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 cannot wait to see this cover in real life. I have a feeling that all the goldy bits are going to be shiny, and it's going to be amazing.
It's a fitting match for the story, which is really, really good.
It's fast paced, exciting, the world building is amazing and the characters are great. I love Elegy and Eamon, but all the side characters are wonderful. I would happily read more about them, although this seems to be a one and done book. If we're really lucky, Hanna will write a side story or sequel later on.
I didn't think much of the villain, though. Everything is from Siria's point of view, of course, but the backstory we get for the villain just falls a little flat, for me.
Still, as we couldn't get it from her point of view, this is the best we could do, and it's not a deal breaker for me. Just a little odd.
The ads for this book say that it's a metaphor for depression. If so, it's a very subtle one; I didn't pick up on it at all, and I didn't feel that events were being forced into shape to meet a metaphor the author wanted to address.
I really enjoyed reading this, and I'll be watching out for more by Hanna. Even if they're not set in this world, I think they'll be worth reading.
Ignite the Sun publishes on the 18th August, 2020.
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