╰┈➤ ★★★☆☆

“𝘞𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 resist, 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵…”

“…𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦”

|| Themes ||
🌙 Strong Female Character
🔮 Magic
⚔️ War & Oppression
🌙 Rebellion
🔮 Feminism
⚔️ Power

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I came this close to DNF this book. I couldn’t get into it (at first), but I wanted to finish it so I could give an honest review. Now that I have finished it, please keep in mind that these are my own opinions about this book, don’t take my dislike for this book affect your own thoughts about this book.

So, firstly, thank you NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the summary and saw the cover, that is what drew me to wanting to read this, however, I did not enjoy this as much as I had hoped.

The first 60% of this book, I felt like I was lost, confused and the book dragged on forever. But once I got past that 60% the rest of the story felt so much easier to understand and a lot better to read. I guess the stuff before was the anticipation, a bit slow but it all fell into place.

For me personally, I think this book might need to come with some small TWs only because it rubbed me the wrong way with some of the content in the story. For starters, the whole idea of eradicating a whole race of magic wielders and the mention of slaves, felt a little too close to home with First Nations people (again imo, not trying to make it sound political or whatever). It wasn’t overly graphic, just some of the stuff made it sound a little too real. But the approach with the race being magic wielders made it interesting, especially with the lead up to the end, everything made so much sense and it was executed very well.

Despite that small issue I had, I found the last lot of the story intriguing. The twists along the way and near the end definitely made it better. Which is why I decided to give the story 3 stars rather than my original thought of 2 out of 5.

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Idk if it ended on a cliffhanger or not, but Demet Divaroren, I’d love to see what you’d come up with next!!

Blood Moon Bride is a YA stand-alone fantasy that I will absolutely be recommending to my teacher librarian customers, and teen customers.

Firstly, it's great to see a YA fantasy by an Aussie author, and would love to see more like this.

Demet created some wonderful characters and I really enjoyed Rehya and her strong sense of justice. I also loved seeing how the different women acted and survived in a society stacked against them.

The magic was also absolutely beautiful.

I look forward to seeing more from Demet in the future!