WATER MOON is an epic love story that has nothing and everything you have ever wanted in a fictional love story.

Set in a fantastical world behind a dinky ramen restaurant is a pawnshop where patrons end up when they have a choice to pawn in exchange for whatever they wish for. The ramen restaurant seats just a few at a time and there’s always a line outside the door. This is where the patrons and their thoughts come into play and for a lucky or rather willing few the door opens to a pawn shop and not the ramen restaurant. Our introduction to the pawnshop is via just one customer Takeda san as she finds herself in a pawn shop and not the ramen place she’s been visiting for a long time.

Through her, we meet Otou-san, the pawnshop owner and his daughter Hana. Otou-san takes the reader through the purpose of the pawnshop and how it works. Coincidentally it is also the owner's last day of work, once they close shop for the day, he retires and Hana takes his place. However, when the new day dawns Hana finds a mess on her hands with the pawn shop ransacked and her father missing.

She tries to make sense of it all and looks for clues that her father might have left behind for her. While the pawnshop’s door is shared with a restaurant from our world, inside it’s different. Inside is a place where our rules don’t apply. Just as she is getting a grip, knowing she can’t just walk out of the door and get help, a customer walks in.

Hana instantly sees who he is for real and the role he will play from here on. Every character we meet plays a role, their personal stories are intertwined in an intricate way which is key to the story. Keishin is a scientist who’s always looking for answers to the big questions of the world and how it all came to be. The same curiosity makes him believe every explanation Hana gives and he decides to stay and help her find her father. Thus starts a journey Hana and Kei take to find answers both believable and ones that might be unexplainable in Kei’s world.

WATER MOON is a story of sky markets, and ghost towns, one where paper cranes transport you and time is folded into origami papers and memories captured in pearls. It is a mesmerising world where we find answers to questions we didn’t even ask and yet they fill a void we never knew we had.

Hana and Kei go on a journey filled with beautiful and terrifying creatures all the same. Along the way they face danger, betrayal, a sense of doom and also hope, love and much more. The beauty and grip in the story come from the fantastical world the author has created complete with lovable and fearsome creatures.

The love story and personal dynamic between the couple pull you in as much as the surroundings they are in. Theirs is a story that reminds you of star-crossed lovers, of two people who aren’t meant to be and yet share an unescapable chemistry and much more.

WATER MOON is a fantasy love story that offers not just love but a promising world, a platform to get answers to questions that haven’t had a chance to be asked. WATER MOON is a story you didn’t know you needed but will end up cherishing like a treasure.