Book Review: Spin the Dawn

I have been getting extra reading in since we’ve been quarantined, which is one of the good things out of all of this. I have so many books on my tbr (to be read) list. Today, I’m sharing my book review of Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, because I haven’t shared it yet and the sequel is coming out this summer!

If you’ve been following me on here since last summer then the book might seem familiar. It’s because I was invited to the book launch party in New York City! It was Sip & Sew where we got to eat, drink, mingle, and sew pouches along with author, Elizabeth Lim.

The novel is so good! I read it within days and it had me captivated from start to finish. The novel has adventure, love (both familial love and romantic love), and magic. Maia Tamarin lives in a small village with her father and brothers. Her brother is a local tailor, renowned for his skills, but he is getting older and hasn’t been the same since the passing of his wife and years later the death of his two eldest sons during a war. When the Emperor is looking for a new imperial tailor, he is selected as a candidate and summoned to the palace to compete for the job. Knowing that her father would not be able to make the long journey and her own desire to be the most famous tailor (especially since women cannot be tailors – only seamstresses) in the land she pretends to be her brother, Keton (her only living brother now), and takes her father’s place.

Of course, Maia’s journey would not be easy. Not only did she have to keep up the ruse that she’s a young man, but she also had to try to win the competition. The Emperor’s soon-to-be bride is the daughter of an enemy and their marriage is meant to unite the kingdom. Since Lady Sarnai is not in love with the emperor and mad that her father would marry her off, she makes impossible tasks for the tailors to complete in attempts to push the wedding further and further back.

With the help of magical scissors and the guidance from the emperor’s enchanter, Edan, Maia makes it so far in to the competition that she must journey away from the kingdom for months to try to collect magical elements and create 3 impossible dresses for Lady Sarnai. She must collect the laughter of the sun, tears of the moon, and blood of the stars.

I loved the book and can’t wait for the 2nd book to come out in July! I did not want to put the book down and I definitely didn’t want it to end. The only solace I had as I approached the end of the novel was knowing that another book will be coming out in a few months.