3.5/5

I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Once upon a time, there was something called the sun.

Siria Nightingale has only ever know shades of Darkness. Since Queen Iyzabel started her reign, it has been clouded in Darkness to save the citizens from the evil that is the sun. Or so, that's what the Queen would like you to believe. On her sixteenth birthday, Siria learns she is the last sunchild and that she must stop the Queen and bring back the light.

Siria must first travel north to the resistance and master her sun powers. Luckily, she has the help of her childhood friends Linden and Yarrow, as well as a reluctant naiad Merall. I enjoyed the world building, and liked how the different magics correlated to a species of nymph. I also liked the explanations about witchcraft and how Iyzabel got her powers.

The characters weren't my favorite. I did come to love them eventually, namely Siria. At the beginning, it was really hard to relate to her. I get that she was brainwashed to think a certain way, but you'd think being faced with death would speed the process up a little bit. I did love the family bond between her, Linden and Yarrow.

The romance was fun as well, even if I didn't always ship Linden and Siria. I didn't realize this was a stand-alone so several times I thought the pacing was fast for a series lmao. I would've loved to see this expand. There's so much I'm curious about and I would've loved to see more magic training on Siria's part.

One thing I did love was how Siria eventually came to terms with the fact that she had magic and she had to learn how to control it. And she did! She accepted it and the fact that it could be dangerous. She told her magic F you, I am in charge. I am all for boss bitches!

In this world, Light is dangerous and the Darkness rules everything. The story begins with a prologue where a gardener called Yarrow tells Siria the story of the Sun before she is sent to a finishing school called Gildenbrook. The aesthetic of the school definitely gives off steampunk/gothic vibes (makes me think of the Japanese lolita fashion movement).

While the premise is intriguing and the magic system has a lot of potential, I struggled to enjoy the story as the characters felt underdeveloped all the way through. There is a lot of information I'm supposed to take for granted, e.g. Siria is weirdly obsessed with Linden (related to Yarrow), and although this could be put down to teenage love, there's no explanation as to why she's so into him. Readers are just expected to accept that she yearns for Linden All. The. Time.

Siria's fate is connected to the mythical 'monstrous' sunchildren that were massacred by the Queen many years back, and while I know we are supposed to sympathise with her and be on her team, I struggled. I fully understand that she is betrayed by everyone and so cannot trust what people say (believe me, I would be the same), but it gets tedious. Maybe I missed a few points where she grows as a character, and if so, they weren't clear enough for me.

The last thing I wanted to comment on: Pacing. For some reason the pacing feels off. It's pretty fast from the beginning, which isn't a problem as it brings a vivacity to the plot, but the chapters seem really short and don't really develop from one to the next - in that, I think there are a few places where the chapters could be compressed to become one instead of two, if that makes sense. I read about 25% of the eARC before jotting down my initial thoughts, and at that point in the story I still felt no tension even though the stakes were high (Siria is being hunted down, she needs to escape the Queen). There are several parts where I feel the world building would have benefitted from more descriptions of the magic system as again, we're supposed to just accept things with no explanation. As an avid fantasy reader, I don't particularly need an in-depth exposition, but some contextualising would be nice.

My one favourite thing about the book is the character Merrall. I loved her because she would said what I thought about Siria and wasn't afraid to slap some sense into the girl on the odd occasion.

Ignite the Sun is a fantastic debut novel by Hanna Howard. Set in a dark, mystic world with an evil witch queen we meet Siria and her friends Yarrow and Linden and her adventure to save the kingdom. I throughly enjoyed the setting, I do love an adventure or journey in a story which I think helps the characters grow and gives the author an opportunity to develop the world building.

The descriptions of the mythology and lore was very interesting and fun. I enjoyed the relationships with the characters and the story was fast paced and action packed. At the beginning things happened very fast and I thought there needed a bit more depth, however once I read on I was happy with how everything developed and was explained.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to more from this author.

Sixteen year-old Siria Nightingale has never seen the sun. The light is dangerous, according to Queen Iyzabel, an evil witch who has shrouded the kingdom in shadow.

Siria has always hated the darkness and revels in the stories of the light-filled old days that she hears from her best friend and his grandfather. Besides them, nobody else understands her fascination with the sun, especially not her strict and demanding parents. Siria's need to please them is greater even than her fear of the dark. So she heads to the royal city--the very center of the darkness--for a chance at a place in Queen Iyzabel's court.

But what Siria discovers at the Choosing Ball sends her on a quest toward the last vestiges of the sun with a ragtag group of rebels who could help her bring back the Light ... or doom the kingdom to shadow forever.

I quite enjoyed this story even though in my opinion it is nothing new or unheard of when it comes to YA fantasy.
Siria's journey to discover her powers wasn't the easiest but overall she was a likeable character so that certainly helped.
A quick read and if you're a fan of secret princesses with special powers this is a good choice for you

*Received a free ecopy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

“Once upon a time, there was something called the sun.”

Siria Nightingale is an ordinary girl living in a world of Darkness, where the light from the Sun has been banished for generations since Queen Izyabel vanquished the sun-worshipping kingdom of Luminor. Only, sixteen years ago, there was a prophecy that promised the birth of a sunchild, one who wielded the fiery powers of the sun, who would end her reign of darkness.

Surprise surprise, Siria is that sunchild.

The premise of this sounded so interesting, and I always love a fantasy that feels grandiose and mythic in nature. The concept of a sunchild who is here to return light to a land of darkness was right up my alley. Near the climax of the story, there is some fantastic imagery that made my imagination sing with the poetry of it all.

That being said, the story felt a little lackluster, a little "too YA" somehow. I'm not usually impressed by stories of characters who have to go on the run, and 80% of the story was just that. Coupled with the addition of several "astounding revelations" (e.g. Yarrow's backstory, Izyabel's motives, etc.) and a character who did essentially nothing, I feel that a lot of things could have been trimmed out of the story. There were also too many conveniently-placed "fade to black" moments. And, worst of all, I couldn't feel very deeply for any of the character interactions. Some of the characters, particularly Merrall, were interesting but were not given ample time to develop into something interesting. Linden was a nice dude, but the greatest pitfall of the childhood friend-to-lover trope is that while realistically it takes less build-up to get them to fall in love, the reader is not necessarily privy to those same pre-established feelings. The romance happened far too quickly in my opinion, and the clear inevitability of it made it less interesting.

If certain extraneous plot-beats were removed in favor of giving characters more time for introspection, or maybe just some additional page-time dedicated to weaving a greater magical atmosphere around the world, I feel the whole mood of the book could have shifted to something more grandiose and emotionally-resonant. That being said, the overall writing style seemed more conducive to an action-adventure than a lush fairytale, so this could certainly be a matter of personal preference.

At the end of the day, this is a fast, fun story that starts with a lost girl who doesn't fit in and ends with an empowered queen who has come into her powers. It's a solid read with an exciting premise that carries a lot of promise, although it falters in its delivery at times.

Finished #ignitethesun which was provided by #NetGalley

The story was Young Adult/fantasy and had the typical plot lines involving a hero who struggles with their new abilities, bond of family with people who aren’t her actual family and the story eventually finishing with sunshine happy endings.

Good
I like the story concept - a world cursed by literal darkness and how horrific it would be to grown in that world. The fantasy world #HannaC.Howard created was interesting and I wanted to know more about the magical backgrounds.
It was a fairly easy read as expected for Young Adult with some nice life lessons about how you can be brave without being rash.

Bad
I just didn’t feel connected to the characters and I feel that is mostly down to how the story was told. I wasn’t really concerned about anyone but Elegy (she was adorable) and it was frustrating to not care about the rest of them most of the time.
The “Part” quotes in some places felt out of place. The one that stood out most was a JRR Tolkien quote, it didn’t feel right to use it and pulled me away from the story.

Honest view - worth the read if you like fantasy but I wouldn’t rush out to buy it

Ignite the Sun has such a cool concept and world, the idea of the sun being a legend and the world shrouded in darkness was so intriguing to me. However, while the concept was really interesting I felt the world building and characters weren't explored enough. The story seemed to begin at breakneck speed and I had no time to get to know the world, or the characters. I just felt like I couldn't care about the characters the way I wanted to. This continued throughout the story, particularly with Siria, her entire arc felt somewhat shallow.

The mythology and descriptions of the world however, were great. Hanna Howard is great at showing me a picture with her writing and I did feel like I was really experiencing the locations in the book.

Overall, I think this book had a lot of potential that it didn't quite have the payoff I wanted. I would be interested in reading more of her work though.

Ignite the Sun
I rarely give 5 stars to a fantasy book but this one deserved it!
Kudos to the author for doing a remarkable job.
I immensely enjoyed this novel, it had me hooked from the start. I couldn't put it down, I needed to know what and how they'll win against THE DARKNESS..
And as soon as I would decide to hit the bed, the chapter would end on a cliffhanger. So yeah I didn't sleep much because of this book but it was so worth it.

What I loved about it was that the idea, the concept was fresh. The story didnt revolve around faes or elves, it was about a 16 year old girl who drove her power from the sun thus called the SunChild. It's the classic Light versus Dark... LITERALLY
I loved all the characters, loved how our protagonist's character developed. I loved the world building and the different creatures, like the banshee was a breath of fresh air.
Ignite the Sun was filled with deliciously cute moments, action and adventure.. oh and lets not forget sorrow.
I loved this book because the world was so foreign to me, I haven't read anything like this before. That's why i was at the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it.
You knew a thing or two like, the characters have to certainly get separated and the girl has to be brave and find her way back.. but other than these meagre details the rest was a mystery. The battle, how they'd defeat the bad guys, what will happen, what are the motives, that just keeps unravelling until the last page and it just leaves you so satiated and delighted at the end. Because you enjoyed the story, the characters, their developments, the world and the world building.
I hate very descriptive paragraphs that go on and on for pages like Stephen King giving us descriptions of Maine, the author here thankfully didn't overdo it.

So basically to wrap it up, I loved this book and anyone who loves a good fantasy novel with romance, adventure, action and sorrow should do themselves a favor and pick this up in August . Because Folks It ain't published yet 😉

This was my 3nd ARC from NetGally. My 2nd YA one, and I have to say it was FAR better than the last one I read. Of course, they are completely different genres, and it’s hard to compare fantasy to contemporary romance (Although, I don’t think could be a YA book without some romance, so you aren’t missing out on that with this book.)

This books follows Siria on her journey to discover who she truly is. I really cannot say much about it, because even saying who she truly is would give away a bit of the beginning plot twist.

It is set in a fictional kingdom of Umbraz which is ruled by a dark Queen. And by dark, I mean, the queen has eliminated the sun with her powers. She has ruled for years, and the people of Umbraz can barely remember the sun, they fear it, and rely on Queen Iyzabel to keep them safe.

That’s all the summary you’re getting.

Now for a couple personal thoughts.

One of the things I think could have been better was Siria’s character arc. She does change throughout the book, but I just felt like I didn’t really know her. Honestly, this is true of most of the main characters in the book. They are all very surface level.

On the other hand, the world building was great. Hanna Howard did a great job of helping me visualize her world. The castle descriptions were among my favorites.

This book is set to release in August, and if you like YA fantasy with a female protagonist, I would say you would like this one.

I was so excited by the cover and the description of this book. Interesting world, interesting magic systems, interesting conflict? It had me excited. Unfortunately, everything about this book happened at a break-neck speed with very little detail or explanation as it happened. I honestly wish that the beginning had slowed down a little so that things felt more important as they were happening. Why do I care that your childhood best friend (that I met in a 2 page prologue) lied to you forever? I hardly know about your relationship except that you told me he was important. The world building and magic system building was pretty sparse and what little there was was often conveyed to the reader in flashbacks or in someone telling the main character something. It didn't feel natural and often felt a little clunky. I think if you are new to the YA fantasy genre, this would be a great entry book for you as there is magic and interesting characters and the plot moves fairly quickly. If you're looking for something more complex in regards to the world or magic system, this probably isn't the best choice for you. .

*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

With an original setting and interesting magical elements, It only took me a few pages to know I was going to enjoy this book. Ignite the Sun follows the story of Siria; living in darkness she and the people of Umbraz have long been taught to fear the light by the Queen, the saviour who banished the sun and keeps them safe in the darkness. Siria however is repelled by the dark and has always held a fascination to the stories she heard of the days past when the sun still shone. When she attends the Choosing Ball held by Queen Iyzabel, events unfold that set her on a path with a group of rebels to uncover the truth, and bring back the light.

There were a lot of things that I liked about this book. The inclusion of several mythical characters, varied magic, and an interesting villain. There were also a few things I felt could have been improved upon, rushed conflicts where no real action happened, glossing over potential character or story building, and an end that felt abrupt and unfinished. I would have loved to have read a bit more on the Queen, the people of Umbraz, and Siria herself.

Overall I would rate this book about 3.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It was a great first book from Hanna Howard and I hope to read more from her in the future. The concept was interesting and the descriptions of how the characters changed was well thought out. I also enjoyed the fact that she didn't describe every single minute of the travel the group had to do throughout the book. Good job!

The cover -which is stunning- and the premise were what drew me into this book, and I found it an enjoyable read. I enjoyed the worldbuilding, and magic, although I would have liked to see if developed or maybe explained more - for example what were the limits of Yarrow's power? There was also a feeling of being rushed along too quickly, perhaps if it had been longer this wouldn't have been the case, but I felt that there wasn't quite enough time for the development of Siria's powers and the relationships that we saw. It also felt that there were a lot of revelations towards the end of the book, that weren't explored properly and left more questions. Still, for all that, I really did enjoy it, and I think it would be a great introduction to fantasy.

Overall, this book wasn’t very interesting. The blurb had my hooked, but the first few pages proved to be quite slow and disengaging, and the characters weren’t as fascinating as I’d hoped for them to be. The plot wasn’t very fast moving, and I was constantly skimming pages so that I could get to the action. Another thing that quite annoyed me about this novel was the font—it was very odd and the fact it changed depending on if it was on italics or a message was just annoying and stopped me from properly engaging with this piece.

Great book for fans of YA fantasy. Full of tropes we know and love, and flipped into a world that is plunged into darkness. This story is one that can be devoured quickly, and leave you wanting more. All the characters had my heart the whole was through!

Thank you to Netgalley and Blink Publishing from whom I received this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ignite the Sun is a great starter book for those wanting to jump into YA fantasy. Overall it was an enjoyable read for me, and I got into the story, but it took a bit to get it rolling for me. I would say it's a solid debut novel, and there will be a lot of people who enjoy this story for what it is!

I was really fascinated by the premise of this book. A land clouded in shadows ruled but a Queen who claims it to be for the better good, and she is the savior of the kingdom. That caught my attention as something that could quickly spark my love of fantasy. I wish that there had been more world-building in this novel. There are such good characters that given world-building would be better understood and give the book depth. I love nymphs, mages, witches, as that is right up my reading ally, but I feel there could have been more of a background to the land and not learning little bits as we go but never fully explained. One thing I really didn't enjoy was the main character, Siria, passing out all the time... I get that she uses a lot of magic and that can be spending but - it was a little overused here and used as a way to skip time and that didn't work well for me.

I was fascinated by this story, and it was an enjoyable read. I would pick up another book by Hannah Howard in the future. I think there are a lot of positive aspects of this novel.

She is asking about the sun before the darkness. Siria is set to go to gildenbrook. Years later siria is trying to become part of the Queens court

This book took me by surprise. I wasn't totally sure of the plot so I just found things out as I went. The worldbuilding was pretty well done, it didn't delve too deep but I understood the relevant history without having too much information. I liked Siria as our main character, she's a good person who cares about others, but she's had a privileged life and tries to please her parents and it shows. Sometimes she complains or doesn't understand how the world works, but she gets better and her compassion shines through always.

The pacing was great, I didn't want to put the book down so I could find out what would happen next. The side characters were also fun, especially Linden, her love interest, and Yarrow, her fill in father. The relationships formed along the journey were my favorite part, I love seeing a group come together as family.

Definitely a fun read and I'm excited for this to be released to the world!

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley for sending me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Admittedly the cover was the main reason why I picked up this book but after reading the premise I immediately got hooked on the story. Ignite the Sun follows the story of Siria Nightingale as she navigates her way through her world as she tries to overcome her fear of darkness and fit in.

As someone who is fascinated with mythology, I was immediately dragged into the interesting lore of the Howard's book and her own interpretation of witches and magic. This was undoubtedly one of the most interesting books I've had the pleasure of reading in a while.

My only problem with the book however is the character depth. The characters seem monotonous at times and a lot of things weren't really established in the book. It lacked a bit of complexity between the relationship of Siria and Linden more specifically.

Ignite the Sun
Author: Hanna Howard
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: ⭐️ /5
Reviewed: Maya

Sixteen-year-old Siria Nightingale has never seen the Sun, and has been told since she was a child that light is dangerous and Queen Iyzabel has ‘saved’ the people by shadowing the kingdom in Darkness. I thought the premise for this novel sounded really interesting and it would help me to get back into reading more fantasy, but from the very beginning, I found the book to be lacking in depth. Each character felt flat and there didn’t have any true unique features or personalities. The romance element felt unrealistic and extremely forced, for example Siria is scared to be with this person she has loved since forever but then half an hour later, they now have a passionate relationship. Siria started off as a snobbish teenager, but by the end of the book she was a powerful and inspiring female character, but I thought this transformation was not well executed and it also felt forced and very stereotypical. I disliked the way every time there was a problem, it could be quickly and efficiently solved as each character would suddenly develop new powers which conveniently would solve everything or an ally would be living half an hour away, ready to nurse characters back to health. Basically, I liked the way there were numerous problems but I didn’t like the way each was perfectly solved in a day or two. I was easily able to guess what would happen next long before, which took away the ‘surprise’ elements and quickly made the plot feel slow-going. The plot felt very forced too and there were many elements in the plot that I felt had happened too many times before in other books and so it wasn’t able to engage me at all. To conclude this review, the premise sounded really interesting but the characters didn’t have enough depth for me and the relationships, problems and plot felt really forced. I wasn’t able to become engaged with the book because of these issues.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Blink and Hanna Howard for allowing me to read this free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. Publishing date will be the 18th of August, 2020.

This review will be posted on our Instagram page on the 9th of May, 2020 at https://www.instagram.com/thebibliophilebuddies/ and on Goodreads on the 9th of May, 2020 at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/113692168-isla-and-maya