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* SweetOnPollyOliver: Anni, the palace maid who befriends Maia, falls in love with her guise as her brother Keton, but eventually comes to the conclusion that "Keton" is gay and accepts that. [[spoiler:Ironically, she later gains a crush on the ''actual'' Keton.]]
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* ArsenalAttire: The dresses respond to Maia's will and burn demons.
* BargainWithHeaven:
** Maia makes at four different bargains with Amana across the duology, all of which cost her dearly. [[spoiler:First in vowing to break Edan's bonds even though it means she will be a demon herself. Next in sacrificing the three dresses, which cost her a bit of herself every time she does and eventually kills her.]]
** [[spoiler:Maia's mother makes her own bargain of allowing Maia to live if Maia can reverse the tear in the heavens. Unlike the others, this actually works out for all parties.]]
* CavalryOfTheDead: In the final part of ''Unravel the Dusk'', [[spoiler:Maia's dead brothers arrive with an army of ghosts to counter the shansen's own ghost army.]]
* TheCorruption: In ''Unravel the Dusk'', [[spoiler:Maia's deal is slowly but surely turning her into the demon Sentur'na, with it growing stronger whenever she gives into her anger or uses her magic. She fights valiantly and even manages to delay it by destroying Lapzur, but tells Lady Sarnai to kill her the moment she turns fully. In the end, she kills herself at the moment she crosses the threshold, but is brought back by Amana.]]
* BargainWithHeaven:
** Maia makes at four different bargains with Amana across the duology, all of which cost her dearly. [[spoiler:First in vowing to break Edan's bonds even though it means she will be a demon herself. Next in sacrificing the three dresses, which cost her a bit of herself every time she does and eventually kills her.]]
** [[spoiler:Maia's mother makes her own bargain of allowing Maia to live if Maia can reverse the tear in the heavens. Unlike the others, this actually works out for all parties.]]
* CavalryOfTheDead: In the final part of ''Unravel the Dusk'', [[spoiler:Maia's dead brothers arrive with an army of ghosts to counter the shansen's own ghost army.]]
* TheCorruption: In ''Unravel the Dusk'', [[spoiler:Maia's deal is slowly but surely turning her into the demon Sentur'na, with it growing stronger whenever she gives into her anger or uses her magic. She fights valiantly and even manages to delay it by destroying Lapzur, but tells Lady Sarnai to kill her the moment she turns fully. In the end, she kills herself at the moment she crosses the threshold, but is brought back by Amana.]]
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* DoesNotLikeMagic: Lady Sarnai despises magic after seeing her father corrupted by demons.
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* FairytaleMotifs: Maia replacing her brother in the Emperor's court is a shout out to Mulan, while Lady Sarnai trying to delay her marriage by asking for dresses made of the sun, moon, and stars is one to the Grimm fairy tale "Allerleirah". [[spoiler:The ending implies that Edan and Maia's story will be combined with an existing fairy tale into "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl".]]
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* GoodIsNotNice: Lady Sarnai is both politically ruthless and personally a {{Jerkass}} save to the very few people she likes, thanks to the trauma of the Five Winters' War and being demeaned as a woman all her life. But at the end of the day she will still honor her agreements, still wants to save the people, [[spoiler:and still serves as TheHighQueen to A'landi]].
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Maia's main power is using the scissors to craft fabric. She still manages to use it in battle, crafting a rope to haul herself out of danger and a thicket of brambles to block enemy arrows.
* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Maia's main power is using the scissors to craft fabric. She still manages to use it in battle, crafting a rope to haul herself out of danger and a thicket of brambles to block enemy arrows.
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* MisplacedRetribution: Lady Sarnai puts impossible challenges up to the candidates for tailor out of frustration at her marriage.
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* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Lady Sarnai requests the dresses of Amana in a last-ditch effort to postpone her wedding. She was in no way prepared for the dire consequences of Maia actually ''succeeding''.
* NotBrainwashed: Lady Sarnai's hatred of magic comes from how the demon Gyui'rak corrupted her father the shansen into a shadow of himself. [[spoiler:When he's free, however, he pretends to be cured to try and kill her, revealing that his brutal, hateful ways were all his own. She kills him in return, but the experience is what convinces her to let go of her hatred of magic.]]
* NotBrainwashed: Lady Sarnai's hatred of magic comes from how the demon Gyui'rak corrupted her father the shansen into a shadow of himself. [[spoiler:When he's free, however, he pretends to be cured to try and kill her, revealing that his brutal, hateful ways were all his own. She kills him in return, but the experience is what convinces her to let go of her hatred of magic.]]
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* ProductionForeshadowing: Edan mentions a princess he once knew who had paper magic and had to suffer in silence to save her brothers. This is the plot of the next book in the A'landi saga, ''Six Crimson Cranes''.
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* TiredOfRunning: Lady Sarnai is convinced that nothing can stop her father or his demon, and thus [[spoiler:decides to run for it with her lover even though it would re-ignite the war]]. After the carnage drags on for months, she realizes that even if she can't win, it's her duty to at least ''try''.
* WhatTheHellHero: Maia calls out Lady Sarnai for running, comparing her unfavorably to [[spoiler:Emperor Khanujin]], who at least fought and died for his people. It works.
* WhatTheHellHero: Maia calls out Lady Sarnai for running, comparing her unfavorably to [[spoiler:Emperor Khanujin]], who at least fought and died for his people. It works.
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''The Blood of Stars'' is a series of fantasy YA books based on East Asian folklore written by Elizabeth Lim. They received praise for avoiding many tired YA tropes and their fast paced writing. At present the series is a duology consisting of ''Spin the Dawn'' and ''Unravel the Dusk.''
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''The Blood of Stars'' is a series of fantasy YA books based on East Asian folklore written by Elizabeth Lim. They received praise for avoiding many tired YA tropes and their fast paced writing. At present the The series is a duology consisting of ''Spin the Dawn'' and ''Unravel the Dusk.''
'' After the second book was published, Lim came out with ''Literature/SixCrimsonCranes'', another fantasy book set in the same universe as the ''Blood of Stars'' duology.
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Maia must compete against twelve other tailors for the position who are willing to lie and cheat using magic to win, but the complications do not end there. The competition's organizer and judge is the Shansen's daughter, who's betrothal to the Emperor is the kingdom's best chance at peacefully ending the war once and for all, but she doesn't seem happy with the arrangement at all. Maia soon finds that she may wield magic, and the emperor's Enchanter, Edan, soon discovers this as well.
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Maia must compete against twelve other tailors for the position who are willing to lie and cheat using magic to win, but the complications do not end there. The competition's organizer and judge is the Shansen's daughter, who's betrothal to the Emperor is the kingdom's best chance at peacefully ending the war once and for all, but to say she doesn't seem happy with the arrangement at all.is putting it mildly. Maia soon finds that she may wield magic, and the emperor's Enchanter, Edan, soon discovers this as well.
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* HeroOfAnotherStory: Lady Sarnai could have been the protagonist of her own story. She's the beautiful daughter of a man who rebelled against a corrupt and selfish king, and a more competent warrior than any of her brothers on the battlefield, and is [[spoiler: very conflicted about the conflict, as her father is being corrupted by a demon and his motivations for rebelling were also selfish.]] Despite already having fallen in love, she's being forced to marry said king in order to bring peace and is trying to find a way from within the palace to escape the arranged marriage and live for herself. One thing that sets this book apart from more typical YA faire is that she is almost as integral to saving the kingdom as Maia is.
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** Norbu's magnificent creations for the competition are actually the result of [[spoiler: illusion-creating paint]], which Maia ruins when she throws a pot of tea on his last entry. (The paint also happens to wear off after a few days; he's been skating by because Lady Sarnai never actually intends to wear anything that comes out of the challenges.)
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** Norbu's magnificent creations for the competition are actually the result of [[spoiler: illusion-creating paint]], which Maia ruins when she throws a pot of tea on his last entry. (The paint (It also happens to wear off after a few days; he's been skating by because Lady Sarnai never actually intends to wear anything that comes out of the challenges.)
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* WilfullyWeak: Maia at first refuses to use her magical scissors, because she doesn't like the idea of winning based on magic instead of her own merits. Eventually she accepts that the scissors' magic isn't separate from her creativity and skill but actually works ''because'' of them, and comes around to using them more.
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* WilfullyWeak: WillfullyWeak: Maia at first refuses to use her magical scissors, because she doesn't like the idea of winning based on magic instead of her own merits. Eventually she accepts that the scissors' magic isn't separate from her creativity and skill but actually works ''because'' of them, and comes around to using them more.
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* ArrangedMarriage: Between the Emperor and the daughter of the Shansen, Lady Sarnai. Lady Sarnai is not happy about it, which she vents by killing the Emperor's prize falcons and asking the tailors for impossible outfits.
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* ArrangedMarriage: Between the Emperor and the daughter of the Shansen, Lady Sarnai.
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* GlamourFailure: The Emperor's goes from extremely handsome to rather homely and weak looking when Edan leaves his side for a time.
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* GlamourFailure: ExactWords: Edan makes sure to word his request to help Maia to the Emperor such that the Emperor only forbids him from directly acquiring Amana's gifts--not from going with Maia or helping her in other ways.
* GlamourFailure:
** TheEmperor's Emperor goes from extremely handsome and charismatic to rather homely and weak looking when Edan leaves his side for a time. time.
** Norbu's magnificent creations for the competition are actually the result of [[spoiler: illusion-creating paint]], which Maia ruins when she throws a pot of tea on his last entry. (The paint also happens to wear off after a few days; he's been skating by because Lady Sarnai never actually intends to wear anything that comes out of the challenges.)
* GlamourFailure:
** The
** Norbu's magnificent creations for the competition are actually the result of [[spoiler: illusion-creating paint]], which Maia ruins when she throws a pot of tea on his last entry. (The paint also happens to wear off after a few days; he's been skating by because Lady Sarnai never actually intends to wear anything that comes out of the challenges.)
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* KarmaHoudini: The tailor who sabotages Maia [[spoiler: and gravely injures her]] is only ejected from court.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Edan's magical vow has maintained his youth, and the Emperor has him use his magic to keep him looking young and healthy.
* PimpedOutDress: All of the gowns Maia makes, but especially the Gowns of Amana, the magical dresses she makes using the materials she finds on her quest.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Edan's magical vow has maintained his youth, and the Emperor has him use his magic to keep him looking young and healthy.
* PimpedOutDress: All of the gowns Maia makes, but especially the Gowns of Amana, the magical dresses she makes using the materials she finds on her quest.
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* KarmaHoudini: The Norbu, the tailor who sabotages Maia [[spoiler: and gravely injures her]] is only ejected from court.
* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: [[spoiler: Edan]] devolves into having the mind of a hawk after too long spent in that form. Maybe a little smarter than a real hawk could actually be, but still just a hawk.
* MistakenForGay: During the competition, it's obvious to the maids that Edan and Maia are interested in each other (however much Maia claims otherwise), but they think Maia is a boy. She lets them assume this, because if they think she's gay they'll stop worrying she'll harass them and relax around her.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Edan's magical vow has maintained his youth, and the Emperor has him use his magic to keep him looking young and healthy. Downplayed with Edan, however, as the amount of time he's spent [[spoiler: trapped as a hawk]] means that he hasn't actually ''experienced'' most of the time he's been alive, making him mentally quite close to the age he appears.
* PimpedOutDress: All of the gowns Maia makes, but especially the Gowns of Amana, the magical dresses she makes using the materials she finds on herquest.quest.
* ShapeshifterModeLock: Enchanters who have sworn to serve a master but don't currently have one are trapped in their animal forms until someone acquires the artifact the oath is bound to.
* WilfullyWeak: Maia at first refuses to use her magical scissors, because she doesn't like the idea of winning based on magic instead of her own merits. Eventually she accepts that the scissors' magic isn't separate from her creativity and skill but actually works ''because'' of them, and comes around to using them more.
* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: [[spoiler: Edan]] devolves into having the mind of a hawk after too long spent in that form. Maybe a little smarter than a real hawk could actually be, but still just a hawk.
* MistakenForGay: During the competition, it's obvious to the maids that Edan and Maia are interested in each other (however much Maia claims otherwise), but they think Maia is a boy. She lets them assume this, because if they think she's gay they'll stop worrying she'll harass them and relax around her.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Edan's magical vow has maintained his youth, and the Emperor has him use his magic to keep him looking young and healthy. Downplayed with Edan, however, as the amount of time he's spent [[spoiler: trapped as a hawk]] means that he hasn't actually ''experienced'' most of the time he's been alive, making him mentally quite close to the age he appears.
* PimpedOutDress: All of the gowns Maia makes, but especially the Gowns of Amana, the magical dresses she makes using the materials she finds on her
* ShapeshifterModeLock: Enchanters who have sworn to serve a master but don't currently have one are trapped in their animal forms until someone acquires the artifact the oath is bound to.
* WilfullyWeak: Maia at first refuses to use her magical scissors, because she doesn't like the idea of winning based on magic instead of her own merits. Eventually she accepts that the scissors' magic isn't separate from her creativity and skill but actually works ''because'' of them, and comes around to using them more.
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* GlamourFailure: The Emperor's goes from extremely handsome to rather homely and weak looking when Edan leaves his side for a time.
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* GlamourFailure: The Emperor's goes from extremely handsome to rather homely and weak looking when Edan leaves his side for a time.
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[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51gsvjhso6l_8.jpg]]
''The Blood of Stars'' is a series of fantasy YA books based on East Asian folklore written by Elizabeth Lim. They received praise for avoiding many tired YA tropes and their fast paced writing. At present the series is a duology consisting of ''Spin the Dawn'' and ''Unravel the Dusk.''
Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. Her fate is forever changed when the Emperor announces a competition for the position of royal tailor. With her father well beyond his prime and her brothers all either killed or crippled when serving in the Emperor's five year war against the insurgent Shansen, she decides to pretend to be her brother and participate.
Maia must compete against twelve other tailors for the position who are willing to lie and cheat using magic to win, but the complications do not end there. The competition's organizer and judge is the Shansen's daughter, who's betrothal to the Emperor is the kingdom's best chance at peacefully ending the war once and for all, but she doesn't seem happy with the arrangement at all. Maia soon finds that she may wield magic, and the emperor's Enchanter, Edan, soon discovers this as well.
In order to win the competition, Maia will have to journey across the land and gather the finest of materials for her gowns, as some of the fabrics that the competition demands are the literal stuff of legends.
!!This work contains examples of:
* ActionGirl: Lady Sarnai, the Shansen's daughter and one of his fiercest fighters. Maia slowly becomes a dangerous fighter as the story [[spoiler: and her curse]] progresses.
* DeadPersonConversation: At the end of book two [[spoiler: Amana allows Maia to converse with her dead family. Her mother gives her the option of being the tailor to the gods and living with them in paradise immediately, or going to live out the rest of her days with Edan and her surviving family.]]
* ArrangedMarriage: Between the Emperor and the daughter of the Shansen, Lady Sarnai.
* DealWithTheDevil: Wielders of magic who become corrupted by evil or cursed turn into Demons, extremely powerful and dangerous magical creatures. [[spoiler: The Shansen's millitary might comes from one such deal.]]
* DisguisedInDrag: This element of the plot has lead many to describe the book as ''Series/ProjectRunway'' meets ''Literature/TheBalladOfMulan''. [[spoiler: Maia is eventually discovered and the Emperor doesn't bother having her hide her gender after she succeeds in making the dresses.]]
* IdenticalStranger: Maia and the Shansen's daughter look extremely similar and even have the same measurements.
* ImpossibleTask: Lady Sarnai's final challenge to Maia, to gather the Laughter of the Sun, the Blood of Stars, and the Tears of the Moon and to make dresses from them, is designed to be this.
* KarmaHoudini: The tailor who sabotages Maia [[spoiler: and gravely injures her]] is only ejected from court.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Edan's magical vow has maintained his youth, and the Emperor has him use his magic to keep him looking young and healthy.
* GlamourFailure: The Emperor's goes from extremely handsome to rather homely and weak looking when Edan leaves his side for a time.
* PimpedOutDress: All of the gowns Maia makes, but especially the Gowns of Amana, the magical dresses she makes using the materials she finds on her quest.
''The Blood of Stars'' is a series of fantasy YA books based on East Asian folklore written by Elizabeth Lim. They received praise for avoiding many tired YA tropes and their fast paced writing. At present the series is a duology consisting of ''Spin the Dawn'' and ''Unravel the Dusk.''
Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. Her fate is forever changed when the Emperor announces a competition for the position of royal tailor. With her father well beyond his prime and her brothers all either killed or crippled when serving in the Emperor's five year war against the insurgent Shansen, she decides to pretend to be her brother and participate.
Maia must compete against twelve other tailors for the position who are willing to lie and cheat using magic to win, but the complications do not end there. The competition's organizer and judge is the Shansen's daughter, who's betrothal to the Emperor is the kingdom's best chance at peacefully ending the war once and for all, but she doesn't seem happy with the arrangement at all. Maia soon finds that she may wield magic, and the emperor's Enchanter, Edan, soon discovers this as well.
In order to win the competition, Maia will have to journey across the land and gather the finest of materials for her gowns, as some of the fabrics that the competition demands are the literal stuff of legends.
!!This work contains examples of:
* ActionGirl: Lady Sarnai, the Shansen's daughter and one of his fiercest fighters. Maia slowly becomes a dangerous fighter as the story [[spoiler: and her curse]] progresses.
* DeadPersonConversation: At the end of book two [[spoiler: Amana allows Maia to converse with her dead family. Her mother gives her the option of being the tailor to the gods and living with them in paradise immediately, or going to live out the rest of her days with Edan and her surviving family.]]
* ArrangedMarriage: Between the Emperor and the daughter of the Shansen, Lady Sarnai.
* DealWithTheDevil: Wielders of magic who become corrupted by evil or cursed turn into Demons, extremely powerful and dangerous magical creatures. [[spoiler: The Shansen's millitary might comes from one such deal.]]
* DisguisedInDrag: This element of the plot has lead many to describe the book as ''Series/ProjectRunway'' meets ''Literature/TheBalladOfMulan''. [[spoiler: Maia is eventually discovered and the Emperor doesn't bother having her hide her gender after she succeeds in making the dresses.]]
* IdenticalStranger: Maia and the Shansen's daughter look extremely similar and even have the same measurements.
* ImpossibleTask: Lady Sarnai's final challenge to Maia, to gather the Laughter of the Sun, the Blood of Stars, and the Tears of the Moon and to make dresses from them, is designed to be this.
* KarmaHoudini: The tailor who sabotages Maia [[spoiler: and gravely injures her]] is only ejected from court.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Edan's magical vow has maintained his youth, and the Emperor has him use his magic to keep him looking young and healthy.
* GlamourFailure: The Emperor's goes from extremely handsome to rather homely and weak looking when Edan leaves his side for a time.
* PimpedOutDress: All of the gowns Maia makes, but especially the Gowns of Amana, the magical dresses she makes using the materials she finds on her quest.
