Genre: Fantasy
Length: 152 Pages
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Summary
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.
Review
Sunbolt is a short but sweet fantasy story about a girl who gets involved in dangerous political intrigue. She ends up as a prisoner, (possibly) finds her mother, and forms an alliance with the enemy. It’s a lot for 150 pages but the author uses language in her advantage and doesn’t waste words. She weaves the worldbuilding in clever use of dialogue and action. That means it’s also a fast paced book. Sometimes it feels like it moves a little too fast, especially nearing the ending. It feels rushed or not finished. I’m not sure if it used to be an episodic story and this was the ending for the season, but I’d really like to read the second book. There are still so many questions left by then end even though the ending is quite satisfying. It’s definitely worthy of the third spot in the BBNYA 2022 competition.
Overall, Sunbolt is a fun, short book that’s a perfect palette cleanser in between longer books. Know that you’ll probably want to read the second book soon too.
About the Author
Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. She has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah, on the coast of the Red Sea. Intisar used to write grants and develop projects to address community health and infant mortality 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. She is the author of The Sunbolt Chronicles, and the Dauntless Path novels, beginning with Thorn.
BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website http://www.bbnya.com or Twitter @bbnya_official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
