Thank you Netgalley for this ARC, the opinions that follow are my own.

From the first chapter, I knew this book was something special! I loved the east dialogue at home and the instant chemistry between the love interests! I’m very curious to see where the author takes us next (I’ve heard there are at least four planned). Also crossing my fingers the other covers are just as lovely!

Like a fairytale or an anime show, this book creates strong visuals that will stick in your mind. There’s much more humor than a typical high fantasy read, but not all of it hits. It leans on the younger side of YA, but if you know that going in, it’s a lot of fun.

To address some critical reviews I’ve seen, it’s obviously not a straight up Sailor Moon retelling, but I do think it vibes with Sailor Moon. It’s got battle scenes, teenager cringe, chosen ones, demons preying on humans, hero reincarnation, serious darkness, inane silliness, smaller villains and a big boss villain. I think a lot of reviewers had certain expectations going into it, especially for American readers largely deprived of Sailor Moon merch and appreciation. Let it be what it is, and you will be entertained.

The novel also has lots of Cinderella vibes, and the end explicitly shows that the next book will take inspiration from Beauty and the Beast.

It’s not perfect. The book suffers from “girl didn’t know she was pretty until a handsome boy noticed her” syndrome. Nothing is surprising in the plot. There was one pronoun mistake that everyone keeps talking about in the ARC copies, but there’s a fair amount of text errors, and I highly doubt it was intentional.

I was entertained while reading it. Each character has their own quirks and personality. There was a thought-out world and villain schemes that I can’t wait to see play out in a series of novels. The shifting atmospheres of the book, from teenage silliness to harsh living to magical secret societies to demonic plots to royal glamour were all fun and all made sense. The different parts of the story all work together. I’m definitely picking up the next book.

7/10 an intriguing series starter.

I absolutely LOVED Wintersong and knew I'd read whatever this author put out. I was slightly disappointed. I think I was so hyped for something new from this particular author that I had high expectations. Should I have gone in without those it would have been better. It wasn't bad but it also wasn't up to par with a lot of other fantasy I've read lately.

1.5 ⭐️

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara was a book that I was truly hoping to like. In fact I thought I would love it, since it sounded like a promising fantasy novel. However, it’s a book that continues to prove that a pretty cover doesn’t make a fascinating story.

To start off, this book was a decent idea of a fantasy novel and with proper execution it could’ve been amazing. But it just wasn’t. For one, I despised the writing. I’m aware that the author included a note at the beginning of the book, explaining why they wrote it the way they did. And while I’m happy they are proud of what they wrote I also need to say that it was confusing. As someone who is not very familiar with Asian culture, I was excited to learn more about it but this book made me feel so lost. I had no idea what it was talking about and was unfamiliar with much of the language. I didn’t want to have to look up a word every 5 minutes.

Another issue I found for this writing, also had to do with marketing. The marketing for this book was that it was YA sailor moon meets Cinder. For one, I know nothing about sailor moon so I didn’t see the appeal and still don’t which is just my own personal issue. But Cinder? I loved that book so much and other than the references to Asian culture and the so called cinderella retelling in both novels, they didn’t feel similar at all. Lastly this book is not YA. It’s been marketed at that genre but it’s not and I know many agree. YA or Young Adult is aimed for teenagers. Such an audience is able to read more mature content just without so much graphic detail that adult books have. Guardians of Dawn: Zhara was written way to immaturely to be for teens. I felt as though I was reading a middle grade book. Even Harry Potter felt more mature than this.

Such immaturity brings me to discuss the characters. The main protagonists were 17 years old but acted as though they were 10. The MMC, Han, was a typical jock dressed up to be a prince. He literally lacked common sense and only cares about his looks, as pointed out many times by the other characters. On top of that he was obsessed with romance novels but then proceeded to be afraid of girls. His whole personality was his waitlisting and his romance novels. As for the MFC, Zhara, she acted like a school girl who would make a fool or herself in front of her crush. I was hoping for a powerful female lead but she lacked it completely. Everyone walked all over her and she completely lacked any strength or power the entire book until suddenly in the last couple of chapters she knew exactly how to handle her magic and how to save the world. Even though she failed all her lessons the whole book.

On top of this the romance between Han and Zhara, it was predictable from the start, which is part of why I don’t like reading retellings much. I mean this retelling wasn’t even a good one. Her stepmother was just mid and she only had one stepsister that did actually love her. Anyways, her relationship with Han was like watching two 12 year olds be pushed together by their friends and then share an awkward kiss in front of everyone. Han didn’t know how to act around her at all. And Zhara has a weird habit of getting the “good-looking giggles” where she giggles around anyone she finds good looking. Like wth? 😐 On top of that we got a pov from both characters and Zhara acted completely different in both. When we saw her from Han’s perspective she was like all flirty and confident but when we got her own pov she was all fawn-like. Nothing really lined up or was consistent in this book.

I appreciated the author including lgbtq characters in this novel. In fact Xu, who identifies as they/them, as well as Yuli, who was a lesbian, were my two favorites characters. But none the less it was mentioned quite frequently in the novel how identifying that way was looked down upon in the morning realms. With Xu it felt a little forced on the character. But since I’m not apart of the community, I don’t feel comfortable addressing anything. You’ll have to ask someone who is more able to relate.

So at the end of the day, Yuli was the only well done character. She was the badass female lead that I wanted but didn’t get. I would have preferred that the book be written about her. She knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it. And unlike Zhara she understood magic and knew how to wield it.

The only other thing I liked was the elemental guardian’s companions. Such as the ginger cat named Sajah. I loved that cat so much. He was my favorite character. Which at first I didn’t even like his bc when her meowed the author would be like “‘purrrt’ said the ginger cat” I’m sorry what? Idk the writing of the whole book was off to me.

I literally gave the extra .5 star for Yuli and Sajah the naughty ginger cat.

I know I’ve already said a lot and at the beginning of this I did say it could’ve been a good book. It’s true it could’ve been but at the same time it was a basic plot. —> secret magical girl and some unfortunate prince run into eachother while seeking some all powerful elemental guardians. Said magic girl also happens to have a magic animal sidekick and poor prince can’t do anything for himself so he has to bring his smarter, wiser best friend with him. Alas they find said guardians and help save the day. And somehow their parents don’t care at all what they are doing. Don’t even suspect a damn thing. If any of you have ever seen the movie: Guardians of Ga’Hoole (yk the one with the owls) then just know this book is the same plot but with humans and Cinderella romance.

Okay I’ve said enough now. I’m really proud if anyone made it to the end of this crazy review. Deep down, I think this book is definitely for someone. And I think children between the ages of 11-13 would eat this up. But unfortunately it’s not for me. I’m truly shocked I read it to the end bc I wanted to DNF on chapter 3.

Read this book if you want some elemental magic and a slight Cinderella retelling. (Assuming your even still interested after reading this entire review.)

One again thanks to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this E-ARC. I really appreciate the opportunity but just wasn’t for me.

3.5 rounded to 4

Guardians of Dawn :Zhara is a new Young Adult fantasy by S. Jae-Jones. Follow the point of views of Jin Zhara , an apothecary's apprentice, and Han , a sheltered prince. While are enduring characters and from the moment they literally bump into each other their interactions are entertaiing, they did come off a bit too immature even for a YA. This fantasy was rich in world building and plot. There's magic where it's forbidden, secret societies, monsters , demons and more to discover and I look forward to what's to come in the series.

3.5 rounded up

New series alert! This book is a fun young adult fantasy described as a mix between Cinderella, Sailor Moon, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it certainly delivers on that promise.

What I didn't love as much:
-There's some disconnect on the age this book is targeted for. For example, our mc Zhara often gets the "good-looking giggles" whenever she sees someone attractive, suggesting this is for a younger audience, but there's also some suggestive references and gruesome descriptions of monsters. It was just kind of jarring?
-I was often confused during action sequences regarding where characters were positioned, or who could hear what. At one point there are characters on a roof, but the monster they were fighting is on the ground? I think??
-Aside from a twist or two at the end, I found the plot twists and secrets to be too heavily hinted at throughout the book.

What I loved:
-There was a lot of great rep in this book - LGBTQ, different cultures and skin tones, and disability rep (blindness). The book touched on discussions of queerphobia, colorism, classism, and ableism.
-The characters, while sometimes frustrating and flawed, I mostly found very lovable. My favorites were Xu, the nonbinary best friend of the prince, Han, the himbo mmc prince, and Jiyi, the cold and sarcastic magic researcher.
-Not a huge fan of insta love, but honestly I liked the mmc so much, that it didn't pull me out of the budding relationship.
-THE BTS REFERENCES 👀

After being drawn in by the mystic, intriguing, and powerful plotline, as well as falling in love with the book's cover, my expectations were set quite high. However, if you were to ask me if the book fulfilled my wishes as a reader, I couldn't honestly say "yes." While it was still an enjoyable read for me, I unfortunately found it difficult to connect with most of the characters. Additionally, the abundance of characters made it hard for me to remember their long names and past stories.
Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but it took me quite a long time for me to even get through the first 25%, partly due to the writing style, but also partly pacing. While there were some moments that I liked and the idea of the world, I felt that it took a bit too long for me to really get interested. The romance and dynamic between Han and Zhara was cute in the innocent and young love kind of way, which I did enjoy. But I didn't really connect with the rest of the story as much as I wanted to, and felt there could've been a tad bit more depth between Han/Zhara. I think that the Sailor Moon/Cinder-esque vibes were kind of there, but not strong enough to my tastes. Zhara's reactions to her family were a bit too YA protag. for me.

SAILOR MOON COMPARISON?!!?!!!

The synopsis of the book really reminded me of Cinderella for some reason but I was so excited to read it, especially since it was being compared to sailor moon. The cover of the book is so beautiful I can’t, but anyways the book is sooo good, I really enjoyed it. The world building was done really well and I absolutely loved the characters. I love reading fantasy books with magical elements so I was really happy about that. However, the fact that I have to wait for the sequel to come out makes me want to cry a little bit.

In a world where magic is forbidden a girl trying to appease her mother's cruel whims and protect her blind younger sister all the while keeping her own magical gifts hidden suddenly finds herself on an journey like no other from facing off against monsters, going on dates with a charming man who just happens to be the prince, and finding her own worth. Jin Zhara has had a difficult life, from dealing with the grief of losing her parents to living with an abusive stepmother and working to make ends meet all the while taking cate of a blind younger sister that she might have accidentally blinded when she couldn't control her own magic, did I mention that she has magic that is strictly forbidden from and could have her executed if anyone finds out? The only thing that Zhara does find happiness in is a romance book series that she's been trying to get her hands on. She has a chance encounter with a handsome young man named Han who gets her in contact a secret magical liberation organization called the Guardians of Dawn. Soon Zhara finds herself awakening powers she never knew she had and facing off against demons that have begun plaguing the city. This is the first book in the series. This was a mixture of Cinderella meets Sailor moon and it was a fun read. The romance was cute and both Zhara and Han were an overall cute couple. The magic, demons, and such were a unique part of the story and the conclusion leaves off in a nice way to start the beginning of the second book.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Guardians of Dawn: Zhara pulled my attention with the pitch “Sailor Moon meets Cinder.” While the latter didn’t meet my expectations for some odd reason, even though I tried reading it twice with no desire to move onto the rest of the series either time, I’m a massive fan of both versions of the Sailor Moon anime, and I’ve dabbled a bit in the manga and some of the other media. While I’m a firm believer that you need to take comp titles with a grain of salt, I ended up getting at least tangential vibes to what I liked from early Sailor Moon, as well as potential for more.
The world building is intriguing, and I liked seeing the Korean cultural influences. The rules with magic being banned, and magicians being blamed for turning people into monsters makes for an interesting premise to start off and have the characters navigate.
The titular Zhara is a fairly sympathetic character, and the Cinderella parallels are pretty apparent in her toxic relationship with her stepmother at the start. In spite of this, she remains a kind, compassionate person, and I liked that she has a positive relationship with her sister, who is visually impaired. However, in spite of these tough issues, I like that there’s a balance of lightheartedness too, especially with the constant theme of Zhara loving her romances coming up. S. Jae-Jones does a great job of balancing tough topics and fantastical violence with whimsy and humor in a way that feels reminiscent of a Sailor Moon-style shojo manga.
The supporting cast is a lot of fun. I liked the romance, especially with Han being kind of a lovable himbo (more of these types of love interests, please!). And some of the other titular Guardians were great too. An additional plus for varied gender and sexuality rep!
The pacing here was a bit uneven. While there were moments of excitement, it would alternate with moments of lull. It’s not a massively long book, so it’s not super-noticeable, but I still feel the book could benefit from being tightened up in places.
This is a fun read, and I’d recommend it to fans of fairy tale retellings or manga/anime-adjacent books.

I think this is a great premise for a fantasy series and a unique world, but the pacing of this was the biggest struggle for me. In particular, the extremely slow “reveals” for things that were pretty obvious from the beginning (and that somehow the MCs never figured out?) were tough to get through. For example, the cat fully turns into a chimera in front of the characters and they somehow never talk about it and then 50 pages later the cat does THE SAME TRANSFORMATION but that time it’s a big reveal??? Idgi!
Also, the cover is gorgeous and I love it but Zhara is described as having “brown skin” many times in the book, and I do not think this cover is reflective of that, which is disappointing (unless the cover is not supposed to be portraying Zhara, which would be confusing also)
Overall— The pacing was tough for me but if there was some stuff cut from the middle, I’d be all about this! Thank you to netgalley for the eARC! 3.5 stars rounded to 4 :)

I don't often read blurbs, but I did for this one and I"m glad I did because it truly peaked my interest. Sailor Moon meets Cinder? YES PLEASE

Zhara is a Cinderella retelling set in a wonderful fantasy universe. It felt like Disney move in the best way possible - I was on the edge of my seat and rooting for the characters (and the cute love story) the entire time. The world building itself was far more complex than I expected for this book and felt like it was trying to do a little too much at times. Although the author DID pull all those threads together by the end. While there were some common tropes and a bit of predictability, it fit really well with the author's style and tone of the book. I also really enjoyed the side characters - there might have been a bit too many, overall I felt that they really added to our main characters journeys and brought some great personalities in the mix!

Overall this was a really fun read, but I found the really obvious movie/book inspirations regularly pulled me from the book - think Mulan, Tangled, Cinder - it fit the vibes of the book but there were too many similarities since (in my mind) they belong to those pieces of art/story.

Thank you the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

4.75⭐️ I ADORED this! Absolutely delightful, so fun…It’s not without depth and emotion but there is such lightheartedness that was a total breath of fresh air. This is the third Cinderella inspired story I’ve read lately and easily my favorite! The Sailor Moon comparison is totally apt but it also reminded me of Avatar (benders not blue creatures 😅) both of which I love so the vibes were ✨🤌🏻✨ for me. The pacing is great—plenty of action, magic, and adventure, it kept me totally engaged all the way through—but also enough character development that you get more than just a surface feel for the characters. There is ace spectrum, sapphic, and non-binary rep through various characters which always makes my little queer heart happy to read. Han is quite possibly my favorite prince ever? TBH I don’t usually like prince characters, the vibe is usually so typical masculine or tortured soul ehhhhhhhh…so Han with his cinnamon roll, himbo vibes was amazing and I love him. And I’m also obsessed with Yuli so I’m hoping/assuming (will riot if not!) because of who she is that one of the future books will be more about her, and I cannot wait for it!

The quick cut: A girl struggling to balance her evil stepmother's demands and caring for her blind sister finds life more complicated when monsters reappear again. Chaos ensues when the girl discovers she plays a more important role than she realizes.

A real review:
Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing the arc for an honest review.

Fantasy is one of my favorite genres because it has a mystical way of talking about life in an indirect and powerful way. We may not like to admit it, but good versus evil is a battle we experience every day. For Zhara and the morning realms, that battle is just kicking into full gear.

Zhara has a hard enough time making it day to day paying the bills, but that struggle is only worsened with her awful stepmother's demands. She finds a way to care for her blind sister Suzhan in whatever way she can. She hides the magic she has, as having it is illegal. However, the world she lives in is thrown into chaos when it's rumored that monsters are reappearing again. Can the morning realms survive the demons and monsters of the past again? Or will they rip this world apart for real now?

I have somewhat mixed feelings after finishing this ARC. While I loved the world building and the land that the author created, for the life of me I could not connect with the characters. Doing that and feeling something for the characters is sort of essential to loving a story (or it is for me).

Zhara is very much given a Cinderella vibe with the evil stepmom and prince charming like character Han. She's meant to be lovable, but for me she came across as boring and hard to differentiate from other characters. For someone with magical powers, you'd think she would stand out.

My favorite part of the book is admittedly the side plot involving Zhara and her sister Suzhan. They take an emotional journey during this story, with history unraveling itself during a crucial moment. It says a lot about why Zhara is so committed to her sister. It's the one moment I connected with her as the lead character.

A fun fantasy world that's missing compelling characters.

My rating: 3.75 out of 5

A big thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I came for the promise of this book being like Cinder, and I was wronged. The only reflection of Cinder, was that is was also inspired by Sailor Moon. Though it sure didn't read anything like it.

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara by S. Jae-Jones is a YA fantasy novel that is set in a world where magic is forbidden, and magicians are blamed for their supposed creation of monsters, like those supposedly starting to re-emerge in the bogs surrounding her home. Jin Zhara has more important things to worry about, like appeasing her step mother and taking care of her blind sister. All while keeping her own magic under control. But on a chance encounter with a handsome young man who claims he can help her learn her magic, with his super secret magical liberation group called Guardians of Dawn.

I REALLY wanted to love this book. Especially considering one of it's comp titles was Cinder (aka one of my favorite books of all time). But I just couldn't. It was decent, that's about it. Try it if you really want to, but I'm not going to recommend it.

This is an autobuy author for me. I will read anything that they write. This cover is just gorgeous! I have been excited about this one for a while! Magic is viewed as bad in Zhara's world and is also forbidden. It is something she has to hid. She has heard stories of the Guardians of the Dawn but she always thought they were fairytales. But are they really? This story had so much action and adventure. There was also a little romance. Exactly how I like my fantasies! I cannot wait to read the next book. Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I had high hopes for this book based on the ads that it was similar to Sailor Moon, which is one of my favorite animes, and this book did not disappoint! It absolutely delivered on it's promise. Jin Zhara is a bit of a reluctant heroine, but that was one of the things that I loved about her. All of the characters in this book are so vibrant, they really just come to life while reading. I loved the story of elemental guardians fighting demons to protect humanity, that definitely added to the Sailor Moon vibe of the book. I also appreciated the authors use of gender non-specific pronouns. It was awesome to see this normalized in print, and I think it is important that there are authors that write this way, as it normalizes pronouns outside the standard binary. This story really sucked me in, and I was invested from early on in the characters and the plot. Xu is probably my favorite character after Zhara, I think everyone needs a friend like them in their life. I cannot wait to see where this story goes, and to meet the other guardians! I think this is going to be an amazing series!

Sailor Moon meets Cinder in Zhara, the first in an East Asian inspired fantasy series, featuring forbidden magic, hidden identities, a magical plague, and a full POC cast with queer and disability rep.

I wanted to love this one, the concept had so much potential, but it wasn’t great for me, mostly because I didn’t like the characters. Firstly, the main characters are around 17 so this should be considered upper-YA but they are so immature. And not immature in an endearing way but in a cringey, annoying way. For example, the FMC feels the urge to giggle when she sees someone good looking and it’s literally called the “Good Looking Giggles”. There’s also a running joke that the MMC is so innocent, he doesn’t understand p0rn. None of the characters really gripped me either. The FMC, Zhara, is uninteresting except for her annoying moments. The MMC is a complete himbo, but I love sunshine MMCs so this could have been super refreshing and different from the normal dark, brooding fantasy MMC. But no, he is written as so innocent that he just comes off as an idiot.

Besides that, the story was okay, pretty typical YA fantasy. The pacing was a bit slow, but it got better in the second half. There was quite a lot of repetitiveness with both plot and phrasing. There’s also a lot of references to BTS, which seemed out of place in the historical-fantasy world. The writing seemed like more upper middle grade than YA, especially in the dialogue. I liked the worldbuilding and the Asian-inspired language and lore but that was probably the best part of the book. I’m not sure if I want to continue with the series, I may read the next one and see if it gets better.

There was so much fun and joy in this book. I was waiting for this book since it was announced years ago and it was for sure worth the wait. it's been compared with cinder and sailor moon and those are the perfect comps, really. zhara is great. the himbo prince is perfect. I can't wait for book two.

I have to say that declaring this book as Sailor Moon meets Cinder is a fairly accurate comparison. I definitely got the Sailor Scout vibe from the Guardians, especially since our protagonist Zhara has a cat companion. I don’t know exactly how accurate the Cinder comparison would be, aside from the elements that are Cinderella related. (Because yeah, I haven’t read the Lunar Chronicles).

Overall though, I fell into this story really quickly, and I found the writing and the descriptions to be really nice. What’s always interesting to me is the formality in the characters conversing with each other, and how they address each other. Just that one small element really shifts the tone and vibe of the story. It’s just a great cultural perspective.

There’s just something about being able to use the rules of propriety, the rules of formal addressing, to hide any wrong-doing done by some characters onto others. It makes the conversation have more layers and undertones that some readers would enjoy reading into. It adds more complexity to the characters, their relationships, and the plot/action of the story as well.

The magic system here was also interesting, although I would like to learn even more about it. What can I say? I like getting deep rich world-building in my fantasy reads.

Oh, and the characters…that was a fun time. I enjoyed that both Zhara and Han were adorably into reading light romance novels. It was so cute that Zhara would dissolve into “good looking giggles” at times when around someone she found to be attractive. I enjoyed that Han was a bit awkward and somewhat like a puppy…cute and fun, but maybe not the smartest of the litter (to continue the puppy metaphor). Then when you add Xu, Han’s friend and protector, and then Yuli, a tall warrior princess from another country…it becomes an interesting core group to follow.

This was my first book by S. Jae-Jones, and I read it fairly quickly. I might have to go back and snatch up some of the author’s previous books to check those out as well.