3.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐✨
The Blood of Stars is a duology consisting of books titled Spin the Dawn and Unravel the Dusk. They narrate the story of a tailor, Maia Tamarin, who has always dreamed of becoming the emperor's seamstress. She gets chosen to be one of twelve tailors competing for the job, and moves to the imperial palace, where she meets Edan, the royal enchanter. Princess Sarnai, the King's bride-to-be, demands three dresses be spun- from the sun, moon, and stars, and Maia travels across the land to complete these tasks. The books are woven with Chinese culture, magic, demons, and fast-paced adventure.
These books read like a children's story, though they are expected to be a young adult series. At times this was a good thing, because the story progressed quickly, without any detours. The plot was interesting and fast-paced, without delving into character development or world-building. However, this also made some parts very underwhelming. The magic was explained very simply, as were everyone's pasts and histories. Everything was stated in a straightforward and factual manner which, in a way, made it less interesting. Though I usually enjoy books that focus solely on plot development, I had expected this story to be more complex which it did not deliver.
The basic plot had an intriguing concept, and I enjoyed reading a book involving Chinese culture. The author did not describe many sights or people, choosing to tell us more about the setting as and when the plot required. I would have liked for her to tell us more about the scenes, as they felt very plain without any background to picture them against. The characters' movements were extremely confusing, and a lot of the time during their journey, I couldn't tell if they were walking, resting, or riding their horses. The frequency of these inconsistencies made them very off-putting. The simplicity of the writing also bothered me sometimes, as it felt more like a factual narration than a novel.
I had thought there would be more to Maia's quest to complete the seemingly impossible tasks, but they were unsatisfyingly simple. Her journey to faraway mountains and unbearable deserts had sounded exciting, but ultimately her problems boiled down to feeling too hot or being hungry. Her fights with wolves and demons felt unrealistically simple. Even her use of the magic scissors felt random and unexplained. Though I understand that the author couldn't get into details of a fictional object's working, I couldn't figure out how waving the scissors around helped with her tasks. There seemed to be no definite limitations or hindrances to magic, and it seemed that simply possessing the scissors solved all her problems. Maybe I've just read so many of these books that they fail to entertain me anymore.
The competition wasn't as exciting as I had hoped, but I enjoyed reading about it all the same. As I said before, the magic scissors made things easy for her, and all the tasks felt very basic and convenient. Since the story progressed very quickly, moving from one plot point to another, there wasn't much time given to developing relationships between characters other than her and Edan. A lot of the first book was spent on their journey, thus the book seemed to focus solely on their interactions. Maia felt more like a passive side character, as she never did anything to progress the story, only going along with the flow of events. Most parts were predictable, but I will say that the book never got boring, because of the pace.
The book engrossed me from the first page itself, and I enjoyed the overall story. Though the plot felt slightly generic at times, the series was well able to combine elements of fantasy with the art of spinning.
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