Spin the Dawn is full of gorgeous clothes, gritty adventure, family tragedy, and slow-blooming romance. When people claiming to be friends approach her from unexpected quarters she has to decide who she can trust and who she can’t. As her competitors for the job of imperial tailor are whittled away, Maia finds herself with less freedom rather than more. The contest is more than a contest, a dress isn’t just a dress, a pair of scissors seems to have strong opinions, and the butterflies-in-your-stomach-inducing court magician is a lot more than he seems. Because of course, among the nobility, nothing is as it seems. Once Maia gets to the court of the Emperor the book explodes into a colorful, magical, dangerous political intrigue. She weighs the pros and cons of going (and possibly facing death) and staying to live a life that, for her, is no life at all. Before putting up her hair and dressing in her brother’s clothes, she spends some serious time thinking about her options and planning her escape. Maia loves sewing for its own sake, and she knows she’s good enough to take over the family business - if only women were allowed to do so. When the messenger comes to take her father to the court of the Emperor to compete for the job of Royal Tailor, Maia knows that there’s no way he could win the title in his present state, but also that it would certainly mean her father’s death.Īll that said, Maia is not a martyr who goes to court only to save her father, and this is what I mean when I say Elizabeth Lim gives her heroine agency.

Maia spends all of her time working to keep the family fed and avoiding the bullying neighbor who wants to make her his bride. Her father’s depression has made him too ill to function, and the once-respectable family tailoring business is in shambles. Her mother is dead, her brothers have gone off (or leave shortly after the first paragraph) to fight in the war, and almost certainly will not return.

When the book begins, Maia’s family is in tatters. To begin with, Elizabeth Lim gives her heroine Maia Tamarin more agency in choosing to go undercover. Granted, the premise is remarkably similar - a young girl who passes as a boy in order to save her ailing father when he is summoned to serve the Emperor - but Lim’s story of a young woman posing as a candidate for the job of Royal Tailor has more depth of character, more intrigue, more adventure, and especially more magic than a Disney movie can provide. Spin the Dawn is a Y/A fantasy novel that has been billed as “ Project Runway meets Mulan,” but that description doesn’t go nearly far enough. “Don’t become the kite that never flies.” BOOK REVIEW spin the dawn by elizabeth lim

Spin the dawn series order