Gorgeous cover, beautifully designed world, great concept. Sub-par execution. Needed some serious content editing to make the story flow better. And also someone to say “a lot of these words are almost identical to Tolkien’s elvish… maybe we don’t do that.”

This story follows Eyolin, a young elf living in the capitol Aideil. Ever since the loss of her family, she has lived on her own. She works as an assistant to a herbalist and as a server at an elvish bar just to get by. Thankfully, she'll soon be free of the magic that haunts her, which means she finally has a chance to be free. But people have wanted her for her magic for a long time, and as the world prepares for war, Eyolin will be forced to make drastic decisions to survive.

To start off, the prologue in this story was beautiful. It set up tension that hooked be immediately and created an amazing, intricate world that I wanted to know more about. I also love the idea of a city developed on a gigantic tree and how that setting was described as Eyolin was introduced.

There are some passages that were difficult to follow, such as when a lot of the elements were introduced in the prologue or when Eyolin discussed the scariyai race in the beginning chapters. I got the impression that this world was big and lots of elements were at play, but reading about several of them all at once was a little overwhelming at times.

If you like elves, mystery, and magic, I recommend that you check this book out!

Such an interesting world and premise. This book is alot more high fantasy than the description makes clear - maybe more romance in the following books could change my mind. Unfortunately, the writing style just fell flat for me. There's a lot of telling instead of showing in this writing style which just doesnt connect with me. The build up for the next books in the series does seem promising though and I would be curious to see what happens next if the writing style was more to my liking.

I am kind of mad at this book, the cliffhanger is very unfair - I will riot on behalf of the FMC because she deserved so much better in this book. I love the connections she built, but these connections had her slowly dropping her guard and this opens her up for threats.

Book 1 was brilliant, the world building and the different types of magic were intriguing. I look forward to the next book but the FMC best get her justice!!

I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the editor for sending me an advance copy of this upcoming title. Your hard work and dedication to this project are truly commendable, and I am incredibly honored to have the opportunity to review it before its official release.

The depth and quality of this work are a testament to your meticulous attention to detail and your passion for bringing exceptional stories to life. From the engaging narrative to the well-developed characters, it's clear that a tremendous amount of effort has gone into every aspect of this book.

I am genuinely excited about this title and eager to share my thoughts and insights. Having the chance to read it in advance has been a wonderful experience, and I am confident that readers will be just as captivated by it as I am.

Thank you once again for this incredible opportunity. Your support and trust in my feedback mean a great deal to me. I look forward to continuing to work together and witnessing the success of this fantastic book.

📚 The Moon Tear
Alagana Teigoly Book 1
✍ M.E. Royce
📖 Fantasy
3.7★⚊
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"𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬"...
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Book one from Alagana trigoly..
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I truly love the cover for this book is absolutely captivating..
The story is complex, with a good world building, and a good magic system..
However it can be slow, hard to keep up and very heavy with all the info and world building but I guess it has to be set for book 2..
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All the feels:
🖤 sci/fantasy
🖤 YA
🖤 magic/elemental
🖤 action packed
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Special thanks to M.E. Royce and Netgalley for this ARC, the opinions in here are on my own.

Ok…I’ve got a lot to say about this book, but let me start with an introduction.

Eyolin is an orphan, left with no family in Alagana. In this realm, certain elves are gifted with magic, and if they do not manifest it and gain their gemstone, they loose it by their twentieth birthday. Eyolin is determined to do just that, as she tries to live out the rest of her life with what small and meager memories of her family she has left, and be free. However, with only one year left, those plans are derailed when the tyrant king of a neighboring kingdom becomes…interested with what she can do. In order to protect herself and learn to defend against this king, she is forced to access and accept her powers, and is thrust into this world of politics and magic that she so wanted to stay away from.

This is very much a high fantasy book. There are inklings of romance, but I would not say that this is a romantasy in any sense of the word, at least with this first book. If the romance develops with the next two, then possibly. This was a slow read just due to the amount of world building and heavy fantasy elements within. While I loved this aspect, it just made it more of a slower read. Hoonestly, this world seems very interesting, and the political dynamics seem to play a very important role in how each of these characters proceed with their paths. I love how fate and one’s predestiny is used and abused in this book, and I hope that continues with the next ones! I do recommend this to high fantasy readers, who prefer/don’t mind there being almost no romance element in it :)

OMG I loved this book!! I was fortunate to be able to read an arc through net galley before the book comes out and I am so happy I did. This book has a great story with awesome characters. There were a couple parts that were a little confusing and but it makes more sense as the book goes on and more of the story unfolds so just stay with it and you will be glad you did. The book does end on a cliffhanger which sucks but super excited to read the next one!!

My mind is a flurry of thoughts after finishing this book, but I’ll try to organise them.
The fmc, Eyolin, starts off as a nobody, who just wants a simple life and is willing to try anything to make it happen. This just happens to take her to unimaginable heights. She is strong and smart despite everything and works hard to achieve her goals, every moment had me rooting for her!
Kipp is a mysterious character, bound to Eyolin through magik, though she doesn’t know that. He’s assumed to be dangerous, and proves it many times, just not to Eyolin, he has his own agenda.
Dale and Karok are both humans, seemingly mundane but truly incredible in their capabilities and loyalty.

Royce spun a tale of friendship for someone who never had friends, camaraderie and deception. And did it wonderfully. The world building is thorough and well executed, bringing to life an enchanting and intriguing world full of wonderful and dangerous creatures. The relationships between characters are beautiful and complex, with multiple layers and potential outcomes. Many times I found myself feeling a certain way about a character only for it to be revealed that they were the complete opposite!
This book perfectly sets up the narrative for the books to come, leaving me with so many questions, thoughts and theories! Will there be a love interest in the next book? If so, with who? Who won? Why did they end up there?
The Moon Tear is definitely full throttle fantasy, rather than a cute romantasy, with action, friendships and intrigue. The fmc is independent and headstrong, but learns to lean on the people around her, in order to become her best self, a nice reprieve from fmc’s who are strong until the man arrives to save them.

Beautifully done Royce.
Thank you for the EArc in exchange for my honest views and opinions.

3.5 Stars! This book was great, really amazing integration of world building through action rather than info dumping. Very high fantasy, definitely for fans of Holly Blacks books, very similar vibe to the Stolen Heir duology! Strong characters, really entertaining relationships!! I loved Dale!!

The description of this book sounded so good, and the cover is so beautiful that I applied for an arc as soon as I saw it listed on NetGalley. I wasn’t really a fan of the actual book though. I spent most of my time confused while reading this. I felt like I had to go back and reread multiple times to understand where I was at in the story.

I think I’m going to give this book another shot in the future in case it’s just that I’m not in the mood for it at the moment.

Thanks to the publisher for giving me an arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The cover and blurb interested me in reading, it was eye-catching and suspenseful enough to pick up. I can say there is a lot of world-building and information to process, with its unique storyline.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I feel terrible giving this feedback but I DNF after about 20%. I didn’t enjoy the writing and had no connection to any of the characters. Upsetting because the premise sounded interesting but I couldn’t get myself to continue reading.

While this story was good, I could unfortunately not connect with it fully myself. I will not let this allow me to judge it unfairly however, because it absolutely has a lot of potential to be loved, so I'll give it four stars regardless. It just wasn't the one for me personally.

I really enjoyed the magic system of this book and believe the story has a lot of potential to grow. M.E writes in a very descriptive way and I like their style of writing.

I recieved an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I felt like this book had a super interesting premise, but the writing style just fell flat for me. I didn't really connect with the characters, and there were several lines throughout the book that I felt were just really strange and took me out of the immersion of reading. There's a lot of telling instead of showing in this writing style which just didn't connect with me. The build up for the next books in the series does seem promising though and I would be curious to see what happens next if the writing style was more to my liking.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start off by saying this: the premise of the book has potential and I believe that the author has a lot of room for growth in her writing.

That being said, when I first read the blurb of this book, I really thought that I would enjoy this. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I tried to force myself to read as much as I possibly could, but I could not get past the 30% mark and, as I was not enjoying it, I decided to DNF it.
This critique reflects only on that 30% of it, so keep that in mind as it may not apply to the rest of the book.

I found that this novel had a lot of info dumping and the writing style of the author didn't always sit right with me. I also had a few problems with the choices the author made on a line writing level (but as I've said before, I do think the author has some potential).
There was too much "telling" instead of "showing" as well, and I didn't connect with any of the characters. The FMC particularly seemed to be... bland.

But, believe it or not, I found the scenery description of the mountain in the prologue to be quite good, and I went so far as to underline it in green. And, as I said before, I do think the author has potential. I wouldn't be opposed to picking up another one of her books in the future when her writing style has matured and is more polished.

“When a god whispers in your ear, you beg for the honor of living”.

I absolutely enjoyed this book. This is definitely more fantasy than what I am used to, but I am totally okay with that. I don’t think this book has any romance at all. M.E Royce does an excellent with the world-building and the magical system in the story. Eyolin our main FMC, who needs to figure out the direction her destiny is going to take her. However, there is a lot going on with the characters and their magical abilities in the narration you really have to pay attention. Otherwise, you will get lost in the mix of the book. Again, this book is so heavy on world-building due to the fantasy element, and I think that this story needed to devise the entire system to set up book two. There’s a bunch of action that I think is entertaining alongside the magic. This is a great book for all you fantasy lovers out there!

Unfortunately, I found it challenging to engage with this book due to its writing style and the excessive amount of information dumped both at the beginning and throughout the story. While I recognize the potential for improvement, I couldn't connect with any of the characters, and ultimately, the book didn't resonate with me. I may revisit it in the future after it undergoes revisions and is published.

Reminded me a lot of LOTR.
Hoewver the info dumping is too much - the exposition is really heavy handed and theres so much packed into this book that it just makes everything muddled. I didn't connect to any of the characters and I felt the last line of the book felt out of place for a fantasy.