What took me by surprise was that this is a Cinderella retelling, loosely. Were it not for the fairytale elements/incorporations, I don't think I would be continuing the series. (Next is Beauty and The Beast!)

Some things worked for me; the overall plot being the main one. "Magic" is forbidden, demons are entering the world possessing people, magicians turning into abominations, elemental magic users, and a sister storyline woven throughout.

Other things dragged it down. The romance was not very interesting and scattered throughout with Zhara's attacks of the "Good Looking Giggles", which made me want to roll my eyes everytime it happened. What is she, 12??? What is this, bad middle grade fiction??? The running "joke" mentioning pornographic smut, and how Han is usually oblivious. And last but not least, the pacing. Good grief, it took me like two weeks to finish this. It definitely had its moments that flew by at a good clip, but as a whole, it was probably 50-100 pages too long.

There was a theme of sisterhood that ran through, and while it took some turns that tugged at the heartstrings, it was a very welcome addition to the story.

Cinderella mixed with Asian inspired fantasy. Zhara is used to hiding her magic. In the Morning Realms, magic is now forbidden, and most of the magicians were killed several years prior, including Zhara's father. As rumors of abominations (magicians turned to monsters) spread, Zhara will have to come to terms with her own gift. Luckily she will have the help of some new friends, including a magical resistance group and the handsome heir to the throne, Han.

This was a fantastic start to a YA fantasy series. I'm a sucker for retellings, so I loved all the Cinderella bits in this one. The romance between Zhara and Han was extremely cute. Sweet young love... So many giggles. The worldbuilding is also amazing. I'm so excited to see where the story goes next, as the characters leave their home and explore more of the world. I was easily immersed in the world while reading, and will definitely be looking for future installments in the series.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

"The rent was due, rodents had gotten into the rice, and Zhara had just dumped a bag of salt instead of sugar into the custard filling."

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In a land where magic is expressly forbidden and magicians are considered an abomination and are arrested simply for existing, Jin Zhara thought that all she would ever have to worry about was pleasing her wicked stepmother, taking care of her blind younger sister, and wondering if she would ever be able to afford the next installment in her favorite romance book series. However, after a chance meeting with a teenage boy named Han in the marketplace, she is drawn into the world of magicians and the mysterious society of the Guardians of Dawn. Zhara will have to come to terms with the great power within her to save the world before it is too late.

I really enjoyed this book with its many different characters and the clear influence from both the real world and the fantasy world. Han was absolutely hilarious, especially his banter with his best friend, Xu. They had a such a special bond, perfectly mirrored by the relationship between Zhara and Suzhan. However, I feel like the princess from the North, Yulana, was an extremely well-written character that I hope receives some more page time as this series continues. She is an amazing warrior princess that a lot of people look for in books.

Overall, I would give this book a 4/5 stars and would recommend it to readers who enjoy retellings of classic fairytales and who enjoy interesting magic systems.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an eARC copy of this book!

3/5 Stars

This book first caught my eye from the cover design, and then the description grabbed my attention. While I really wanted to love this book, I found myself losing interest in wanting to pick this back up, since the book is set at a slower pace. However, I think I will continue on with the series as the story is really promising.

Guardians of dawn: Zhara follows young magician Zhara as she navigates a world where magic has been made illegal due to magicians becoming demons randomly and attacking people. Zhara who’s father was killed on her youth lives with her step mother and step sister and reads romance novels, when she meets a young man asking about the Guardians of Dawn in hopes of helping his magician brother she finds herself drawn into an adventure of myth and legend.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, it’s not bad but it suffers from being a tad to long, and for my personal tastes very much on the younger side of YA closer to middle grade than I normally prefer. I liked Non-binary rep, but I think the blind rep wasn’t particularly good. I plan on reading the rest of the series and I hope that the series improves from here on out.

There were multiple storylines that kept flowing in and out of each other. As things moved forward, it also dragged a bit. I just wanted to get to the good parts or at least for the main conflict to arise. When the book focused on this, I couldn't stop turning the pages.

While there were some funny moments, these were not enough to overcome the cringier parts of the book. The idea of “good-looking giggles” is one I’m used to in dramas and even mangas, but it was somehow cringier here. Then there was also the adolescent boy humor that alluded to certain types of reading material that may have been funny the first time but then made me want to shrink into myself when it kept showing up again.

Overall, I liked the main plot and also found Zhara to be a compelling character. The humor was sometimes a hit or miss. Fans of manga and anime may enjoy this one.

This book was just okay. Very mid. There were a lot of things I did like about it was pretty mediocre otherwise. The world-building was interesting, and the plot could have been great, but it was overshadowed by some juvenile running gags that weren't funny and took me out of the book. One of those things was a group of entertainers in their world called Bangtan Boys, I mean Bangtan Brothers (AKA just straight up BTS) that every time was mentioned made me roll my eyes. Another gag was the "Good Looking Giggles," which the main character Zhara got even when facing an evil demon. These repetitive tropes, jokes, and a pretty flat cast of characters made the whole book feel juvenile and not how YA can and should be. The plot was very predictable, and I guessed what would happen way before it did. It was an easy, fast read and I was able to read it in a weekend which was a plus. Overall very meh.

3.75 stars

This one felt a slight bit unpolished, and the anachronistic addition of BTS references was kind of cringey. Zhara didn'tfeel like a fully fleshed out character to me. She didn't quite know who she was or how old she was, and it made it impossible for me to connect with her.

That said, I do think this is an interesting world and an good story, and despite its flaws, I'd be interested in reading the next one.

DNF. I know it’s YA, but it still felt a little too juvenile. Wasn’t a terrible read, but wasn’t memorable either.

Was not a huge fan of this one. While I enjoyed the overall plot and some of the characters in particular, overall I felt the story and writing was a bit of a let down. I would be willing to give this author another try in the future on another book or series.

Not a book for me. I could definitely see why others enjoyed this book, but I found it really hard to get into, and in all honesty struggled to finish it. The pacing was super slow and it got to the point where I would try to skip chapters in hope that I would get across some of the filler. However, no such luck. That’s all not to say that the book is lacking plot, in fact the plot actually seems interesting. It is just super hard to get into it.

I could not get into this story no matter how hard I tried. My attention was not gripped by anything in the story. I hope others can like it though.

Thank you Netgalley for the ebook!

i cannot express enough how much i loved this book. The story was amazing and engaging and so intricate. The characters were solid and i loved their development throughout the story. I fell in love with the magic system. Everything about it was beautiful and magical. I loved the world building, learning about the town and the districts was fun without being overwhelming. I cannot wait to see where this story is going to go, and cannot wait to reread this in preparation for the second!

Adored this one a lot! I do feel like something is missing for me, but I do know there’s going to be a second one that’s definitely why and hope it I can see what it is

Zhara by S. Jae-Jones has an almost Cinderella feel. We meet Zhara who lives with her stepmother and stepsister. While she does have a decent relationship with her stepsister, her stepmother takes advantage of the fact that Zhara has magic. In this world, there is an overlord who has banned all magic and to have magic is deadly. This book had me from page one. The characters were relatable and the world building was easy to fall into. I loved this book and can't wait until the next installment!

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own*
I really enjoyed Wintersong by this author so when I heard that they'd be writing another book, I knew I had to check it out! It's marketed as Sailor Moon meets Cinder and while I'm familiar with Sailor Moon, I absolutely loved Cinder so this book seemed right up my alley.
I will say, it isn't quite what I was expecting, but I don't mean that in a bad way. I knew if it was going to be a Cinderella sort of retelling there would be romance, so I knew to expect that. The romance in this book wasn't that terrible to be honest. It didn't dominate the entire story, which is something I'm not a huge fan of in fantasy.
I did love all the world building. It was a lot though at times and sometimes I felt it was a little too much. I didn't get much of a sense of character development for any of the main characters either. They all pretty much stayed the same throughout the whole story. I do think Zhara is learning to stand up for herself, which I think was very difficult for her since she lived with an abusive "parent". (She can deny that fact all she wants. The Second Mother was so abusive. Fits though with the Cinderella retelling).
I think overall, it was a good book. There are lots of places where it info dumps and that can be super overwhelming, but the information is interesting (for the most part. When it's 2am and you're still up reading because you don't want to put the book down, it can kinda ruin the vibe). I would recommend this book though!

I don't really know how to talk about this book. For the first part of it, I was really enjoying this. I really liked our two main characters, and I was very intrigued by the world that was slowly being build up for us. I found it quite a compelling read as well. But then the magic properly gets introduced, and we really kick of the plot, and I just kind of got bored.
That being said, I really liked the magic system. Just the whole mythology behind it was incredibly interesting to me. I also still liked our cast of characters, and I liked seeing their personal developement. The romance was also a bit underdeveloped, but still quite cute. I did really like that aspect of the book. The plot just didn't work for me.
I don't know. I was just so incredibly bored throughout most of this book, and I had a really hard time picking it up after putting it down (hence why it took me a month to read this book). I also found myself not caring enough to read more of this series, which is a shame because (again) I did quite like the characters and world.
So yeah, I'm quite dissapointed this didn't work for me, but I do really hope it will work for other people because there are nuggets of goodness in here for me.

Incredible imagery and lovable characters. Nothing really stands out trying to write this review 2 months after I finished the book, but I remember that I want to read the next one, so that's good enough for me.

Unfortunately this book didn’t meet my expectations.

The cover itself is what drew me to read it and the summary was promising too.

Sadly, the characters were not it for me and it felt impossible to connect with them. The plot was underwhelming as well, mainly because the story progressed at a snail’s pace.

There were of course some moments where I enjoyed the book but they were overshadowed by the rest.

I wish i liked it more and had nicer things to say but I don’t.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The world-building was interesting, and complex at times. I really struggled with this book and the amount of characters I was being introduced too. I found myself distracted and skimming a lot. I did see some comparisons to Cinder and Sailor Moon like so many others have mentioned, but it still was not enough to keep me fully invested.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press providing me with an advanced readers copy of this book.