To me, this book suffered because it tried to do too much at once. If it had been all about a sewing competition, with Maia learning how to stand on her own, or even the quest to find the 3 things the empress to be wants, it would've felt more solid.
Maia was not enjoyable to read from, or about, and I think we were forced to see her as the ingenue, and if it was done well, it would've made sense for the rest of the novel. She's supposed to be selfless, but all I saw was her selfishness the whole time.

I loved this story! It's a Mulan twist where the main character disguises herself as her brother and joins a competition to become the kings dressmaker. It is very imaginative and has a good pace. There is also unexpected romance which is always a plus! This book has action, adventure, and vivid descriptions!

Spin The Dawn is one of the books I've been deathly afraid to read. The more of my friends were reading it and loving it, the more I was afraid of reading it. Thankfully ARC August happened and Soph @ Bookwyrming Thoughts had been lovingly and gently pestering urging me to add this book to my TBR, and since I also had the sequel, I decided this was the time. I did not expect to love this book as much as I did, and if you take nothing else from my review, know that I am very tempted to double my rating into a 10-cups review, which I've never done. EVER. In 10 years of blogging. So there you have it. Let's get to it, shall we?

Spin The Dawn tells the story of Maia Tamarin and her desire to become a master tailor. She inherited her father's talent for making the most beautiful clothes, no matter the craft she uses for making them, but because she's a woman, she will never achieve her goals. Only men are deemed talented and worthy of becoming Masters of any crafts. And even if Maia's work was beautiful and her father would let her create some of the clothes for the clients coming into their shop, no one knew it was actually Maia who made them.

I loved Maia's strength and determination. She knew she had to be the one to go to the palace, because her father and her brother were not able to to, and even if she could have been executed for lying to the emperor, she did what she had to in order to help her family.I also loved her sense of right and wrong. She was certain that using magic meant cheating her way into winning the competition, so she refused to use her magic scissors. And that shows just how talented she truly was, because she was doing all those beautiful designs by herself. Also, I want to mention that the tasks were impossible. A jacket out of paper? And glass slippers? But our heroine did them all perfectly, which is why I adored her and was rooting for her.

While struggling to win the competition against men who did not have the same morals as her, Maia attracts the attention of a very interesting character, Edan. I want it known that when I first met Edan I knew he was going to be special, and I hoped he wouldn't turn out to be a villain. Because guys...I usually have my attention grabbed by the villains in YA it seems. I won't spoil his character for you, but he was awesome.

What surprised me about this book was that even though it's shorter than 400 pages, the story is so detailed, and the plot is so dense, that it felt like I was reading a 500-page book. Which to me is always awesome. The worldbuilding was amazing, and we get just enough details to feel like we know this world, but not too many that the reader may feel overwhelmed. And there are so many things happening in this book, too!

I loved this story, in case I wasn't sufficiently clear. I'm not sorry I waited to read it though, because not only can I jump straight into the sequel, but because I got the chance to manage my expectations. Even if I went into reading this book with insanely high expectations, I still believe I would have ended up loving this book. And now I'm off to read the sequel guys, because the ending of this book was so heartbreaking, I can't wait.

I really enjoyed the journey aspect of this book and the trip that Maia went on. I loved her character. The relationship was paced perfectly for me. I liked the writing a lot and I can't wait to read the sequel.

Rereading this one I definitely love the setting and characters a whole lot more then I did the first time around. I am excited to see where Lim is going to take these characters in the next book!

Originally 4.5 stars but now its 5 BLOODY STARS (sorry not sorry)

Spin the Dawn has crushed all expectations of this book and I will forever regret not reading this earlier. From the first page, I knew I was going to love this book. Elizabeth Lim did not disappoint!

Project Runway + Mulan? Who wouldn’t want to read that? As a former fan of Project Runway (gave up a lot of shows) and a big lover of Mulan, Spin the Dawn is my kind of book! It felt more Mulan than Project Runway, but with Runway type challenges, the aspect is there. But the book is so much more than the competition! It’s an adventure of self-discovery, chasing dreams, magic, and love.

The characters had me in love from day one. Maia was fierce and brilliant. She instantly made me want to learn how to sew and become a master tailor. And Edan, the Lord Enchanter sweep me off my feet so quickly. I was shipping our couple as soon as they met!

My only issue and it’s not even a big issue is that time passed quickly. so things move progressively fast-paced. One chapter we are in one location and the next in another. So the relationship and quest move fast. And I wish things were a bit slowed down just so the book could have been longer. I was not ready for it to end!

Now I must go start Unravel the Dusk as I have to find out what happens next! As of right now, I highly recommend this one. Especially if you love a strong female lead, a sweet love story, and a beautiful magical world!

Mulan retelling?? I am there!
The MC is so head strong and determined to save her family at all costs.
I am dying with anticipation of the new release!

What a wonderful and mystical world Elizabeth Lim has created! The lore is beautifully executed, the characters were easy to love, and the world was intricately developed. I never wanted Maia and Edan's journey to end!

I enjoyed this one but it did have a lot of very harmful ableist tropes. One of them was taken out of the final copy thankfully but the story itself is still actively ableist unfortunately. I thought the romance was really sweet and the story very intriguing though. I love Mulan retellings.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Maia is a seamstress, the daughter of an accomplished tailor who is in poor health and depends on her to complete his more intricate jobs. When the emperor sends someone to collect her father for a competition to become the emperor’s personal tailor, she goes instead....disguised as her brother because women are not allowed to be tailors. Along the way, she meets Edan, the court enchanter, and becomes caught up in a scheme to unite two kingdoms. Can her magic scissors stop a war? Only time will tell.

DNF for the moment. This is paced too quickly. The world is really brilliant and I love the premise. But every character feels shallow and the plot has progressed too fast for me to care.

I don't know why it took so long for me to read this glorious book! When I hear the words "Mulan meets Project Runway" I KNEW I'd love it and I'm so glad that I was right. I absolutely can't wait to see where the story goes next.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim is a book I've had sitting in my library for a while, a book I finally decided to pick up on a whim one night when I could not sleep, and I book I completely regret not picking up sooner, This unique Mulan retelling swept me off my feet and left me with a whimsical new world and characters to love.

Maia Tamarin is a girl who does not take no for an answer. She knows she's the best tailor in her family--maybe in all of the land--despite the fact that no one takes her and her work seriously because she is a girl. When her father is called to the palace to compete to be the imperial taylor, she's goes in his place, knowing that if she is caught she forfeits her life. While competing in numerous sewing tasks she discovers that the pair of scissors given to her by her father before she left contain a magic only she can use. This magic catches the eye of the court magician, Edan, and their journey together takes off from there. I absolutely adored Maia ad Edan's relationship from the beginning. They had some great banter, and I really enjoyed how we got to see their relationship grow throughout their journey to gather the the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. They're both incredibly selfless characters in my eyes, and I can't wait to see where their relationship goes in the second book.

The magic of this world is wholly unique--I've never read anything quite like it. Maia's scissors are a magical item I wish I had passed down in my family because the way Lim describes them in use is just magnificent. I also loved how Edan was tied to his master and how he got around the rules of his servitude to aid Maia despite knowing being away from his master would cause him to weaken. I'm actually very curious about what Edan does for the emperor as is seems he cast an enchantment to make him irresistible to everyone, an enchantment that is now void given that Maia freed Edan with her plea to the goddess. I think this is a really interesting plot line which I hope is followed up in the sequel.

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim is a truly fantastic book that transports the reader into a magical world full of intrigue and wonder. I give this book five out of five stars and highly recommend it to lovers of epic fantasy everywhere.

I am a sucker for a woman disguised as a man trope, so I really was into this Project Runway meets Mulan mash-up of a story. It's so beautifully told, and the descriptions are so rich that I could SEE the various creations. I wish the romance part of the plot had been a little more solid/cohesive, but I'm a romance junkie so...

Maia has never been good at spinning tales. Keton, her brother,knows this.Maia once had three brothers. baba is an expert tailor but the quality is declining. In the book A'landi is a place but I like it as a name.Maia is passing herself off as Keton to become tailor for the emperor even though it's not allowed for women.Like Mulan,Maia wants to hide her gender to protect her father . I liked the idea but I didn't love the story

SPIN THE DAWN is an unbelievably fantastic read with some elements of a high-stakes PROJECT RUNWAY, some elements of FLAME IN THE MIST, and a whole new adventure, romance, and captivating plot. Maia is the only daughter of a tailor in a kingdom where women are wives and men can have trades. Her three older brothers have talents that have nothing to do with the tailoring trade, and so, it is unfortunate that Maia is the one with the skills, but born female.

The kingdom is at war, and her brothers must go fight. Maia is left alone with her father, as her mother died when she was young. As her father is ailing, he cannot work and thus, they would starve. Maia instead takes on the work, running the shop and doing the tailoring. The war is barely ended with peace won by the emperor agreeing to marry the daughter of his rival. When the imperial tailor dies, Maia’s father is called to the imperial city to work for the emperor, based on some work Maia had done with her skill. Instead, Maia poses as her brother, Keton, and travels in his stead.

Once she arrives, she enters a contest with eleven other men who will compete at difficult tasks to become the imperial tailor. The competition is high stakes with short time allotments and increasingly strange requests (much like PROJECT RUNWAY)- as well as competitors who are willing to sabotage and maybe even murder to win. Reluctantly aided by the scissors gifted to her from her father and the imperial enchanter, Edan, Maia is eager to prove herself and her skills to win the competition.

However, her trials are soon to become even more difficult when the bride-to-be requests dresses of legend that would require Maia to undergo impossible tasks and face incredible odds to create them- but the alternative is too terrible to imagine.

What I loved: The world and character building in the book are incredible. Maia leaps off the page, as do the many other characters that appear- her family and the people at the imperial court- they are all so beautifully crafted that they are easy to imagine. With lyrical prose, this world blooms before our eyes as Maia must compete and then accomplish the impossible.

With the addition of a forbidden romance, this book completely enchanted me from start to finish. I loved it at the expense of sleep, and I have absolutely no regrets. With feminism, adventure, danger, and sacrifice, this book is simply gorgeous. The plot is unbelievably engrossing, and the writing style is simply perfect. Information is revealed in a seamless way to keep the reader engaged without bogging down any part of the story with details. With magic, myths, and romance, this book is other-worldly amazing.

Final verdict: Fans of Sarah J. Maas, Renee Ahdieh, Rae Carson, and Sabaa Tahir will revel in this incredible new YA fantasy. I highly recommend for anyone of any age looking for an extraordinary read. This book builds a new world and characters who quickly intrigued me and became close to my heart- readers will not regret picking up this gorgeously lyrical and lush YA fantasy/adventure!

I loved this book. It is pitched as a Mulan retelling however it is a lot more than that. The protagonist disguises herself as a boy in order to compete to become the royal tailor and save her family from ruin. The magic system was probably my favorite part of the book and I also loved the main character.

It’s a 4.5 star, id like to make that abundantly clear. Because I did LOVE this book. But I felt like I was missing something because while I read and read I was never eager or devouring it. There were parts but it was missing something and I don’t know what.

The romance was pretty good. I was surprised by the ending and how it went. I’m happy it’s a series because the idea of the dresses and Gods in the story were really interesting. I loved the land and mythology behind the story. It was very detailed and great. The world was wonderfully developed.

But there was a small piece missing that makes me hesitant to give it five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for Elizabeth Lim’s Spin the Dawn.

This was billed as a sort of “Mulan meets Project Runway” and is the high fantasy novel of a girl (masquerading as her older brother) who competes in a battle of sewing and design skills in order to secure a spot as the emperor’s tailor. Between the gorgeous cover and fresh concept I had high hopes for this novel, Unfortunately, I found it rather bland and underneath all the imagery of Asia it’s not all that different that any other YA fantasy on the market.

The design competition at the palace actually takes up a lot fewer pages than I expected and it was very disappointing. It has all the same beats as the usual YA girl-versus-whoever in an epic battle of skills and wits but instead of mean girls we have mean old men. Our girl is the underdog! There’s treachery afoot! Will she rely on her magical scissors? Who is this flirty Enchantor that keeps popping up and seems to see beneath her boy disguise?
The contest ends in a final difficult quest to find celestial pieces of magic along the Silk Road to sew into dresses for the Emperor’s future bride. For most humans retrieving items would be impossible and deadly but Maia has the aid of magical scissors and the help of an Enchanter. These scenes go on for so long I start to forget what she’s even looking for. Somehow all this travel creates romance between Maia and the Enchanter Edan. One of the weakest part of this novel is the lack of chemistry and connection between these two characters. Edan is yet an other impossibly old (but still boyishly young looking) YA fantasy male character that is unavailable in almost every way that matters but somehow can’t help but to love this teenage waif. This isn’t insta-love or slow-burn but instead no-burn. They don’t even seem to know each other that well yet we are supposed to believe in this is a great love affair.

Sadly, despite the beautiful cover and promise of fashion design I did not enjoy this one as much as I thought I would.

Zitat
„War comes at a great cost, […] and from that sacrifice comes peace. Sometimes we must let go of what we value for the future of our country. Be it a beautiful fan, or our honor, our our lives. In the end, we all belong to the gods anyway.“ -Kapitel 13.

Meine Meinung
„Spin the Dawn“ von Elizabeth Lim habe ich als Rezensionsexemplar erhalten. Anscheinend hatte ich das aber vergessen oder nicht bemerkt, zumindest stolperte ich neulich bei NetGalley darüber, dass ich dieses Buch in meinem Regal stand. Da es offiziell schon im Juni 2019 erschienen ist, muss es sich bisher entweder gut versteckt haben, was unwahrscheinlich ist, oder ich es erst vor kurzem bekomme haben. Für letzteres spräche auch, dass im Regal der letzten drei Monate verzeichnet ist. Wie dem auch sei, ich wollte das Buch eh lesen, warum also nicht jetzt?

Eingeteilt ist „Spin the Dawn“ in drei Abschnitten. Allein die ersten beiden wären in anderen Reihen ganze Bände gewesen, so viel geschieht dort. Dadurch lernt man Maia und ihre Persönlichkeit aber auch unheimlich gut kennen. Zugleich erfährt man viel über diese Welt ohne das es dröge wird. Falls ihr es nämlich noch nicht wusstest, „Spin the Dawn“ ist von der chinesischen Kultur und Geschichte inspiriert. Ich kann nichts dazu finden, welche Wurzeln die Autorin hat, als ob es Own Voice ist, da sie aber unter anderem einen Abschluss in East Asian Studies hat, vermute ich eine recht authentische und respektvolle Nutzung der Ursprungskultur.

Durch den Aufbau des Buches hat man als Leser*in immer ein klares Ziel vor Augen. Des Weiteren denkt man sich oft, dass man ja schon noch ein Kapitel lesen könne. Die drei Abschnitte ergeben Sinn und teilen die Gesamtgeschichte gut ein.

Ich hatte anfangs ein Problem mit dem Love Interest. Nun ja eigentlich nicht mit ihm persönlich. Sein Charakter ist kein typische Bad Boy, sondern ein erwachsener Mann, der die Grenzen anderer auch respektiert. Mein Problem war der dramatische Altersunterschied. Er ist über 500 Jahre alt. Er sieht nicht so aus, Magie sei Dank, aber ein bisschen Unbehagen hatte ich anfangs schon. Allerdings fand ich es ganz gut gehändelt, dass die ganze Sache eigentlich erst durch Maia ins Rollen kommt. Letztendlich habe ich, die sich sonst als Romantikallergikerin bezeichnet, sogar mitgefiebert und die Daumen gedrückt.

Apropos Beziehung. Es gibt Sex in „Spin the Dawn“. Wer das in der Jugendliteratur nicht möchte, hier war euer Hinweis. Für alle anderen möchte ich anmerken, dass nichts Explizites beschrieben wird. Es wird ungefähr genauso heiß wie in einer Daily Soap. Ein bisschen fummeln und knutschen und dann wird weggeblendet. Meiner Meinung nach hat Elizabeth Lim es jedes Mal sehr geschmackvoll gelöst.

Ich hoffe sehr, dass wir in „Unravel the Dusk“ noch mehr über die Nebencharaktere erfahren. Vom Kaiser wurde ja schon bisschen etwas enthüllt, aber Lady Sarnai hat noch so das ein oder andere Geheimnis, hinter welches ich gerne kommen würde. Schön fand ich, dass sie trotz ihres Charakters als mehrschichtige Person gezeigt wurde, die ihr eigenes Päckchen zu tragen hat. Letztendlich bringt sie die Geschichte erst richtig in Fahrt und ich hoffe, dass sie in „Unravel the Dusk“ eine noch größere Rolle spielen wird.

Falls ihr jetzt interessiert seit an dem Buch seid, aber so absolut keine Lust auf Englisch habt, seid beruhigt. „Spin the Dawn“ erscheint im Juli auch auf Deutsch, allerdings erkennt man es vielleicht nicht sofort. Denn es gehört zu den Büchern, deren Titel und Cover in der deutschen Übersetzung ganz anders sind. Die deutsche Ausgabe wird als Broschur bei Carlsen unter dem Titel „Ein Kleid aus Seide und Sternen“ erscheinen,
Fazit

Mit „Spin the Dawn“ von Elizabeth Lim erhält der Leser zweieinhalb Bücher zum Preis von einem. Wer Abenteuer, aber auch Hofintrigen mag, ist hier genau richtig. Ich bin gespannt auf die Fortsetzung „Unravel the Dusk".