[Review] Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

Series: The Blood of Stars #1

Rating: 3.5 stars

Published: July 9th 2019

Goodsreads Synopsis:

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.

I've been reading so many Asian-inspired fantasies by #ownvoices authors and I am all for this. This Project Runway x Mulan crossover (with a little bit of Uprooted in there) was a delight from start to finish.

Maia Tamarin has to impersonate her brother Keton in order to compete to be the imperial tailor. Armed with special scissors given to her by her father, Maia has to outmaneuver her competition in order to survive, and befriends the palace enchanter, Edan, who sees through her disguise. 

This book is split into two parts, the competition (the Project Runaway bit), and the adventure, in which Maia and Edan embark on a quest to capture the sun, the moon, and the stars, for Lady Sarnai's dresses. 

I liked and both didn't like this. There was a tension, yes, with the fact that Maia was the underdog in the competition, but it was such a quick competition that we didn't get to see much of the other characters featured. Competitors would be eliminated, and some would be suspicious, but they were all just faces in the crowd to me. Even Lady Sarnai, who we saw during several scenes, lost some of her complexity the moment the competition ended and I wanted more of her rebellious nature! It really is surprising that she's going to give into marriage with the Emperor just like that. 

But I do like that this book was able to cover so much ground in one novel. We have a competition, and then we have a race of the impossible. When we focused on Maia and Edan and their relationship, reigning it in to only these two characters, the plot was able to stabilize and focus on their development. This is why I'm totally okay with them falling in love in the end. I felt as though we spent a generous amount of time with them and their relationship to warrant their romance to blossom. 

Even so, this quest was monumental for Maia, who never expected to see the world, all because she was a girl. I like that Edan could not help her during the actual retrieval of the celestial items, and she had to endure the hardship herself. 

The second half also had a good bit of worldbuilding, and drifted into some supernatural entities as well. You can tell I really preferred the second half, but still! I like a book that is able to do a lot in a concise amount of pages and is purposeful movement (as opposed to stagnancy). 

Plus, the way this ended totally opens it up for a novel with demons in it.