Another great novel from Holmberg. I never get tired of her interesting and unique worlds. Terrific characters and relationships as always. Really enjoyed this.

I am a fan of other Charlie N. Holmberg books and was excited to read this one!

Pell is a girl in a medieval like village that’s completely surrounded by a wall and has a tower.
Pell is a tinkerer- she digs up and repairs artifacts from the Ancients. This skill is what leads her to be approached by Moseus, a stranger who calls himself a keeper of the tower, to fix the machines within it. While she works on the machines, she also gets to know the other keeper, Heartwood. she is drawn to him but she doesn’t know why. She begins having visions and dreams that show her the past and how important the machines in the tower are.

Likes:
I enjoyed this book over all. As far as fantasy goes, it was a short and easy read and has a really fun ending. I loved the characters and the writing was stunning.

Dislikes:
There is a lot of pages dedicated to the machines and how Pell fixes them. Like a LOT. It really bogs the story down and I struggled to stay with it in the middle. I wish those pages were spent more on world building or building up the romance, because they didn’t feel fleshed out enough by the end.

Overall, it was a good read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5⭐️ Charlie N. Holmberg did it again! Still the Sun was so good! It was intense while also having a slow build up to all the answers I was asking myself the whole time. I loved the dynamic cast of characters and the worlds that were created. I struggled here and there with the machine/engineering jargon, but I am nothing but a wee peasant who knows nothing of that world 😂
The sweet slow burn romance didn’t really take off till about 60% but honestly, it was just right 🥰 I enjoyed the romance of course, but it was secondary to the very cool immersive story.
The last 30% packed a punch! Finding out so much toward the end had me mind blown 🤯
Bravo, Charlie!

Thank you NetGalley and 47North for a copy of this book.

I'm not 100% sure about this honestly. I might come back and reread it at some point because I think knowing what's happening might actually make it more enjoyable. The worldbuilding was great but the details about the machines was a bit overdone and got a bit boring. I did really love the characters and the romance. I didn't love how it kind of seemed like it was made confusing or mysterious for the sake of it. The writing was beautiful!

Pell is a tinkerer in an isolated village. One day, a strange man comes to ask her to repair an ancient machine. But there is more to this situation than meets the eye.

This is another entertaining fantasy adventure from Charlie N Holmberg. The world-building is top notch and the characters are compelling. I really enjoyed how, every time I thought I understood what was going on, she introduced another twist! I was slightly disappointed with the ending but look forward to reading the sequel.

A recommended read for fans of Charlie N. Holmberg, the Sword of Shannara series, and dystopian fantasy adventure stories.

Thank you to Netgalley and 47North for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Still the Sun by Charlie N. Holmberg was such a fantastic story!
This was an extraordinary novel.

Thank You NetGalley and 47North for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I really enjoyed this story! I loved the world and the characters a lot, and I enjoyed how complex it all was without being inaccessible. I was really compelled by the plot and the wonderful writing--really looking forward to getting our physical copies in at the branch!

This book is full of twists and turns- it's one you have to really pay attention to because you really never know what you'll miss. Put quite simply, this novel is about an interesting and engaging heroine in an almost sci-fi world finds reality unraveling around her when a mysterious stranger asks her to help fix a machine. It's really quite engaging and not a typical romance, although there is a healthy sprinkling of kissing throughout. What I really liked about this book was that it wasn't like other storylines in that you could tell where it was going or following a typical pattern. I liked that the heroine wasn't some helpless girl with helpless girl hobbies. I like the worlds that Charlie Holmburg creates and that she has really evolved as a writer. This is very reminiscent to me of Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet or Star Mother. 

The audiobook was a little bit trickier than the novel only in that you really had to pay attention to what was going on, and it was harder to listen to the mechanic talk found in the story. I do not have a mechanical mind so it was harder for me to stay focused through that, but the narrator did a fantastic job!

I couldn’t read this fast enough!
I devoured 60% in one sitting then you know my body required sleep 😅
I finished the other 40% in another sitting!

I absolutely loved being back in the world’s Charlie N. Holmberg creates and this did not disappoint!

This book kind of had it all! It gave Indiana Jones vibes, magic and portals to other places, a little mystery, ancient gods, the plot was just amazing and for a Romantasy it had twists and shocking reveals I didn’t see coming!

Holmberg does an amazing job as always creating super swoon worth romance between her characters that just is so sweet but also hot that it melts your heart.

I seriously loved the story so much, I loved Pell and Heartwood and all the side characters as well! Super fleshed out and detailed side characters are a fave!

I absolutely loved this book! I loved how unique it was and loved the characters. I loved how there was information given in small amounts so it kept you hooked and wanting to know what would happen. Definitely worth the read.

This story was a really intriguing fantasy read. I quite enjoyed how the twists in the story played out, particularly Pell's "visions". I don't want to spoil anything so I'll stay somewhat brief, but the story was really creative to me and hooked me from the start. I was very invested in what Pell was doing to try and start the machines in the tower and all the cloak and mystery that covered her time there. The last part of the book was really well-paced and I did not want to put the book down, needing to know how everything was going to culminate and ultimately resolve.
I liked the romance thread in this book. Again, I don't want to spoil anything, but the way the romance pieced together was really neat to me and I liked how original it was and how it worked in the plot. There is some implied intimacy, but I'd say it's more fade to black/closed-door as far as content goes. There is nothing on the page and it's not descriptive or graphic in any way.
I received an advance reader copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Still the Sun had everything I would expect from a Charlie Holmberg book and like every other CH book I've read, it did not disappoint. I felt the world was well built and the story seeds were woven beautifully, allowing me to see and not see, at the same time. So when those ideas sprouted, it all fit so perfectly. I loved Pell, and loved the connection between her and Heartwood. The townsfolk were all enjoyable and the way she pulled everything together was really so well done. Then she wrapped it up so the ending was satisfying, leaving a door open for more, but not leaving me feeling in complete emotional turmoil over what would happen next.

"A mere tinkerer in a village of farmers will do."

Pell is an engineer and digger by trade—unearthing and repairing the fascinating artifacts left behind by the mysterious Ancients who once inhabited the sunbaked planet of Tampere. She’ll do anything to help the people of her village survive and to better understand the secrets of what came before.

Heartwood and Moseus are keepers of a forbidding tower near the village of Emgarden. Inside are the remnants of complex machines the likes of which Pell has never seen. Considering her affinity for Ancient tech, the keepers know Pell is their only hope of putting the pieces of these metal puzzles together and getting them running. But Pell’s restoration of this broken behemoth soon brings disturbing visions—what is her relationship to it and why has the truth has been hidden from her?

"Something is missing."

The thing that I love about Holmberg is that all of her books are unique. I'll say it again and again, pick up every single new book she puts out, and recommend her to others. Even if I don't re-read a large majority of her books, they will always be worth reading even a single time.

Most of the novel is spent describing the puzzle of the tower machines--musing over what they're for and ways to fix them. Holmberg explains the parts and repairs in a way that is (or at least) sounds technical but simple enough (and with enough context clues) to not lose a reader like me that doesn't know jack about fixing things.

While I was continually frustrated the first half of the novel with her flashbacks covering reality (I'm one of those people that needs spoilers like I need breath so this is definitely a me thing to be frustrated at learning at the pace of the character), once it hit the 42% mark I finally felt like we were rolling. The pieces started coming together, you started venturing your own guesses, and when you had alllllllmost everything but that ONE MISSING PIECE...ah, the excruciatingly satisfying FINISH. The only nitpick I have is that I wish the visions had been emphasized in italics or some other way so I could see how jarring it was for the character vs. feeling it myself and trying to shift that to the character lol.

This novel really makes me feel Charlie's growth as an author and I can't wait to see what else comes next.

Recommended for the tinker lovers and the "what's happening" lovers especially.

Very unique world with an absolutely stunning book cover. I did enjoy the mystery aspect of this book. And the descriptions overall were well done as I was able to picture a lot of the world building. Unfortunately, this book was not for me. A lot of the engineering parts of this book seemed long and tedious. The romance fell flat. And the ending felt rushed and not satisfying.

Wow. Just wow. I could not put this book down. Every word played out like a movie in my head, and I Devoured it. Holmberg always comes up with the most magical worlds, and this one is something I never could have fathomed.

I loved Pell and her little village. I loved the way her mind worked and all the little Easter eggs that were strung throughout the story. More than anything, I loved how this story unfolded, unfurling its secrets bit by bit until I was sucked in and unable to let go.

Heartwood had me intrigued from the very beginning. I loved how Casnia was portrayed and I love even more the reason behind it. Each of the characters were wonderful and I wish there was more. I would love to see a little more, a glimpse into the future to see how it all turned out after the end—partially because I think there is more story to tell, but mostly because I’m not ready to let it go.

Sigh. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time to come.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.