Guardians of Dawn: Zhara
Ratings7
Average rating4
15
Ratings7
Average rating4
Sailor Moon meets Cinder in Guardians of Dawn: Zhara, the start of a new, richly imagined fantasy series from S. Jae-Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of Wintersong. Magic flickers. Love flames. Chaos reigns. Magic is forbidden throughout the Morning Realms. Magicians are called an abomination, and blamed for the plague of monsters that razed the land twenty years before. Jin Zhara already had enough to worry about—appeasing her stepmother’s cruel whims, looking after her blind younger sister, and keeping her own magical gifts under control—without having to deal with rumors of monsters re-emerging in the marsh. But when a chance encounter with an easily flustered young man named Han brings her into contact with a secret magical liberation organization called the Guardians of Dawn, Zhara realizes there may be more to these rumors than she thought. A mysterious plague is corrupting the magicians of Zanhei and transforming them into monsters, and the Guardians of Dawn believe a demon is responsible. In order to restore harmony and bring peace to the world, Zhara must discover the elemental warrior within, lest the balance between order and chaos is lost forever.
Featured Series
1 primary bookGuardians of Dawn is a 1-book series first released in 2022 with contributions by S. Jae-Jones.
Reviews with the most likes.
This book definitely has its flaws but it's was so silly and fun overall. I think my love for magical girl genre is what made me ignore the silly parts of the book and just somewhat enjoy the ride. It's definitely nothing special but if you want a magical girl anime in the form of a book, I think it definitely does its' job. Its a fun book to pass the time, but it's not without flaws.
As mentioned, it's pretty silly. It reads very young, and the humor is also on the juvenile side. I think it reads younger than YA personally, and I am definitely waaaay past the age range to laugh at the jokes. It was my biggest complaint in the book, and it took me out of the story. Also keep in mind the humor is very present throughout the book.
The characters also feel very young and I don't think any of them really stand out much. I don't think I will think back fondly on them in the future, just kinda forget about them. Same goes for the romance — it was a cute puppy love kind of romance but it's not really my thing. At all.
The lore could've been so much more interesting, but it fell flat for me. It all felt very simplistic.
Also it's worth noting it's a Cinderella retelling of a sort. The comparison to both Sailor Moon and Cinder are definitely accurate.
So yea, I can't really say I was disappointed cause I felt like this might not be that great but it was fun enough to go through and I might pick up the sequel when it comes out. Maybe. If not just for the magical girl vibes and animal familiars.
Also, for the love of all that is holy, stop repeating the term “good-looks giggles”. It's not cute, it's so cringe I can't believe it kept getting brought up so often 😭 the characters are supposed to be 17, not 7.
(normal disclaimer: received free ARC, etc.)
We're still a year out from the anticipated release, so things may of course change between now and then so I don't want to go too deeply into this, but as of the current state:
The writing definitely gives both Sailor Moon and Cinder vibes without feeling like it was copying either story. We got magical girls, we got magical creatures, we got secret societies, we got several types of representation, we also got a group 7 boys who are definitely not inspired by any 7 real life boys and will hopefully hang around in the following books.
It's overall a promising start to the series. Here's to hoping that not too much changes between now and the final copy and that the cover art will do it justice when it is finally revealed.
I would give this more stars if I could!
There is magic and political intrigue, but also hope and smiles. This book has characters that you will fall in love with while you are also rooting for them to make things right. There is a pretty clear generational demarcation. The adults are mostly the bad guys for a variety of reasons, but the youth are the good guys. We don't spend a lot of time with the adults, so that gives us time to be with the youth in happy moments as well as action packed tense moments. The magic system is not well defined in this one, but that didn't bother me. The romance was light and mostly lacking in angst. I liked that as well. I can't find anything to complain about!
Waiting for book 2 will be so hard!
