Review of Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani plus a $25 Giveaway

Today is the official release of Sunbolt by author Intisar Khanani. Last year I reviewed the author’s first book, Thorn, and I loved it, so I was excited to read the first book of The Sunbolt Chronicles. I was not disappointed! Sunbolt is an awesome piece of work.

Read on to know about the book and enter the awesome giveaway!

Sunbolt (Book One of the Sunbolt Chronicles)

The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life. — Goodreads

My thoughts on the book

Sunbolt is about Hitomi, a young orphan girl with a secret: she is a Promise, she has the gift of magic. She can’t let anybody know that she has this gift because every person who has the gift must be reported to the high council and if she is discovered to be an untrained Promise she will be punished. She works with the Shadow League, a secret group that is against the evil and corrupt ways of Arch Mage Blackflame. In one of their missions, Hitomi gets captured and things become even more dangerous for her.

When I finished the book, I went over the parts I liked and read them again. That almost never happens anymore because I’m always cramming on my reading these days, but this time I wanted to go over the words. I just love the way this book was written. I spent a few minutes trying to find the right word to describe the writing, so went to the Goodreads page and there I found it. Beautiful. There really was no other way to describe it. The writing was simply beautiful. I remember reading Thorn and it was the same sort of poignant writing that seemed to flow easily through you like a river.

I really enjoyed this book. Aside from the gorgeous writing, I also loved the characters and the storyline. For me, Hitomi is a beautiful person inside and out and I loved reading about her. I also really liked the author’s concept of magic and how a magical talent uses her power by using the energy or power of the things around her. It kind of reminded me of the magic system in Cephrael’s Hand (which I also loved). I really love it when the magic system is defined in some way that makes sense.

I also liked how the author used non-human characters in this fantasy world. There were the usual non-human creatures that we read in most fantasy books these days, but their presence didn’t feel typical or boring at all.

Overall, this was a very exciting, intriguing and captivating book for me. Sunbolt is only the first in a series and I can’t wait to read the rest of it!

Note: I received a review copy of this book from the author. All opinions and views expressed here are my own.

About the Author

Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. Born in Wisconsin, she has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah on the coast of the Red Sea. She first remembers seeing snow on a wintry street in Zurich, Switzerland, and vaguely recollects having breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo when she was five. She currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and two young daughters.

Until recently, Intisar wrote grants and developed projects to address community health with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world. Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy. Intisar’s next two projects include a companion trilogy to Thorn, following the heroine introduced in her short story The Bone Knife, and The Sunbolt Chronicles, a novella serial following a young mage with a propensity to play hero, and her nemesis, a dark mage intent on taking over the Eleven Kingdoms.

Connect with her on her: Website | Goodreads | Facebook

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