped and off putting throughout the entirety of the novel. There felt like there was a lot of telling what was going on rather than showing. There were a multitude of rapid, minimally fleshed out conflicts. Most external conflicts felt like they had little foreshadowing or build up, and were resolved rather quickly (as in within a chapter or two). On top of that, the central plot points felt brushed over. The characters and history felt placed into the novel instead of explained. As a result, I found myself forgetting key details about important characters, and losing interest in the plot points. Another gripe was the pacing. I understand this is a cozy novel! However, some parts of the plot felt slow (not boring, just slow).

Honestly, the book just wasn’t for me. The writing felt juvenile, and I tend to gravitate towards high-stakes fantasy books. However, for younger readers, or readers interested in a cozy fantasy that features mythology, magic, and family, this book is perfect!

* I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review.