The Sun and The Void is a sweeping epic fantasy that draws your eye into the fantastical world of magic, belief systems and comparable lines of worldly pasts of colonialism. It shows Reina's desperation for something new and frustrations of being dependent of Dona's magic. Eva's storyline is a bit more complex, being a child of illegitimacy and of mixed race. It shows how far the real world has changed. The trepidations of adventure and magic are the more enthralling parts that keeps you wanting to read onwards and is its main strengths. Aside from this, it is a slow-burn, that doesn't quite catch the full force being a blazing page-turner, but worth reading onwards to become involved in the world and the magic and creatures it holds.

I had high hope when I read the description for this book, however the book itself is lackluster in comparison to l my expectations going into reading it. I found that the pacing was way too slow, and while the worldbuilding was interesting, it could not make up for it.

I enjoyed the world that this book is set in, and the magic system is quite interesting, but it never really gripped me. I loved the South American folklore inspiration, and I think this had such strong potential, but it wasn't particularly engaging and the characters in particular all tended to blur into one. I really struggled continually throughout the book to distinguish between Reina and Eva's perspectives. The pacing was also incredibly off - somehow within the first 150 pages, 2 years have passed, which completely threw me as the way it had been reading felt as though only a month or so should have passed. The story dragged a LOT, and I feel that a lot of this book could have been cut and it wouldn't have made a difference to the plot. I didn't feel any emotional connection to the characters, so I didn't care about anything that happened to them. Unfortunately I won't be continuing with the series, which is such a shame because this sounded so fantastic.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for accepting my request to read and review this book

The sun and the void started with and interesting premise, and was quick to to start. However, the biggest downfall of this book was the strange and often slow pacing overall.

Honestly, this book was way too big for what it was trying to do, I was quite often flipping pages without having really taken much in as it got boring. Atleast 100 pages could have been entirely cut out.

It took me so long to get through that by the end I was skimming. The ending was okay but it probably wasn’t enough to make me want to read the next book.

This is a 2.5 but I’m rating it up to 3 as it wasn’t bad it was just long.

I recently read a book with a lot of promise in plot and worldbuilding. What makes it even better is that it draws inspiration from the history and folklore of South America. The book has a lot of original ideas and elements that are not commonly found in other books. However, it also deals with darker aspects of the natural world's history. The two main female characters in the story start as suppressed beings, but by the end of the book, they begin to fight for their freedom. I'm curious to see what the next book has for them.

The book also has an intriguing magic system, which adds to its appeal. In addition, there is an epic quest, enemies, betrayal, and themes of accepting one's strengths, not letting others determine one's worth, and developing strong friendships. The book also features a small amount of romance, mythology, and villains and oppressors you'll hate. Multiple thrilling action scenes keep you on the edge of your seat. Overall, these elements make for a great novel.
The book has one significant downside: its pacing. The narration could be more descriptive and faster-paced, making the book longer than necessary. It takes until halfway through the book before it becomes challenging to put down. However, some pieces or events feel more abrupt and less well-developed. A better balance could be struck here, resulting in a higher rating of 4 or even 4.25 stars. Despite this, I do have high hopes for the next book.

I DNFd The Sun and The Void as I wasn't able to connect to the writing.

However, when the people who will appreciate a really cool concept find this book they will love it. There is a huge, passionate market for sapphic epic fantasy and this will sit with its sisters on many people's 'favourites' shelf. It just really wasn't for me.

DNF at 53%

I loved the premise for this book and was super excited to receive it as an ARC but unfortunately it was just way too slow for me and I found myself losing interest fast.

This was a very interesting and different book, I see why some people would dislike it but i kinda enjoy it

full review here: https://youtu.be/La7yBtiR-yg

3.75/5 ⭐
This book is really promising in plot and worldbuilding, the fact that it’s inspired by the history and folklore of South America makes it even better. It’s filled with original elements and ideas you don’t often encounter in other books. Yet there are also a lot of elements integrated that are sadly part of the real world’s history as well. The two FMC start as supressed beings but towards the end of the book they finally start to fight themselves free. Because of this, I’m really curious about what the next book will have in store for them. Add an intriguing magic system to this mix and you’re holding a lot of great ingredients in your hands for a great novel. There is also an epic quest, enemies and betrayal lurking around the corner, learning to accept one’s strengths, not letting others determine your worth, blossoming friendships, a small drop of romance, lots of mythology, villains and oppressors you’ll absolutely hate, multiple thrilling action scenes, …
However, there is one big downside to this book: the pacing. This book could’ve easily been told in at least 100 pages less. The writing style is absolutely pleasant, but too descriptive and too slow paced. It takes until halfway through the book before it becomes somewhat hard to put this book down. And yet there are pieces or events that feel more abrupt, less well-developed. So perhaps a better balance could be struck here (this would result in this book getting 4 or even 4,25 stars for me). Nevertheless I have really high hopes for the next book.

3.5 Stars

I read this book in the summer and completely forgot to post my review of it.

This was an interesting read for me and I did find it took me a couple of chapters to get into this book.
The world building was intricate and complex but I also found it easy to follow. I enjoyed the history and explanations as I felt this helped us understand more.
The plot did seem a little off in a couple of places but I did push through.
I really enjoy it when books have their own unique magic system and this one was great.
I enjoyed the characters and felt that they were developed ok but could have done with some more depth to them.
I don’t know what it was but I felt this book was missing something as usually Im hooked when it comes to fantasy book but this one I struggled with unfortunately.

Thank you to Netgalley, the Author and the Publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Okay, this was okay, but not great... I really liked the world building concepts, overall plot direction, and characterization. It was developed and entertaining, with pretty good characters. But I just couldn't really enjoy this book and I think that's down to the pacing and the chunks of descriptions that you had to slog through. I do see why others love this book, especially if you are less fussed about pacing or the heavy descriptions.

I was very excited about this book just by the premise – young noblewoman and servant girl become vessels of ancient gods to save nation – because that sounds amazing, and the cover is beautiful, and it’s on all of the lists… and then it fell a bit flat for me. And believe me, no-one was more heartbroken than me. As a very visual person (AKA a fancy way to say I judge books by their covers), the art provided throughout the book is absolutely gorgeous – and that cover??! Visually, I really enjoyed this book.

Now onto the contents of the book! For me, the worldbuilding was so dense at the beginning, and I really struggled with the dual-POV amongst all of it. I’m looking at a character list right now and honestly, I still don’t really know who is who. There were quite a few times where I put this book down and left it for days… or weeks… and I thought I wouldn’t pick it up again, but I really don’t like DNFing books and wanted to give this one a fair shot.

I felt like Reina and Eva were unbalanced. To me, when reading, Reina seemed to really tip the balance of the story in her favour, and I felt we didn’t see much of Eva compared to Reina. I felt like I knew the character of Reina so much better than the character of Eva, and I like to get to know all the characters of a story equally in order to truly enjoy it.

The last… I want to say 15%? percent of the book felt like a completely different story! I was so confused by what was going on. It felt like the author was rushing to finish the book, but at the same time it really dragged. I do think the worldbuilding is really interesting, it was just very hard to absorb all of the information when it’s spewed onto the page. This book just didn’t feel polished to me.

First of all, thank you to the author for posting a review on Goodreads that had all the content warnings in there.

Second, I'm still unsure about how I feel about this book. I think I loved it, because the worldbuilding was amazing, and that's a really big plus for me. but some of the descriptions felt really off to me, and it's a bit slow too. I also wish that the book was more evenly divided between the characters.

This was an easy enjoyable read. Style is very reminiscent of SMG soo wuite liked this even though it was a little slow in the beginning.

Good character development - even as a lot of them aren’t very likable people. You still start to change your mind about them and root for them (Maior, Javier and Eva).

World building was a little confusing - I struggled with the families, the history and the magic system. It only really clicked in at the end.
The revelations at the end were interesting and some I didn’t see coming!

Not sure if this counts as YA or New Adult but enjoyable read overall. Is this a series I wonder?

Firstly I’d like to thank Daphne Press for the gorgeous proof!! 💙💛

I was so so excited to get my hands on The Sun and the Void and boy, this book does not disappoint at all!! It’s such an adventure!! It’s sapphic, it’s Latin folklore, it has gods, amazing female characters and it’s so full of fantasy, adventure and wonderful food!! 😍❤️ The world building is amazing and magic system is incredible!! I really hope you guys pick this book up!!

I really enjoyed The Sun and the Void, it really surprised me in the most spectacular way. I fell for the characters immediately and I know you guys will too!! Such a magnificent debut ❤️🥰 4.5✨

I loved this book! This book was absolutely magical and enchanting and I loved every single part of it! Gabriela Lacruz is someone to watch for because their writing is absolutely amazing and this book was filled with a rich story and rich characters. I loved everything about it and also, the cover is absolutely stunning!

I was incredibly excited about the premise of this book. I haven't had much exposure to South American folklore, and the summary really gripped me.
I can definitely see the potential in this book. The world building was well done and felt very tangible. The plot was very dense and hard to comprehend at points. I also felt the characters were too naïve. At the beginning, this was fine and to be expected, but it felt like they had little growth and kept getting pushed around.
All in all, I was underwhelmed and this showed itself in how long it took me to finish it.
It definitely had the elements of being something fantastic, but just fell a little flat to me.

First off thankyou Netgalley for the the free copy in exchange for a review I am very grateful.

I was really looking forward to this release but unfortunately it just wasn't for me. It ended up being a DNF as I just couldn't get into it like I hoped and struggled with motivation to continue reading several times. That being said from the amount I read it is a GOOD book so I might pick it back up again in the future.

The world building and histories I feel were very well done and easy to follow and understand which is good, I think having a few pages of the 'worlds' history before the story started was a great addition so you knew some of what was going on from the start instead of struggling to figure things out.
That being said I do feel there was alot of information dumping in conversations which was probably not as necessary and it was part of the reason I DNF.
Whilst I liked the characters I just didn't feel all that connected to them or understand some of the things they did which for me made it a slow read which put me off. Perhaps if I stuck with it a little longer it all would of tied in and made sense but it took me almost 3 months probably to get 30% into the book and I felt it was time I gave up.

Unfortunately I had to give up on this one, I usually wouldn’t review books I didn’t finish but the pace is just so so slow and I think a lot of people will really struggle to get into it at all

A shame! Because the concept really interested me

I absolutely loved this one!
So unique and I love the characters.
A great start to n epic fantasy series and one I will definitely be continuing