Guardians of Dawn: Zhara (Guardians of Dawn, #1)

ZHARA is an intriguing YA fantasy with strong world-building. Zhara is trying to keep herself afloat, suppressing her magic as much as possible, appeasing her stepmother, and looking after her sister. When she is heading to the bookshop, she overhears something strange about the Guardians of Dawn and has an encounter with a cute boy, Han. In the process, he gives her a book, supposedly the romance novel she had been coveting but unable to afford. Instead, he accidentally slipped her something different and more dangerous - a book about magic.

As their paths collide again, Zhara begins to realize that there is more to her magic than she had previously thought. With children turning into monsters, she will need to learn fast to uncover what is occurring and her role to play in what is to come, amidst the country's fears and hatred of magic which has made it all extraordinarily dangerous.

The world-building here was pretty lush with a complex setup for government, magic, and politics, that we begin to explore in the course of the story. Information about magic and the Guardians of Dawn is slow to come, particularly since magic is outlawed and dangerous to speak about or have. These were pretty complex with some history and background that we learn slowly through both Zhara and Han's point-of-views. Zhara lives a life of poverty, in a Cinderella-type situation as she works relentlessly for her stepmother and to help provide for her own shelter, all while being asked to be grateful for her own survival at all. Han, on the other hand, is someone who has lived a life of luxury - but also one of fear, as his little brother is a magician, and he does not know how to protect him best from the fate set out for magicians.

Zhara and Han were each interesting character, and the dual perspectives allowed the reader to learn more about the world through each. The romance was light and very slow burn. While they were both attracted to each other, there were more pressing matters in each of their personal lives that meant that they could not really focus on their feelings much. It was tough to fully get into the romance in the midst of this, but it did build a bit later in the story. Han is also hiding a secret that hangs over many of their interactions for most of the book with the expected results when revealed.

That being said, the story felt very slow and repetitive throughout most of the book, and it ended up being a bit easy to put down as a result. There were large swaths in the middle that did not progress the plot or characters much, and many things ended up being a bit predictable, such that by the time they were revealed, it felt like we had already gotten there. While I did overall enjoy the plot and am curious to see more from this world, it was not the gripping and focused YA fantasy read that I expected. This will work best for people who enjoy slower and more predictable reads.

Overall, ZHARA was an intriguing YA fantasy about family, magic, and destiny.