Reviews

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara by S. Jae-Jones

lpcoolgirl's review against another edition

5.0

Oh, this was such a fantastic read, I loved this world and these characters, and I can't wait to read more! 

maeflowerreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

tsneden88's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

This book utterly enthralled me and made many long commutes happy ones. I absolutely ADORED the characters, the slowburn/budding romance between various characters and figuring out identities a step ahead of the others as pieces were slowly revealed. The magic system of this world is super interesting and I loved seeing how magic played a fundamental but now almost forgotten role in their society. 

Zhara is a loveable main character but I think my personal favorites are Han and Shu - their banter back and forth, Han's romantic nature and swoon-worthy comments (at times leading me to have to pause and squeal very loudly in my car), and Shu's sarcastic wit  truly made the book for me. 

I can't wait for the sequel!!!!

cmckayo's review

Felt very YA and I couldn't get into it

bookwitchgwen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This read was SO fun. I honestly loved it. Which I don’t know why, but I fully expected to enjoy this book before it’s release. 

Forbidden magic, a secret identity, and a secret magical group, definitely sucked me in. I was into this story from the beginning, which surprised me because I’ve honestly seen a lot of mixed reviews for this one. It gives a bit of Cinderella vibes, with magic and mystery, and a not really a fairytale ending. 

I really enjoyed the love between the sisters in this so much, but the friendships were fantastic too! I absolutely loved all the colorful characters! They really gave life to this story. I’m pretty sure Xu and I would be friends. But really all of the side characters were written in such a way, where I wanted to know more about them. That K-Pop group? Loved that fun touch. 

The slow burn romance (remember this is YA) was so well done and a nice addition to the story. My only complaint was that at the very-very end everything tied up almost too neatly and I wasn’t sure how that could happen so easily. But I was fine with the way it ended anyway. 

I am excited that it seems like they will be traveling together in the next book, and I can’t wait to see how the relationships will grow.

allivenger's review against another edition

5.0

I’m not sure where the negative reviews for this are coming from (and everyone is entitled to their own opinion honestly) because I loved this book. I listened to it as an audiobook and it had the same hilarious themes as an anime would. It was funny and immature yes but serious at times as well. I couldn’t wait to get to the end to figure out if this was a standalone or if this would continue as a series. I was so happy to find out the ending is left open with potential for a sequel. Because I want to come back to Zhara and Han and most importantly Xu (because they were one of my favorite characters)

Zhara wasn’t a strong female protagonist for a lot of the book. She was weakened by her self image and she desire to be a “good girl”. This did get annoying but I understand that when you’re the victim of a narcissist you start to feel a certain way about yourself and life. It also took way too long for Zhara to figure things out and that was frustrating as a reader in general.

But overall I loved it. I’m glad that I am getting the illumicrate edition now that I’ve read the book and loved it. It’ll become a treasured part of my collection and I can’t wait for the next book.

katiemcgregor's review

I rarely DNF but I’m just not interested. The characters are flat and read as very young. I can see where this is going and the plot doesn’t have enough to keep me interested. I just keep wishing I was reading something like Cinder instead. 🥴

ifsh's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.75

coolhandluke140's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

quackthump's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25