Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

"Guardians of Dawn: Zhara" is described as "Sailor Moon" meets "Cinder" and I one hundred percent stand behind that description. This story has elements of Cinderella and "Sailor Moon" (I mean, the title and the story implies four elemental guardians i.e. four books!) and I think Jae-Jones does a great job of crafting a story that feels like a proper homage to these stories. There also seemed to be a lil call out for kpop fans with the Bangtan Brothers (BTS) which I'm not a BTS fan (I really only listen to 1st to 2nd generation boy groups IF I decide to listen to any boy groups) but I thought it was cute. There's a lot in this book that felt like little love letters to things that I'm assuming influenced and were loved by Jae-Jones. I also massively appreciated that this didn't just rip off the things it was inspired by but instead created something new (unlike another book that completely ripped off certain vampire things...anyways!).

I also loved the characters in this book. I have a difficult time reading most YA books because the main characters are always so trivial and just...dumb...which I get because when you're a teen, you're just a bit soft but I loved Zhara, Han, Xu, and Yuli. Zhara especially reminded me a lot of Usagi from "Sailor Moon", especially in the Dark Kingdom arc when Usagi has to really push herself to accept that she is Princess Serenity and all the responsibility and power that comes with that title. Like her, Zhara had to do that and it was magnificent to see. There was also a mention of the cauldron of the universe which I feel like was a direct reference to the Sailor Stars arc with Sailor Galaxia (it's referred to as the Galaxy Cauldron in the manga). I just loved that all the characters had so much depth and personality.

I will say that my one thing that kind of slogged was the whole bit with Jiyi teaching Zhara about the Language of Flowers. It was definitely giving me Rei and Usagi vibes, but man, the explanation was kind of a lot of info dump and I thought it kind of dragged the momentum down. It was short-lived though cause immediately things happened.

Overall, I enjoyed this a lot and will definitely be recommending it after its publication!

This was a decent read. I enjoyed it well enough. I felt the writing style was very smooth and nice to read! The plot could have been a bit better paced, but I still liked the majority of it. The magic system, history and world building are what really shined in this book for me. Really loved the altering magic when it "corrupts."

But unfortunately, something in the story structure/building made reading this book more of a task to check off my list than a preferred way to use my spare free time. And I think that thing might ultimately be the characterization. Sadly, very few of the characters resonated with me. Especially our MCs. Their attraction to each other immediately turned them childish to the point of silliness which made their feelings towards each other and their relationship feel very unserious and unimportant. Their feelings didn't make ME feel anything because I felt like I was sitting between two Jr. Highers instead of two late teens, almost adults. And Han. Poor Han. I LOVE a good innocent, kind, gentle male character. We need so much more of those. But to take that positive disposition and make him the but of every joke, classifying him as 'dumb' frequently by other characters. That sucked to see. If any character attached themselves to me, it would be Xu. Sweet, caring, charming Xu. They are such a good friend with such an amazingly established personality. I wish they could have been present more in that book than just in the comedic or action scenes for more depth of their character.

I struggled too hard with this book. In the description I was sold when it said it was like Sailor Moon however those were not the vibes I got. It was too juvenile for me as well. The female mc giggling every time she saw someone she thought was attractive just killed it for me. This book was just not my cup of tea.

This had me at Sailor Moon inspired. It was a promising concept but I don't think it was marketed correctly in all honesty. It also felt very juvenile. Which is interesting considering the warnings in this book and the characters ages. I wanted this book to keep me invested but I had a very hard time with it.

Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

S. Jae-Jones’ GUARDIANS OF DAWN: ZHARA is an incredible start to a new fantasy series that blends magic and mythology. I loved it — and you will too.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.*

I would like to thank netgalley for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

2 Stars. The world and the plot had so much potential but was let down by the pacing, writing, and main character.

The cover is stunning and comparing it to sailor moon made it an instant request for me.

The world in this book was very interesting. I was really intrigued by the magic system, the world, and the deep history the world seemed to have.
The writing was fast-paced and the romance was sweet. It felt like a Cinderella retelling, inspired by different Asian cultures and set in a fantastical world.
If you're looking for a new ya fantasy with some romance, this could be enjoyable for you.

For the most part the writing was fine, However the pacing for the last third of the novel was out of control too fast and skimmed over so much. If I had been loving the book, the way the last third of the book went would have destroyed it for me.
That said, I did was not loving it even before that.
The pacing for the whole book was pretty off, with some parts feeling like days but only being a couple hours and then skimming over weeks with no real explanation- I really had a hard time grasping the scope of time this book took place over.

So many things felt so convenient or just altogether too easy. The main character at no point had to really learn anything (they only time she was taught something it turned out to not be helpful to her for reasons). This continues to the end of the book where it just spirals out of control to the point of being totally unbelievable even in a fantasy world.
The main character herself I took some issues with. Sometimes she was unobservant and incompetent and then other times she was the smartest and strongest person in the room- it seemed to change to whatever served the plot best..

Overall the idea of this world and plot could have been so good, there is some disability rep and gender queer rep. There was so much potential here and maybe another round or two of editing could have fixed the major issues with pacing but I'm not sure.

I will likely not be continuing with the series as the set up for the second book felt rushed and more of a spin-off then the next installment.

I would be interested in trying more from this author though as I really liked the concept they had.
The cover artist did a beautiful job and I hope to see more of their covers.

I smashed that “request” button at a personal record speed as soon as I read “Sailor Moon meets Cinder,” which was the first line of the synopsis.

Zhara’s father was an illegal magician who was caught and killed when she was a child. Her own magic had already manifested, and her stepmother, who could’ve turned her in, hid her and kept her safe instead. Zhara feels indebted to her—despite the Second Wife’s poor treatment of both Zhara and her stepsister Suzhan, who is blind—so she works tirelessly as the sole breadwinner, while also taking care of all the household work.

On her way to work, Zhara’s stepmother warns her that the Kestrels, basically the magic police, are in the city, thanks to rumours of abominations in the marsh. Zhara then hears rumours of missing people from a merchant in front of the bookseller’s while she is mid-conversation with a handsome stranger, a student who buys her the book she has been eyeing. Due to a distraction with the Kestrels, he gives her a different book, and Zhara recognizes it as a book of magic.

Zhara doesn’t know that the stranger is not a student at all, but the Royal Heir, Wonhu Han. His brother is a magician, and he is searching for the Guardians of Dawn, an underground magical liberation organization.

As more people go missing, Zhara, Han, and Han’s best friend Xu resolve to help the Guardians of Dawn find out what’s going on. Especially when they realize the missing people are all magicians, and Zhara’s magic might be the key to saving them.

There are so many things I loved about this book. It was set up so well and had everything I wanted - a strong female main character, they/them pronouns as default until a person confirms their own gender, a mysterious secret society, gay, magic, a lost book, the list goes on. But I really struggled to read it.

It was so beautifully written and the characters felt real, but it didn’t hold my attention until I was past the 50% mark. The action is contained in the middle of each chapter, so I put it down seven or eight times when it could’ve easily been a one-sitting read for me.

I can’t wait for the next instalment in the series, and I was sad to leave Zhara and Han knowing they wouldn’t be the main focus of the next book. I will be pushing the author’s other works to the top of my TBR.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book felt very average to me. I don’t have much to say, aside from the fact that the characters didn’t really work for me and the plot seemed to move at a crawl.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. For some reason I just could not get into this story. Part of the problem was the pacing; things take a long time to get moving. And the other part of the problem for me was the maturity (or rather, immaturity) of the main characters. Although they are late-teens they acted more like naive middle school-aged kids. For example, the FMC giggles around any good looking people. And the MMC does not understand any innuendo. I saw someone else comment that the book had a 12 year old boys sense of humor... and I could not agree more.

The secrets that the main characters were keeping were so obvious, it was not believable that they did not figure out their secret identities.... calling Yulana "Yuli" and not even changing the names for Han and Xu was ridiculous.

The premise was interesting and I did like the way the magic worked here. But I think this would be a better match for middle grade or young YA.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for providing an eARC of this book!

I enjoyed this novel and the characters. I thought their world was very well thought out. My favorite character has to be Xu. They were just fun to read. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but sometimes I felt the pacing was a bit slow. I wanted things to pick up.

TW: ableism, body horror, child abuse, death, death of a loved one, emotional abuse, grief, homophobia, injury/injury detail, misgendering, physical abuse, possession, religious bigotry, transphobia, violence, vomit.

A promising concept that I believe isn't being marketed correctly.

This is - beyond anything else - a fantasy comedy, with a very juvenile sense of humor. I don't mean that because it's YA, I'm mocking it for being juvenile; I mean that the humor is literally that of a twelve year old boy's. From the prince (aged 17) that is so sheltered that it's a running joke that he reads porn and doesn't understand what it's saying, to the main character giggling every time she sees someone attractive - this was a book that wanted so badly to be amusing, that it completely failed to keep me invested.

There were good aspects, such as the world-building and what could have been an engaging plot, but they were heavily overshadowed by the rest of the story. I struggled with the writing style as many of the descriptions were jarring and at times made little sense. The character quirks were mentioned so frequently and were so... intense that it just constantly confirmed how much I hated the characters themselves. Most of the story seems to drag and then when things do happen, they happen so quickly and are quickly forgotten. (I.e. a character witnesses something horrifying that closely relates to them, and that night is flirting with another character.)

I also felt like the LGBT and disabled rep in this book bordered on severely offensive, more than once, but as I am not a member of either of those communities, I can't truly speak on it. However, I will say that there is a non-binary character (only uses they/them pronouns) that gets misgendered by the text near the end of the story. As I'm reading an ARC, I hope that this is caught and fixed before the final version is released.

I hate being negative about ARCs because ultimately, I'm grateful for the chance to read them and I also don't want to make it sound like I want an unreleased book to fail. There are definitely readers that will love this story, but I feel like it's a more specific demographic than they are currently aiming this book at.

All in all, though this didn't work for me, it had so much potential and I'm truly sad that I struggled so much with it. I hope that it finds the right readers that love it for the same quirks that made me want to give up on reading for a few months lol.

DNF 30%

I had high expectation on this book, the cover looks so magical and the blurb is very intriguing. But sadly the book has left me disappointed. The pacing was very slow that I found myself being easily distracted. And there was this group that I believed was inspired by real Korean public figures, the author didn't even bother to alter the group name. In my opinion not all readers are Korean Idol avid fans, so putting real life persons into a book that will be widely distributed to large markets is really risky.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

📚 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝘿𝙖𝙬𝙣𝙨: 𝙕𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖
✍️ S. Jae-Jones
💬 English

Honestly, this book is one of my most wanted-to-read books among all my TBRs. The story itself is about Zhara, a young girl who has magic in a world where magic is banned. Zhara has a love for romance novels that leads her to meet Han, a mysterious young man. The two eventually get closer, unravel mysteries involving magic, demons and the secret of their past.

The author says that this book was inspired by anime, and I can say that she did a good job. However, as an anime lover, I didn't connect with the characters.

First, the names in this book were a mix of Chinese and Korean. That's fine, but the names of the characters in fantasy books usually represent the culture that the author chose to tell. The mixed names made me a little confused to imagine the world building presented, including the clothes worn, facial features and so on.

Secondly, Jin Zhara was a bland main character. Zhara was very skeptical, especially about her powers. She questioned everything but she denied the answers. She was also very insecure and easily tricked, a combination that made my head explode. Han, on the other hand, was over confident prince. Narcisstic even. He was bubbly, love poems, and hate physical activity (not your boyfie material but still he was so extra). Xu was a genderfluid, but I pictured him as male instead because of the vibes he provided. Of these 3 characters, Xu was the most appealing. He was responsible, humorous and sometimes careless.

Third, this will cause uproar. Disclaimer: I do not hate Kpop Idols (in fact, I enjoy their music) but, puting Kpop Idols as a semi-canon in a commercial fantasy novel is not a wise move. This book did that and the everything feel cringe-worthy afterward. Plus, it turned out that this character played a pretty important role at the end, which easily distracted me from the main plot. Left me with a big whoof.

The whole book is divided into 3 parts. And each parts served different focus, which is good.

Did I generally enjoy this book? Yes. Only until the second part.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for providing me with this digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest review.

#nyunreads

In a fun mashup of Sailor Moon and Cinder, Zhara follows our title character, Jin Zhara, as she grapples with her destiny to become the Guardian of Fire and save the world from demons. There's whimsy, adventure, and a bit of fluffy romance with a prince in disguise.

Zhara is a very loose retelling of Cinderella, complete with an evil stepmother and some very nice shoes. And in the vein of Cinder by Marissa Meyer (minus the sci-fi elements), the writing is bright, adventurous, and full of heart. Set against a backdrop of fantasy East Asia, there are even the in-world equivalent of Korean webnovels and kpop boy bands. The plot isn't particularly exciting in that it's straightforward and predictable at times, but it's still a fun ride until the very end.

It's fun, it's cute, and it's full of some nice casual diversity. Yulana and Xu are the best parts of this book, and I hope to see more of them in the rest of the series.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a digital copy of this book. I wish I had more time to read all the books I requested through NetGalley but at the moment I have a job. It’s really hard to read when you go from no job to a very public, and new, job!

Zhara - Guardians of the Dawn no. 1 is now on my to buy list when it comes out. It’s so much fun to read and takes you on a spell binding adventure!

Jin Zhara is our protagonist that we follow in this book. In her world, magic is outlawed and also being targeted by the blight. Yet this means for her, not only does she have a target on her back for wielding magic but also she might have to worry about this blight thing. Which if a magic welder befalls this blight, they get turned into monsters.

What’s more, Jin Zhara has caught the eye of a prince who absolutely does not like his royal title at all and also has an even heavier responsibility on his head. His younger brother is able to wield magic and keeps having nightmares of a demonic toad. It’s his job to make sure that his younger brother is protected since he promised his mother that he would do so.

What happens when they meet? Well she gets the giggles and he finds her adorable. Yet at the same time, both times they meet there is utter chaos happening. Read the book to enjoy the chaotic mess that happens and also to enjoy the way our prince is left pining for Zhara.

I unfortunately did not get to finish this book due to how busy life became for me, but I thoroughly recommend this book. I’m sure if I had more time I would have read this book within a week.

The only thing that might deter people from reading this book is the magic and world building that happens within the first hundred pages. It’s a bit info dumpy there. Yet if you pay attention, you’ll see some references to modern pop culture. Specifically for a certain kpop fandom- your boys “BTS” make an appearance as the Bangtan Brothers.

I promise it’s worth powering through the first hundred pages!

i really liked this! i appreciated the world building and zhara's character, but i think i was hoping for more with the 'plague' elements. nonetheless, this reminds me very much of classic YA fantasies, and it was really comforting and fun to read!

I recently finished Zhara by S. Jae-Jones and I found it to be an enjoyable read. The book follows the story of Zhara, a young girl who lives in a world where magic is forbidden. She must navigate the dangers of this world as she tries to learn about her own magical abilities.

However, while I did enjoy the book, I couldn't shake the feeling that this would have been a book I would have enjoyed more when I was younger. While the story was engaging and well-written, it lacked some of the depth and complexity that I look for in books now that I'm older.

Overall, "Zhara" is a solid book that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys young adult fiction. While it may not be as satisfying for older readers, I can see it being a beloved favorite for younger readers who are just starting to explore the genre. I would give this book a solid 4 stars.

I absolutely loved everything about this. I loved the humor, the romance, the magic, the horror, the mystery, the drama! I have zero complaints. I love our himbo of a prince, our adorable very Sailor Moon-esque protagonist, I love our warrior princess and our exhausted bff of the prince just trying to keep the idiot alive. Every character was so great, every moment of this story is so fun. I just loved it. It's exactly my kind of story and gives me exactly what I want.

To start off, the characters were amazing! All of them were so well thought out and creative. Each with their own quirks and interests, and it got to the point where I loved hearing about Xu and Han. The magic was creative in its own right and had a very interesting system, which I won't spoil at all, but it helped craft a new world that I wanted to see and hear more about. Which, luckily, the author expands on within the story. Also, I have to give a shout out to the none binary and queer representation in any book! Highly recommended, and will be purchasing a hard copy as well when the book releases!

"Zhara" by S. Jae Jones is a captivating and fantastical tale that takes readers on a journey through a beautifully imagined world filled with magic and mystery. The story centers around Zhara, a young woman who lives in a society where magic is outlawed, and magicians are hunted and executed.

Jones's writing is lush and evocative, bringing the vivid world of Zhara to life in all its splendor and complexity. The plot is intricate and full of surprises, as Zhara navigates the perilous waters of love, while battling her own inner demons.

With its intricate world-building, complex characters, and engaging plot, this book is a must-read for anyone looking for a fresh and original take on the genre.

Overall, "Zhara" is a gripping and emotionally resonant read that will appeal to fans of Sailor Moon, Cinder, or those interested in fantasy and magic. Jones's masterful world-building, complex characters, and engaging plot make this a standout story that is not to be missed. Highly recommended.