4.5/5 stars

The Sun Blessed Prince is the first book in the queer fantasy duology A Tale of Two Crowns. Prince Elician is a Giver, holding the power to heal and bring people back to life, making him practically immortal. On the battlefield, he captures a Reaper whose touch brings death from their rival kingdom sent to assassinate him. Cat expects to be put to death but is instead given a chance for a better life by the kindhearted prince. Just as the possibility of friendship builds, plots from both their kingdoms drive them apart.

I really enjoyed this book, but I think that was because I already adjusted my expectations based on earlier reviews. This book is being mismarketed—the queer romance, main plot, and comps aren’t accurate and misrepresents what the book truly is.

It is not the queer fantasy romance that is being promised. Both Elician and Cat are indeed gay, but the romance isn’t really there and just more of a potential as they are only physically together in the first quarter and the final two chapters of the book. There’s an entirely separate plotline that takes up half the book about the life/death magic system where Elician’s adopted sister Fen is learning the science of it. In fact, Elician despite being the titular sun blessed prince plays third fiddle to both Cat and Fen and doesn’t get much to do. As for the book comps provided, it is neither as lyrical nor as romantic as The Song of Achilles, it does not play with power and gender like She Who Became the Sun did, nor does it handle identity and family as delicately as Sistersong did.

All that being said, what the book does do, it does well. Half of the book is a political fantasy like Captive Prince or The Scottish Boy but without the eroticism and just a passing suggestion of a queer romance. It is well set up and full of intrigue and conspiracies and a convoluted mystery. The other half has a strong YA feel because of Fen’s storyline with her being a teenage girl learning about her powers. I enjoyed this aspect too in its exploration of the honestly intriguing world that has been built.

The book’s greatest strength lies with the relationships. Elician has a best friend/companion Lio throughout the book, and their brotherhood just absolutely shines. They really ground the story and bring so much of the emotionality and stakes. I was fully invested in them and did tear up at some point because of them. While Elician and Cat’s relationship can barely be called a friendship, the book teases their potential romance really well in just their thoughts and reflections, putting it at a great place for the sequel.

With the correct expectations, The Sun Blessed Prince does indeed deliver a queer political fantasy.

*Thank you Pan Macmillan for the eARC via NetGalley

For some reason, this is marked as romantasy on Goodreads. This might cause some readers to be disappointed in this book because it is very much not romantasy. It’s a political fantasy with a romantic element to it.

I really liked The Sun Blessed Prince. The premise is very interesting, that there are people who can heal and raise the dead alongside people who can kill others and I feel that Byrd used that premise very well in this book.

It’s a slow moving plot. There are moments of action followed by a lot of characters interacting with each other and I really liked it. It helps to build the relationships between the characters. There are three POV characters: Elician, a Giver who has to hide his true identity otherwise he would not be able to become king, his adopted sister, Fen, who is also a Giver and Cat, a Reaper, who is captured by Elician. I enjoyed all the POV characters, they are all sympathetic and likeable and they all interact well with each other.

The story is interesting and there are a few twists and turns along the way. Elician is in a war fantasy and Cat is in a mystery plot, trying to find out who is plotting to kill the king. The two stories link together very well in the end and it went to a place I didn’t quite expect. It definitely makes me interested to see what happens next.

The Sun Blessed Prince is a very enjoyable book as long as you’re not expecting any hot romantic action between the two main characters. The romance is a definite slow burn and it is almost chaste, which I really like. For me, the build up is often better than the pay off when it comes to romance. I liked the plot and the world was very interesting.

3.5 stars!

When I read the synopsis to the Sun Blessed Prince, I was instantly captivated by the premise and to the author’s credit, I had so much love for the main characters and really enjoyed the first 40% of the story before the plot began to veer in a direction that didn’t quite hit the mark for me and left me feeling frustrated yet dying to read the sequel because of how the book ended.

I absolutely LOVED our main characters: Elician, Cat, Lio and Fen. They were all so different yet equally likeable and I would have given the book 4 stars for them alone. Elician, our MMC, blessed with the powers of life, is just like the sun. He has an endless kindness to him that extends to his friends and his people as crown prince, and has a strong sense of self righteousness that shines throughout the novel. I adored Cat too who was on the more socially awkward and shy side yet equally as kind. Though imbued with the powers of death, Cat, like Elician, only wants peace and for both their kingdoms to be united. I can see why many people found Fen annoying, but personally I thought the way she was written was appropriate for her age. Fen is stubborn and headstrong, but it comes from a place of good intentions. She’s appropriately naive for her age and makes mistakes and I did enjoy her POV chapters and believe she’ll have a more prominent role in the sequel as I see the potential for growth for her character. But I think Lio had to be my favorite character in the novel with his undying loyalty to Elician as his best friend and brother in arms, but also just how funny he was. Poor Lio went through it this novel and I was just stressing for him each time.

Unfortunately, the romance was a double edged sword for me. I loved what we were given, but I craved more out of it. The synopsis was very misleading and the romance was very minimal, feeling more like a subplot in the story and overpowered by politics that were too convoluted. Nonetheless, the scenes between Elician and Cat were everything and I savored it all. The slow burn, pining and yearning was everything, and it absolutely killed me because it was too little! I need more PLEASE. I feel like a starving woman.

I also really loved the relationship Elician had with Lio. I do think Elician has more screen time with Lio than Cat, but I still really enjoyed their bromance and I’ll genuinely cry if anything happens to both of them. I also enjoyed the slow building friendship between Cat and Fen. The found family really is so wholesome and the character-driven plot really was the strongest element to the novel.

Unfortunately, my main grievance with the novel was that it began to drag for me towards the 40% mark and I found myself enjoying it less as it went on because of the direction the narrative was taken. The novel started off on the slower, cozier side and I didn’t mind at first since I enjoyed the interactions between the main characters. The politics were easy to follow, but became too convoluted with too many characters suddenly involved in the second half. I struggled to follow along and the fact that everyone was named so similarly only added to my frustrations with the novel. I wasn’t a fan of how the romance was shoved aside for the politics and I deeply missed the interactions between Elician and Cat.

Praying for more Elician and Cat in the sequel because of that ending!

Thank you NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Tor for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The author "warned" me on TikTok that this is a slow burn romance, and I think more people needed to know this before diving into the book! This isn't a romantasy! It's a fantasy book that has a romance sub-plot, and the difference is a big one if you've got preferences in this category. Luckily for me, I prefer my romance to be a sub-plot, and I adored this book!

A queer epic fantasy with royalty, god-blessed people with life and death powers, two countries at war with complex politics. What else could you need in a fantasy book?! Throughout this book there are kidnappings, attempts at regicide, magic training lessons, and a little bit of torture.

The world-building was absolutely fantastic, the injustice that is face by those god-blessed in both countries is on very different levels but is still unfair, and the politics is weaving and complex and I enjoy that whilst these children are necessarily caught up in it (one of our main characters is next in line to the throne) the adults are doing a lot without their knowledge which impacts their next steps.

The relationships in this book are fantastic. As I mentioned at the top there is a slowwww burn M/M romance and I loved seeing this develop as they learn more about each other and realise their feelings. But the platonic relationships are fantastic too, with a best friendship that dreams are made from and a little sister that it so relatably annoying but she grows over the course of the novel.

I'm so excited to carry on with this series cause I need more from this world and these characters! Thank you to BookBreak for sending me an ARC of this book.

My main impression is that this book should've been a lot shorter, and frankly I lost my focus around the third time that yet another character told the same story about the protagonist's childhood. I wish that was the only repetitive story/message, but alas - it got to the point where I started wondering whether the author had doubts about which POV would best showcase some thought and decided to keep it across multiple POVs just in case. Significant parts of this book are unnecessarily dragged out, especially some of the more dramatic scenes that simply lost their entire punch because of how long and/or repetitive they were, with everyone's feelings and motivations explained in excruciating detail.

I'm generally not a fan of multiple POVs and this novel has not made it to my list of exceptions. While some thoughts in different character's internal monologue were truly unique and reflected their upbringing, values and personality, mostly their voices blended into something that was too similar. I genuinely liked a number of culture-related notions, including the limitations that were placed on the magical beings in the warring countries (different, yet limitations nonetheless) and the way some plot twists were handled. That said, other decisions regarding plot development made little sense to me, and the ending in which is nowhere even in the ballpark of 'vaguely realistic'. And yes, I'm aware this book has magic, but any magic would choke on a political challenge of this scope, god-given or not. Alas.

Ahhhhh I really liked this one!! A queer historical epic fantasy with god-blessed people who can either heal or can cause death with a single touch, two countries at war for all of recorded history, a queer-normative world and a complex political plot - such a vibe!

This book had echoes of ‘The Scottish Boy’, but with ‘magic’. Elician is the crown prince of Soleb, and is a Giver - he has powers that mean he can heal himself and others and will never age or die. But it’s a secret - the royal family cannot have these powers, so he had to hide who he is. After a battle, Elician finds a terrified, emaciated man at the edge of the bloody battle field… a Reaper, someone who can kill with a single touch. Fearing that the man will be tortured, Elician takes him to a sanctuary for Givers and Reapers, bonding with the taciturn and traumatised man, who he names Cat, on the road.

Over the plot of the book there are kidnappings, plans of regicide and a whole lot of science lessons - told from the POVs of Cat, Elician and Elician’s little sister, Fen, also a Giver, as they all learn to control their powers and find their way in the political turmoil of war raging around them.

The vibes in this book were immaculate; I loved the world-building, the injustice that both Givers and Reapers have to face, the characters and the political scheming. I will say that although there is a queer romance in this book, it’s definitely not the main plot line, so don’t go in expecting it to be front and centre (thanks to my friend Ditte for warning me about this - it definitely managed my expectations and helped me enjoy it more!). The politics and the world definitely are more prominent here.

The reason this loses a star for me is twofold; half a star is lost because of the strange flicks from third person (which 99.9% of the book is in) to the random first person phrases peppered throughout. Were these missed in editing? Are they on purpose for a reason I don’t understand? Very odd. Secondly half a star lost because I quite simply wanted to see more of Cat and Elician together at the end!! They spend most of the book apart and although I was prepared for that and it didn’t lessen my enjoyment overall, I wanted to see more of them being happy at the end!

Overall a great read and one I really enjoyed and would recommend!

Read The Sun Blessed Prince for:
✨ Queer Historical Epic Fantasy
✨ People with powers to heal or kill
✨ Queer normative world
✨ Political machinations
✨ Two countries at perpetual war
✨ Learning to master your abilities
✨ MM Romance as a subplot
✨ Lio and Elician are BFF goals

Thanks so much to the good folks at Tor for allowing me to read an eARC of this book via NetGalley! It’s available on the 1st May 💕

A politically-charged fantasy romp with an uber-slow burn romance that we only feel the static tingles that hint at the impending electric touch.

We dive into a story set between two kingdoms that have an ancient rivalry and opposing viewpoints of those god-blessed, the Givers and Reapers. Byrd has done well in fleshing out the different lore surrounding the monarchies, the powers of the Givers and Reapers, and our MC's feelings towards their relationships with their powers. The plot gets dark, and the characters' wills get tested. I found all the characters enjoyable and empathetic. The biggest draw for me was how the MCs' statuses as gold-blessed interfere with conflicts, the kind of problems that arise from that intersection, and how characters approached problem-solving with those powers, whether they have them or are manipulating other characters who have them.

I'm looking forward to the next instalment. Although, I beg someone at Tor to hand me the copywriting reins: mentioning 'enemies to lovers' and categorising this under romance when 1) this instalment is nowhere that viciously resentful between the romantic leads and 2) the romance is, as I said, just starting to ignite reads as a cash-grab marketing ploy that only hurts expectations. Great hook question posed in the blurb, though.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan | Tor for providing me with the e-ARC/DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Hearing the premise I was 100% drawn in but sadly it didn't land as well as I'd hoped.

I did struggle with the 3rd person pov like others have said and it took me out of the story sometimes trying to translate it in my head.

An amazing idea but sadly 3 stars from me.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Before I picked up this book, i read a few of the reviews and was disappointed to see that a lot of them rated The Sun Blessed Prince quite low. Honestly I went in with low expectations that were vastly succeeded!

The main critique that I do agree with is that the blurb and the marketing doesn't quite align with what this book is about. The blurb details this book as being about two enemies with opposing powers who clash on a battlefield and then slowly find kindness/love in one another. In actuality, TSBP is about two people on opposing sides of a war who become briefly entangled, and then are separated for the majority of the book after one of them gets kidnapped by the opposing country. In fact, this is a political fantasy that analyses the meaning of life and death not an enemies to lovers romantasy.

That being said, there is romance in this book, it is the sweet kind, filled with yearning and longing and even though the two love interests only spend about a quarter of the book together, their love and respect of one another runs throughout the entire narrative.

There is also another POV character, Fen, who is not mentioned at all in the blurb. She is the 14 year old sister of Elician, and throughout the story she learns to grow into her powers as a Giver and grows close with Cat (Elician's love interest). She is fairly integral to the plot and in my opinion was omitted from the blurb because they've tried to shoehorn this political fantasy into a romantasy blueprint, to which she doesn't serve. A shame.

I do have one critique of this book and that is the constant time jumps made it hard to see the relationships develop between characters. For example, we are told Cat and Fen become friends but we don't get to see it happen on page. Same with Elician and Morsen. Personally I think the timeframe of this book could have been condensed and the relationships between characters developed more on page and then this might have been a five star read.

I'm also GAGGED waiting for book two. This is a slow burn to end all slow burns and I just know the pay off will be worth it!

So to summarise, if you want romantasy you won't get it, but if you want a political fantasy with a SLOW burn romantic subplot, I would highly recommend this!

I was very excited to start reading this book. The premise sounded absolutely amazing. Though for some reason I thought that Elician was going to find a dead enemy on the battlefield and bring them back to life.

I’ve read 10% of the book but unfortunately won’t be continuing. I really struggled to get to grips with the third person present tense (so much so that I began translating it from He to I to make it flow), it was an odd choice for pov and I found it very jarring.

I wasn’t really sure what the stakes were for Elician, which made me think, why do I keep reading? What does he have at stake and why do I care? I didn’t find his wants and needs clear which would have been useful so we know what kind of a journey we’re going on.

There was very little tension that made me wonder what’s going to happen next.

I didn’t find myself connecting with Elician, Lio and Cat. I found their personalities lacking, again maybe because we didn’t really know what was important to them. It would have been good to hear more thoughts and reflection from Elician about himself and the others.

This book was not entirely what I expected, but I quite liked it. It's marketed as romantasy, but I'd say it's more of a political fantasy with a romantic subplot. The MC and LI meet early on and develop feelings, but at some point they get seperated and don't meet for a long time.

This story is set in a world where two countries have been fighting and on and off war for most of their history about a river that separates their countries, as both belief this river is of cultural importance to their country and they are unwilling to share. Elician is a prince fighting in this war, and a Giver-he can heal people, bring back the dead, and he himself can't die unless the gods will it. One day, a Reaper-someone whose touch kills people and like a giver can't die-tries to kill him, but this fails. He is taken captive, and Elician decides to give him a chance of a life in their kingdom among the other reapers.

I found the magic system quite interesting. Givers and Reapers are both immortal and chosen by the gods, and a significant part of the book was dedicated to exploring this powers, especially within Fen's sections, Elician's adopted younger sister who is still learning to be a Giver. Meanwhile, Cat, the Reaper assassin, learns more about his abilities and be more than just a killer.

Most of this book focuses on the political plot, which centers around the war and the conflict between the two countries that's quite senseless, yet they've been at it for so long they can't really solve it, and neither can give in. Elician is an idealist, who believes he can achieve peace when he's king, and change the system surrounding how givers and reapers are treated in their society, but getting there is another matter, and there's multiple plots at play to determine who gets a throne and how this war will go, though some of these plots do unravel a bit passively without any of the MC's input.

I liked the exploration of what life and death means through the abilities of the givers and the reapers. Fen in one of her first chapters claim that in her perfect world, no one should have to die, and with their abilities this is theoretically possible, but has already gone wrong in the past. Meanwhile, death also has a place, because without death nothing can change.

The book has 3 main POV's. Elician, the idealistic prince who is stuck in a war he didn't want. Cat, the assassin turned prisoner who is trying to build a new life and learn more of his abilities, while also getting caught up in some of the political plotting. And the third is Fen, Elician's adopted teenage sister. I enjoyed all 3 POV's, even Fen's although she can be a bit of a difficult teenager, and I liked to see them develop over time.

I would recommend it to people who like queer fantasy with a little romance, some more politics, and an interesting magic system.

I just have one thing to say. Sometimes, a premise is so strong that a book immediately lands on my most anticipated list. And when the cover matches the premise, my excitement skyrockets. But sometimes, it also takes a nosedive and crashes to the ground. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened when I started reading this book. So, I decided to DNF.

Please, check out reviews from readers who enjoyed this story.

This is a bit of a tough one as I was so excited to receive this ARC, however I got to about 20% before needing to pop off to read an ARC for an imminent release. While I still have The Sun Blessed Prince on my TBR, I keep finding myself putting off picking it back up again.
I can’t offer a specific reason for this other than the fact that I didn’t feel gripped by the story, however I did really enjoy the dynamic between Cat & Elician.

I do not want to consider this as a DNF at this point, but I’m not sure when I will find the motivation to resume reading.
Thank you to Pan Macmillain/Tor and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Sun Blessed Prince prior to its release.

This was an extremely intriguing story and I found the characters engaging. The idea of Givers and Reapers (and being each others direct foil) was so interesting but unfortunately minimised the stakes as times as I didn’t fear for characters the way I might if there was no one who could bring them back.
Unfortunately, third person present tense is apparently not for me and I found it really hard to read. If it had been written in past tense I may have engaged more with it but that is just personal preference and I am sure a lot of people would have no issues. There’s also a lot of very similar names for people and places which left me confused at times.

2.5⭐️. We follow 3 POVs in this story:

1. Elician, Prince of Soleb, who is a Giver, which means he can heal and even bring people back to life.
2. Cat, who is Alelunen (the country with whom Soleb are warring) and a Reaper, able to kill people with one touch.
3. Fen, Elician’s adopted little sister, also a Giver, but one who struggles to heal but who, like Elician, can easily resurrect.

My feelings on this book were a bit of a rollercoaster. I liked the premise and was drawn in right at the start, where you’re thrust into war, as Elician fights alongside his best friend, Lio, against Alelune for control of the Bask River, which separates their countries. After an unsuccessful assassination, Elician and Lio take Cat captive and transport him to Kreuzfurt, a place in Soleb uniquely situated to cater to Givers and Reapers. We have a relatively short period where Elician and Cat become acquainted, where I enjoyed seeing more of their characters and the beginnings of their friendship, before Elician and Lio leave to return to the war. It then takes quite a meandering pace, as Fen’s POV enters and starts to feel like more of a character study, with little in the way of action. It didn’t help that I didn’t particularly enjoy being in Fen’s POV. The plot then picks up again right towards the end of the book, as events start to culminate.

I think my biggest issue is that I wasn’t sure what this book was trying to be. It didn’t feel like epic fantasy or fantasy romance, nor did it feel like a cosy fantasy. I also found the pacing a bit strange - there were several quite large jumps in time (periods of 3-6 months) without us knowing what was happening to some of the central characters. We also keep being told there are consequences to bringing people back from the dead yet we never see what those are. And lastly, as the story reaches its conclusion, we realise that the people masterminding the main events are characters we see very little of, which made the culmination of events at the end feel quite stilted and which I personally then felt disconnected from. So, overall, an interesting premise but not a story I was particularly excited by.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc of this book.

Thanks to Pan MacMillan and NetGalley for this ARC.

This one had so much potential. I was ready to love this book based solely on the blurb alone. I was ready to fall in love with the romance, watching two characters forge peace between their warring countries. I loved the idea of givers and reapers, the sun and moon imagery, the life and death struggle.

Unfortunately, this book fell short of every expectation I had.

The pacing in this book was off. There was a lot of strange time skips, and it kept jumping all over the place. It was so hard to tell how much time had passed. There are long chapters where nothing happens, and then a sudden time skip.

This book had 37 chapters. 14 of them were dedicated to the POV of a teenage girl who is not mentioned in the blurb of this book. I was promised a queer romance book and instead I got almost half the chapters dedicated to a teenage girl who's chapters don't necessarily have anything to add to the story. In fact, I feel her chapters took time away from some of the more interesting plot points.

The two main characters, Cat and Elician, spent a few weeks together before being separated for at least a year if not more (again, it's hard to tell because of the bad pacing), before being reunited. Elician left Cat in chapter 11. In chapter 37 they reunite but don't speak. In chapter 38, the final chapter, they talk and essentially promise to support each other while trying to create peace. First, you cannot compare this book to some of the biggest queer books in this genre and then have the main characters be separated for most of the book with absolutely no development in their relationship. Second, we spent more time with the teenage girl than we did with the actual couple this book is supposed to be about!

Normally, the lack of romance wouldn't typically bother me, but this book has been compared to other queer fantasy which are heavy on the romance. I really would've preferred this book to focus on developing Cat and Elician's relationship, I think I read the blurb and was excited for a queer romance, and instead I got this. I think this book has been poorly marketed, as this book is not an adult book. It's young adult - again, almost half the chapters are from the POV of a teenage girl.

There were promising elements - the magic system. the moral dilemmas surrounding it. The worldbuilding was decent. I found Elician to be a kind sweet character. But ultimately I don't think this is the book for me.

I really liked this book! The world-building and magical healing system was really interesting and well-thought out. I loved the dynamic between givers and reapers and the cultural differences between the two kingdoms as a result. Elician and Cat were both really well fleshed out characters and both extremely likeable. I sort of guessed what the twist would be, which didn't diminish from the book at all, and it's a positive that I was able to pick up on the clues the author was hinting at throughout (and a miracle, because I can hardly ever pick up on subtext!). All of the characters I could empathise with, despite not agreeing with their actions, and none of them were truly unlikeable (unless intended to be). Overall a really solid read and I'm exceptionally glad to see there's a duology planned, because I had hoped their stories would continue!

This one is little hard to star. The concept are great. Drawing on a quite familiar imagination (death and life, sun and moon). I can see the inspiration for this book and what the author wanted to do with the story.
But if fell a bit short. The stakes fell short, meaning the tension also went a little slack. It's interesting because all the elements are there, they just needed a little tweeking to create the needed narrative.

We follow Elician, Prince of the a country organised around the God of Life, as he fight at the front against his country's long enemy : the country on the other side of a river, organised about the Goddess of Death. Both countries want the river, sacred to both of them. They can't find an agreement and go to war regularly.
Elician has a secret : he's a Giver, a person blessed by the God of Life, healer and able to ressurect people (but it's forbidden). Then Elician encounters a young man, who tries to kill him. This person is a Reaper : blessed by the Goddess of Death, able to kill just by touching. Elician is kind and decides to take the broken would-be-assassin to a safe-place. They bond, more or less, during the trip. It takes the whole first third of the book.
We learn more about both of them, and about Elician's sister too. But I couldn't see where the story was going, not until something else happens and we are thrown into a full political intrigue (it was already there but lurking at the back).

Like I said, there are good idea for a nice story. The prose is good, with a great sense of place, giving life to the descriptions. The worldbuilding is okay too. But if feels too slick. Like nothing much happened, at any point.
And it's not that nothing happens : the characters have growth and pieces are moved behind the curtains. But it felt more like a slice of life with a political background than a fantasy book centered around a political intrigue. I don't mind the romance being very at the background too, partly because of how the story's is structured, but I expected a little more actions or at least high tension moment. I couldn't feel any of it and questionned some of the secondary characters' decisions and plotting. The whole Reapers and Givers position in society is also something that I struggled a bit. For people blessed by gods, they are quite marginalised. Which make sort of sense but not enough.

Still, I enjoyed my read ! Hence my struggle and frustration to star it. I would have liked the story to have more tension so the ending could be more rewarding. With characters with more flaws too, to highlight their good side. Nonetheless, I read it start to finish and I will wait for the second book to see how things will play out.

I loved this book so much!!! I rated this book 5 stars because I couldn't put it down for a second. I recommend everyone to read this book because it's great!

The writing style and imagery used in the story was nothing short of magical. Fans of When The Moon Hatched will be familiar with the attentive language used to paint a scene.
I was invested in the plot and grew to like the characters, I thought the romance element would be more prominent but the storyline stood firmly without a huge need for it. The opposites attract/two sides of the same soul atmosphere was enjoyable for me.
The concept is what sold it for me and I’m looking forward to completing the duology.
I will update on more retail platforms upon publication.