July 07, 2026
„A Dawn of Onyx” by Kate Golden
BLURB
Captured by a king of darkness. Forced to find the light within.
Arwen Valondale never expected to be the brave one, offering her life to save her brother’s. Now she’s been taken prisoner by the most dangerous kingdom on the continent, and made to use her rare magical abilities to heal the soldiers of the vicious Onyx King.
Arwen knows better than to face the ancient, wicked woods that surround the castle on her own, which means working with a fellow prisoner might be her only path to freedom. Unfortunately, he’s as infuriating as he is cunning—and seems to take twisted pleasure in playing on Arwen’s deepest fears.
But here in Onyx Kingdom, trust is a luxury she can’t afford.
To make it out of enemy territory, she'll have to navigate back-stabbing royals, dark magic, and dangerous beasts. But untold power lies inside Arwen, dormant and waiting for a spark. If she can harness it, she just might be able to escape with her life—and hopefully, her heart.
MY OPINION
“A Dawn of Onyx” is the first book in „The Sacred Stones” trilogy. It was also my first read by this author — and it was good. Good, but not amazing.
First of all, the idea for the plot is really nice, but I’m very curious how Kate Golden handled the second and third books. Because after finishing the first one, two wolves are fighting in my brain. One says the trilogy will turn out great, and the other says it will go downhill fast. So… right now I’m in the second book, but I’ll wait until the very end before giving my full opinion.
Second of all, can someone please explain to me why authors are so monothematic when it comes to the appearance of the main hero? They’re all the same! Taller than average, with an enormous d1ck, and of course — dark hair. This is exactly why I only pick up romantasy once per four or five other books. I want to finally meet a hero who doesn’t look like a copy–paste from every other story. But in the end, I like romantasy, so I keep coming back… and once again I get the same type of hero. Nothing special.
In summary, „A Dawn of Onyx” sits right in the middle. It’s not a bad book, but it’s also far from being a fantastic one. I started reading it normally, but eventually switched to the audiobook while doing things around the house — and honestly, that made the experience so much better. I even finished the whole book that way. And I’m planning to listen to the second one too.
If you ask me whether I recommend it, I’d say: “yes, but go for the audiobook and do something else at the same time.” Reading „A Dawn of Onyx” was awful. Listening to it? Much better.