Review: Spin The Dawn (The Blood of Stars #1)

• Title: Spin The Dawn

• Author: Elizabeth Lim

• Series: The Blood Of Stars #1

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / Retelling / Historical Fantasy

• Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓. 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒇 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒅𝒂𝒚 - 𝑰'𝒅 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍."

Spin the Dawn is an immersive read, and I could hardly put it down. I came into this expecting a lot of focus on Maia as a tailor for the Emperor under the guise of a male, and whilst there is a constant theme to Maia being an extraordinary tailor, the book delves into so much more than that. I enjoyed that the book is split into The Trial and The Journey, marking a distinctive line of Maia's journey as a man and woman.

Maia is an incredibly strong character. I appreciated the setup that the author did for this world. It helped build her and her values up in a way that made sense why she would risk so much for her family and passion for tailoring. As she steps into the role of her brother in the palace, and subsequently into a changed version of herself on her journey, I enjoyed the things about her personality that remained steadfast in such a cutthroat environment, and equally the way she blossomed into a woman at Edan's side. She is not afraid to admit when she's tired or had enough, and yet she's equally bold enough to endure such challenging steps to secure her future. I especially liked this towards the latter parts of the novel, where she made bolder choices regardless of what could happen to her. Edan is a fantastic male lead. He's witty, resourceful and rather reckless for an enchanter and man of his years. I liked how he riled Maia up as much as he encouraged and supported her. Their love story is my favourite part of this novel, because whilst they both don't initially wish to fall for the other, watching him reach out for her and confess how he feels so earnestly made my heart swoon. Their romance is beautifully woven into the storyline, and their passionate scenes are tastefully done. A quick sidenote: Maia and Edan remind me an awful lot of Sophie and Howl from Howl's Moving Castle, which is one of my favourite novels and once I made that connection, there was no turn back for me available.

The storyline is intriguing, though again, I loved The Journey far more than the first part. This is because of the growth both Edan and Maia undertake and it's far more fantastical than the palace happenings. I also found the way the trial went towards the end a little underwhelming, and overly dramatic in its culmination. Once settled into collecting what is needed to make the three dresses, this story has a different feel to it which I really got sucked into. I cannot wait to continue into the second book of this world, given how much I loved this one, I'm expecting it to be another five star read.