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Flowers of Luna
“You are rude,” the woman said, turning back to me, “and slow.” She put her hand on the hilt of her katana. “I wonder if such a slow, rude person has any friends?”
Growing up on a mining ship in deep space was lonely, but now Ran Gray has come to the moon to make a name for herself in fashion. When a chance encounter on Valentina bridge leads to cross words and crossed swords, Ran wonders... will she ever escape her family's reputation? Did her opponent really just ask her out on a date? And if she did, what will Ran wear?
Flowers of Luna is forty-three kilowords of sapphic romance in a hard science fiction setting. Winchell Chung has reviewed the manuscript for science accuracy and given it the coveted "Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval.
Growing up on a mining ship in deep space was lonely, but now Ran Gray has come to the moon to make a name for herself in fashion. When a chance encounter on Valentina bridge leads to cross words and crossed swords, Ran wonders... will she ever escape her family's reputation? Did her opponent really just ask her out on a date? And if she did, what will Ran wear?
Flowers of Luna is forty-three kilowords of sapphic romance in a hard science fiction setting. Winchell Chung has reviewed the manuscript for science accuracy and given it the coveted "Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval.
163 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
11 people are currently reading
1111 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Linsky
1 book44 followersJennifer Linsky was born in Japan, but quickly whisked away to Southern Arizona. She grew up among saguaro cactus and jumping cholla, and ran away to sea at the age of nineteen.
In the years since, she attended Northern Arizona University's School of Nursing, which led, bizarrely enough, to becoming a nurse. Now medically retired, Jenny lives in the American South with her mother and two gray cats.
Jenny writes when she must, reads when she can, and watches entirely too much Anime.
(As a reader, I average four stars per review. That doesn't mean I'm indiscriminate; it means I'm good at picking out books I'm likely to enjoy).
In the years since, she attended Northern Arizona University's School of Nursing, which led, bizarrely enough, to becoming a nurse. Now medically retired, Jenny lives in the American South with her mother and two gray cats.
Jenny writes when she must, reads when she can, and watches entirely too much Anime.
(As a reader, I average four stars per review. That doesn't mean I'm indiscriminate; it means I'm good at picking out books I'm likely to enjoy).
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September 7, 2017I wrote the book.
I think it's the best thing I've ever written.
I think it's the best thing I've ever written.
February 6, 2017
"I like who I am when I'm with her. And I hope that she feels the same way. If she doesn't, we shouldn't be together, no matter how I feel about it."
I wasn't expecting Flowers of Luna to be such a sweet love story. It was a pleasant surprise to read this book. There is so much to love here! Girls kissing, people living on the moon, a girl who grow up in a mining ship surrounded by the women in her family, and fashion students innovating in their art.
This was a refreshing story with Japanese inspirations. It's always so nice to read stories that bring something outside of the default. Where the US and western civilization isn't dictating everything about a worldbuilding and how these characters live.
One of my favorites things was finding out that Ran has two moms. The future is not some regressive version of our time. Ran's relationship with her family, especially with her sister Ren, is sweet and nice to read.
"Honey, you'll find that the solar system is full of people who want to tear you down. We tried to make our girls strong and kind, but not everyone will respect that."
I believe the plot twist at the end may be one of its only flaws. Mostly just the execution. It took a bit longer than it's expected and then the ending was resolved very fast. Without giving many spoilers, I wanted to know a bit more about what Hana had to deal with in her life and her reasons for that.
Flowers of Luna is an entertaining love story set in a futuristic world with an intriguing cast of diverse characters.
"A fragment of Sappho occurred to me, and I murmured, 'On soft mats, girls with all that they most wished for beside them.'"
I wasn't expecting Flowers of Luna to be such a sweet love story. It was a pleasant surprise to read this book. There is so much to love here! Girls kissing, people living on the moon, a girl who grow up in a mining ship surrounded by the women in her family, and fashion students innovating in their art.
This was a refreshing story with Japanese inspirations. It's always so nice to read stories that bring something outside of the default. Where the US and western civilization isn't dictating everything about a worldbuilding and how these characters live.
One of my favorites things was finding out that Ran has two moms. The future is not some regressive version of our time. Ran's relationship with her family, especially with her sister Ren, is sweet and nice to read.
"Honey, you'll find that the solar system is full of people who want to tear you down. We tried to make our girls strong and kind, but not everyone will respect that."
I believe the plot twist at the end may be one of its only flaws. Mostly just the execution. It took a bit longer than it's expected and then the ending was resolved very fast. Without giving many spoilers, I wanted to know a bit more about what Hana had to deal with in her life and her reasons for that.
Flowers of Luna is an entertaining love story set in a futuristic world with an intriguing cast of diverse characters.
"A fragment of Sappho occurred to me, and I murmured, 'On soft mats, girls with all that they most wished for beside them.'"
March 21, 2017
Originally written for The Lesbrary. My recs pitch for this book is: fashion college on the moon, with femme on femme Asian diaspora lesbian romance. Yes, I said on the moon.
Flowers of Luna, by biracial Japanese-American author Jennifer Linsky, has a very familiar structure and feel if you’ve been reading a lot of young adult and new adult contemporary f/f. Ran has just started college in fashion design, and the story is mainly about how she falls for a sexy, adventurous engineering student. Hana shows her a great time on the weekends but holds back a little too much of herself otherwise, which eventually causes problems. There are plenty of B-plots about group projects with Ran’s classmates, creating new clothing designs, and in staying in touch with her sister at another school far away.
Except, this one takes place on the freaking moon. So there’s an extra layer of fun and sparkle on top of the familiarity. The main character is biracial, and fairly in touch with her Japanese roots thanks to the moon’s culture having a lot of Japanese influence as a result of some postapocalyptic stuff that happened in Japan, driving everyone to seek homes elsewhere. She’s also a second-generation lesbian (or “mirror-biased”, in the slang of this imagined future; bisexual is “parallel-biased”) raised by two moms on a mining ship. Her parents were big heroes in some kind of major event that happened when she was too little to be involved, so she’s a little bit celebrity-adjacent and every once in a while it influences her interactions with the world and with strangers/new people.
But she’s on the moon to study fashion design, and on the moon you can socially get away with wearing clothing from different time periods or cultures to suit your whim, PLUS machines replicate whatever you design, so there’s basically no limit to what she can invent. (She does like doing some hand work, if she has the time for it.)
Hana, who Ran meets as a result of some weird posturing and playacting involving an insult in cosplay and the subsequent duel, is a Japanese diaspora engineering student who has to play it drab during the week so her being a cute lesbian doesn’t make her male classmates not take her seriously. But on the weekend, with Ran, she’s pretty sexually adventurous–for example, there’s a running gag about her not wearing underwear, even in public.
It’s hard to maintain true intimacy when one of you is holding back, so that’s the main conflict of the book, and there was a point in my reading where I kind of expected them to stay broken up and the MC to wind up with the nonbinary character she’d flirted with near the beginning. But the book’s main couple do work things out. I think I just wanted to be more convinced. Ran does acknowledge in the postlude that she has no idea what the future holds, but they’re enjoying themselves right now.
The moon environment itself is a very appealing place to spend your imaginary time, as a reader. There are cities, mostly Japanese and Russian influenced, with fake day and night, where you can visit cozy restaurants carpeted in tatami mats and floor cushions. “Shoes,” Hana reminds Ran. “The Moon is not a foreign country.” After the Japanese dinner they pop into Mr. Chung’s ice cream shop, where he does his best to balance heat and coolness with flavors like curry ice cream. “You must be careful to avoid an excess of yin; we live on the moon!”
They take a weekend date trip to Heinleinburg–many places in the moon civilization honor real historical figures in science and science fiction. Linsky writes, “Heinleinburg was settled by corporate pioneers who came to get wealthy from the moon. Set in Shoemaker Crater to be near the south polar ice fields, it had attracted everyone who dreamed of the moon; everyone who dreamed of riches; everyone who dreamed.” Love that kind of prose.
I want to specifically note that I initially overlooked this book because I thought, from the sample, that it was a different type of book, much weightier (the sample is from the insult scene in the beginning and I didn’t realize that was only cosplay playacting.) Had I known it was “lesbian college fluff on the moon”, I would have picked it up a lot sooner. Also, for a book that truly and thoroughly celebrates visual beauty, both of clothing and of women’s glorious, exquisite bodies, I think it would be better served by a different cover — just one woman’s opinion, of course!
In summary, Flowers of Luna is remarkably contemporary-feeling for sci-fi, a good gateway for SFF-intimidated f/f fans especially because the conflicts aren’t SFF-specific, while also including enough cool details to keep sci-fi fans happy.
Flowers of Luna, by biracial Japanese-American author Jennifer Linsky, has a very familiar structure and feel if you’ve been reading a lot of young adult and new adult contemporary f/f. Ran has just started college in fashion design, and the story is mainly about how she falls for a sexy, adventurous engineering student. Hana shows her a great time on the weekends but holds back a little too much of herself otherwise, which eventually causes problems. There are plenty of B-plots about group projects with Ran’s classmates, creating new clothing designs, and in staying in touch with her sister at another school far away.
Except, this one takes place on the freaking moon. So there’s an extra layer of fun and sparkle on top of the familiarity. The main character is biracial, and fairly in touch with her Japanese roots thanks to the moon’s culture having a lot of Japanese influence as a result of some postapocalyptic stuff that happened in Japan, driving everyone to seek homes elsewhere. She’s also a second-generation lesbian (or “mirror-biased”, in the slang of this imagined future; bisexual is “parallel-biased”) raised by two moms on a mining ship. Her parents were big heroes in some kind of major event that happened when she was too little to be involved, so she’s a little bit celebrity-adjacent and every once in a while it influences her interactions with the world and with strangers/new people.
But she’s on the moon to study fashion design, and on the moon you can socially get away with wearing clothing from different time periods or cultures to suit your whim, PLUS machines replicate whatever you design, so there’s basically no limit to what she can invent. (She does like doing some hand work, if she has the time for it.)
Hana, who Ran meets as a result of some weird posturing and playacting involving an insult in cosplay and the subsequent duel, is a Japanese diaspora engineering student who has to play it drab during the week so her being a cute lesbian doesn’t make her male classmates not take her seriously. But on the weekend, with Ran, she’s pretty sexually adventurous–for example, there’s a running gag about her not wearing underwear, even in public.
It’s hard to maintain true intimacy when one of you is holding back, so that’s the main conflict of the book, and there was a point in my reading where I kind of expected them to stay broken up and the MC to wind up with the nonbinary character she’d flirted with near the beginning. But the book’s main couple do work things out. I think I just wanted to be more convinced. Ran does acknowledge in the postlude that she has no idea what the future holds, but they’re enjoying themselves right now.
The moon environment itself is a very appealing place to spend your imaginary time, as a reader. There are cities, mostly Japanese and Russian influenced, with fake day and night, where you can visit cozy restaurants carpeted in tatami mats and floor cushions. “Shoes,” Hana reminds Ran. “The Moon is not a foreign country.” After the Japanese dinner they pop into Mr. Chung’s ice cream shop, where he does his best to balance heat and coolness with flavors like curry ice cream. “You must be careful to avoid an excess of yin; we live on the moon!”
They take a weekend date trip to Heinleinburg–many places in the moon civilization honor real historical figures in science and science fiction. Linsky writes, “Heinleinburg was settled by corporate pioneers who came to get wealthy from the moon. Set in Shoemaker Crater to be near the south polar ice fields, it had attracted everyone who dreamed of the moon; everyone who dreamed of riches; everyone who dreamed.” Love that kind of prose.
I want to specifically note that I initially overlooked this book because I thought, from the sample, that it was a different type of book, much weightier (the sample is from the insult scene in the beginning and I didn’t realize that was only cosplay playacting.) Had I known it was “lesbian college fluff on the moon”, I would have picked it up a lot sooner. Also, for a book that truly and thoroughly celebrates visual beauty, both of clothing and of women’s glorious, exquisite bodies, I think it would be better served by a different cover — just one woman’s opinion, of course!
In summary, Flowers of Luna is remarkably contemporary-feeling for sci-fi, a good gateway for SFF-intimidated f/f fans especially because the conflicts aren’t SFF-specific, while also including enough cool details to keep sci-fi fans happy.
September 5, 2017
Five well-earned stars.
I updated this to reflect the complete review version I was sent. Full disclosure: you can blame me for the chapter illustrations.
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Flowers of Luna feels like a bit of old school young-audience Heinlein, mixed in with shoujou manga. As science fiction goes, the setting is optimistic, but not the shiny utopia of Star Trek. It feels like the real world, just a couple of centuries hence. For those of us that care, the science is good, and special attention is given to little details like always closing pressure-tight doors behind you. It's short and sweet, and you're left wanting more books in the same setting. It's not the kind of book I normally read at all, which is a good thing. No deus ex machina aliens, winning a war or transcendental endings a lot of SF stories are based on.
After the final changes, there's more depth to the characters and the setting. I guess that last star in a review comes only with the final edit, and I think it's well deserved for a first author. Believe me, I dish out 5 stars grudgingly. No matter how clever a plot or setting is, or the writing - if the characters suck, there's almost no way it gets above 4. But when it draws you back and gets you wondering more about their lives - that's when I know there's 5 stars to be had.
I updated this to reflect the complete review version I was sent. Full disclosure: you can blame me for the chapter illustrations.
[image error]
Flowers of Luna feels like a bit of old school young-audience Heinlein, mixed in with shoujou manga. As science fiction goes, the setting is optimistic, but not the shiny utopia of Star Trek. It feels like the real world, just a couple of centuries hence. For those of us that care, the science is good, and special attention is given to little details like always closing pressure-tight doors behind you. It's short and sweet, and you're left wanting more books in the same setting. It's not the kind of book I normally read at all, which is a good thing. No deus ex machina aliens, winning a war or transcendental endings a lot of SF stories are based on.
After the final changes, there's more depth to the characters and the setting. I guess that last star in a review comes only with the final edit, and I think it's well deserved for a first author. Believe me, I dish out 5 stars grudgingly. No matter how clever a plot or setting is, or the writing - if the characters suck, there's almost no way it gets above 4. But when it draws you back and gets you wondering more about their lives - that's when I know there's 5 stars to be had.
March 17, 2017
An excellent yarn that owes a lot to classic SF and most clearly the work of Robert A. Heinlein, save with a modern sensibility RAH never came close to. The oldschool SF backdrop compliments the lesbian...sorry, mirror-biased - we need spacey words for things and Jennifer Linsky chose a really good one - romance quite well. The backdrop of an old, established lunar colony and hints at its complex history is tantalizing, even if we never get very deep into them. The characters are good, although the main character, Ran, is never really at fault for anything but minor errors and so comes across as a little too perfect (but that too is consistent with Heinlein's work). There's a lot of jargon to wade through too, not just SF stuff but fashion terminology as well, which made it hard for me to really catch my feet as I read through. It's pretty dense in that sense all the way through, which detracts a little from the overall lightness of the story, but doesn't ruin it.
For those minor issues, it's a great fun read and I can easily recommend it, especially to readers of more classic SF stories. If you're familiar with Clarke, Harrison, Asimov, and above all Heinlein, you'll find this comfortable territory indeed.
For those minor issues, it's a great fun read and I can easily recommend it, especially to readers of more classic SF stories. If you're familiar with Clarke, Harrison, Asimov, and above all Heinlein, you'll find this comfortable territory indeed.
January 5, 2019
A nice little book. It's a book about first love and starting out life on your own. It just happens to be set in the future, on the moon. With a protagonist, Ren, who is a lesbian, or mirror-biased as Ren says. In this future world, set maybe two or three hundred from now, gendering has almost disappeared. A world of fabricators (3D printers) that can print a chair or a dress just designed on your tablet.
Don't think too deeply about how quickly Ren's relationship develops. It is a romance after all.
This is a good book for those who feel their sexuality or gender doesn't conform to this world. Or just those who like seeing a world whose' seed has been laid now and how it might come to fruition in a few hundred years.
Don't think too deeply about how quickly Ren's relationship develops. It is a romance after all.
This is a good book for those who feel their sexuality or gender doesn't conform to this world. Or just those who like seeing a world whose' seed has been laid now and how it might come to fruition in a few hundred years.
February 3, 2017
Interesting story
This was a very interesting coming of age story and I enjoyed the background world history. I had never heard mirror based before, and I find that verbiage interesting. Overall a good book and well worth the read.
This was a very interesting coming of age story and I enjoyed the background world history. I had never heard mirror based before, and I find that verbiage interesting. Overall a good book and well worth the read.
April 20, 2017
actual rating: 3.75
February 21, 2017
3.5 out of 5
I really enjoyed Flowers of Luna! I wanted this to be one of my top reads of the year, but I don't think it quite hit the mark. FoL has the bones of an amazing story, but the world building doesn't quite back it up. The reader gets tossed a bit into the deep end and sometimes I had a bit of a rough time picturing things. You could tell the author had a beautiful world built up in her head, I'm just not quite sure it translated across. It's like knowing exactly what you're describing so it's easy for you to picture, but it's not necessarily as easy for your audience. In saying that, I did still enjoy the book! I liked Ran as a character, but I wish we'd been given a bit more background and time for her character to really grow and her relationships to develop. In all honestly, my biggest issue was probably that the book wasn't long enough. With a hundred or so more pages I think the characters could've found the depth I was looking for. The short length causes the struggle with Hana to be resolved fairly quickly which I found lessened the impact of it and her apology came off a bit disingenuous.
Good things though! It was really fun reading a slice of life, lesbian coming of age novel that also happened to be set in space with no big space conflicts, just college drama. Jo was an amazing character and it was so cool to see a character in a book using xe/xir pronouns! I would've loved to have seen more of Jo throughout the book. Ran's extensive queer family was so nice, and I loved seeing her interact with her sister and cousins. Family and positive support systems for the win! Both of the LIs being Japanese and the obvious celebration of culture in this book was also a really positive aspect of the book for me.
So, while maybe a bit rough around the edges, Flowers of Luna is a pretty good choice for a weekend curled up with a cup of tea and a book.
I really enjoyed Flowers of Luna! I wanted this to be one of my top reads of the year, but I don't think it quite hit the mark. FoL has the bones of an amazing story, but the world building doesn't quite back it up. The reader gets tossed a bit into the deep end and sometimes I had a bit of a rough time picturing things. You could tell the author had a beautiful world built up in her head, I'm just not quite sure it translated across. It's like knowing exactly what you're describing so it's easy for you to picture, but it's not necessarily as easy for your audience. In saying that, I did still enjoy the book! I liked Ran as a character, but I wish we'd been given a bit more background and time for her character to really grow and her relationships to develop. In all honestly, my biggest issue was probably that the book wasn't long enough. With a hundred or so more pages I think the characters could've found the depth I was looking for. The short length causes the struggle with Hana to be resolved fairly quickly which I found lessened the impact of it and her apology came off a bit disingenuous.
Good things though! It was really fun reading a slice of life, lesbian coming of age novel that also happened to be set in space with no big space conflicts, just college drama. Jo was an amazing character and it was so cool to see a character in a book using xe/xir pronouns! I would've loved to have seen more of Jo throughout the book. Ran's extensive queer family was so nice, and I loved seeing her interact with her sister and cousins. Family and positive support systems for the win! Both of the LIs being Japanese and the obvious celebration of culture in this book was also a really positive aspect of the book for me.
So, while maybe a bit rough around the edges, Flowers of Luna is a pretty good choice for a weekend curled up with a cup of tea and a book.
August 13, 2017
It should be more stars, but I'm not interested in fashion or romance. How is it even possible I enjoyed this?! Just good writing, I guess.
Seriously though: I was perpetually impressed by the array of not-too-far-in-the-future gadgetry and it was more thought out and better written than a lot of what passes for popular fiction today.
Now...if I can convince the author to write a Little House on the Prairie-esque prequel series about growing up on the Gray Maru.
Seriously though: I was perpetually impressed by the array of not-too-far-in-the-future gadgetry and it was more thought out and better written than a lot of what passes for popular fiction today.
Now...if I can convince the author to write a Little House on the Prairie-esque prequel series about growing up on the Gray Maru.
March 22, 2017
The thing I really liked about this book was the setting but at the same time I didn't really care for the plot, so this book was a pretty level read for me. YA/NA coming-of-age plots aren't my favorite, though there are a few I adore, and this one just didn't wow me. It was a touch predictable and I found it hard to find depth in the characters. The writing itself didn't piss me off and I was able to get through it, which is much more than can be said for a lot of the books I've picked up. Probably would have liked it more had it been longer.
And I was wondering, I thought you had to exercise a ton in low gravity so you don't lose bone density, but no one did in this book. Is that because our astronauts have to return to Earth gravity and these characters live in space? Not that I know anything about this really, just wondering.
The female body archetype pictures were interesting. I didn't realize female body archetypes were a thing, like in a studied way. Not that I know anything about that either though.
I'd read a sequel, if one is coming, or another book set in this universe.
And I was wondering, I thought you had to exercise a ton in low gravity so you don't lose bone density, but no one did in this book. Is that because our astronauts have to return to Earth gravity and these characters live in space? Not that I know anything about this really, just wondering.
The female body archetype pictures were interesting. I didn't realize female body archetypes were a thing, like in a studied way. Not that I know anything about that either though.
I'd read a sequel, if one is coming, or another book set in this universe.
April 26, 2017
i LOVED this. the world-building took a little getting used to but now im crazy about it. the characters and relationships were all so real and fun and it was a great romance that also had development and plot for the characters outside of just the relationship, which is so rare. i did think there was kind of a huge emphasis on sex (not erotica or anything, just like sex jokes a lot) but thats probably just bc im such a prude. all in all it was totally charming. good f/f (between 2 japanese girls, by a japanese author #ownvoices), good soft space sci fi, highly recommended!
October 8, 2017
Won this in a giveaway,and i really didn`t know what to expect.I have to say this is the weirdest book i`ve ever read-but in a good way! :)
As others have said we were thrown a bit into the deep end,but it didn't take long to get used to `life on the moon'
I never thought id be reviewing a fashion romance on the moon book-but i did really enjoy it.
Im not into fashion,but love gaming,so i could at least relate top those bits.
I also learned lots of new words hehehe,and if she ever writes another book,i'll pull up my slate and realize it :)
Would have given four stars,but it was a little short and i wish there was a bit more of a back story-and i shall be passing it along to my friends,who i know would enjoy it too..
As others have said we were thrown a bit into the deep end,but it didn't take long to get used to `life on the moon'
I never thought id be reviewing a fashion romance on the moon book-but i did really enjoy it.
Im not into fashion,but love gaming,so i could at least relate top those bits.
I also learned lots of new words hehehe,and if she ever writes another book,i'll pull up my slate and realize it :)
Would have given four stars,but it was a little short and i wish there was a bit more of a back story-and i shall be passing it along to my friends,who i know would enjoy it too..
September 13, 2017
Fantastic world building
This story is such a joy! The romance is wonderful. The humor sublime. But perhaps the best part of the story is the fantastic world building and the way it is delivered at just the right pacing, without relying on info-dumps or excessive exposition. I would love to read more stories based in this world.
This story is such a joy! The romance is wonderful. The humor sublime. But perhaps the best part of the story is the fantastic world building and the way it is delivered at just the right pacing, without relying on info-dumps or excessive exposition. I would love to read more stories based in this world.
August 27, 2017
A fun romp on the moon
Fashion, love, swordplay, and lots of kissing on the moon. Can't wait for the prequel and sequels. Maybe a few more clothes designs.
Fashion, love, swordplay, and lots of kissing on the moon. Can't wait for the prequel and sequels. Maybe a few more clothes designs.
June 15, 2017
"I like who I am when I'm with her. And I hope that she feels the same way. If she doesn't, we shouldn't be together, no matter how I feel about it."
I wasn't expecting Flowers of Luna to be such a sweet love story. It was a pleasant surprise to read this book. There is so much to love here! Girls kissing, people living on the moon, a girl who grow up in a mining ship surrounded by the women in her family, and fashion students innovating in their art.
This was a refreshing story with Japanese inspirations. It's always so nice to read stories that bring something outside of the default. Where the US and western civilization isn't dictating everything about a worldbuilding and how these characters live.
One of my favorites things was finding out that Ran has two moms. The future is not some regressive version of our time. Ran's relationship with her family, especially with her sister Ren, is sweet and nice to read.
"Honey, you'll find that the solar system is full of people who want to tear you down. We tried to make our girls strong and kind, but not everyone will respect that."
I believe the plot twist at the end may be one of its only flaws. Mostly just the execution. It took a bit longer than it's expected and then the ending was resolved very fast. Without giving many spoilers, I wanted to know a bit more about what Hana had to deal with in her life and her reasons for that.
Flowers of Luna is an entertaining love story set in a futuristic world with an intriguing cast of diverse characters.
"A fragment of Sappho occurred to me, and I murmured, 'On soft mats, girls with all that they most wished for beside them.'"
I wasn't expecting Flowers of Luna to be such a sweet love story. It was a pleasant surprise to read this book. There is so much to love here! Girls kissing, people living on the moon, a girl who grow up in a mining ship surrounded by the women in her family, and fashion students innovating in their art.
This was a refreshing story with Japanese inspirations. It's always so nice to read stories that bring something outside of the default. Where the US and western civilization isn't dictating everything about a worldbuilding and how these characters live.
One of my favorites things was finding out that Ran has two moms. The future is not some regressive version of our time. Ran's relationship with her family, especially with her sister Ren, is sweet and nice to read.
"Honey, you'll find that the solar system is full of people who want to tear you down. We tried to make our girls strong and kind, but not everyone will respect that."
I believe the plot twist at the end may be one of its only flaws. Mostly just the execution. It took a bit longer than it's expected and then the ending was resolved very fast. Without giving many spoilers, I wanted to know a bit more about what Hana had to deal with in her life and her reasons for that.
Flowers of Luna is an entertaining love story set in a futuristic world with an intriguing cast of diverse characters.
"A fragment of Sappho occurred to me, and I murmured, 'On soft mats, girls with all that they most wished for beside them.'"
March 4, 2017
Scifi about a sheltered fashion student with a heavy legacy to live up to, who quickly falls into a sweet but sometimes complicated romance with a girl she challenged to a duel shortly after arriving on the moon, all while trying to build her fashion brand.... I LOVED this, and basically every character, and the worldbuilding and snippets of Ran's family backstory were really interesting... one of my only qualms is I dunno how I feel about scifi where fat people don't really seem to exist anymore? Or at least that's the impression i got from the limited fashion body type illustrations - I WANNA KNOW ABOUT INNOVATIVE SCI-FI FATSHION TOO
February 14, 2018
A delightful romance in a well-constructed world, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Recommended.
(Just wish it was longer. Need more time with these characters!)
(Just wish it was longer. Need more time with these characters!)
November 18, 2016
I love a good character-driven story, one that lets me see inside the head of the protagonists. Flowers of Luna is that. In addition, there is romantic angst, humor, and wonderful descriptions of clothing I'd love to try. There's a flavor of another culture, maybe more than one. All things that make a book enjoyable ... plus it's just a darned good read.
February 5, 2017
This is a sweet girl-meets-girl love story, set in the space-going future, with interesting bits of fashion design, Japanese culture, and a few charming nods to Dumas-esque language. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and was sorry it wasn't longer.
June 12, 2017
I received an eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. You can read my full review here!
June 16, 2017
Beautiful futuristic romance
I devoured this book today! It's been awhile since I've been able to focus enough to read. This book was a good choice because it was engaging and flowed very well.
I enjoyed the world building, the characters. The language was delicious. The imagery it invoked was gorgeous. I'm still "seeing" bits of scenery and clothing (and lack of clothing). The chapter headings were delightful as well.
Lovely worldbuilding without too much exposition. Excellent characters to really care about. The imagery was fantastic and I felt like I was there watching the story unfold.
Looking forward to more stories in this universe!
I devoured this book today! It's been awhile since I've been able to focus enough to read. This book was a good choice because it was engaging and flowed very well.
I enjoyed the world building, the characters. The language was delicious. The imagery it invoked was gorgeous. I'm still "seeing" bits of scenery and clothing (and lack of clothing). The chapter headings were delightful as well.
Lovely worldbuilding without too much exposition. Excellent characters to really care about. The imagery was fantastic and I felt like I was there watching the story unfold.
Looking forward to more stories in this universe!
July 25, 2017
I took my time reading this book because once I dipped my toes in the water, it felt so right I didn't want it to ever end. I fell in love with this world and the characters immediately. The science aspects, the art, the imagery depicted so well by the author's words. And then the relationships. I felt their emotions. I could relate my own experience. This has everything, romance, science, fiction, fantastical things, fashion, humour, and gaming! I'm wistful there was more to keep reading as I'm not ready to leave the world Flowers of Luna invites you into. Do yourself a favor and read, visit. Buy the book so you can revisit at any time.
October 14, 2017
i felt like the scifi stuff was too much to digest considering how small the book was but by the end got used to the terminologies, etc. well, most of it.
March 12, 2021
This was a frustrating read, because some aspects of it were truly delightful and innovative while others were downright unpleasant and really not for me.
The main character is studying fashion design student at the top program in the solar system, and this future fashion world has twelve "Female Body Archetypes" to describe different proportions between bust, hips, shoulders, length of legs, etc. So each chapter begins not only with a description of one of the archetypes, but also with a visual representation of it as a kind of paper doll silhouette. It was... upsetting and offputting to constantly be confronted with these pictures of idealized "female bodies".
I'm glad that in the book's setting clothing designers do take into account somewhat more variation in how people can be proportioned than our current fashion industry does, but the archetypes were still all so thin, posed in a stereotypically feminine way, with super small busts. And then there's the cissexism - you could argue that some of the "female body" archetypes are supposed to be inclusive of body proportions that are more common among trans women... but then in the text you've got characters still describing those archetypes as having "boyish" features, so there's still this really gross inherent connection between certain kinds of bodies and being a woman vs. being a man. It would have been so much cooler (and less viscerally upsetting) if instead it had been twelve archetypes of human bodies and shown some actual variation!
I did love that the main character is a huge nerd about fashion and infodumps about one of her designs to her love interest the first chance she gets :D And also that the story is extremely not Anglo-centric. The main character and her love interest both have Japanese heritage, and the book very much focuses on the history and experience of Japanese diaspora in outer space. There's also a lot of Russian presence in the architecture, institutions, and culture of the moon city where the two MC's go to school. These were my favorite parts of the book and the place where the worldbuilding really shone.
The romance was very cute to start with - Ran and Hana go from dramatic costumed banter, to a duel, hurt-comfort, and calmly having tea in the space of about a day? The beginning of their relationship is so much fun and it beautifully evokes that "new adult" feel of being out of the parental nest and standing on one's own two feet for the first time, being slightly wild and giddy with it. Sadly, by the end of the book the plot had made me actively root against Ran and Hana ending up together. There were some upsetting and cliched tropes, where the story had the opportunity to go in a really interesting direction - exploring characters with different needs from a relationship, for example, or even having a biromantic character who's only sexually interested in women - but instead it went with a boring and unnecessary betrayal.
The main character is studying fashion design student at the top program in the solar system, and this future fashion world has twelve "Female Body Archetypes" to describe different proportions between bust, hips, shoulders, length of legs, etc. So each chapter begins not only with a description of one of the archetypes, but also with a visual representation of it as a kind of paper doll silhouette. It was... upsetting and offputting to constantly be confronted with these pictures of idealized "female bodies".
I'm glad that in the book's setting clothing designers do take into account somewhat more variation in how people can be proportioned than our current fashion industry does, but the archetypes were still all so thin, posed in a stereotypically feminine way, with super small busts. And then there's the cissexism - you could argue that some of the "female body" archetypes are supposed to be inclusive of body proportions that are more common among trans women... but then in the text you've got characters still describing those archetypes as having "boyish" features, so there's still this really gross inherent connection between certain kinds of bodies and being a woman vs. being a man. It would have been so much cooler (and less viscerally upsetting) if instead it had been twelve archetypes of human bodies and shown some actual variation!
I did love that the main character is a huge nerd about fashion and infodumps about one of her designs to her love interest the first chance she gets :D And also that the story is extremely not Anglo-centric. The main character and her love interest both have Japanese heritage, and the book very much focuses on the history and experience of Japanese diaspora in outer space. There's also a lot of Russian presence in the architecture, institutions, and culture of the moon city where the two MC's go to school. These were my favorite parts of the book and the place where the worldbuilding really shone.
The romance was very cute to start with - Ran and Hana go from dramatic costumed banter, to a duel, hurt-comfort, and calmly having tea in the space of about a day? The beginning of their relationship is so much fun and it beautifully evokes that "new adult" feel of being out of the parental nest and standing on one's own two feet for the first time, being slightly wild and giddy with it. Sadly, by the end of the book the plot had made me actively root against Ran and Hana ending up together. There were some upsetting and cliched tropes, where the story had the opportunity to go in a really interesting direction - exploring characters with different needs from a relationship, for example, or even having a biromantic character who's only sexually interested in women - but instead it went with a boring and unnecessary betrayal.
March 13, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a really nice romance story set against the backdrop of a science-fiction world I liked a lot. Seriously I loved the world-building in this book. The way everything looked, the way the technology played into the story, the way the protagonist's history is slowly revealed without a huge info dump at the beginning.
It was fun and touching and highly enjoyable. I learned a lot about fashion, which was interesting. I really like the future it imagines. Not a perfect place, but a very hopeful one.
It was fun and touching and highly enjoyable. I learned a lot about fashion, which was interesting. I really like the future it imagines. Not a perfect place, but a very hopeful one.
February 9, 2022
This is my first time ever writing a goodreads review. It felt important. Listen, I don't think a book has ever felt so relevant to my interests. A queer, sapphic, wholesome love story set in a well-researched, plausible hard science fiction setting? With swords?!? Jennifer if it weren't for the fashion references that I enjoyed but did not understand I would be wondering if I secretly wrote this book myself in my sleep.
This book is amazing. It is not perfect, but its imperfections don't knock it down below 5 stars for me personally. I'll start with my chief complaint: There wasn't enough of it. No, I don't just mean that I wanted more. I did, obviously; I would happily read ten times as much content in this universe and/or following these characters, but I actually think it being short and sweet and to the point is to the book's credit - a majority of hard scifi is dense and a slog to get through.
No, more specifically I don't think that there was enough runway between the angsty emotional climax and the actual last page. Extremely minor, detail free spoilers follow:
On the other hand, I inhaled this book in a single sitting, so maybe I just didn't give myself enough time to digest.
Everything else...Jennifer, this was sublime. As realistic and plausible well-researched and, overall, optimistic a vision of a spacefaring humanity as anything from the (cis het white male) (long-winded, somewhat stuffy, admittedly pedantic) hard scifi literary giants. At the same time, it was short, sweet, an easy read, full of feelings and love and wholesomeness. This book felt like the love child of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars and Becky Chamber's A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet but made 10x more gay.
Dear author, can we be friends? Seriously, where do I find other women and queerdos to talk about spaceflight technology with? Someone come scream at me about your feelings about this book, I need to not be alone.
This book is amazing. It is not perfect, but its imperfections don't knock it down below 5 stars for me personally. I'll start with my chief complaint: There wasn't enough of it. No, I don't just mean that I wanted more. I did, obviously; I would happily read ten times as much content in this universe and/or following these characters, but I actually think it being short and sweet and to the point is to the book's credit - a majority of hard scifi is dense and a slog to get through.
No, more specifically I don't think that there was enough runway between the angsty emotional climax and the actual last page. Extremely minor, detail free spoilers follow:
On the other hand, I inhaled this book in a single sitting, so maybe I just didn't give myself enough time to digest.
Everything else...Jennifer, this was sublime. As realistic and plausible well-researched and, overall, optimistic a vision of a spacefaring humanity as anything from the (cis het white male) (long-winded, somewhat stuffy, admittedly pedantic) hard scifi literary giants. At the same time, it was short, sweet, an easy read, full of feelings and love and wholesomeness. This book felt like the love child of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars and Becky Chamber's A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet but made 10x more gay.
Dear author, can we be friends? Seriously, where do I find other women and queerdos to talk about spaceflight technology with? Someone come scream at me about your feelings about this book, I need to not be alone.
August 30, 2017
To be honest, this didn't feel like a full book. The parts that were there — cute dates, fashion, bits of futuristic world building — were great. It was fun to read. But there wasn't enough there. When I swiped to the next page at the end of the book only to find there wasn't a next page, I was genuinely shocked. Not upset that there wasn't more, but actually confused about why the app was telling me I'd reached the end of the book. "But," I thought, "all of this has only been set up. We've only had maybe half a story? This doesn't make sense." The big climax problem of the book was barely a blip that was solved in just a few minutes of talking, with several smaller side plots severed off with no ending. Which I realize is a lot of complaining for a book I just gave four stars, but I had to get it out. This book is fun while you're reading it, but be prepared to be less satisfied once you're no longer reading it.
August 12, 2025
This book just wasn't for me. The entire vibe just wasn't my thing.
May 3, 2017
I adore everything about this. It's funny, and sweet, and a little bit sad, and a lot poignant, and there is a passing reference to cows in pressure suits meandering around on the regolith.
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