Hello Blogging World!

Welcome to Gigi and Jonny’s buddy read and rant for Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker!

We’ll be going over our experience of the read with minimal spoilers. Are you ready? Let’s dig right in!

Blurb:

A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft.

Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.

One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home.

Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.

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Amazon

***Brief disclosure***

Jonny is an Amazon affiliate and earns a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post. It’s a great way to help him keep things running on his blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

Buddy Read Book Rant:

Jonny

Hey Gigi, thanks so much for including me in another fun buddy read. Also, thanks for explaining what mooncakes are to me (it’s a Chinese baked dish) ! They look pretty, but based on the ingredients I saw I’m not sure I’d like them. Speaking of mooncakes, how’d you like the graphic novel?

Gigi

Errr..mm. It wasn’t my cup of tea?
I mean, it was cute. I liked the witchy, demon, paranormal aspect.

Also really loved the lgbtq rep. Other than that, I feel like it’s something a much younger audience would enjoy.

How about you?

And yeah..I think Mooncakes are gross. 😜

Jonny

Yeah, I felt the same way overall.

It was cute, and I liked the autumnal setting. Also, the world they were set in had a lot of magic in it, so that was promising. But things never quite took off, ya know?

I love anything witchy or demonic, so I was really let down that they didn’t amp it up throughout. It was more about the character romances or eating dinner etc than it was the battles and plot arc, and I felt the characters were just too vanilla for me.

I did like the LGBT rep, but they could’ve added more diversity if you know what I mean.

Haha, how would you describe how they taste?

Gigi

I liked the magic too! But like you, wish there was more to it. It was definitely too vanilla and HEA for my liking as well.

I can’t even describe how Mooncakes taste to be honest. Like maybe if there were an apocalypse and it was the only thing left to eat, I’d eat it. It has an egg yolk (cooked) which is dry and gritty. Ewww..and the filling is gummy? Like eating Vaseline? Hahahaha. Sounds appetizing doesn’t it?!!

We need to find something dark and gripping to read next! Or at least something that has some crazy magical stuff

Jonny

Yeah, I definitely liked that it was full on magic and not magic realism, but yeah, too happily ever after and everything just fell into place a bit too easily. It kind of reminded me of a modern fairytale of sorts. There is just not enough conflict throughout.

I will say, I did enjoy the Nanas most of all the characters. I liked how snarky they were and knowing, but they could’ve been amped up a bit too. What character was most tolerable for you?

Hahaha! Oh my gosh, that sounds like the worst combo of tastes. I’ll have to buy some as gag gifts sometime.

Oh, for sure! I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled on the darker spectrum of things, so I don’t think we’ll have any trouble finding something that will be more riveting and non-sucky.

Gigi

Hahaha! Punking someone with Mooncakes would be hilarious.

Definitely looking forward to finding something non sucky!

I liked the nanas too. They were cool.

Jonny

Oh yes, I need new ways to embrace my trickster self, so thank you for the great idea. They’ll never know what hit them, muahaha!

Me too! I’ve been on a string of lukewarm or just decent reads, and I think next time maybe we should pick the most promising nightmare to read out there! I’m already working on a list, so I’m really excited about the possibilities.

Thanks again for doing this with me. I just know something great is around the corner for us!

Gigi

Ugh..same! I have yet to pick up something that grabs me. I’ve been reading a lot of 3 stars or lower. 😬

Let me know what you have lined up!

Jonny

Right? What is this madness?! Ugh!

Alright, sounds good. Until next time, my friend! 😀

That’s A Wrap!

Thanks for joining us on our buddy read and rant of Mooncakes! We had a lot of fun, and hope you did too! We will definitely be doing some more buddy reads in the future, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, why not check out Gigi and Jonny’s other fun buddy reads?

Buddy Reads & Rants: The Carrow Haunt

Buddy Reads & Rants: Sorcery of Thorns

Buddy Reads & Rants: Skyward

Buddy Reads & Rants: Renegades

Buddy Reads & Rants: Scythe

Buddy Reads & Rants: The Bone Garden

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