[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for providing an e-arc, and to Macmillan Audio for an alc in exchange for an honest review.
Guardians of Dawn: Zhara releases August 1, 2023

cw: physical abuse, ableism, starvation, body horror, underage drinking

- first in a series
- dual pov
- disabled character (blindness)
- magicians
- possession + monsters
- a persistent stray cat
- awkward yet endearing adolescent yearning

Zhara is an apothecary’s assistant, and has the ability to wield magic. She lives with her younger sister and stepmother after the death of her father.
On the day of the release of an anticipated romance book, Zhara stumbles across Han, the royal heir.
Amidst seeking out answers of his own at this bookshop, Han has the forethought to gift Zhara this new release, but instead, accidentally slips her his copy of a book about magic.
Through a series of events, we find out that Han’s younger brother also a magician, and that their late mother was part of a group called the guardians of the dawn, which is a secret society dedicated to magician liberation.

This was an interesting introduction to a new series, but I found it so painfully slow-paced, and it had a lot of repetition throughout.
It felt a little juvenile at times with things like the “good looking giggles.”
I’m hoping the next installments each focus on one of the remaining elemental guardians.

Just a little side note: I tandem read the e-arc and audio arc, which both varied slightly, so I’m unsure which version most accurately reflects the final copy.
Examples:
[e-arc] — “Beside him, Xu made a face, which was beautifully painted with makeup. “Don’t encourage him, please,” they begged.”
[audio arc] — “Beside him, Xu made a face. “Don’t encourage him, please,” they begged.” (which omits the part about makeup)

*Not commenting on the non-binary rep or any possibilities of misgendering, because again, between the two arcs I had, there were a lot of variations on where a given name or pronoun was placed.

I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did. 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.

I wish we got a little more plot here compared to the setup. My favorite parts were toward the end of the book, and I liked the plot twist. Though, I felt bad since I kiiiind of feel like the dynamic between Zhara and another character was a little more natural rather than Han, even if I like his role here. 🙈 I think I would still give the second book a chance, but it took me quite a bit to get into the writing style that it wouldn't be a priority for me.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review; all opinions are my own.

Genre: YA Fantasy, Asian Literature, Mythology, Asian Mythology, Romantic Fantasy, Sweet Romantasy
Sub-Genre: Romance Elements (slow burn)
Violence: Pretty low
Representation: Side characters are LGBTQ. Also in the author's note, she explains that when you first meet a person, one doesn't assume how they identify and are referred to as "they" until they gender themselves. I also had the impression this was to be more formal. She made choices based on her Korean and Chinese background.

There are definite Cinderella vibes to this novel.

There are so many things I enjoyed—I always love to see what's happening in Asian fantasy because I enjoyed a trip to Japan. This one has demons, monsters, and political unrest. I thought these elements worked well together.

Zhara is an interesting character because she's trying to live up to her dead father's and step-mother's expectations. She is also protective of her sister, which is a wonderful and deep relationship. (As you read, you'll understand what I mean.) Zhara has little expectations for her own life, but she begins to find hope. This is a key element in the novel.

Han's life has been dictated by his position and those over him. He also finds hope when he meets Zhara. He wants to protect his brother, and his best friend, Xu, is trying to get Han to his majority.

Zhara and Han have more in common than one might expect with their different stations. That's another thing I loved about this book: it shows more of a human condition rather than dwelling on status (though others might feel like that's important.

This is YA and it's accessible to younger teens. **SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT** Please skip this paragraph if you don't want any spoilers at all, but this one is not critical to the plot but possibly important for parents. *There is one thing that didn't ring right for me with it being YA—there are a couple of books than Han picks up that are pornographic. This is an opportunity for him to blush and be embarrassed. The titles are euphemisms that some teens won't even understand. It struck me as odd because this book is sweet in the romance department. No details are given with this or even a description of what a courtesan would do. I'm marking this down a star because of this non-congruency with the rest of the flavor of the book.*

That's the end of spoilers.

I do recommend this book for fans of Cinder and Six Crimson Cranes. There will be more in this series.

Happy reading!

PS: I absolutely adore this cover!

I really wanted to like this book and am a bit disappointed. The premise is a good one, but is poorly executed. Also, I'm not sure if it's the author's writing style (this is the first book by S. Jae-Jones I've read) or if she is trying to world build through how the dialogue feels, but it reads as a poor translation from another language into English. That is very jarring. It ruins the flow of the story and I can't "lose myself" in the story like I normally do when I read. Additionally there are repeated instances of odd word choice as if the author was utilizing a thesaurus to sound educated or prestigious but missed the mark.

I can see this book has a lot of potential, and I would have enjoyed it, but the writing style really didn't work for me. I found myself quickly zoning out due to this, which is why I decided to DNF. I had the same issue with Wintersong, so I think this author's writing just doesn't work well for me.

Plot : 6/10

The plot had no glaring issues, but it wasn't anything special either. In fact, it reminded me a lot of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao; (a form of) magic is forbidden, a girl has a special capability for it, she encounters a secret society dedicated to preserving it and its history, which have been nearly eradicated by invading forces, only to find out an ancient evil is waking up and must be battled. There were plenty of things distinguishing them, but it just stuck in my mind while reading this how...unoriginal the plot was.

I will say there were a couple of twists at the end that took me by surprise, but for the most part the plot moved sort of aimlessly and predictably. Even the twists I mentioned sort of had no lasting effect on the plot; betrayals were forgiven and mistakes were mended with seemingly no consequences.

The worldbuilding concerning specifically the magic of this world was probably the most compelling part of this book. Zhara's powers are very intriguing, and I feel like enough is given in this book while still preserving a lot of information for future installments. However, the actual worldbuilding, as in the physical world around them, is pretty underdeveloped. I can't get a grasp on the political situation, and many other lands are mentioned but they are rarely elaborated upon. I wish some of the time Han spent pining after Zhara was replaced with the actual details of his position. Also, there was one thing in particular that absolutely ruined my immersion that I will discuss more in my writing section.

Characters: 5/10

Zhara is a character with a lot of potential, but she isn't really properly developed in this book. She is obviously plagued by insecurities and in a constant state of fear thanks to her upbringing, but it seems that we often lose focus on that thanks to the unending focus on the romance. Han...honestly just holds no interest for me. I initially thought he was sweet, and he is, but he has very little depth. He cares for his little brother and Zhara, and he's ridiculously ignorant/innocent, and that's it.

Which brings me to the romance which, while very cute, was sickeningly so. While there is technically a period of some mutual pining, this feels very like instalove in that there are almost instant romantic feelings and then it feels like all either of them can focus on. I'd probably be more invested in their relationship if it weren't everything anyone ever talked about. If they didn't prioritize it over much more important things. If Zhara and Han didn't forget about major occurrences in their lives in favor of developing their relationship. It was just very frustrating.

As for the side characters, they were one-dimensional. Xu is flirtatious and almost motherly to Han, Jiyi is cold and grumpy, the adults are there to...lore dump? I felt virtually nothing concerning any of them. Except maybe Sajah. That's the cat. I will also note that there is disability rep in this book; Zhara has a stutter and her stepsister, Suzhan, is partially blind, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm not disabled, but it felt wrong that they are belittled for their disabilities all throughout the book—and often thought less of themselves for it—just for Suzhan to have one throwaway line about accepting herself and Zhara to...never mention it again? I don't know, it doesn't sit right with me.

Writing Style: 3/10

Oh, dear, the writing. Now, Jae-Jones gave a very nice explanation of their use of language in this book at the very beginning, one I very much appreciated. It made me a lot more forgiving of the use of terms like "masquerade ball" which feels very western for an East Asia-inspired world. However, it doesn't change that this writing feels like it's meant for a middle grade audience at best. The content is obviously meant for YA, but the actual writing feels very juvenile. For example, Zhara is afflicted with Good-Looking Giggling where she uncontrollably giggles around attractive people. Not to mention the truly insane amount of suggestive jokes throughout the whole book. It was just weird to read.

And then we get to the most egregious offense of the book that completely ruined my immersion. The Bangtan Brothers. Now for those of you who don't know, popular kpop group BTS is also known as Bangtan Sonyeondan (it translates to Bulletproof Boy Scouts). At first I thought this was a throwaway joke to be mentioned once as a little inside joke, but no. BTS—sorry, the Bangtan Brothers, are active members of the Guardians of Dawn who are supposed to help Zhara escape the city. There are multiple, obvious references to the real world BTS, and it got painful to read. As an ARMY, it was without a doubt the worst part of the book.

Overall: 5/10

While this review has been primarily negative, this book is not irredeemable. The plot is unoriginal but not nonsensical or boring, the magic is super interesting, and Zhara has a lot of potential as a character. However, most of the characters are one-dimensional and uncompelling and the writing is...not good. I was pretty disappointed by this read, which sucks because I think it had a lot of potential. Feel free to give this book a try, but I don't recommend it.

The writing style of this really took me by surprise, and made it difficult for me to connect. It felt like I was reading an anime script, or a video game script, or some other visual media where the MC needs to vocalize their thoughts out loud. It was definitely really different, but in the end not for me. I think that true to the description, people who enjoy Sailor Moon would love this. It definitely had that style.

I did like the MC and their development throughout the story. The world was interesting and I could definitely picture it, I just had a hard time with the dialog of her interacting with the world and other characters.

This ya fantasy has an interesting plot and cute characters. However, for my taste, I found this to be a bit too ya for me right now.

This story is full of magic, demons, and love. However, I just felt like I couldn't get into the characters' lives. I think it's a fun read that definitely deserves some love, though.

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!

I originally was drawn to this book because people said it reminded them of sailor moon which is one of my favorite childhood shows. I enjoyed the vibes and it's more of a light fantasy so if you go into it with that expectation I think you will enjoy it but if your expecting a high fantasy you will be dissapointed. That's not to say the book is bad it's very enjoyable and I loved the main character.

Recommended: yep!
For a fascinating world of magic, for lovably dense characters, for an intro to a larger story that I'm really excited to learn more about

Thoughts:
I'm really excited for the rest of this series, and to see where the rest of the Guardians end up. I think this was a strong start, and that the following books will only get better now that the sort of "exposition" is out of the way from book one.

The strangest thing in this book was that both main characters are kind of dense. There were some very obvious clues that took them a VERY long time to figure out. And worse, when one of them figured something out, they never shared that information with the rest of the group! This led to a weird effect where I would figure the thing out myself, then one of them would figure it out three chapters later, then five more chapters later the other would figure it out again. I started getting confused and thinking "Didn't we already know this??? Why are they going through it again??"

Overall that was a minor issue, but it did make me feel a bit bewildered at times. I can't think of another book where BOTH main characters are just kinda dumb. They aren't dumb in that they make poor decisions or can't think logically, they just don't really pick up on hints and cues. I was able to work with it and found them both somewhat innocent and lovable for it.

Wow, also I can tell there was a lot of work going into the lore in this book! While I enjoyed learning about the system of magic, demons, and the history of the world, I am also excited that it's established now and there will be more room for movement and exploration in following books.

Zhara's relationships with her mother and sister were pretty thorny and complicated. Witnessing her subservience hurt so much sometimes. :/ This wasn't easy to read with how poorly Zhara thinks of herself.

Also: Read the author's note about language and how they interact with the culture they draw from!! It's interesting, but it's also helpful in explaining choices in the book, like not gendering characters until they identify in some way (ie using "they/them" until they say "I'm just a boy with no idea" or something similar).

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review.

“That is entirely due to your intoxicating presence and nothing to do with alcohol, I assure you.”

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishing team for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

<img src="https://s11.gifyu.com/images/SWoIu.jpg" width="500" height="200" alt="shadow and bone aesthetic"/>

I loved the concept of this book, the moment I read the synopsis I knew I had to read it. Fantasy with a romance subplot? Yes, please. A world inspired by Asia? Give it to me right now.

Now, the problem is that this isn’t what it’s being advertised, and by that, I mean that this doesn’t feel like YA. The age of the characters matches the preferred ages for a YA book, but the writing and the way the characters interact with each other is very much middle-grade to me.

I feel like kids will love this, and have a fantastic time with it. But the story it’s too childish to be considered YA.

❥ World-building 9/10

By far, my favorite part of the book, the world is beautiful and I feel like the cover perfectly matches the overall feel this book gave me.

❥ Romance 6/10
❥ Characters 6/10
❥ Writing-style 5/10

Besides what I already said about the writing and story not matching the YA tag, I couldn’t connect with the writing in general. But this is probably because I’m not used to reading middle grade, I don’t enjoy it, so I don’t do it when I can avoid it.

I sat on this one for a while. I had to really reflect and articulate everything about this book and what I wanted to say about it.

Starting off, I wanted to like this book. I wanted to fall in love with it due to the authors backstory with the book. I felt for the Author and wanted a truly big win for them. Also Cinder and Sailor Moon are some of my all time favorite media, I will read anything like it!

Sadly, this book was just not that great.

There are a few reasons for this train of thought:
1. The pacing is not done well, information about world building aspects are hidden and random throughout the pages. You could be 75 pages in and still not understand a pivotal piece of information until 150 pages later. Then you have to backread with a new found understanding to full capture the scene.

2. The characterization is egregiously bad to downright offensive. There are a variety of characters in this book, and all of them lean so heavily into a trope it ruins the plot and the all over story. Disabled characters are grossly done as well as the non-binary character. It feels these characters were purely thrown in to check off a box and not set into with actual thought.

3. Cinderella, I honestly think it was so small in the overall arc of the story that it wasn't necessary for the actual plot.

Overall I can see the lighthearted nature of this book, I do enjoy the classic fantasy tropes that we see time and time again in other books. However, I do not think this book is honestly that big for the hype it is receiving. I am hoping this arc on Netgalley is just outdated and not the final piece because I do believe somethings need to be worked on still.

This book was good! It was an easy read. The magic system was understandable, The main characters loveable, and the plot enjoyable. The romance between Zhara and Han, though not explored much, was adorable. I definitely saw the comparisons to Cinderella and Sailor moon, so if you enjoyed either of those stories, you should definitely pick this book up!

A big thanks to Netgalley and Wednesday books for providing me with this arc for a honest review.

Goodreads review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5602631608

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with an eARC, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Honestly, this isn’t probably going to be the next crossover darling. It’s not going to have wide appeal to most adults, but it is a solid young adult book. The characters and the jokes will hit with a certain younger audience that isn’t going to work for adults, but that’s fine because the target audience for this are teenagers. However, the plot and the world-building is interesting enough that I think it will find a very dedicated audience.

Like I mentioned, I don’t think that the humor and jokes in this are going to land with an older audience. There is a running joke that Prince Han reads pornography, but doesn’t understand what it means. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what age group this running joke will land with. There are also a lot of cutesy nicknames that the characters have given each other and the main character is occasionally afflicted with what she calls the Giggles. Basically, she giggles around attractive people. Quirky, sure, but I found it more annoying than endearing, but I am not the target audience.

Aside from some of these running jokes, I did actually enjoy the characters for the most part. I feel bad because Zhara was actually my least favorite character of the group. Sure, she’s a little chosen/Cinderella combo, but I actually enjoyed most of the side characters more. I liked Jiyi and Yulana, Han, and Xu. Han, the love interest, is a bit of a himbo, but I found it to be sweet at times. Xu, non-binary best friend to Han, was a lot of fun. Jiyi and Yulana are badass female characters. Generally, the whole group is fun. Also, BTS is sort of in this, which I personally found weird.

I feel like either I didn’t watch enough Sailor Moon or the ties for this to be compared to Sailor Moon are weak at best. I’ve seen some other reviews that discuss this so I don’t feel alone with this criticism. Someone mentioned that they thought it was a bit more like Avatar: The Last Airbender and I honestly can see that too, but honestly the Cinderella ties are probably the strongest. Just don’t go in thinking that you’re going to get a beat for beat retelling of any of these things.

I don’t want to say too much about what actually happens in the plot. A lot of it is contained to the back half of the book, while the first half is world-building and set up. However, I do want to mention that what it gets started it rolls along pretty quickly. I will say though that I find it hard to believe that there are going to be four books in this series. The others should hopefully have more plot, but I guess we’ll see.

Overall, this is going to find a lot of fans along the younger readers, but I don’t think that it will really be an adult crossover. It has some fun and quirky characters and an interesting enough world. The plot is a little light in this particular installment, but I think that it will pick up in the next books. I’m not sure if I will be reading the next three books in this series. It probably depends on the speed of which they are released, but I think that there are going to be some readers who adore this.

First let me say I was very excited to get a copy of this book, as I had just finished Wintersong earlier this year and love the Lunar Chronicles!

I was really impressed with the complete change in writing style between this book and Wintersong, it really shows how diverse the author's talents are. Starting the book I was a little nervous because with the author's other works I found at times it could be hard to follow along and a little slow, but Zhara: Guardians of Dawn was overall easy to follow and well paced. Also I've said it before and I'll say it again; fairytale retellings will always have a special place in my heart.

The characters were likeable with good banter, and the author had LGBTQ+ rep well integrated throughout. I also love the slight nod to Wintersong with "The Maiden Who Was Loved by Death."

My main issue with this book is that even for a YA book I found it a little childish at times. I don't think this is a series I plan on continuing, for that reason. By the end it really felt like everything was just being resolved with no tension/drama left for the rest of the planned series.

Ok, I was a little hesitant going into this one. I read the authors previous wintersong duology and was not blown away. I was mostly confused. I did enjoy the first one but not the second.
After reading Guardians I can happily say that isn’t the case for this one! S. Jae-Jones has definitely grown as a writer! I really enjoyed this one. She wrote some characters really well! The world building and plot were quite well done!

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the arc!

This was fantastic, although starting off a bit slow. the story definitely picks up and the cast of characters are fantastic! i couldn't put this down. I loved the inspiration from sailor moon and the not so subtle BTS characters.

i adore this book and highly recommend you add it to your tbr.

I don't think that this book was for me, but other readers may have better luck with it than I did!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was a fun read. I loved getting to read about a new mythology that I've not previously read before. At times it did feel like it was going a bit slow, but I appreciate that we didn't get massive info dumps at a time and that there was more build up to the world

I really loved this. It's not as lushly atmospheric as Wintersong and has more worldbuilding substance. It actually really strongly reminds me of Elizabeth Lim's style of writing, so if you enjoyed Spin the Dawn or Six Crimson Cranes you'll be bound to like this.

I really liked the characters and found their motivations and actions pretty consistently believable. The tone struck a nice balance a dark tale of missing magicians and monsters and a cheerful feel-good love story with a found family thrown in.

One of my favorite things was the parallels Jae-Jones draws between magicians in this world and queer people in ours. There are queer characters in this world, and there isn't a big deal made about them. But what's really interesting is that magic is taboo and gets people shunned and prosecuted and even executed. The main character even "comes out" as a magician at one point to her sister (using those exact words) and it's a very 'coming out' sort of moment.

But my absolutely favorite thing was the inclusion of the Bangtan Brothers and how well Jae-Jones integrated BTS into her plot, even including some of their songs and well-known phrases. As an ARMY, it was a delightful surprise and I loved discovering all the easter eggs.

The story wrapped up well but left enough loose ends that I look forward to the next one.

The audiobook narrator did a great job and I really enjoyed her rendition of the characters and the story. She brought it to life and made it feel more real.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Macmillan Audio for providing an early copy and early audio copy for review.