Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim – Review

Published: July 9, 2019

Publisher: Knopf

Series: The Blood of Stars #1

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Pages: 400 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

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I’m a sucker for fancy dresses and so a book about creating magical fancy dresses was one I automatically requested without much research. Fortunately for me it was a pretty good read! This is a YA fantasy, so I anticipated that it would have a few of the age old tropes of yore– no surprises there. I’ll be honest, the kind of stereotypical YA things that did pop up didn’t bother me all that much.

I liked the main character here – she was brave without being gung-ho the way many “brave” female characters are portrayed. She wanted to save her family and also prove that she, a girl, could be the imperial tailor. The others competing for the position of imperial tailor were mostly unsympathetic to what they thought was the youngest and most inexperienced competitor there. On top of that, the new Empress (who the competition is basically for) is difficult to please. She ends up demanding that she be made three mythical dresses and only then will our MC be able to rest. Thus begins the real story…

Maia is sent on a quest to find the impossible materials for the dresses – elements of the sun, moon, and stars. BUT SHE HAS MAGIC SCISSORS and a handsome, cursed sorcerer to help her out. Cue love interest, right? This whole falling in love with the handsome, ancient guy who is totally unavailable because he’s cursed to live forever thing is the tropiest trope of them all. And I still liked it. It was fairly well played out in the book and it made me happy.

Overall, this was a surprisingly good book. I’m more hesitant to read YA now since I’ve come across so many that just blend together, but Spin the Dawn was satisfying and felt like a tried and true tale. I’ll be interested to read the sequel and hope it is even better than the first.