About Sunbolt
Title: Sunbolt
Author: Intisar
Khanani
Genre: YA Fantasy
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.
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.
Author Bio
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 is hard at work on
two new projects. The first is a companion trilogy to her debut novel Thorn, following the heroine introduced
in her free short story The Bone Knife.
The second project, The Sunbolt Chronicles,
is a novella series following the efforts of a young mage as she strives to
bring down her nemesis, a corrupt and dangerous Arch Mage who means to bring
the Eleven Kingdoms under his control.
Find the
author online
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17317370-sunbolt
Intisar’s Website: http://thornthenovel.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/booksbyintisar
Purchase
Links
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Excerpt
“Mgeni! Stay a moment; I have
your future for you.”
I grin, turning towards the voice.
Mama Ali sits beneath the cloth shade of her market stall, her husband’s catch
heaped on the wooden counter before her: mounds of sardines, glinting silver
bright in the sun. Today there’s also a single little octopus that must have
gotten tangled in his nets, it’s fleshy body turned over to show the white of
its tentacles.
With her wide smile and heavy girth,
Mama Ali is a well-known fixture of the fish market, her laughter booming
across the crowded aisles and her penchant for sharing people’s futures
indulged in even by the locals. Her son, ten years old and shrewder than a
hundred year-old owl, perches beside her, watching me.
“You can keep my future, Mama Ali,” I
reply. “It will probably do you more good than me.”
My words draw laughter from the women
at the surrounding stalls. The market stalls are packed tightly together, and
every counter offers up the bounty of the sea, scenting the air with salt and
sea. Above the stalls flap brightly-colored cloth shades, protecting both the
women and the fish from the sun’s heat.
I hear someone ask what she missed,
and a woman replies, calling me mgeni again. My smile slips a notch. I
may have adopted the traditional, brightly colored long skirt and tunic of the
local women, as well as the tightly wound head wrap, but my sand-gold skin and
the slant of my eyes will always mark me as someone else. Mama Ali may
use the term as an endearment, but the echoes I hear now brand me as an
outsider.
Mama Ali holds out her hand imperiously,
a queen demanding tribute from the riffraff that forms her court. “Come, my
friend, keeper of secrets, let us see what we can.”
“What will you give me?” I ask, hoping
‘keeper of secrets’ is just a phrase she uses on potential customers.
Regardless, I don’t have the coin to pay her, so I may as well be clear I
won’t be giving anything.
“Give you? Your future, muddle-brain!
And, because you are always admiring my wares, I will give it to you for free.”
“Oh, very well.” I acquiesce none too
gracefully, offering Mama Ali my hand. Trying not to fidget, I wait, her palms
clasped around my hand. I may be running a little late, but there’s no reason
to think the meeting will have started on time. Besides, since I wasn’t invited
in the first place, no one will miss me. “Don’t tell me I’m going to meet
someone new, dark of skin and—”
“Short,” Mama Ali agrees.
I nearly choke. “Short?”
She drops her voice. “Well, if I want
to be sure it happens, short is so much more likely than tall, isn’t it? At
least,” she nods her head to suggest the market, not to mention the rest the
island, “here.”
“No.” She pulls a frown. “For you,
something different.”
I glance towards the sky, gauging the
angle of the late morning sun. Magic is one thing, but divining the future? Not
so much. “I really have to—”
“You are going somewhere,” Mama Ali
intones, closing her eyes. I glance at her son in disbelief. Ali grins wide,
his teeth showing pearly white against his earth-brown skin.
“I was before you stopped me,” I
agree.
Mama Ali heaves a theatrical sigh,
squeezing my hand rather painfully. “Somewhere important,” she clarifies. She
tilts her head as if listening for something.
And Mama Ali hears a lot—she has her pulse on the happenings of
Karolene. Maybe there is something she knows. Has she heard something about the
League? Or the Ghost?
She drops my hand, sitting back with a gasp. “Run!”
My review
I liked the way the author desribed her characters, and I really enjoyed her wide range of characters. Ophans, rebels, thieves, and being homeless are just a few of the different characters we get to read about. I got caught up in the characters and almost forgot that there was a plot. I Liked that this is the beginning of a series and it still was able to be read on its own. I am giving this book a 3/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own
$25 Amazon Gift Card and some bookmarks.My review
I liked the way the author desribed her characters, and I really enjoyed her wide range of characters. Ophans, rebels, thieves, and being homeless are just a few of the different characters we get to read about. I got caught up in the characters and almost forgot that there was a plot. I Liked that this is the beginning of a series and it still was able to be read on its own. I am giving this book a 3/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own
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Thanks so much for hosting Sunbolt on your site, and for your review! So glad you enjoyed the characters and story :)
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