When the Moon Hatched

   The traditionally published When the Moon Hatched (Goodreads) is an epic, romance fantasy by Sarah. A. Parker with creative world building and beautifully reimagined dragons.

     When The Moon Hatched is romance fantasy that, unusually, happens to just be a good fantasy book outside of its genre appeal. The world building is immersive, creative, and beautiful. The fantastical elements, from the beautifully reimagined and expanded dragons to the mythology, affect and define both the story and the characters in lush ways. The author also makes use of these fantastical elements to enrich the romance elements of the story, allowing for a narrative with dynamics and layers you could not find in a standard romance.

     Another element that When the Moon Hatched succeeds in is characters. The characters, especially the leads, in romantasy stories are often regulated to the archetypes of whatever romantic fantasy they’re supposed to represent, and while the characters here still fulfill those archetypes, they are allowed to expand beyond them. Our FMC, Raeve, is you classical violent, brash, strong female lead, but the authors adds in layers of guilt, tragedy, and trauma and several scenes of real chemistry with the male lead to make her both complex and likable while still being deeply flawed. And speaking of the male lead, he’s an actual character, with a personality, and chemistry who avoid the pitfalls of simply existing to adore Raeve, or allowing her to walk over him. (There is a fair bit of adoration in the story, but there are many plot elements that make it feel deserved and genuine.)

     The writing is good, structuring a generally well-paced narrative with a spread of emotions. But, it should be noted that there is a fair bit of tragedy, some of it shockingly abrupt, and other sections that might cross over into the necessarily painful without sufficient catharsis or reward at the end. Most of the tragedy and drama in the book, however, is very well handled, leading to appropriate payoffs as well as enriching and maturing the story. There is also a lot in the book aside from drama, the leads’ chemistry is fun, the romance is compelling and rewarding, and there is some nice, gristly violence scattered throughout.

     The book does have graphic sexual content, but it is distinctly less pervasive than in many books in the subgenre.

I do have criticisms for the book, but they are generally tiny like specific scenes that strain credibility, or over/misuse of a particular word.

     To close, I thoroughly enjoyed When the Moon Hatched and consider it just a good Romance Fantasy, probably the best I’ve read since Reign and Ruin.

Author’s website.