Cover Reveal: Spin The Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

About Elizabeth Lim

Elizabeth Lim grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was raised on a hearty diet of fairy tales, myths, and songs. Before becoming an author, Elizabeth was a professional film and video game composer, and she still tends to come up with her best book ideas when writing near a piano. An alumna of Harvard College and the Juilliard School, she now lives in New York City with her husband and their daughter. She is also the author of Reflection: A Twisted Tale, published by Disney Press.

Author Links: Website ● Twitter ● Instagram ● Goodreads

Hi everyone! I’ve been waiting for this moment for ages, and now that it’s finally here I just want to jump up and down with excitement. I am beyond thrilled to be revealing the cover of Spin The Dawn on Pop! Goes the Reader!

Spin The Dawn is a very special book to me. I began writing it during the summer of 2016 while I was on sub with a different young adult fantasy, one that ultimately did not sell. As the rejections for that book came in, I slowly, slowly overcame my doubts about whether I was good enough to be a writer by working on a new story. I turned to drafting Spin The Dawn, and over the summer I crafted the book I’d always wanted to read. What originally began as a whimsical story about an enchanted dress became a far more personal narrative, about a young seamstress determined to rise above the expectations set upon her by her culture, society, and times — with a dash of magic and romance for good measure.

When my grandmother first immigrated to America from southern China, she worked as a seamstress sewing slippers and blouses to help raise three children and supplement my grandfather’s income as a cook. Even years later after I was born, she was often at her sewing machine, and I remember watching her fingers nimbly move the fabric, and being utterly fascinated by how within minutes she could make me a new pair of pants or fix the hole in my sleeve. My main character, Maia Tamarin, is partially inspired by my grandmother’s background as a seamstress, but Spin The Dawn also takes inspiration from some of the fairy tales my father told me when I was growing up: East of the Sun, Donkeyskin, and the Chinese legend, The Cowherd and the Weaver.

I’ve been so lucky to have an incredible design team at Knopf. Thank you first and foremost to my amazing editor, Katherine Harrison, to Spin The Dawn’s art designer Alison Impey, and especially Tran Nguyen for illustrating this phenomenal cover. It’s even better than I could have dreamed, and I dream a lot!

I hope you all love the cover as much as I do, and I cannot wait to share Maia’s story with you in July 2019!

For the book cover, I wanted to capture the resilience and strength that Maia carries with her on her arduous journey.  She’s posed in an unyielding stance, ready for the impossible tasks that lay ahead. I felt the secondary elements that billows around her such as her magical scissors and black-feathered companion, are key in overcoming what is demanded of the emperor’s bride-to-be.

The cover of Spin The Dawn was designed by Alison Impey with accompanying art by Tran Nguyen.

Title Spin The Dawn (Book 1 in The Blood of Stars series)
Author Elizabeth Lim
Genre Fantasy
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
Publication Date July 30th 2019 from Knopf Books for Young Readers
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon.com ● Chapters ● The Book Depository ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

On the fringes of the Great Spice Road, Maia Tamarin works as a seamstress in father’s shop. She dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. 

When a royal messenger summons her ailing father to court, Maia poses as his son and travels to the Summer Palace in his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk for the chance to save her family from ruin and achieve her dream of becoming the imperial tailor. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the unwelcome attention of the court enchanter, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise. 

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, and finds more than she ever could have imagined.