I put this book at 16%. I was really anticipating this after keeping up with the author's journey with this one, but I am not in the mood for yet another disappointing read. I really didn't like the writing or cared about what was happening with the characters. The writing felt very modern yet the vibe is a historical Asian drama, which could work but didn't really feel like it was here. This book was just not for me honestly.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with this e-arc. This is my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one! This had major sailor moon vibes to it and I ate it UP.
This had drama but also felt low stakes at the same time, and the characters were all very unique. I absolutely loved the main male character Han - so different from the typical brooding guys you see in books now. He was cute and funny, so provided some great comedic relief.

What I loved most about this book is that it was very culturally diverse but it was explained in such a way that I understood it very easily. If not for that I’d have likely been a bit lost since I’m not very educated about other cultures.

This book was also just FUN! A super fun read that kept me interested the whole way through. I’ll definitely be putting a review up on my Instagram when it’s closer to the publish date!

I picked this book up as a palate cleanser after a series of really good but really dark books, and I am glad not only that I read this book but that I read it when I did. I came into this book looking for something with high stakes and which took those stakes seriously, but would first and foremost be something fun, something delightful. Considering the main thing I knew of this book was Sailor Moon vibes, I suspected it would be exactly what I wanted, and I was right.

The characters in this book were a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed their interactions. The main romance was particularly wholesome, but the friendships were no less delightful. Every one of the main characters was such a dork in their own way, and I loved them for it. (I also loved how casually queer it was--much more than I expected, which is always a pleasure to see!) Much like Zhara herself, I giggled a lot while reading this book.

My one criticism is I felt like this book spent a lot of time on the secrets between Han and Zhara, but there was another very important secret that I actually didn't realize was a secret at all until it blew up, as secrets do. That may be my own fault, but either way it felt disproportionate to me, especially when the consequences of that one were arguably more severe.

Despite that, I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't terribly surprising or groundbreaking, but I got exactly what I needed from it, and I think that's more important anyway. If you're looking for a book that feels like watching Sailor Moon with your friends, I fully recommend this, and I look forward to reading the next one when it comes out.

**Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This review is my opinion**

I am a sucker for anything similar to "Sailor Moon". This book definitely has an awesome magic system, and a great mythology, but something was...missing. The main character, Zhara, is interesting, but she didn't jump off the page like I thought she was. I started to lose interest by the end, but I pushed on because this author created the mystical "Wintersong". I wasn't a fan of "Shadowsong", so I wanted to give the author another chance with this book.

I hate being on the fence!

This book definitely has an interesting premise, and it mostly delivered on it. I can see the similarities between this Sailor Moon and Cinder, so there's a point in its favor. The world itself is interesting and well fleshed out, and the magic system is unique, if a bit underdeveloped. The pacing is a little slow, and the climax was underwhelming and not really explained all that satisfactorily. Some of the dialogue is well-written, and some is juvenile and out-of-place given the context and tone of the surrounding conversation. The writing is good, but nothing spectacular, and often felt very fanfic-y in a bad way. The characters are interesting in some respects but flat and shallow in most cases, and inconsistent in their maturity - sometimes they're believable and sometimes I felt like I was watching cheesy anime characters in action. There's a lot of heavy-handed exposition, and there was a villain monologue towards the end, which I never enjoy. Yay for the queer rep, though! Overall, an enjoyable enough read, but not worth buying a physical copy to re-read.

I was instantly drawn to this book because of its beautiful cover and synopsis!

This book has fantastic world building! The magic is very interesting. And the characters have great depth and development by the end.

I enjoyed the different representation from all sides. It really made it feel relatable.

The lore and the history are intriguing and sucked me in right away wanting to know more.

I reccomened this book to any fantasy readers!

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for allowing me to read an early copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I made it halfway through Zhara, and while I didn't dislike it, it wasn't the right read for me. However, I can definitely see this appealing to teens, with its Sailor Moon (and Cinderella) inspired story. The author's stylistic choice to mimic certain aspects of East Asian languages in English didn't work for me (eschewing the use of second person pronouns, and gendered third person pronouns), but that's a personal preference (and I say this as someone who speaks Korean and Japanese, so it's not anything to do with unfamiliarity with those languages). I'd recommend this for the younger reader of fantasy, especially one who wants read something in a non-Western setting, but don't see it holding much appeal for adult readers.

I was provided by the ARC by Netgalley, unfortunally I couldn't get into it. This was a DNF for me. The characters are not interesting, they are boring, the story is also not interesting at all, and it is the same old story where magic is forbidden and of course the FMC has magic and has to hide it, nothing new. I could not force myself finish it.
I would also like to say that I am getting tired of YA books where the main characters act like adults, that is where I lose interest in a story, I do not like to read adult books but when I get to read YA genre they face the same problems as adults, I like fantasy supernatural books with characters that make me laugh. make me smile, no YA acting like boring adults.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This could be fun for the right audience. The book reads more middle grade than YA, and I’m surprised it’s being marketed to an audience 14+. If I could bottle what it felt like to read Sailor Moon and Shugo Chara as a tween, this would be close.

⇢➤ Plot: Zhara is a magician in a world that has exiled them. Magicians were once known to transform into monsters, leading to mass outcry and violence. They are now considered dangerous and hunted down by the crown.

The story overall is a Cinderella retelling. Zhara, an outcast even in her family, shares a home with her blind stepsister and cruel stepmother. While in town, she accidentally crosses paths with Han, the Royal Heir in disguise. They continue to run into each other as Zhara’s magic grows. They both wind up as part of the Guardians of the Dawn whose mission is to protect magicians and act as a counterweight to the current government. They have to work together to try to stop the growing threat of monsters and demons.

⇢➤ Pros: I would encourage readers to read the author’s notes in the beginning for Jae-Jones' explanation on language, translation, and pronouns. The author’s experience with the Korean diaspora seemed to echo the magicians’ journey.

The world-building is well done. I enjoyed the descriptions of magic and the juxtaposition of the natural world vs. chaos. Jiyi is my favorite character and reminds me of Zoya from the Grisha series— beautiful, no-nonsense, and biting while wildly brilliant.

There is a non-binary character, Xu, who is well-written for most of the book. They are introduced as “the fairest sex of them all” and alternate between gendered clothing/makeup. Han describes how they walk the line between masculine and feminine “defiantly both and neither at once.” I thought they were a great addition to the cast. However, there are a couple instances toward the end of the book (Chapter 40) where they are suddenly referred to as “he.” This misgendering felt like an editorial mistake and I hope it is corrected in the final version.

The Guardian of the Wind is also queer, reminding me of Sailor Uranus in attitude and appearance. Her character was enjoyable. I’m curious where the other Guardians will factor into future books. The book ends on a strong high-note.

⇢➤ Cons: The romance. Oh, the romance. Frequent giggling, blushing, winking, and jokes about porn make up most of the MMC/FMC interactions.

While the world-building was solid, the dialogue and interactions read juvenile. The “Good-Looking Giggles” is mentioned over a dozen times. There are frequent face-palms and exaggerated reactions that took me out of the story. As a result, it took me almost a month to finish a book I would normally fly through.

As mentioned above, the non-binary representation is appreciated, but the wrong pronoun is used at least once. Another character, Yuji’s relative Mongke, is at one point described as “duel-gender” and “Auncle” but introduced originally as “Uncle.” I’m not sure if this is also an editorial error.

There is disability representation, specifically around blindness. I am not part of this community and cannot judge the quality of rep. However, little is done with Suzhan’s character or journey until the last 10% of the book, and I wish she was more than a pawn/hostage. The one line I liked from Suzhan doesn’t come until the epilogue, which I’m afraid some readers will miss: “There is no fixing me. I don’t want to be fixed. I am Suzhan. And I am blind.”

⇢➤ Recommended for fans of: “Cinder” by Marissa Meyer and “A Magic Steeped in Posion” by Judy Lin.

If the fictional romance serial mentioned in the book (“A Maiden Who Was Loved by Death”) sounded interesting, I would recommend “Belladonna” by Adayln Grace.

Unfortunately, I really did not enjoy this book. The characters felt very stupid in a way that I found really frustrating and made me not enjoy reading them. I don't mind a character not being smart but this took it so far that it was just not fun for me. The Sailor Moon comp is what drew me to this book and it definitely very much draws similarities but that didn't make me enjoy this book. The plot felt very obvious in the sense that the author shows the reader things that are very clearly coming and then makes the characters surprised to learn them much later so it ends up feeling like the characters are getting things revealed that we, the readers, have known for awhile. Very disappointing because this cover is beautiful and this book sounded like something I should love and I just didn't.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the approval of this E ARC!

Going into reading Zhara I had high hopes and expectations with the Sailor Moon and Cinder tags attached to the summary.

For the most part, my expectations were met. Guardians Of Dawn: Zhara was a sweeping wonderful fantasy read and by the end I became quite attached to the many colourful and diverse characters.

The lore and history was handled pretty well, I did get lost in a few places but just needed to re read some parts or look back at previous chapters to better understand what was and had happened.
Sometimes things got a bit confusing though. But my main complaint was some plot points and reveals fell kind of flat on landing or forgotten entirely towards the end. There was some pacing and blanks towards the end I would have liked to have been fleshed out a bit better.

I really appreciated and support the authors choice for characters referred as ungendered they/them until such character gender themselves, it’s quite wonderful to see in a book. And the support to queer and diverse characters was such *chefs kiss*.

I loved loved loved the Ever After vibes I got towards the end (when you read it you’ll notice if you are a fan!) It made me smile and hopefully I’m not the only one who noticed it!

Overall I loved my time with Zhara, Han and co. In Zanhei and I eagerly await the sequel.

Overall, I feel like the comparison of this book to Sailor Moon is pretty accurate. As a huge fan, I was definitely feeling the love. I really appreciate Jae-Jones's note at the beginning about how they tried to incorporate elements of culture in a way that felt true to them. As someone who really enjoys asian-inspired fantasy, I was not let down by this book. The world that Jae-Jones created was very entertaining and probably the most compelling part of the novel.. The characters were easy to connect to but came off as a little expected. I am excited to see what this author does next!

S. Jae-Jones is an incredible fantasy author. Guardians of Dawn: Zhara was just as satisfying to read as Wintersong. It will absolutely sweep you up and transport you away. The cover is also absolutely beautiful, definitely one of my favorite covers of the year.

DNF at 70%

Oh my. Where do I start. *cries in frustrated disappointment*

I tried incredibly very hard to like this. I traded for the physical arc and was both gifted the audiobook and eARC by Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, I spent the weeks I was flip-flopping between the three different media forcing myself to enjoy while dreading continuing through the story. And now writing this I’m still anxious about re-living the time spent with this book.

Let’s start with the good bits and he reasons why I didn’t rate it a 1 star – the cover? Absolutely STUNNING. So gorgeous and I absolutely cannot wait to see what the special editions for this book looks like because I know it’s going to be even more beautiful.

Another great thing about this book is the diversity in the representation. It’s Asian, there’s disability rep, and I instantly decide to read any book with a queernorm world.

However, those are the only bits that I enjoyed about the book. It reads so forcibly young as if it was written for middle grade age but in such a condescending way. I read quite a bit of middle grade and this felt like a parody of that. Interspersed in between al the juvenile text were irreverent and dirty jokes that felt out of place and completely irrelevant to the story line. I don’t see how a young child being joked about as obsessed with porn is important to the narrative. How jokes about the lack of intelligence of characters and the blindness of other characters are important to the story?

As for the audiobook, the narrator was objectively good but adding to my observation that I felt as if I was reading a train wreck in slow-motion, the narrator was MEOWING in my ear constantly. And not as a sound effect. She would meow out the cat’s noises when the text would say “meow” and that honestly was really disturbing.

The characters themselves felt as if they were intentionally part of the TDTL trope with how immature and intentionally obstinate they were portrayed to be. They never seemed to see what was right in front of their faces as the plot went on and they were so unserious all the time and for what? Someone gets tortured? OK, lets giggle about it.

For the writing, it was extremely repetitive, and the pace meandered over and over in the same extremely small circle. The most beautiful part of this book was the author’s note at the start. I wish I stopped there.

In the end, I really couldn’t take it and just decided to DNF at 70%. This was the biggest chore to read and unfortunately my biggest disappointment of the year next to Martha Well’s Witch King. It put me in the biggest reading slump of year so far and I really wish I didn’t try as hard as I did to love it.

**2.5 STARS**

Content Warning: violence

I was absolutely drawn to this book because of that gorgeous book cover. It’s one of the prettiest book covers I’ve seen this year. I was also intrigued with the synopsis saying it’s Sailor Moon meets Cinder but as I read the book I felt like it didn’t deliver on any of those fronts. And I watched Sailor Moon this summer so that’s fresh in my head while I read this book and there were some similarities. I think Zhara has the personality of Usagi (Sailor Moon) in some aspects, like she giggles around good looking people, she’s bubbly but cares about helping others.


Story wise it was easy to follow. There is something going on, monsters are reemerging and the need for the mysterious society called the Guardians of Dawn are needed for their magical skill. I guess that’s another thing related to Sailor Moon, the Guardians. But it’s very different from the Guardians in Sailor Moon.

Zhara has magic that she is trying to keep secret. She’s a little bit of a Cinderella, and her evil step-mother treats her and her sister horribly. Zhara meets the royal prince, Han, who’s undercover and looking for the Guardians also. I thought their interactions were cute and fun. There is a lot of sexual innuendo because of some books they discuss but it all feels very innocent. My favorite character I think is Xu, who is Han’s best friend. They are Han’s closest companion and really came through for him when he needed them. I felt like Xu kept Hu in line as much as they could.

I was okay with the build up of the story but somewhere along the way the story wasn’t holding my attention. I think maybe this would work better for younger readers. It read a little too young for me, or I’m just too old for it, but I couldn’t connect to the story.

Why you should read it:
*comparison to Sailor Moon and Cinder, it has magic and Guardians, and a sweet romance

Why you might not want to read it:
*might read too young for some adults

My Thoughts:

I wish I could have connected to this story more because I really do love that book cover. I also could have been comparing it hard to Sailor Moon since I spent the summer watching the series on Netflix. Overall, it was an okay read with some funny moments but I think it’s not for me. I do think it would appeal to younger YA readers though.

From the cover and title of this book, I thought this might be MG (and wondered why it was in YA), but after reading the first few chapters, it seemed like lower YA. But as I continued, it's for older teens, despite the immaturity of the characters. There's swearing, mentions of pornographic literature, and mentions of violence not suitable for a younger audience.

I was drawn in by the "Sailor Moon meets Cinder" comps, but I saw none of it in this book. No group of magical teen girls in epic transformation sequences or cyborgs. And the stakes aren't nearly as intense or engaging as it is in Cinder, even after reading the first 20% of the book. Unfortunately, we're ticking off the YA checklist: We have the typical setup of a girl who must hide her magical abilities from the evil Warlord who's bent on killing everyone with magic, no parents, and much more.

One of the biggest issues is the characters. The world here has a culture of young girls (teens) who are paired with their future husbands by a matchmaker. With this cultural setup, it would seem as though the main character would also have some level of maturity, especially since she works and lives in impoverished conditions, yet she is even more immature than her younger stepsister. She reads romance stories all day and her interactions with her love interest are cringeworthy (their initial dialogue was terrible, and I wasn't sure if this book was even YA--some other dialogues were also not that good). I only kept reading because I wanted to see if the MC would mature towards the end (like in Six Crimson Cranes), but this doesn't quite happen. Unlike in Cinder, the characters in this book aren't fleshed out enough for readers to care for them.

Another qualm I had with this book is the use of "they"--the author gives us some background albeit could've been more clear, but the story is contrary to the author's note. And this confused me SO much. When the MC's love interest is introduced, "they" is used, but shouldn't be clear that the MC is talking to a male when his physical features are described (which the vast majority of pubescent males have)? Or is this world where everyone looks the same? Another instance is a female character, even after we learn she's female, "they" is still used whenever she talks. This is SUPER annoying because it breaks the flow of the story and confuses the reader as to there being multiple characters in the scene. Also loathed the forced liberal ideologies in this story.

I liked the worldbuilding, as the book draws on East Asian cultures, but I think it could've been more immersive (like Six Crimson Cranes or the Red Palace). And the magic system could've also been done better.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

magic is forbidden throughout the morning realms, which is why zhara has worked so hard to conceal her own. but when she meets han, she is introduced to a secret magical liberation organization called the guardians of dawn, and zhara realizes she must find her inner magic to save the world.

this is pitched as sailor moon meets cinder. while i don’t have much knowledge about sailor moon (though i do plan on watching it someday!), i could definitely see the similarities to cinder, or at least to cinderella, which that book is a retelling of. i can for sure see fans of cinder’s long(ish) series, world building, secret magic, and so on easily getting sucked into this world.

Firstly, the cover is SO PRETTY! That was definitely one of the major reasons I wanted to pick this up, but the comparison to Cinder (one of my all time fave books) was another.

Unfortunately, I only made it about 35% in and not going to be finishing this one. The writing style seems repetitive and leans on the younger side of YA. I couldn’t take the “Mistress Brandy” and “Master Plum Blossom” nicknames, especially after they learned each others’ actual names, and some of the humor just seemed immature and annoying.

I will say that the abomination scene was super creepy! I just couldn’t get invested enough in the plot, characters, or romance to continue on with this one. Bummer.

This was my first S. Jae-Jones book and I am a big fan! I thought the writing and world-building were both really vivid and the magic system and mythology felt unique and different from other YA fantasies I've read recently. Ever since I saw that this book labeled as having "Sailor Moon vibes," I knew I needed to read it and that description is totally spot on. I am excited to see where Jae-Jones takes things next!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for the eARC.
Overall this seemed very YA. I get the hints of Sailor Moon and Cinderella but overall the book was interesting but not for me. Curious to see if there’s more books with different guardians. All in all I’d recommend this to a teen who wanted to try fantasy books. I personally couldn’t connect with them.