2.5 stars
Dawning Ascent is a fast- read fantasy with tropes of the YA genre. Two devilishly handsome princes fighting over a special snowflake of a girl. Not to say that's a bad thing, but it's definitely a special snowflake type of story.
Ariah is the older sister of the prophesized savior, Emerson. In essence, she is nothing. Barely tolerated by the cruel king, her only solace is in her long time crush, Prince Nicholas (Nick) and her equally court- despised brother, Logan. They try to stay under the radar, but all of that changes when many happenstances revolving around Ariah's manifesting powers and romantic conundrums.
Nick is forced into an arrangement he cannot overrule, which forced a wedge between himself and Aria. Not too mention a Prince Samuel of a neighboring county vies for Ariah's affections, much to the royal family's ire ( Nick's family.)
There are certain things I really liked. Ariah's steadfast relationship with her friend Claire who is a rockstar and defines the word loyalty. Her deep bond with Logan and how far they'd go for one another, as well as her budding friendship with Sam who knows well and proper that house can't force love and force affections on someone (yes!!). Also undead parent. This isn't a Disney movie and I love seeing supportive parental figures every so often. Also loved the she was a rebel sneaking out at night to get things done. she definitely isn't your boring Mary-Sue!
However, there are a couple things that irked me as well. This next part is going to be a bit nit-picky on grammar, because I care very much about it and it can make or break a story. Many others may have 0 problems at all, but they did bother me:
" 'Ariah go away right now! I need a minute,' Logan whispers loudly.'"
There is no need to put "right now" in the sentence. it's repetetive and not how we speak English nor old English. The entire book is written in this fashion. I love old time English writing in fantasies. This just wasn't done right.
Other times, modern language was thrown in and completely pulled me right out of the story.
" Nick heads straight to me, like I am the only one in the room. My heart pounds rapidly and he smiles at me. Before he can say anything, Elizabeth gasps.
King Percy sternly says, 'What the hell, boy!'"
Choose one style of writing and stick with it. If you want modern day, cool, no problems. But using both fantastical AND modern day randomly completely takes me out of the setting and story, in addition to the abnormal repetetive and fomal way all the characters spoke. Enough so that I HAD to drop an entire 2 stars for the writing.
Also, don't use future tense when speaking about the present. This too is also thrown in randomly.
"'Oh, I'm sorry Prince Samuel, but I had some things I needed to get done,' I reply, hoping to drop the conversation."
Nonono. You cannot use future tense "had" unless it expresses intent or desire!! "I had something to do but couldn't remember what" " I had intended to do laundry, but napped instead." This happens in couple places and no, speaking in wrong tense doesn't make it formal English.
Otherwise, the plot is simple but good. I got through it in a couple hours.
I always love stories with a charming prince and girls with powers! Ariah's mentors Lydia and Hazel were mysterious and strange and I was slightly annoyed that we didn't know anything about them and they talked in riddles, but Ariah was equally baffled by them, so clearly the author has some plot in mind!
In the end, I would have like a little more character complexity and more plot development. I believe there romance between Nick and Ariah was just there and we were to accept it and I couldn't. I need SOME childhood memories or events leading up to their feelings. Perhaps it's why I'm #teamSam. It also seemed like our main character just literally walked away without a word anytime situations or emotions got difficult. First book, I forgive. The second book, I'd love to see Ariah grow into herself, because quite frankly, albeit understandably given the situation, she is thrown from one scenario to the next with no real agency over her life when the men come around. Finally, a little more on the magic system would have really helped me. I wouldn't even remember there was magic if not for mention at the secret teaching sessions.
This story has a lot of potential and I will be picking up book 2 in hopes of seeing both better writing and a more developed plot with our leading lady not being thrown around into unpleasant situations without any say. I think the person she ends up with in book 1 will nurture her self confidence, foster her loving heart, and stand up for her in a way no one but her brother has ever dared.
Overall, a pleasant read. I recommend it to people around the middle school age looking for an easy uncomplicated fantasy to get into. As for the advanced and well-versed fantasy reader, this might not be your cup of tea unless you're truely looking for something easy and mind numbing with a plot that very clearly caters to some of your favorite romance fantasy tropes.