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.

First off the cover is gorgeous!!! The story inside is just as beautiful. I loved the play/retelling of Cinderella but that not being the main plot points. There is so much more to this story than just another retelling. The magic system is beautifully done. I enjoyed the different cultural aspects of the book. I’m not well versed in Korean folklore to know how much came from it, but I didn’t need to be because the story flowed so well that you never felt lost in a new world.

Zhara is such an amazing character and I love when you get to watch them grow throughout the story. The cast around her is just as deep and colorful. I absolutely love the War Lords granddaughter. I hope she gets her own story line as this series progresses!

This one was just not for me.

The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Jin Zhara. She has a stepmother who isn’t a great person. It obviously resembles a Cinderella Retelling, but with it’s own twists on it. She was an alright character and had some good qualities about her. I liked reading about the relationship between her and her younger sister.

My problem with this book lies in it just not being for me. It is one of those that is written with humor in mind but it is not my type of humor and that takes away from enjoying the book. The humor aspect involves a lot of the story, including the characters, and it just had me wanting the book to be over more than anything.

There are good things about this book like the magic and some of the plot twists. It is at least what kept me going.

Overall, it was okay. I really don’t have much to say about it since I couldn’t get into it. I do think that it will work for a lot of people, especially if they connect with the humor.

I alternated between the audio and digital versions of this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The unique magic system captivated me and I really liked the growth of Zhara's character. The romance was incredibly cute, and Han's character was particularly appealing. Overall, it was a good book, although it did feel a bit slow-paced for my taste. I would rate it 3.5 out of 5.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for this advance eARC.

Thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. I dropped the book at 20% of the way through.

The writing was absolutely atrocious and the book riddled with cliche anime tropes. Not to mention how immature the characters AND the writing was. Zhara was an awful protagonist--she gets the "Good Looking Giggles" anytime she sees a cute guy. Ugh.

Shame too, since the cover is so nice.

What a fantastic young adult book! The imagery was so vivid that I was 100% moving along with the characters. I love when a book feels like a movie and this one did. I also love when a character develops by learning about themselves and their own power. The stream of consciousness was super helpful and added a realness to Zhara. Definitely enjoyed this book!

3.5/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, Wednesday books and Macmillan audio for both the e-arc and alc.

I had slightly high expectations for this book due to it being compared to lunar chronicles which is one of my favorite series of all time. I would say it was a pretty solid book but not perfect. I felt like it did drag in some parts and was overall not fast paced which I do prefer for my books.

Zhara is a magician in a world where having magic is illegal and punished by death. Jin Zhara is stuck serving her stepmother's every whim no matter how cruel to help protect her blind stepsister all while keeping her magic under control. When magical monsters start to reappear she has to team up with the Guardians of Dawn to save her land.

I liked most of the characters in the book, especially Yuli who I hope to see more in another book in the series. I liked the magic system but I did wish for a little more into that. Overall it was decent. I just still have questions on how it all works.

For my audiobook arc I did really like the narrator and it kept me engaged the whole time.

I do recommend this book. It does read a bit younger for YA than I personally prefer but that’s not a bad thing just not for me.

I quite liked this book. It has the feel of Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, and a bit of a feel of a Rick Riordan mythology book. Readers will be swept away by Zhara and her quest to figure out how her magic fits in a world where magic is banned and looked down upon. There are so many different twist and turns, and this book perfectly sets up readers to want to come back again and find out what happens next. I quite enjoy books that utilize mythology in a way that allows readers of all backgrounds to enjoy and want to learn more. S. Jae-Jones does a fantastic job of this. I can’t wait to see what happens to Zhara next.
Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.