Heart of the Sun Warrior: A Novel (Celestial Kingdom Book 2)

Product Information

The love triangle in this continues as both Liwei and Wenzhi fight for her heart. Xingyin has refused to see Wenzhi after his betrayal in the first book, but he continues to beg for her forgiveness and will do almost anything to win her heart. Liwei is by her side, but ultimately must decide between her and his family, and the throne. DOTMG had some instances where Xingyin was aggravating, but it was in stride with her character development for the most part. In HOTSW, Xingyin was down-right disgustingly aggravating, selfish, self-involved, immature, arrogant, and stupid. She pushed me to the point of not caring about this story on multiple parts. Throughout the book, every character, including Xingyin, points this out, but she arrogantly ignores them all. She’s always placing herself in the middle of every situation because she’s selfish and only cares about the one problem that’s in front of her. Problems arise because she doesn’t care about anyone or anything else during that time, and she has no foresight to see how this decision may impact quite literally anything else. Book one had her learn how to work with a team and depending on someone doesn’t make her weak. In book two, she forgot all of that. Liwei had no choice in his engagement. He was forced to accept it for the good of the realm and for his parents. Unlike Wenzhi, who wasn't forced to do anything. He just wanted power. That said, there were some things that I didn’t love about this. Some of which I will put in spoilers. As for the arcs that weren't romance related. I felt that one of the arcs related to Xingyin's family wasn't quite as strong this time around. It had to compete with a different plot and so it didn't get quite the same level of care and attention that a similar plot in the first book got and that felt pretty unfortunate given how little these characters really knew each other. The other non romance arc, this government coup situation... that... that really didn't need to be here. I see why it was, because aside from what will happen with the romance it was the only part of the story that had any firm footing in the first book, it makes this feel more like a direct sequel than just a companion to the first book. Still though, with how the family plot was sort of used as a parallel it really took away from some of the time spent with the larger plot... It also didn't help that the larger plot was spearheaded by a character that had pretty valid reasons to be doing what they were doing... and like... the government was already questionable so I'm not sure what this little plot really had going for it?

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*** The author should've let him actually die in Book 1 if his character was going to be nerfed this hard in the name of a ship - and this is coming from someone who was rooting for Wenzhi!

Summary

This epic fantasy series based on Chinese mythology is one of the year's best fantasies.” — Buzzfeed The chivalrous mortal who risked his life to save the world from flaming sunbirds. Chang'e's love and Xingyin's father who they left behind in the mortal realm while they ascended to immortality.

Strikingly evocative, tense, and heartfelt, Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a difficult book to put down. It floats you into the Celestial Kingdom, introduces you to monsters both literal and figurative, and leaves you dreaming of dragons.” What in the Disney? What about the original tale of Chang'e, where Houyi took his own life in despair? Who is this grouchy old man too cowardly to approach his wife and cold to his daughter?

Review

We go through so many cycles in our lives. School to school. College to work. Job to job. Love to love. Life to death. There is always change, there is always a grace period, there is always learning and loving and experiencing, and it all revolves around how we choose to live our lives. After finishing the first book of the series, I was thinking how the sequel will exceed its perfection. Let’s not forget there was no cliffhanger at the end if you don’t count the unresolved love triangle.