This was such a fun read! Murder mystery cruise? Sign me up! Except, I want the game edition not the in real life version 😆 Dee was so relatable - a chubby slacker who loves food?? It Me. He was a good person at heart despite being looked down on by others, and trying to figure out whodunit without a blessing to protect him was no small feat. However, throw in a potential love interest and a cute little girl with colorful hair and you have the perfect murder mystery solving team. I loved that this book had found family, lgbtq+ and body positive representation. The story was hilarious especially because of Dee's witty personality. This was a wonderful debut novel by Frances White and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next! Also, this book is now available in North America so preorder your copy!

What an absolute delight this book was! The Dragon’s Dawn sets sail with the heirs of the 12 different provinces aboard for the Festival of the Blessing. Each heir has a special, secret, magical ability called a Blessing and this festival is supposed to help them celebrate their differences while also uniting them. Until people start being murdered.

A locked door murder mystery on a ship full of blessed heirs with various magical abilities. Full of witty banter, puns, and jokes. This novel touches on SO MANY themes… complicated families, found families, class, discrimination, love, hate, loyalty, betrayal, friendships, insecurities. We get representation of mental health issues, physical disabilities and limitations, LGBTQI+, racial diversity, and so many different shapes, sizes, and physical traits.

You will fall in love with these characters and be so invested in their wellbeing. You’ll be left guessing whodunit until the very end.
I just loved it.

I had incredibly high hopes for this book because queer SFF mystery is my absolute favorite niche subgenre, but unfortunately almost nothing about this worked for me. The humor was funny for about three pages in the beginning before it started to feel forced and grating. The worldbuilding is infodumpy and weirdly simplistic - I really disliked the color-coded hair, the starkly different province climates that made no geographical sense, and the hanc-wavey way that literally everything seemed to work. Worst of all is the depiction of the food-obsessed plus size main character; every joke about him eating toffee to avoid his feelings or thinking about how the map of the peninsula is shaped like a piece of pie (!) took years off my life. It's a no for me.