Hi everyone. I'm rincey and this is
rincey reads. Today i'm going to be
talking about spin the dawn by elizabeth
lim. This is a pretty new young adult
book. This is a fantasy and adult book.
And I was actually sent this in the mail
by Knopf. So the way this book is being
pitched is Mulan meets Project Runway,
which is a mostly correct comp for this
book. And I will get into that in a
second. You are following this girl named
Maya. She is the youngest daughter of
this really well renowned seamstress.
What's a male seamstress called?
A tailor? Yeah, a tailor. So her father was
this really well known, well renowned
tailor in this area. But then some things
occurred and he lost a lot of his
business. They end up moving to the small
village and you know the business isn't
quite what it used to be. In this world,
women are not allowed to be like
seamstresses or anything like that. And
so it's kind of assumed that the sons in
the family, Maia's older brothers, would
become the sort of apprentices to her
father. But Maia is actually the one who
picks up on the skills the best. One day,
a messenger from the Emperor comes to
their home. The Emperor is looking for a new
Royal tailor and so Maya's father has
been called to go to the palace and
become the new tailor. But his skills
have deteriorated quite a bit and no one
really knows that Maya's the one who's
been doing the majority, if not all of
the work for the family business. And her
brothers aren't capable to really take
on this task as well. And so Maya ends up
basically pulling a Mulan and
pretending to be one of her brothers and
going to the palace in her father's
place. Of course when she arrives at the
palace, she finds out that her family
hasn't been hired to just directly
become the Emperor's tailor. She has to
compete with other tailors from around
the country to figure out who's the best
tailor to take over this role. So that's
kind of how the "Mulan meets Project
Runway" pitch comes about. You have the
Mulan aspect of Maya pretending to be a
boy through all of this, and you have the
Project Runway aspect in that there is
this competition between all of these different tailors.
And there actually are like specific
tasks and things that these tailors have
to compete in. And every time there is a
task, at least one tailor ends up going
home. So that comparison feels really
accurate and that's a part of the reason
why I was super excited for this book.
I love both Mulan and Project Runway and I
also really enjoy young adult books that
deal with like competition. Like I really
love the Hunger Games and I loved it
because of the actual games aspect of it.
My favorite Harry Potter book in the
series is Goblet of Fire because again I
loved the tournament so much. And I think
that this book was sort of poised to be
another one of those books that has like
this competitive element to it that I
could read about. The downside to all of
this is that that's not what the
entirety of this book was. And it's very
possible that the author expanded beyond
it because there wasn't enough material
in the competitive aspects, but I feel
like it could have had more to it than
what's in the book. Because basically in
the second half of the book, Maya ends up
going on a quest and then the story
shifts significantly in tone and style.
Not style, but in tone because it becomes
a quest story as opposed to this
competition. And so I feel like your
mileage is going to vary with this book
depending on how you feel about those
different styles of stories. So if you're
really into like the competition part of
the story, but you don't really like
quest stories, then you're not gonna like
the second half of this book. There's
also a romantic element that gets thrown
in in the second half of the book, which
I'm not really sure how I feel about
quite yet. But I do think that the author
has created a really interesting world
here and this is the first book in a
series. I don't know how many books are
supposed to be in this series. But it is
a world that I'm interested in and a
world that I will be going back to. The
quest part didn't seem really original
to me. And I honestly do believe that
those two parts of the story could have
been broken out in two separate books
and they could have been fleshed out a
lot more and that would have been more
enjoyable to me. But I'm also someone who
always says that slow burn and
slow-moving fantasy stories are always
my favorite. So that just might be my own
personal bias. I mean, obviously it is my
own personal bias. But if you are someone
who doesn't enjoy
slow burn fantasies, but you want there
to be a little bit more plot and pickup
to your stories, then this one probably
will be one that you will enjoy a lot.
I think that Maya has a really great and
really interesting relationship with her
family. There are some parts in the story
that are really sad and really like
spoke to me in my heart. But yeah, my
favorite, favorite parts of this book
were all in the beginning when they
were in the midst of this competition,
when you're trying to figure out who's
actually Maya's friend and who's not.
There are some interesting like royal
political things happening in the story
as well, which I'm hoping that they go
into a little bit more in future stories.
There's a character in here who I'm not
gonna go into too much detail about
because I feel like that might be
spoilers, but there's a specific
character in here where I can't tell if
you're supposed to believe that she's a
friend or foe. She's one of them many
people in the court for anyone who has
read this book. But yeah, I just think
that this is a really great really
interesting world. And if it's a book
that you've kind of had on your radar or
you've had on your list to maybe pick up,
I do think that this is a fun book.
I think the ending might be a little
disappointing for people. But I think
that the world that is being created in
here is worth picking up. I think I gave
it a four out of five stars on Goodreads.
I actually don't remember what my
rating is, but it might be more like a
three and a half just because of the way
things went. But I found this book to be
really engaging and really fun and a
really great read that I like zoomed
straight through. So yeah, those are my
quick thoughts on spin the dawn. Let me
know down in the comments below if
you've read this book. Or if you have any
questions about the book, feel free to
leave that down in the comment section
as well. So yeah, that's all I have for
now and thanks for watching.
