Sunbringer 2⭐️2.75🌶️

Fantasy Romance
Multi POV
Disabled FMC
Fire injury
Gods/goddesses
🏳️‍🌈 normative society
Disabled rep
Revenge
Journey
Cliffhanger
Intricate world building

Unfortunately this is a series I will not be continuing. I found the first book to be disjointed and suffering from pacing issues. The second book was more of the same, leading to second book syndrome.

Slower pacing and again, not much plot happening until the very end of the book made reading this something I forced myself to do.

The representation is really great, but not having the plot and pacing to back it up makes me sad.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon, Harper Voyager for an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thia was an epic adventure to follow up Godkiller. Arren, now the Sunbringer, is working to become a god... right? Figuring out truth from lies, loyalty from fanaticism, and who to trust, Inara, Elogast, Kissen, and Skedi continue their search for one another through the threat of war. This one wasn't as good as Godkiller, but I still enjoyed it.

I don't know what or how, but I was on the edge the entire time I read Sunbringer. I have been waiting for this book ever since the cliffhanger in the first book. So much has happened in the first book that I didn't know where this book was going to start. And I have to say that I have a lot of feelings regarding the book. 

I won't go into much detail because it will spoil the book. So I am going to keep it vague for a bit. Be warned that it might contain spoilers. 

Let's talk about my feelings about Sunbringer.

1. I am loving that we start right away from what happened in the first book. There wasn't much of a time jump, so there won't be any confusion regarding the book pace.

2. There were a bit too many individual character chapters. I know, I know. We all love different perspectives, especially in fantasy books. But there were so many in this book that it was a bit hard to keep track. 

3. Some of the characters didn't interest me as much. And I wish we didn't have their chapters or them at all.

4. I am loving that a certain character ain't taking no prisoners at all. I love the attitude. That's what we need in this book.

5. The last few chapters! What the hell was that?! Like someone explained to me, Someone?

6. I need book 3 in my hands, please and thank you.

An EXCELLENT sequel to one of my favorite books from last year. We get to see more of the characters readers grew to love in the first book, but we also get to meet interesting new characters in this story. So compelling, so captivating, so much fun to read. I'm already eagerly waiting for the next book. It's really an accomplishment to keep me hungry for a series, but Kaner has really done it with this one!

Sunbringer is a solid sequel to the much-loved Godkiller, although it does have a bit of second-book syndrome. That said, it definitely set us up for an epic third book.

This one is much slower paced than Godkiller — it took me 13 days to finish it, despite its reasonable 400 pages, because I kept picking up other books too. But I wasn’t mad at it. There’s plenty of character development (despite our MCs being separated for 99% of the story), especially for Inara. There’s also lots of information discovery and at least one twist I didn’t see coming.

All in all, I’m looking forward to the third book when we get all our characters back together, fighting toward the same end. It’s gonna be good!

DNF at 28% due to general lack of interest. I did try to continue, but I was just completely uninterested. Book one had a great opening to draw the reader in. Unfortunately, book two just didn't engage me in the same way.

There is something special about this story. I like the immersion a reader experiences not only due to the thorough character description but also the world-building. For some, it is boring. For me, it was everything I needed to have a perfect story. I had a blast. The characters move. They travel from one point to another. Meet other people. Gods are equally vicious and mysterious as helpful and loveable. There is not black and white but many shades of gray. For that only, I will wait endlessly if needed for the third part.

Sunbringer, and its predecessor Godkiller, are one of the more unique books I’ve seen in the fantasy genre today. The concepts, the world building, and the characters stand apart from many. The way Hannah Kaner writes is almost song like, magical in the best kind of way. She loads a lot of emotions into her words and it shows.
I enjoyed Sunbringer. Godkiller definitely stood out to me far more, but I think that was just because it was so different and unique. I enjoyed where the story went and was surprised at some of the turns the novel took.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

4.5!

I loved Godkiller, and so I was super excited for Sunbringer, and Kaner definitely delivered. While the first half of the book felt a little slower (in part, I think, because Kissen, Inara, and Elo are split up), I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and the world that Kaner has built. As always, I love the way Kaner approaches gods and how they function in this world. I love that Sunbringer built upon them, and even though I missed seeing the gang together, I really loved the new directions this took.

I especially loved seeing Inara’s character development and the parts of the world we experience through her point of view, but I do wish we got to see a little bit more from Kissen. Still, I thought everyone grew in interesting ways in this installment and I was invested in each storyline, so that’s still a win. Despite its slower pace and the fact the POVs take place all across the world, Sunbringer was still a very satisfying read and I’m looking forward to the last book.

I greatly enjoyed this sequel. This is such an original story and idea from what I feel like I normally read in fantasy. And I read a LOT of fantasy!

Really excited to find out what happens next!

How did I not know there was going to be another book after this? I love this story so much. Found family will always be one of my favorite tropes and I love how Kaner continues to tie that in the story.

I really wish I didn't have to wait for another book, but that's just how good this series is.

I enjoyed Godkiller more but this was still an enjoyable story. Sad that everyone was separate for the majority of this book.

Thank you to HarperVoyager and NetGalley for the ARC! *minor spoilers*

This story continues to intrigue me with every book. You’re invested in every character that Kaner writes. You’re rooting for them and want them to succeed. During parts of Sunbringer, I sobbed. Truly. Kaner has such a way with words. She mystifies you with vivid imagery and descriptive, impactful characters. This story is absolutely captivating and makes you believe in this world's politics.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚. Kissen has become one of my favorite female leads. Both in Godkiller and this novel, we see so much growth in her character development. While this is a fantasy setting, I found myself relating to Kissen’s character. Inara and Skedi both felt like they did complete 360s in the best way.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙛 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨. By the end of this story, I'm refreshing Kaner's social media to hear when the next book drops. Very well done and can honestly say I did not see some of those twists coming.

I will say I wasn’t fully engrossed throughout this entire story. I found myself putting it down and not feeling the urge to pick it back up immediately, but I was always happy when I did pick it back up. Overall, some chapters were just a tad slower then others.

‘𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙖 𝙜𝙤𝙙𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧,’ 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙆𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙣 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙡𝙮, 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙜 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙨. ‘𝙄 𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙙 𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙬?’ ‘𝙎𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚,’ 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝘼𝙖𝙣. ‘𝙎𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙜𝙤𝙙. 𝙁𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚.’

"𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙣: 𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙠𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙩, 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙩, 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙥𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙩. 𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙖𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝. 𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙩."

I'll be honest, I preferred Godkiller to Sunbringer. I knew there would need to be a book to bring everyone back together again, but I missed the dynamic between characters.

2 ⭐️ DNF @ 60% - *Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy*

Okay I wanted to love this series so much. Godkiller had such a good potential to be epic and then ultimately I did feel a little bored through most of it even though the opening and ending both were strong, the middle lacked for me.

Unfortunately Sunbringer did not start out as strong as Godkiller did for me, the beginning felt very slow and lacked any real action or movement of the plot. It just felt like a lot of people talking about things for a long time. And the writing of the book isn’t bad by any means but I’m also just finding that it’s not sparking my interest at all. When I put the book down I don’t find myself wanting to pick it back up. I could go days between picking up the book.

I think Sunrbinger is lacking any more world building that expands on what we learned in Godkiller. Because we are so focused on the characters talking and planning things there isn’t much emphasis on anything other than the characters. And the characters are not interesting enough to me at this point to carry the story. I can’t quite put my finger on why? I think perhaps the characters are feeling a little flat to me. Like we got this outline of them in Godkiller and the outline seemed interesting at first but for a second book in a series to not flesh them out more and make them feel real or relatable or have something interesting to bring to the table now it is getting a little boring reading about them.

There is also a random romance subplot that… feels really out of place and unnecessary. It’s actually not adding ANYTHING to the story, and the world itself feels so one dimensional I couldn’t picture anything about the setting if I tried.

Oh and at one point one of the main characters was listening to someone pee in a bush and also farting. So that was really out of place and also unnecessary because it didn’t bring anything to that scene that held any importance whatsoever.

I will say the one positive thing that I enjoyed about this book was that one of the main characters has a physical disability and it does not stop her IN THE LEAST BIT from being a Godkiller and getting things done. The representation feels like it was done with care and that is a great addition to the story because it emphasizes that the character has strong will and determination despite her physical disability and she doesn’t let it stop her. She works within her limitations and abilities. Unfortunately I wish we did get more in depth with her personality and learned more about her by now after a book and a half but I haven’t gotten there yet.

“All that mattered was the story. The myths that made gods, brought them to life in their shrines. Stories bind hope and love to make it faith.”

Sunbringer is the follow up to one of my favorite books of last year, Godkiller. And while I didn't love this one as much, it was still a wonderful read and a great set up for the epic world.

Sunbringer is one of the coolest fantasy settings I've ever seen. Gods of all sizes roam the world, created by and sustained by the humans that worship them. We have gods of war and fire and knowledge - arguably huge human concepts. But humans give meaning to the smallest of things, and create gods of lost sandals and roses. It's a beautiful concept to acknowledge that even our tenderest moments will mean something.

Following up after the events of book 1, Kissen, Elogast and Inara are all on their separate paths, while trying to fight for the justice they want to see in the world - a way to make the place a little kinder for Inara and other children. I MISSED them being all together though - that was the charm of godkiller, and while their separation made sense here I still wanted their banter and love.

Speaking of saving the world - I love how Inara is a central character even as a child. So much of this book revolves around familial bonds and having a child as the MC drives that home. There's this push and pull between them wanting to protect her and her desire to do more. It's her fight as much as anyone's and she wants to be useful, but they just want her to be SAFE. That's the real love of a parent.

I found the pacing to be a bit slower in this book, but it had me reaching desperately by the end with a few plot twists that I didn't see coming. Sunbringer will always have a special place in my heart - and I can't wait for book 3 especially with them all reunited.

rep// disability rep, wlw, mlm, trans, Bi MC

cw// death, torture, sacrifices, loss of limb, murder, war

Thank you to the publisher for my copy!

I really liked the first book and so I was a bit disappointed that I didn't love this one as much. Part of it could have been that I was in a reading slump, the other is that I read Godkiller 6 months ago. I remembered the characters well enough, but the politics was really hard to try to wrap my head back around. The pacing wasn't my favorite. It was annoying when one characters perspective/chapter only lasted a couple pages and then we were jumped to a different character. Not a ton happens in this book, it is mostly setting up for book 3. I am still very excited to see how this series wraps up, especially now that the characters are back together again.

This month I was in a bit of a reading slump, so I wasn't able to finish this book before it was released, but Thank you Netgalley for the Arc from Avon and Harper Voyager.

Sunbringer picks up right after the end of Godkiller with our three (3) MC more or less on separate tracks, which was an immediate disappointment as the dynamic between them was so great in the first book that I missed it. However, where the first book was more or less about Kissen the God killer, this book seemed to put Inara (and her sidekick god Skedi) front and center and it was nice to see the character growth there. And while the big reveal here was more or less predicable, it developed naturally enough to still be entertaining and allowed the reader to explore a bit more about the relationship between Ina and her tiny god (and some background) that begins to explain what is going on there. Ina’s interaction with the lesser gods of Lesscia provided most of the world building here. Unfortunately, Kissen was nearly MIA here, with her own journey that was mildly entertaining as she interacts with some of the old god heavy hitters to provide the reader with some important datapoint needed to carry the plot … such as the redemption Arc of the King after such a brutal betrayal in the previous encounter (and frankly a not very convincing plotline). Elo is still Elo … crashing around like a bull in a china shop leading up to another rather confusing and not quite as satisfying ending (maybe he will get more play in the next installment … and perhaps some redemption for himself as well).

While there was not as much world building in this book, it did extend it with Kissen’s adventures (although this was still pretty shallow IMO) and the storyline centered around Lesscia with Ina, Elo and the dissidents (including Kissen’s family) that did the heavy lifting. However, it was a really slow start and it seemed more like pieces were moving primarily to setup the next book and not toward any satisfactory plot conflict resolution … perhaps this was a factor of the middle book syndrome … or perhaps it was because I so enjoyed the first book, but this was seed to be just a little less … still great, but not quite as awesome as I expected.

Thank you NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the e-arc!
One of my most anticipated books of 2024! I have been waiting for the series to continue, and it is finally here. One of my absolute favorite things about this book is the world and magic is unbelievable. There is so much detail throughout the entire story that really just makes the world come alive without being overbearing. The combination of characters is fantastic with Elogast's righteousness, Kissen's kickass attitude, and Inara's curiosity. They make for such an interesting bunch and kinda give D&D vibes.
This book definitely leans more into the plot and world than the first book, which I would say focuses more on building up the characters. Can't wait for the third book!

First, I had to read God killer before this one, and OMG the mythology. I am obsessed with the visuals you get from the world building and from the beautiful illustrations as well.