Un-put-downable. Is the phrase id use to best describe this book! It had me hooked from the very beginning. From the compassionate and headstrong female protagonist Arwen to the mysterious and powerful Kane, I just couldn’t stop!

If you like enemies to lovers, warring kingdoms and sexy tension… this is the book for you!

"A Dawn of Onyx" is the first installment of "The Sacred Stones", a na fantasy romance series written by Kate Golden and currently in progress.

I admit that I struggled initially with this book. In the first few chapters I repeatedly rolled my eyes and huffed, bored by the extreme predictability of the narration. But, and I emphasize BUT, as I continued reading I found myself sucked into the story without realizing it, thanks to captivating writing and a fast pace. In my opinion it remains an unoriginal novel in its various elements, definitely inspired by other romantasy series, with numerous flaws here and there. However, although it did not particularly impress me, in the end it still entertained me a lot and left me with curiosity to continue.


The world building seemed rather sparse and nebulous to me. The cruel Kingdom of Onyx and the quiet Kingdom of Amber are at war with each other, with more hidden, deep, and complicated motives than they might seem on the surface. The story takes place mainly in the castle of Shadowhold, in the kingdom of Onyx, which contains a large military camp and is surrounded by dark and threatening woods. I liked the descriptions of the locations, but I would have liked some more detail about the setting. The magic system is vague at the highest levels, however, I hope for future improvement.

The story proceeds dynamic and brisk, full of court intrigue, power plays, subterfuges, deceptions, secrets and lies. And of course a good romance enemies to lovers! As mentioned above I found everything already seen and reviewed in other romantasy series, so much so that I guessed the various plot twists in advance and couldn't even feign surprise. In addition, I sensed several plot holes and numerous convenient situations, which made me turn my nose up at times. Despite these flaws the smooth and intriguing narration, combined with the presence of short chapters, kept me glued to the pages and entertained a lot.

I liked Arwen, protagonist and only first person pov. Arwen lives in the Kingdom of Amber and is the eldest child in the family, which consists of a seriously ill mother, a ten-year-old sister, and a brother engaged as a soldier in the war against the Kingdom of Onyx. Arwen cares for her family and works as an apprentice in the local infirmary, making use of the mysterious healing power she possesses, which for unknown reasons does not work on her mother. She never left the confines of her village until her brother, now given up for dead, suddenly returns with money stolen from a group of Onyx soldiers. Hunted down and forced to flee in the dead of night, Arwen is captured by the robbed patrol and decides to offer her life and her powers to save her brother. Imprisoned and taken to the castle of Shadowhold, she finds herself facing an extremely difficult situation. Arwen is a girl deeply afraid of everything, suffering from panic attacks and feeling inferior. I appreciated these frailties of hers, the fact that she does not hide them, and her evolution throughout the story.

About the male character I won't say anything to avoid spoilers, except that he convinced me right from the start. The relationship he develops with the protagonist is a well-managed enemies to lovers, full of tasty banter and highly sizzling chemistry!

All in all, this is an enjoyable book, not very original and with several flaws, which I recommend to lovers of fantasy romance!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

🌟🌟🌟 REVIEW!!!

A Dawn of Onyx - Kate Golden

Okay I want to start by saying that I actually really liked this book and will be reading the second one the second it’s out BUT certain aspects of this just didn’t give what needed to be given.

A Dawn of Onyx is a perfect book for a mood reader looking to get out of a reading slump - but don’t expect to be ‘wowed’ by the plot… it pretty much does what it says on the romantasy stamped tin (again, I really enjoyed this and finished it with 24 hours lol)

Arwen and Kane’s romance, whilst v cutesy and filled with banter and tension and a promise of more, just fell a little flat for me. It definitely felt more centred around lust than romance most of the time. Although I will admit that some of moments without the book made me SWOON.

Towards the end of the book I found myself rooting for (what I HOPE) will progress to be a love triangle in the next books… a love triangle not involving either of the main characters, which is why I would struggle to give the book more than three stars.

In the second book I would loveeee to see more exploration of the magic & for Golden to continue the brilliant world-building she’s started on with A Dawn of Onyx. I think Arwen and Kane’s story has SO much potential and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them next!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for proving this ARC 💫

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Now this was a book for me! Fantasy lovers get around this one.

From start to finish I was completely enhanced in the storyline. A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden sees a young healer called Arwen captured by soldiers for a king her domain is at war with.

It’s very much an enemy to lovers storyline as Arwen finds out who she is as a person and what she is destined for.

I loved the magic and fae storylines and was completely engaged throughout. I can’t wait to see how their story continues and if they will sort out their differences.

This book! You guys, seriously this book!
It has everything a fantasy reader would want and when I say everything I mean EVERYTHING:

Dragons ✅
Enemies to Lovers ✅
Hidden identity ✅
Close proximity ✅
Touch her and die ✅
Strong FMC ✅
Creature connections ✅
Only one horse ✅ (my personal favourite)

Honestly this could be my favourite book of the year.

To begin with the lore and the world in this fantasy is completely fascinating, it’s explained really well and doesn’t overcomplicate magic systems or alliances but still maintains detailed enough to be encapsulating.
The biggest draw for me was the character development in this book. The events that actually make a difference to them and their actions and thinking is super refreshing.
The characters are strong and believable and the romance is just so good I couldn’t put the book down!
A resounding success for me, massive thank you for providing me with a copy!

Really enjoyed this fantasy romance book. finally a main Female Character who had wobbly moments but could Still be strong without being a complete bitch. The other characters were also well written and the environment established well. Looking forward to the next in this series.

This book was very exciting! It was action-packed from the beginning. There were no lulls - I kept expecting the ending to come, but then there was more book!

There is some world building and political intrigue, but the story is more character based. We follow Arwen, who is captured as an exchange for her brother. Arwen kind of reminds me of Elide from the Throne of Glass series.

This book is what you’re looking for in a romantasy. It’s a simmering enemies to lovers, and delivers on its promises. Definitely keeps you wanting more! The king flexes his hand in a true Mr Darcy moment, and plays the lute?? (is that you Tamlin? 😂)

The tension is 👌🏻 and the ending has got me looking for the next book!

Was it a perfect book? Absolutely not. Did I love it? Yes!

I think if you like ACOTAR, you’ll like this! I think this book has the potential to be really popular.

Thanks NetGalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for honest review.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. Quickly drawn into the world and Arwens life.
I don’t usually read Fae books but this one was interesting, the setting up of what appears to be a series done well, left in a way that means I’m looking forward to reading the next book when it’s released.

The only thing I felt that let it down was the dialogue between Kane and Arwen, they were childish at times, cheesy at others. For a King I found him to be a very immature character.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

Arwen grew up in a small village using her limited light magic to heal people. She is viciously protective of her ailing mother and younger sister. Her elder brother is at the war that has ravaged the Kingdom of Amber's villages of all their men. When she offers her life to save her family, she is taken to a stronghold in the Onyx Kingdom. Here she meets a man who is not all he seems to be, sees her first dragon and is taught how to fight.

Will Arwen ever see her family again? Will she ever learn why she has this magic? And who is this strange man?

This was a great romantasy book with lots of fantasy elements. I really like how you are discovering the aspects of this world outside of her small village with Arwen. It really creates a feeling like you are really going through it all with Arwen. There is also lots of mystery and lots of spicy tension. I can't wait to see where this series goes!

Big thanks to NetGalley, Quercus Books, Jo Fletcher Books and Kate Golden for an early release copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you @quercusbooks for a copy of this to have a read of and to share my honest opinions! Unfortunately my kindle did not want to play ball (clearly time for a new one) so I’ve had to include the book cover as the second photo ❤️

I found this book to be very easy reading and it definitely kept me wanting to read the next chapter. I really enjoyed the start, building the world surrounding her family and her ability and felt she was a likeable character. After a while I did start to feel like I was reading an ACOTAR fan fiction to be honest as I did feel like there was some strong similarities between the stories, but to be fair to the author I think nowadays it’s hard to write any sort of fae book with a dark haired morally grey character who is about to fight a war and not have it compared to another book like ACOTAR.
I do feel like the world building got put to the side once Kane came into the book as it seemed the book then became solely about their enemies to lovers storyline and the war storyline only really became important again near the end. I have read that this is a trilogy though so I have a feeling the next book will focus more on the war. After a while I did find Arwen to be a bit wet. I felt like her every thought was consumed by Kane, despite the fact she wasn’t even sure her family were still alive. I’d have liked her to be a bit more independent from him and seen him as more of a side part to what she had going on rather than all consuming.

Overall I’d rate it 3⭐️ because it did make me want to keep reading and for most of it I did enjoy reading it, it just lost me a bit at the end and I would have liked more focus on the main story line rather than the romance as I don’t feel like I’m invested in the series to the point I will read the next two books as I need to know what happened with the war. Thank you @quercusbooks for a copy of this to have a read of and to share my honest opinions! Unfortunately my kindle did not want to play ball (clearly time for a new one) so I’ve had to include the book cover as the second photo ❤️

I found this book to be very easy reading and it definitely kept me wanting to read the next chapter. I really enjoyed the start, building the world surrounding her family and her ability and felt she was a likeable character. After a while I did start to feel like I was reading an ACOTAR fan fiction to be honest as I did feel like there was some strong similarities between the stories, but to be fair to the author I think nowadays it’s hard to write any sort of fae book with a dark haired morally grey character who is about to fight a war and not have it compared to another book like ACOTAR.
I do feel like the world building got put to the side once Kane came into the book as it seemed the book then became solely about their enemies to lovers storyline and the war storyline only really became important again near the end. I have read that this is a trilogy though so I have a feeling the next book will focus more on the war. After a while I did find Arwen to be a bit wet. I felt like her every thought was consumed by Kane, despite the fact she wasn’t even sure her family were still alive. I’d have liked her to be a bit more independent from him and seen him as more of a side part to what she had going on rather than all consuming.

Overall I’d rate it 3⭐️ because it did make me want to keep reading and for most of it I did enjoy reading it, it just lost me a bit at the end and I would have liked more focus on the main story line rather than the romance as I don’t feel like I’m invested in the series to the point I will read the next two books as I need to know what happened with the war.

This was so good!

I loved the characters, how the story progressed, the plot twists, the hint of spice - the tension and longing!

An excellent debut and first book in a series - another for me to obsess over.

I want to thank @netgalley @kategoldenauthor and the publishers for the oportunety to read A Dawn of Onix and give it my honest review.
Slow burn: 💘 5/5
Spice: 🌶 3/5
Tears: 😭 3/5
Haters to lovers: 😡/🥵 5/5
Magic:✨3/5
Politics: 🏛 2/5
Worldbuilding: 🏗 3/5 it's not intense

This was the best discovery I've made lately, it's right out of my alley, Magical hates to lovers, funny and sarcastic humor between the main characters, the slow burn was so good everything in the right measure. I love the haters to lovers trope, there were so many quotes that I love and interactions between King Kane and Arwen Valondale, the world is divided by kingdoms Arwen is from Amber where the life is simple and people are kind to each other, until war starts and everyone that can fight has no choice but having to join the battlefield. King Kane rules Onixis seen as the enemy the monster with no heart, seen as the one that caused the war, and I don't want to say much. Our main character Arwen slowly develops her strength self-love and the power of living in herself, with the help of the ones she once thought she hated. This was so good I had to savor it, I cried and laughed got angry, sad happy it was so well-written in my opinion the politics are easy and simple to understand, and the worldbuilding slowly unravels us throughout the story. I don't think it's a fast-paced read but it's glued me to the Kindle like nothing else.
The acknowledgments were so sweet and funny to read knowing what the Author Kate Golden went through while writing this book, I can't wait to be able to read the next one.

This book was really entertaining! It's an adult fantasy romance, and it follows the story of Arwen, a young girl that lives in a small village as an healer. She lives in the kingdom of Amber that in the past two years has been at war with the Onyx kingdom, a powerful land that attacked them at the command of their cruel king for more power. She is taking care of her family by working as a healer, thank to her mysterious powers that she can't really explain. The only person her powers don't work on is her mother, that is affected by an illness that she can't cure and she has to take care of her little sister while her brother is fighting in the war. But then something happens that will shatter her calm life and she will have to act to protect her family. She is brought to the very place she has been warned of, the Onyx kingdom where she has to heal the soldiers of the dangerous Onyx king.

I loved Arwen! She is fierce and would do anything to protect the people she loves. I love a powerful female character and her development during the book was really good, I can't wait for her to grow into the unstoppable force I know she is going to become.Also I love her sarcastic comments 😂.

The plot was also so interesting, there are a lot of secrets that are uncovered that will leave you shocked and there is still so much we need to know.
The MMC, without spoiling who it is, was well characterized, but It felt like the connection between him and Arwen was more instant that an enemies to lovers one, even if I enjoyed it. But I liked how they met at the start, it was a nice twist from the classical story. If you like morally grey heroes this is also for you. It also has a WHO DID THIS TO YOU moment, I screamed 😂, the romance was on point.
“I love to listen to you explain medicinal practices,” he purred.
“And I’d love to listen to you fall off a cliff.”

Her friendship with Mary was also one of the best parts, I wished we had more of them. My favorite interaction of them:
“There are three things I love in this world. Reading, a challenge, and proving others wrong.” I laughed, bright and loud. “And helping people?”“Sure.” She shrugged. “That, too.”
Can't wait for the sequel after that ending!! Overall an amazing book.

I'm also really grateful that I received an arc of this book and that I was given this opportunity

3.5 stars!

I enjoyed this one. It was fun.

It started off really well and I was really intrigued in the beginning. I lost the story in the middle. Felt like it was too long and I didn’t feel like picking the book up every time I put it down. However the latter 40% or so was quite gripping.

I felt like I knew who Arwen and Kane were, and the world was described really well that I could imagine it vividly whilst reading.

I will say I did guess the majority of the plot twists surrounding Arwen and Kane. I don’t know if that’s because I read too much fantasy or the story was too predictable to me but there you go.

I am definitely intrigued enough to carry on with the series, and see where Arwen’s journey takes her next.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishes for this arc. Much appreciated!

I really enjoyed this book. From the first few pages, I was hooked and finished it in one sitting. The word building and characters added to the magical feeling and you can’t go wrong with a bit of romantic tension between love interests! I’d definitely recommend this and can’t wait for the next instalment!

Firstly I want to thank the author and netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

I am 86% of the way through and all I can say is WOW, I cannot put this book down. The worldbuilding, character building, magic, sexual tension is just amazing. After finishing ACOTAR I didnt have much hope of finding a book to that standard.

This book is soo good, I have fallen in love with the writing, characters and the world they live in. I cannot wait for book2!

What a great start to a new fantasy trilogy Kare Gorden writes in an easy style and commands her audience with ease.
Good world building, delicious and sometimes darker magic, romance, and characters who grow and an evolving storyline.
Has it all im looking forward to the next book.
Highly recommend.

Thank you netgalley and Quercus for this free arc I return for an honest review

This book. No words 5 star. The angst/passion was everything. I demolished this fantasy book up in 4 hours!!! This is such an easy read with minimal world building.

A Dawn of onyx - Kate Golden
5/5

“I was willing to sacrifice the entire world to keep you alive”

Uhm excuse me? What on earth did I just read? I am lost, in a good way! I am angry at Arwen and her choices in the end, but thats a whole other conversation.
I got sucked into the story FAST. There was no slow buildup until the action happened, and i liked that. A few things that happened I could see coming from miles away, but somethings I wouldn’t even have considered could happen! Also DRAGONS!! Anyway I really liked this book, the world building was great, the characters were well written and intriguing and the plot keeping me on my tippy-toes until the very last words!

I was given this ARC and am leaving this review voluntarily

Arwen Valondale, forced into servitude by the cruel Onyx King, uses her rare magical gifts to heal his soldiers. Trapped in the perilous Onyx Kingdom, she must ally with a fellow prisoner to survive. Amidst dark magic and treacherous royals, Arwen discovers her dormant power, fighting for freedom and, perhaps, love.

.Enemies to lovers
.Captor/Captive
.“Who did this to you?”
.Walking in while she’s in the bath
.Hurt/comfort
.Hidden identities and powers
.One horse
.Slowburn

I've had a string of bad luck with books claiming to be in the league of Sarah J. Maas, until I stumbled upon this gem. I loved it. It's rare for me to give 5 stars, especially in the fantasy genre where my expectations are high. Yet, this book was perfection.

The story is engaging from the very beginning. Our strong willed FMC, though a bit naive to my taste at times, showed unwavering determination to protect her loved ones. The MMC on the other hand, was the perfect morally grey hero, irresistibly sexy, enigmatic, and delightfully secretive.

The world-building was interesting without being overly elaborate. The characters were meticulously crafted, and the romance developed slowly, providing a satisfying, gradual burn. The witty banter and dynamics between Arwen and Kane drew me in immediately. This book not only met but exceeded every expectation it set.

However, fair warning, it ends with a HUGE cliffhanger. Proceed with caution if you're not prepared for the wait; the second book is yet to be released. I have high hopes that this series will soon claim a spot among my all-time favourites, can’t wait to read the next

(This review will be posted on Instagram @beco_books)