Spin The Dawn & A Magical New World

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.

Cat's Review (Spoilers Ahead)

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Project Runway meets Mulan meets Howl's Moving Castle and it's such an incredible combination! All of it, every single bit of this book is phenomenal!

I got my copy of Spin The Dawn in July's Owlcrate, and wow is it a beautiful edition, but that's besides the point. I had been looking forward to getting in the mail since I guessed which book was coming my way from their little blurb. In fact I sped home after work the day it came in to unbox and tear into the book itself, finishing it pretty much in one sit down.

We start out with Maia, telling us of her mother and her father's shop and how she loves it so very much, but mostly, she loves creating clothing. She loves sewing. And she loves her family above all.

Her two older brother's are sent to war, they do not return. Her youngest sneaks out to join them, and returns unable to walk, not long after, their shop is failing because her father is a man broken by the loss of the majority of his family.

The Emperor's man arrives and tells her, her father or her brother are to come to the palace to be the Emperor's tailor, and Maia sees her opportunity, she cuts her hair and dresses in her brother's clothes and she leaves. Her father gives his blessing and her grandmother's shears, to which he claims that they never worked for him, but he hopes they will for her.

When Maia arrives in the capital she is quick to realize that this is not a job offer but a competition that might lead to the offer of a place in court as the Emperor's tailor. And none of the others competing are there to play games.

Neither is the Emperor's bride to be who is running the competition, as she wants nothing more than to not marry her groom. She creates near impossible task after near impossible task until she gives the final, absolutely impossible task.

But before that all comes to a blow, Maia encounters the Emperor's sorcerer, a charming, mysterious man named Edan who she is inexplicably drawn to, and who seems to be also drawn to her. He helps her out in the ways he can, until he too, goes on Maia's journey to help her complete the three impossible dresses she is tasked to make.

On this journey there are magical creatures and myths brought to life and slowly but surely, both Maia and Edan realize they are falling in love. Maia thinks it's impossible because he could never love her, and Edan thinks it's impossible because sorcerers are not allowed to love.

This is where I gush about this dream of a book, dream of a series, really, because holy hell is this thing just absolutely perfect. It's a quick, lush read that leaves you soaring on cloud nine each time you take a break from it, desperate to get back to the world in between the pages. Maia is a vision in blue, trying to save her family, trying to save herself, and in the end, trying to save Edan too.

That's right, Edan may help Maia along the way of her adventure, but in the end, it's Maia saving Edan. Over and over again. Physically, emotionally, mentally. She sets him free from the mindset he had been living in for so long, and from his bond to the Emperor.

If you've ever watched or read Howl's Moving castle, both editions of Howl(yes they're different), make me think of Edan. I likely wouldn't have thought of it at first but the friend who told me to certainly read this said it to me and it stuck.

He's dramatic, charming, beautiful, and too powerful for his own good, his heart bound to someone who could care less about his well being. And in the end, it's love that frees him.

Lim lists a bunch of different folk and fairytales that inspired this book, and they're all there, the magic in the threads of it's body. She doesn't simply do a retelling, she makes it new, and gorgeous and her own and it made me weep as I hit the end, because everything had felt so viscerally real it hurt to tear myself away from it.

But as with all books, they end, even if there are more than one in the series, like there are in this, so for now, read Spin The Dawn, I promise it will make you feel magical too, and then together we will wait till next year for Unravel The Dusk.