"Unravel the Dusk" by Elizabeth Lim is a captivating conclusion to the Blood of Stars duology. This fantasy novel blends Chinese folklore and a richly imagined world, following the journey of the resilient and talented Maia as she grapples with destiny, sacrifice, and the power of her own abilities. Lim's lyrical prose and intricate world-building create a magical reading experience.

Having just finished reading both these incredible books in Lim's breathtaking duology... I am craving even more of her works!
What an absolutely captivating cast of characters she weaves. The details involved in this fantasy, give it such such power in visualising the world she has built.
Maia the main character is fierce yet lovable. She's an easy character to root for from the get go.
I adored the use of the Sun, Moon & Stars... what a delightful stunning adventure this duo was.

2.5 star rating. This is the second book in the Blood of Stars duology and sequel to Spin the Dawn. It was a solid conclusion but it didn't work as well as the first book for me. I didn't find myself particularly invested and the ending felt a little rushed to me. I would still recommend checking out this duology though.

A really enjoyable sequel and finish to The Blood of Stars series! I did prefer the first of the two, however, it's still a great and enjoyable read following Maia's journey. Maia is a great strong female lead character for sure!

3.5 rounded to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Elizabeth Lim for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

I sadly didn't enjoy this one as much as Spin the Dawn. The demon aspects were great and probably my biggest pull to the story, but I felt like they weren't wholly explored and I wanted a little more from it. Everything felt a little repetitive and, overall, there was a real lack of the magic that pulled me so deeply into Spin the Dawn.

Not necessarily a bad sequel by any means, but definitely not as good as Spin the Dawn.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This was a brilliant sequel and the emotion behind this book just got me. I would recommend this to so many fantasy readers.

Loved this so much I made sure I bought the hardbacks.

Engrossing, well written and pure escapism, what more could a reader wish for?

Highly recommend.

Absolutely gorgeous. What an amazing way to continue this story I fell so deeply in love with in book 1. Within two books, Elizabeth Lim has definitely become an auto buy author.

Received an Advanced Reader’s Copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

I’m particularly proud that Lim’s book was what I began 2022 with. Her work always feel like a home away from home.

Elizabeth Lim has truly become an auto-buy author for me. The first book I think I read of hers was Spin the Dawn, and I fell so hard in love, I don’t think I have woken from my trance yet. My favourite thing about her work is that she really knows her characters and she’s got the plot and the pace down to a pat. For someone who can’t plot for poo, this is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

Despite reading UtD many months after I read StD, I was immersed immediately with no confusion about what was happening and who the characters were. This is definitely kudos to the effect the previous book’s ending had on me.

I truly also wondered how Lim would fit such a big plot into a book that wasn’t 700+ pages. There are many books where I’ve felt: this could’ve been fit into a 300 page book instead of being an 800 page book. But there’s rarely a book I feel the reverse about, where I feel this book could be written even as a big book and it would have still been perfect. She made space for her characters’ emotional growth, the plot unravelling and concluding and a happy ending. Only Lim could do that.

This book is heavy with emotion and while I know all of Lim’s books are steeped in all them feels, this one really hit hard and towards the end I was a crying mess.

HOW DID LIM MANAGE TO FIT THIS STORY INTO A DUOLOGY?

All the characters were so wonderfully familiar and different at the same time. I’m not going to lie, I always feel like the MCs should interact more especially if it’s a romance, but I always leave Lim’s books feeling like everything was just right.

I loved all the little connections Lim drew between the first book of this series and this and more importantly, her other book and this series. *wink*

Highly recommend any and all of Lim’s work! Five stars. Happy reading and stay safe!

What a wonderful sequel, but it didn't impress me as much as the first in the series Spin the Dawn. I didn’t think the plot was as well planned out here and the end felt rushed. I think this focused on the fantasy elements a lot more in this book, which for me was a plus, when I think of the books overall as I duology then I can’t really give it less than 4 stars because it’s still fantastic

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Unfortunately I’m underwhelmed with this sequel. I had high hopes because I really enjoyed the first book but this one just didn’t quite hit the mark.
Both the plot and the characters let this book down and I found myself not caring what happened.

Overall I’d give the series 3-3.5 stars combined. That is still a decent rating and I would recommend it, I just think it could have been more, it certainly had the potential to be a 4-5 star read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

trigger warning
<spoiler> grief, trauma, mention of child soldiers and slavery and mutilation, torture </spoiler>

This review includes spoilers for book one. Consider yourself warned.




Maia did the seemingly impossible and crafted the three dresses of the mother goddess, but she is still paying the price, slowly transforming into a demon. Eldan thinks he might be able to learn how to halt this transformation, but the brewing war is another huge obstacle.

This one does not suffer from second book syndrome, though I am not sure if that's mostly on trilogies. Oh well.
Again, large parts of this book are spend travelling, without it feeling like a road movie book.

We have a confirmed gay character, but their relationship is only mentioned and the character played a bigger part in book one.

All I said about three dimensional character and intricate world building for book one count for this, too, and now that I finished this series (yay!) I can't wait for Six Crimson Cranes because I am sure it is awesome.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it. Which made me really sad, because the first one was on my bookshelf for ages and getting this book finally gave me the excuse to prioritise it over other ARCs and my god it was amazing. This one, in comparison, felt very different.

It lacks some of the sparkle of the first book, far more serious. This was important, as I think if this one had been the same it would have been so disappointing; but at the same time there’s a part of me that feels maybe the first one could have been a standalone? It was so fun and vibrant and the romance was great and the character full of self growth, and I absolutely flew through it.

This one took me a while longer, and I wasn’t quite as motivated to read it. It follows her struggle against her own darkness, rather than an underdog story. Edan is no longer an all powerful enchanter as he was in the first but apparently his snark and personality was wrapped up in the magic as it felt entirely removed here. He felt so sassy in the first book :(

A big thank-you to the publishers and netgalley for an eARC in exchange of an honest review.

I’m always scared to finish series but frankly this was perfect. The plot and flow of the story, the characters, just everything was perfection. The novel continues from where we stopped off in book 1 with maya now battling becoming a demon.

Her plot line with this is heartbreaking and wonderfully written as her mind Brie to question the things she sees and her own feelings and memories. The story retains the feeling of a folklore tale from the first book, and even mentions a famous folklore tale of the six crimson cranes.

I immediately then went to look up the blurb of six crimson cranes and sure enough it’s that story. Which is awesome since they’re set in the same world, but hundreds of years after that story. I loved that touch!

Maya and Eden’s relationship continues to be adorable, and her friendships are pure and wonderful. I really respected the fact that Ami is hurt by Maya lying about being a man and manipulating her feelings in the first book.

Overall, I cried a bunch and that always tells me I enjoyed a book! I can’t wait to read more Lim books and I hope they continue to write books set in this universe, maybe even with some glimpses of Maya and Eden in the background in the future.

if i have to compare this book with the previous one, i think i liked it a bit less. it's still a good book, i liked it, but i missed a bit of the magical vibe that i got in spin the down. i definitely loved maia's development and her story has a satisfying end (maybe i just wanted more edan? who knows)

S0 I really enjoyed the parts of the sequel that I managed to read before my file did no longer work, I then tried to open up this file and it was gone as well. I have no clue what was up, but now I am going to buy the books because the first one was a lot of fun. That's praise in itself I guess. Kinda mad at Netgalley though because the ARCs managed to self-destruct or whatnot? Weird!

After adoring Spin the Dawn I was so excited for Unravel the Dusk, and though I ended up liking it a bit less it was still very entertaining.
I was sad that the relationship between Maia and Edan was less present but I liked the whole focus on Maia and her slowly becoming a demon. I really liked the difference between the Maia at the beginning of the first book and the Maia in this book, she's grown so much, she's become stronger and tougher and more powerful. Her identity crisis and her hesitancy to embrace fully her new self and new powers was so interesting.
I also loved seeing more of Lady Sarnai in this second book, she's such a great and complex character and I grew to love her.
It was a nice second book and I had so much fun reading this duology.

Unravel The Dusk by Elizabeth Lim is the follow-up to Spin the Dawn, a whimsical Asian-inspired fantasy in which Maia pretends to be her brother to take part in a competition to find the next imperial tailor. With the help of magical scissors she sets out on an adventure that ends up much greater than expected. This sequel has the odd position of following up on a book that I kind of thought should have been a standalone. So, it feels like certain themes seemed to repeat themselves, the plot was sometimes a bit meandering but it was still very enjoyable. It is a compulsively readable series, and while book one was rightly called out for ableism (Maia’s brother has a limp, which she fakes for much of the book) this is something that is not present in this sequel, which I really appreciated. I also really liked the coherent world-building with references to the in-universe story of Six Crimson Cranes, which the author recently released as a standalone fairy-tale. All in all, this is a sweet YA fantasy, great for bingeing and a cosy night in now that it’s getting colder.

All in all a good conclusion to the duology.

I preferred the first book, probably because of the competition, but it also felt a lot more magical than this installment. To be quite honest, I felt a little bit bored at some points. I just wasn’t as invested in the story as much.

But in general this was a very well crafted story, hence why I’m going to give it 3.5 stars.

Spin the Dawn was an unexpected delight for me. I got it in a subscription box, read the back, thought "Project Runway meets Mulan... hmmm... not my thing" and condemned it to a life of collecting dust and cobwebs at the back of the bookshelf.

Six months later ... < cue global pandemic - enter from stage right > I came across it and thought "why not". And I loved it! A memorable cast, interesting and original story, and a lovely mix of Asian mythology. It was a reading highlight for 2020.

You kind of wonder how something can go from so good to so bad. I thought it would at least plateau out, not drastically plummet. Several times I turned to the cover to make sure I was reading the right book by the same author and not fanfiction or something by a ghostwriter.

You'll get whiplash from trying to keep up with everything happening at breakneck speed. Plot points that were integral in Spin the Dawn are glossed over. Battles start and are over in 2-3 paragraphs. Minor Spin the Dawn characters are upgrade from background to main characters but with no character development so you really don't care if they live or die in battle (don't fret, at least they'll have a quick death. It'll be over before the end of the page). And the attempt at weaving the plot threads into the mythology in the climax was a bit of a "huh? wtf!" moment. It really didn't have the same magic as the first book.

Recommended for fans of: Girl, Serpent, Thorn, Forest of Souls, Descendant of the Crane

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the reading copy