The premise of this book sounded intriguing, and I was excited to try this one. Overall, this one was okay for me, the pacing was slow at times which made it hard for me to hold my focus and get into the story. There is a large cast of characters to keep track of and a complex magical system that is explained. While I did not enjoy this as much as I was hoping too, I'm glad I got the opportunity to read this book.

First, thank you NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and S. Jae Jones for an E-Galley of this book.

Jae-Jones has created a lush world that wonderfully combines fairy tales & magical girls (e.g., Sailor Moon). If you're a fan of either or both, you'll almost certainly enjoy this novel. If you're a fan of the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, you'll probably enjoy this as well!

The lush style of writing really allows for her characters to really come to life and feel at home within this Asian inspired fantasy. The struggles Zhara experiences with her newfound power, her complicated relationship with her stepmother and cute boys is refreshing. The topics covered are darker but presented in a lighter way good for YA readers. The rest of the cast are all charming and loveable, great himbo (lol) and LGBT representation. Also the BTS cameo made me laugh out loud.

There are some characters I was really hoping would get a bit more development (especially after one of them receives devastating news) but sadly this doesn't occur in this book, however I hope they will return in the next books in the series!
Now, for the one thing I didn't like: there are characters who start monologuing, for like, a while, to provide Zhara with exposition she wouldn't have otherwise. While I would agree it makes sense to provide information like this sometimes, it just happened a bit too much for my liking.

Regardless, I overall really enjoyed this book and can't wait for the sequel!!

I adored the story, the world building was amazing. I love meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it. The writing was also really nice. I couldn't put the book down and I can't wait for others to read and enjoy this story as well.

I really enjoyed this book! This is my first novel from y S. Jae-Jones, and I'm excited to read her backlist. The atmosphere in this was impecible, this a book really just takes off from the first few pages and doesn’t stop. This is a worthy addition to any library or collection!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I think I went into this book with too-high expectations. The synopsis gave me a different idea of the book. I didn't see how anything in this was like Sailor Moon, beyond reincarnation. And comparing it to Cinder is also weird since that is a Sci-fi retelling of Cinderella. I did see aspects of Cinderella in this book though.

All that aside, this book was far too slow paced in my opinion. It took several chapters for this book to get its legs.
The characters felt, for lack of a better word, generic. I had no idea the two main characters, Zhara and Han, were supposed to be 18 or nearly 18. When Han's age was mentioned I was shocked. I thought he was supposed to be 16 at the oldest. I know with how popular YA books are, a large part of the audience who reads them is older than the target age. However, he did not behave like someone who was almost 18. There could be an argument about him being sheltered, and the same for Zhara, but it didn't seem believable to me that they were that age.

The magic system was a little confusing as well., it didn't have the depth that I prefer. I am a huge fan of elemental magic, but the magic in this book felt a little "bare bones" to me.
There was also a reference to a K-pop group, and while I listen to and love K-pop, it took me out of the story when it was mentioned. I dislike when pop culture is referenced in Contemporary books, so when it happens in fantasy, I like it even less.

There are things in this book I know readers will love, there was just a lot that didn't work for me.

I love S. Jae-Jones and will read anything she ever has to write. I have been dying to get my hands on a copy of Guardians of Dawn: Zhara since August 2019, before it had a title or cover, merely a concept. And can I say - those four years of pining were not wasted!

With Guardians of Dawn Jae-Jones delivers an epic fantasy adventure that lives up to its' promise. Combining Asian folklore and Sailor Moon fanfiction seamlessly, Jae-Jones weaves an enchanting and unforgettable tale of adventure, friendship, love, sisterhood, and self-discovery. I was moved, amused, thrilled - talk about entertainment! So atmospheric, with lush descriptions and in-depth characters. A truly commendable work of fiction.

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara is going to be the YA fantasy of the summer, take it from me now! Pre-order your copy and don't miss out!

Thank you to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and S. Jae-Jones for the ARC and allowing me this opportunity to read and share my thoughts!

“The world is dangerous,” Zhara said softly. “And I don’t want to survive; I want to thrive.”


➤Plot

Magic is forbidden within the Morning Realms, anyone who is found out to be a magician is executed. Zhara's father was killed and she is also a magician. Trying to merely get by each day with taking care of her step mother and blind sister, she became used to that routine. Until she meets a young scholar, and introduces her to an organization called Guardians of Dawn who try to help magicians live and find a cure for magicians turning into monsters.

I have seen a lot of people excited for this book because the summary reads "Sailor Moon meets Cinder" and I was also excited for a story that made me have the same feelings that Sailor moon gave me! Sadly... I did not get those feelings and couldn't really see why Sailor Moon was the pick to compare it to. I did see the Cinder/Cinderella connections but I was expecting way more from the story because of the Sailor Moon mention, which led me a little disappointed.

The story is a fine read! S. Jae-Jones only refers to characters by names until you get to know them as a way to incorporate Korean language structure and culture of the characters. I thought that was a very neat way to go about it.

However, I found myself not truly being able to visualize the characters in action scenes because I didn't know what they looked like. I knew their name and personality but I could not see their face. This made it hard to really get engrossed into the story. I think if they took more time to describe the characters appearance it would of added a lot to the story and helped with scenes.


➤Characters

The characters were the real highlight of this story! The only two that I found myself rolling my eyes slightly at is the two main leads, mostly because they act very childish around each other a lot of times but when they are not together, you get a better idea of their characters. It's understandable since they are young kids crushing on each other.

The side characters! Oh my gosh, they were probably my favorite part of the story. Especially Xu. I adored Xu. I would of paid for a story just following their daily life. Their humor and kindness were so lovable. You could really feel the best friend energy they have with Han. I wish there was more page time with them on moments that weren't humor or action. I wanted to know more of their emotional sides than we got.

Han, our male lead, is a himbo. Like, actually. I love himbos and Han is very lovable. However, he is almost always the butt of the joke. Which is really sad because he is more than just being "dumb". I feel like these lines of jokes really hurt his character in the end because he felt less human and more of a caricature. When you first have a chapter following his POV, I actually was so excited and in love with how he was written. You get a good idea of his character and the wide arrange of his emotional depth. As the story goes on, he turns more into the comedic relief. He can be funny but he is more than just his muscles.

➤Enjoyment

It was a fine read. I can't say I was itching to always read it but it was enjoying when I had time to spare and could really focus in on the story. I think my expectations may of been too high going into this. I am also older than the demographic of the target audience for this book. If I was younger and read this? I would of probably adored it just as much as I liked the other YA books I read in my youth.

I say, if you like Cinder and want some magical girl story... Go for it! However, don't go in expecting it will be just like Sailor Moon. Because it is very different.

I almost never comment on covers but wow this one is absolutely stunning!! I know Zhara is speculated for a book box I'm subscribed to so I can't wait to get a physical copy. To be honest, Cinderella isn't my favorite fairytale but I seem to be drawn to the retellings of it. Guardians of the Dawn: Zhara was a very classic Asian adventure story, which I love. The MCs were great and I loved how the MMC let the FMC shine. I appreciate the representation of disabilities and LGBT+ in addition to Asian representation, Thank you to St Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the ARC!

Sailor Moon + Cinder + with a touch of Himbo in The Mummy + and a dash of Disney movie quotes, ZHARA is the start of a series that will own my heart.

Zhara is a magician in hiding. She spends her days working in the kitchen at home while her actual hard owned paycheck gets spent on her stepmother's bar tab. Her only solace are the romance novels she borrows from the bookkeeper. But her life is turned on its head when she runs into a Han in the market, which leads her to the Guardians of the Dawn-- a secret magical aid organization.

Magical Abominations are growing more and more common...something foul is awakening. Zhara must harness her inner warrior to before her world and the actual world come crashing into the end.

Oh gods. This book.

Let me just start this off by saying, I have been waiting for this book for YEARS. JJ first announced it back on the PubCrawl podcast and I was hooked back then. This was a book worth waiting for.

What I liked:
-Zhara and Han's whole relationship. The oblivious flirting and quirks. I really loved their meet cute, very Rodger and Hammerstein Cinderella with Brandi.
-Friendships.
-I loved the Easter eggs of BTS and WINTERSONG sprinkled throughout the book.

MY thanks to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I kept seeing this book compared to Sailor Moon, which I don’t really agree with, but it was still a pretty enjoyable read. I really liked that this was a lighthearted take on YA fantasy. I feel like most books in that genre are angsty and dark. There are definitely dark moments in this book, but the overall tone is fun and kind of silly.

The plot was a bit all over the place for me, especially in the last part of the book. There were just a lot of things going on.

The cast of characters were very lovable; my favorite character was Xu. I liked that the male MC didn’t steal the spotlight from the female MC, though Zhara was a teensy bit bland.

I thought this was a wonderful story! I was carried along with the ups and downs, and there was some good humor. Definitely will make this a staff pick in the store!

I judged a book by it’s cover and I am left disappointed. The cover is stunning. The artwork is amazing. The synopsis is intriguing. But I was left disappointed. I just needed more and this book didn’t have it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for an ARC of this book. I loved the taglines that related it to Sailor moon. I loved this book. It was fun, and intense. I would definitely read it again.

DNF @ 40%. I was so excited for this book, but ultimately it just wasn't for me. This felt more middle grade than YA, and it quickly became clear that the comparisons to SM are not really on the mark. It took far too long for the action to actually begin. A great concept and well written, but a miss for me.

This is my first time reading the author's work and I will be checking out her older titles now! I enjoyed the characters and world. The magic system was also very intriguing.

DNF @ 35%

Zhara is a young adult fantasy book about a young girl struggling to hide her powers in a world where people are terrified of them. Magicians are hunted and she spends most of her life trying to get by with her sister and stepmother.

If things were different, perhaps I would like this book, but the character quirks felt like they were made for an elementary-grade book. I felt so annoyed whenever it was mentioned because it's honestly one of the most annoying things a character could do. The plot also took a while to pick up, and only around the 20% mark did it actually begin to feel good to me. However, I did enjoy what little I learned about the magic system, which has potential down the line.

Amazing cover!
Overall, I thought that this was okay. If we are talking stars, I would give this like a 3.5 stars out of 5. I really liked what world-building we did get, but for how slow the pace was I was hoping we would get much more in-depth detail about the world. Instead it was just slow. I think that we needed more about the magic system, too. The pacing being a bit more relaxed was a good opportunity for more information about the world and magic, but we just didn't get that. I could get an okay sense of the world, though, from what we were given.
Character-wise, I was left a bit disappointed. There were just so many of them and so we never got enough time with any of them and they felt....a bit inconsequential? Paired with the young tone the dialogue took on, this aspect of the story just didn't work for me.
I can see a lot of potential, and the snippets that did work really worked. I also like the narrative voice and think that the ability of the author is pretty strong so I would like to read more by them in the future!

A young-adult fantasy that has magic!

Magic is forbidden throughout the Morning Realms. Magicians are called abomination, and blamed for the plague of monsters that razed the land twenty years before.

This follows Jin Zhara who has to look after her blind sister, please her stepmother, and figure out how to keep her magic under control. Especially when magic is forbidden and magicians are known to be abominations because they were blamed for what happened twenty years ago where plague of monsters came to the land.

Zhara also meets Han, who is a prince and someone who was easily flustered.

With Magic and monsters, this book takes you on a fantasy ride.

The synopsis caught my interest and it seemed intriguing, so I requested the ARC for this from NetGalley. The take on magic was something that I was also looking forwards to knowing more about as well. The writing was great and it wasn’t hard to understand and flowed easily too.

However, I had somewhat a hard time keeping my interest in the book. Perhaps it was because I was expecting a little more action and dramatic climaxes of in this fantasy read.

Despite that, I still recommend this to any young adult readers or anyone who would enjoy reading a book of a richly imagined fantasy like it says! I definitely think that although I didn’t love that much, other readers could think otherwise.

I have been waiting for this story for a while. It was everything I wanted and waited for.
S. Jae-Jones is a brilliant writer.
10/10
I can’t wait to own this book.

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara by S. Jae-Jones

Okay this had a lot of elements that I like in fantasy books.
- adorable himbo
- cool magic system
- LGBTQ+ rep
- complex family relationships
- found family

Zhara becomes involved with a secret group that protects magicians like her when she meets a handsome stranger. Han is looking to protect his brother and this secret group might be the best way to do so. Both become entangled with the Guardians of Dawn and must discover what's afflicting the magicians and turning them into monsters.

They battle abominations while trying to figure out how to stop them. Zhara, Han, Xu, and Jiyi form a bond while trying to save their people. I enjoyed reading their interactions. There was a lot of fun bickering and flirting.

The story did have elements of Cinderella with a handsome prince and a poor orphaned girl meeting and falling in love. There was a ball, a stepmother, and instant attraction.

We see the complicated way that Zhara sees her relationship with her stepmother. The abuse she endures and how she excuses it. There is closure and growth in the end for Zhara.

The romance is sweet though too insta love for my taste, but in this book it didn't bother me too much since I was more interested in the world than the romance.

One thing that i found off-putting and others might too was the pacing. It was very slow. At times I felt like nothing was happening. There wasn't too much action.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and if you're a fan of Cinderella retellings and interesting magic systems this might be for you too.

Out August 29, 2023

Thanks netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.