Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, New Adult
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Estora
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About The Book
An exiled prince searching for the truth.
A curious squire desperate to prove himself.
An epic romance that will change the world.
Sixteen-year-old Prince Anden has spent eight years in the shadows – banished, forgotten, blamed for the death of a king.
When he returns to his tense and divided kingdom, he meets River: an eager squire with a talent for trouble and a smile that disarms Anden’s guarded heart. As their friendship grows into something deeper, Anden begins to believe he might deserve more than vengeance. He might even deserve love.
But treason runs deeper than either of them imagined. As assassins close in and war brews across the continent, Anden must rally allies, confront buried truths, and risk everything – not just for the crown or his family, but for the boy who believes in him.
Set in a world without overt magic, Prince of Dawn is the spellbinding first volume in a queer fantasy trilogy about loyalty, legacy, and the courage to choose your own future.
The Review
Prince Anden Sutheran loses his father, the King of Dawn, at the age of eight during a terrible accident at sea, and it’s his fault – or so everyone tells him. Unloved by his older brother, the young and immature Edred, and cast aside by everyone else, Anden is sent away to neighbouring country of Flavia for training and fostering, where he is shown no mercy. There, he becomes friends with Princess Colleen of Flavia, who is betrothed to Edred but is secretly in love with Anden – who does not reciprocate her feelings. Eight years later, Anden is almost a man grown and he is due to return home, where he finds a steadfast friend and ally in the squire River Fox. But the secrets of the past threaten to unravel the present and upset the tense relations between three nations.
Prince of Dawn is the first book in the Celestia Trilogy by Nicola Zhang. I picked this one up feeling in the mood for an epic fantasy with a solid plot and a decent cast. Prince of Dawn delivered above and beyond. Zhang seamlessly weaves her crisp prose to tell a tale of politics, secrets, loyalty, and how far a leader can be driven to commit terrible crimes in the name of protecting their kingdom. Every single line is written with purpose to advance the plot, the worldbuilding, or the characters. I was hooked from the very first page, gripped with every battle and plot twist and revelation, and stayed up far too late at night to keep reading to the end, desperate for the characters I’d come to love to make it through.
It’s hard for me to even decide who my favourite character is, as they were all written with such care and nuance that I empathise with all of them. I won’t lie, my heart broke for Colleen, but there is so much more to her than her unrequited feelings for Anden. Her POV chapters were delightful to read. She is strong-willed, determined, and takes no shit, and her friendship with Anden was one of the many highlights of the story,
And that empathy absolutely extends to the villains. Because were they even really villains? Edred, Anden’s older brother and the King under his uncle’s regency, is a spoiled, irritable brat who treats Anden so poorly that I wanted to reach through the pages and slap him across the face – and yet it was hard not to feel for him in his POV chapters, when we see how his uncle and regent treats him with barely concealed disdain. But we can also understand why Redley acts this way, because Redley – who is by far the most dynamic and layered character in the story – is trying to run a nation while trying to mold the irritable, entitled King into a true leader (and failing).
Anden shines with a quiet intellect and dignity. Though only sixteen for the bulk of the narrative, he is wise beyond his years thanks to his past and forced exile. He has seen the world – certainly more of it than his older brother – and he has endured traumas that have driven him to close himself off from accepting love and companionship. His slow burn relationship with River was masterfully built, and their natural chemistry from their very first meeting as kids to their reunion as men was palpable as they, along with a handful of loyal friends, begin to unravel the truth of what happened the night of Anden’s father’s death, and what it means for the tense world politics at play.
I can’t wait for the next book in the series, Lord of Dust. While Prince of Dawn was a full and satisfying narrative, there are still many challenges and uncertainties in the future for Anden, River, Colleen, and another character who I think will become a much larger player going forward. War is brewing, and I’m on the edge of my seat.
The Reviewer
Estora is a long-time reader and writer of LGBT+ speculative fiction.
