Spin the Dawn is pitched as Mulan meets Project Runway and it’s exactly that, but let me add it also reminded me of Aladdin, which makes it even better.

We follow Maia, the youngest of four siblings and only daughter of a renowned tailor. Out of the four siblings, Maia is the only one with a gift for the needle but she’s a girl and the only way for girls to honor their families is by getting married. She could never be in charge of her father’s shop, never become a Master Tailor, let alone the imperial tailor, no matter how much she wishes for it.

After losing her mother and then her two older brothers to the Five Winters War between A’landi and the shansen, things are looking really bad. Her father is lost in grief, not even a shadow of the man he was, and Maia struggles to make ends meet. Then, following the announcement of the Emperor of A’landi’s marriage to the shensen’s daughter, an imperial messenger shows up at their shop. He comes for Maia’s father, since the best tailors of the land are being called to the palace for a chance to become the new imperial tailor. Knowing her father will never make it, she dresses up as a boy and goes in his place.

The first 35-40% of the book is the competition for the spot as imperial tailor. We see Maia and 11 other tailors fight to please the shansen’s daughter and her twisted requests, while keeping her cover as a boy, and we also meet Edan, the Lord Enchanter. I really enjoyed that first part of the book, I was getting the full-on Mulan vibes, I was intrigued by Edan, and was trying to figure out both the emperor and the shensen’s daughter, who are not entirely who they seem to be.

However, the rest of the book was a bit of a letdown. Maia is sent on an impossible quest to make the three dresses of Amana: one woven with the laughter of the sun, one embroidered with the tears of the moon and one painted with the blood of the stars. As promising as that sounds, Edan accompanies Maia in her quest and, as their love story develops, I felt that was all the book focused on. Instead of reading about an adventure, an impossible quest and sky-high stakes with a romance side plot as the cherry on the cake, I found myself reading about a romance with an impossible quest as a side plot. I wanted the cake but only got the cherry.

I had the chance to read an ARC of Six Crimson Cranes, also by Elizabeth Lim and really enjoyed finding out that the two books are connected in some way, like a story within a story. I do have to say that I liked Six Crimson Cranes better, though. I’m starting to see a pattern with Elizabeth Lim’s love interests too: they’re always the too-perfect boyfriend who will die a thousand times over for the main character, move the sun and moon for her, they can only love her because she’s not like the other girls and she’s the one and only for them and they knew it before even speaking to her almost. As much as I liked Edan and Takkan in both stories, I wish they were more complex in that sense since I believe it would do wonders for both stories.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I’m definitely looking forward to reading Unravel the Dusk next, but I liked the first part more than I did the second and was expecting a little more from this. (3.5 stars)

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a digital review copy in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.