What do you think?
Rate this book
The Sun and Winter
Not yet published
Expected 23 Feb 27Ivor Morrow doesn't want to die young.
In Teramil, where only the wealthy can afford care, he just doesn't have a choice. Impoverished and chronically ill, Ivor dreams of studying engineering and living to see thirty, and for any of that to happen, fate must twist itself into impossible shapes. He has never known fate to be flexible. But when Vernick Mallory, born centuries before Ivor, falls out of the sky on the wrong side of time, fate tempts Ivor with a life beyond the boundaries of a struggling body and a society fueled by greed.
For Vernick, their meeting is a terrible mistake. In the wake of a siege, Vernick steals a runestone to turn back time and save his husband from a bloody end, but he learns quickly that stolen magic misbehaves. He accidentally flings himself centuries ahead to Ivor's present where magic no longer exists, losing the runestone in his crash landing. Without it, he'll never get home. The search for that stone leads him to Ivor, and if they don't work together, the universe will kill them one with a relentless illness and the other with an unsurvivable grief.
In Teramil, where only the wealthy can afford care, he just doesn't have a choice. Impoverished and chronically ill, Ivor dreams of studying engineering and living to see thirty, and for any of that to happen, fate must twist itself into impossible shapes. He has never known fate to be flexible. But when Vernick Mallory, born centuries before Ivor, falls out of the sky on the wrong side of time, fate tempts Ivor with a life beyond the boundaries of a struggling body and a society fueled by greed.
For Vernick, their meeting is a terrible mistake. In the wake of a siege, Vernick steals a runestone to turn back time and save his husband from a bloody end, but he learns quickly that stolen magic misbehaves. He accidentally flings himself centuries ahead to Ivor's present where magic no longer exists, losing the runestone in his crash landing. Without it, he'll never get home. The search for that stone leads him to Ivor, and if they don't work together, the universe will kill them one with a relentless illness and the other with an unsurvivable grief.
- GenresFantasyQueer Fantasy
398 pages, Paperback
Expected publication February 23, 2027
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Author
Thank you to Maddie Distasio for an ARC of this book!
What a privilege it was to read this book, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, Distasio wrote the genuine, complex, loveable character of Ivor. The representation of his chronic illness and pain resonated so strongly. His thoughts and how he maneuvered through his fantastical world were like snapshots of the experience of chronically ill/pained in ours. And yet this character was not defined only by his struggles. He was funny, smart, compassionate, explosive at times, flawed, and loyal. The shades of his character were more than his brace and his pills and his cane.
The main trio of friends are a delight to read. The reader feels like a silent fourth member along for their shenanigans, and a witness to the deep love they have for one another.
The world of Teramil was a balanced mixture of magic and science. It was a cozy place to slip into. Time travel is a tricky thread to weave and yet this narrative flowed naturally. It was accessible in a way some time travel stories aren’t. The story beats track and the reader can follow along without concern for the confusing minutia of time and space, while still being entertained by the way it unfolds.
This is a scifi/fantasy novel with love at its heart, but it is not a romance. The love stories between friends, family, and lovers are integral but a reader shouldn’t expect the shapes of the romantasy genre. Though one should be prepared for some genuine yearning.
There is a plot point near the end that left me feeling like there weren’t enough crumbs for it to land. But what was ultimately done with that plot point was satisfying.
I felt a spectrum of emotions from laughter to tears, to dread and hope, to just old-fashioned fangirling.
And apart from this being engrossing and entertaining, I felt genuinely held by this book as a fellow chronically ill person. I cannot wait for a wider audience to have this in their hands.
What a privilege it was to read this book, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, Distasio wrote the genuine, complex, loveable character of Ivor. The representation of his chronic illness and pain resonated so strongly. His thoughts and how he maneuvered through his fantastical world were like snapshots of the experience of chronically ill/pained in ours. And yet this character was not defined only by his struggles. He was funny, smart, compassionate, explosive at times, flawed, and loyal. The shades of his character were more than his brace and his pills and his cane.
The main trio of friends are a delight to read. The reader feels like a silent fourth member along for their shenanigans, and a witness to the deep love they have for one another.
The world of Teramil was a balanced mixture of magic and science. It was a cozy place to slip into. Time travel is a tricky thread to weave and yet this narrative flowed naturally. It was accessible in a way some time travel stories aren’t. The story beats track and the reader can follow along without concern for the confusing minutia of time and space, while still being entertained by the way it unfolds.
This is a scifi/fantasy novel with love at its heart, but it is not a romance. The love stories between friends, family, and lovers are integral but a reader shouldn’t expect the shapes of the romantasy genre. Though one should be prepared for some genuine yearning.
There is a plot point near the end that left me feeling like there weren’t enough crumbs for it to land. But what was ultimately done with that plot point was satisfying.
I felt a spectrum of emotions from laughter to tears, to dread and hope, to just old-fashioned fangirling.
And apart from this being engrossing and entertaining, I felt genuinely held by this book as a fellow chronically ill person. I cannot wait for a wider audience to have this in their hands.
October 28, 2026
so lovely to read about a disabled protagonist who is complicated and allowed a full life and full range of self-expression. there are multiple kinds of disability and multiple access issues woven into the story. the are characters who are well-intentioned allies but still make mistakes and then apologize for them. there are a lot of parts of the disability experience woven neatly into the story - body mods as a way of taking ownership of your uncooperative body, the difficult question of whether or not you’d get rid of your disabilities if you could, the way that accessibility benefits an entire society. this stuff is just part of the story the way that it’s just part of the character’s life, but it’s also built into the world and the plot to an extent that you don’t often get to read, and it’s clearly done with love and personal experience.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Yes I am giving myself my first five-star review of my own book using my reader account because I will never love anything I do more than I love this book and these characters I created. I hope you love them too ❤️ Ivor, it's for life my bby.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received a free copy from the author via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Release date February 23rd, 2027.
I was intrigued by this book's lovely cover and plot centering a disabled protagonist in a fantasy setting, so I thought I'd give a new indie author a try. In The Sun and Winter, young Ivor lives in a world where magic no longer exists, struggling against his poverty and the limitations of his body to seize the university career he always dreamed of. But even as Ivor begins to make ties with two other young scientists, the arrival of a mysterious stranger from a thousand years in the past threatens to change everything.
This book was heavily marketed as disabled representation, and Ivor's disability is probably the most solidly written part of the book. He walks with a cane and uses a brace, and Distasio never lets the reader forget for a moment how his pain shapes his decisions on a daily basis. Often in SFF genres, a character's disability is a throwaway detail that merits a few lines, but here Ivor's pain is a fundamental part of his character and a major motivator for many of his decisions in the plot. However, while Distasio's personal experience deepens Ivor's character, the fantasy plot is much weaker. I think some of this is an advertising issue—the current cover copy suggests a dual POV time travel romance about overcoming grief, while the actual narrative centers three teenagers competing in a science fair and then attending university together in basically a modern setting. I am honestly not really up for teenagers competing in the science fair, especially since the youth of the protagonists and the tentativeness of Ivor's Baby's First Romance with his friend Elio felt better suited to New Adult. Meanwhile, the third teenager, Pallas, felt like she was solely there to cheerlead Elio and Ivor's relationship. I hate the trope of dropping a nonthreateningly perfect woman into a m/m romance plot to mindlessly support their romance. Usually this woman is aroace or a lesbian to be extra nonthreatening, but I don't think the narrative is interested enough in Pallas to bother specifying her sexuality.
The fantasy worldbuilding is functional for a romance-leaning plotline, but not especially innovative. Most of the plot is in a modern setting with minimal details of daily life changed, down to the use of phones. Meanwhile, language a thousand years in the past is almost completely mutually intelligible with the present, and its setting barely scrapes through describing enough material details to pass as generic medieval-land. The magic system is limited to clans with magic blood powers, of which we only see three, and a handful of runestones. Many books don't need detailed worldbuilding because the emotional arc and characters carry the story, but The Sun and Winter did not captivate me. Ultimately, my biggest quibble was with the prose's obtrusive clumsiness, which has a tendency for baffling metaphors and bizarre vocabulary choices. The prose issues play especially badly with any type of romance—for instance, two separate kiss scenes are described with "gnashing teeth" and as "intermittently pawing at each other between happy sobs", respectively.
Lots of books I don't get along with have managed to find followings—see Max Francis' Honor and Heresy, for instance—but I think The Sun and Winter would be better served with a blurb to help it find its correct audience. Absolutely lovely cover, though.
I was intrigued by this book's lovely cover and plot centering a disabled protagonist in a fantasy setting, so I thought I'd give a new indie author a try. In The Sun and Winter, young Ivor lives in a world where magic no longer exists, struggling against his poverty and the limitations of his body to seize the university career he always dreamed of. But even as Ivor begins to make ties with two other young scientists, the arrival of a mysterious stranger from a thousand years in the past threatens to change everything.
This book was heavily marketed as disabled representation, and Ivor's disability is probably the most solidly written part of the book. He walks with a cane and uses a brace, and Distasio never lets the reader forget for a moment how his pain shapes his decisions on a daily basis. Often in SFF genres, a character's disability is a throwaway detail that merits a few lines, but here Ivor's pain is a fundamental part of his character and a major motivator for many of his decisions in the plot. However, while Distasio's personal experience deepens Ivor's character, the fantasy plot is much weaker. I think some of this is an advertising issue—the current cover copy suggests a dual POV time travel romance about overcoming grief, while the actual narrative centers three teenagers competing in a science fair and then attending university together in basically a modern setting. I am honestly not really up for teenagers competing in the science fair, especially since the youth of the protagonists and the tentativeness of Ivor's Baby's First Romance with his friend Elio felt better suited to New Adult. Meanwhile, the third teenager, Pallas, felt like she was solely there to cheerlead Elio and Ivor's relationship. I hate the trope of dropping a nonthreateningly perfect woman into a m/m romance plot to mindlessly support their romance. Usually this woman is aroace or a lesbian to be extra nonthreatening, but I don't think the narrative is interested enough in Pallas to bother specifying her sexuality.
The fantasy worldbuilding is functional for a romance-leaning plotline, but not especially innovative. Most of the plot is in a modern setting with minimal details of daily life changed, down to the use of phones. Meanwhile, language a thousand years in the past is almost completely mutually intelligible with the present, and its setting barely scrapes through describing enough material details to pass as generic medieval-land. The magic system is limited to clans with magic blood powers, of which we only see three, and a handful of runestones. Many books don't need detailed worldbuilding because the emotional arc and characters carry the story, but The Sun and Winter did not captivate me. Ultimately, my biggest quibble was with the prose's obtrusive clumsiness, which has a tendency for baffling metaphors and bizarre vocabulary choices. The prose issues play especially badly with any type of romance—for instance, two separate kiss scenes are described with "gnashing teeth" and as "intermittently pawing at each other between happy sobs", respectively.
Lots of books I don't get along with have managed to find followings—see Max Francis' Honor and Heresy, for instance—but I think The Sun and Winter would be better served with a blurb to help it find its correct audience. Absolutely lovely cover, though.
Review of advance copy received from Author
The Sun and Winter (loving TSAW) was easily my favorite book of this year. I did not realize how much I was craving the immersion into another world that I felt reading this. I love fantasy and have read several fantasy series with incredible worlds and characters that I felt connected to, but TSAW felt so unique in its familiarity. I saw myself in different ways in each of the characters and was eager to return to their povs throughout the book. Maddie comes through in each of her characters in a way that makes them feel so real, yet entirely singular. For the first time in a long time, young adult humor did not feel forced! Not only did she construct FUNNY characters who I would ACTUALLY want to hang out with, she described their love, intimacy, and grief in a way that felt truly authentic. TSAW balances foreign times and places with experiences that are so familiar in their humanness. I laughed, I cried, I gasped, I don't think I have ever gotten home from a night out and opened my kindle until this book. I will be counting down the days until I return to Teramil!!
October 17, 2026
What a gorgeous adventure this was. Fantasy isn’t my usual genre and that’s the only reason I’ve not gone for 5 stars.
Maddie’s writing, structure, dialogue and character developments are absolutely stunning, and I was gripped from the beginning.
I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of The Sun and Winter and was excited to step into a new genre. Ivor and Elio are devastatingly loveable, and I thought the Iterations were such a clever element of the book. The world building is incredible and I felt like I was a companion of the main characters.
Representations of disabilities isn’t something I’ve encountered much, so it was heartwarming to see this done so gently yet effectively.
I would 100% recommend this to any reader, there’s something in it for everyone. Well done, Maddie, you ought to be very proud of this!
Maddie’s writing, structure, dialogue and character developments are absolutely stunning, and I was gripped from the beginning.
I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of The Sun and Winter and was excited to step into a new genre. Ivor and Elio are devastatingly loveable, and I thought the Iterations were such a clever element of the book. The world building is incredible and I felt like I was a companion of the main characters.
Representations of disabilities isn’t something I’ve encountered much, so it was heartwarming to see this done so gently yet effectively.
I would 100% recommend this to any reader, there’s something in it for everyone. Well done, Maddie, you ought to be very proud of this!
Review of advance copy received from Author
ARC Review! Last night I finished The Sun and Winter by @maddiedistasioauthor and I couldn't wait to rave about it! This was an absolute ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 read for me!
I absolutely loved this book and following along with Ivor and Elio's journey to find themselves in the past, present and future. As someone who is also a chronic illness baddie I really could relate to the struggles Ivor went through in his life. It was amazing to see myself represented in a character.
You'll root for Ivor and Elio as well as scream at them at times lol
Quick synopsis: In Teramil, where only the wealthy can afford care, he just doesn't have a choice. Impoverished and chronically ill, Ivor dreams of studying engineering and living to see thirty, and for any of that to happen, fate must twist itself into impossible shapes. He has never known fate to be flexible. But when Vernick Mallory, born centuries before Ivor, falls out of the sky on the wrong side of time, fate tempts Ivor with a life beyond the boundaries of a struggling body and a society fueled by greed.
For Vernick, their meeting is a terrible mistake. In the wake of a siege, Vernick steals a runestone to turn back time and save his husband from a bloody end, but he learns quickly that stolen magic misbehaves. He accidentally flings himself centuries ahead to Ivor's present where magic no longer exists, losing the runestone in his crash landing. Without it, he'll never get home. The search for that stone leads him to Ivor, and if they don't work together, the universe will kill them both: one with a relentless illness and the other with an unsurvivable grief.
Please everyone check this book out when it releases on 02/23/27
I absolutely loved this book and following along with Ivor and Elio's journey to find themselves in the past, present and future. As someone who is also a chronic illness baddie I really could relate to the struggles Ivor went through in his life. It was amazing to see myself represented in a character.
You'll root for Ivor and Elio as well as scream at them at times lol
Quick synopsis: In Teramil, where only the wealthy can afford care, he just doesn't have a choice. Impoverished and chronically ill, Ivor dreams of studying engineering and living to see thirty, and for any of that to happen, fate must twist itself into impossible shapes. He has never known fate to be flexible. But when Vernick Mallory, born centuries before Ivor, falls out of the sky on the wrong side of time, fate tempts Ivor with a life beyond the boundaries of a struggling body and a society fueled by greed.
For Vernick, their meeting is a terrible mistake. In the wake of a siege, Vernick steals a runestone to turn back time and save his husband from a bloody end, but he learns quickly that stolen magic misbehaves. He accidentally flings himself centuries ahead to Ivor's present where magic no longer exists, losing the runestone in his crash landing. Without it, he'll never get home. The search for that stone leads him to Ivor, and if they don't work together, the universe will kill them both: one with a relentless illness and the other with an unsurvivable grief.
Please everyone check this book out when it releases on 02/23/27
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
ARC Review 🤍
Thank you NetGalley and author Maddie Distasio for this ARC. ✨
I have no words to express how much I loved this book. I’m writing this review with tears running down my face because of how beautiful this story was.
Seeing chronic illness be represented and described in such a realistic way made my heart hurt in the best way possible. This book was just perfect and I’ll surely think about it for many years to come.
Ivor, my dear boy, is just such an amazing and strong character. I hold him so dearly in my heart, my close and personal friend LOL 🤍 Elio, gosh! My love, definitely my favorite character. I can’t describe the feeling I felt whenever we got his POV. I love him and I can only hope to find a love as beautiful and as sweet as the love they had for each other. Pallas is my baby! I love this characters so much, this world just means so much to me wow. Vernick and Galen, wow their story is devastatingly beautiful and I will be thinking about them for so so long.
Author Maddie Distasio, I hope you know you’ve gained a loyal reader and a huge fan. I will be here to support you for as long as you continue to write. You’re amazing! 🩷
Again, I can’t put into words how much I loved this story. SIX STARS 100% my fav read of the year. 💗
Thank you NetGalley and author Maddie Distasio for this ARC. ✨
I have no words to express how much I loved this book. I’m writing this review with tears running down my face because of how beautiful this story was.
Seeing chronic illness be represented and described in such a realistic way made my heart hurt in the best way possible. This book was just perfect and I’ll surely think about it for many years to come.
Ivor, my dear boy, is just such an amazing and strong character. I hold him so dearly in my heart, my close and personal friend LOL 🤍 Elio, gosh! My love, definitely my favorite character. I can’t describe the feeling I felt whenever we got his POV. I love him and I can only hope to find a love as beautiful and as sweet as the love they had for each other. Pallas is my baby! I love this characters so much, this world just means so much to me wow. Vernick and Galen, wow their story is devastatingly beautiful and I will be thinking about them for so so long.
Author Maddie Distasio, I hope you know you’ve gained a loyal reader and a huge fan. I will be here to support you for as long as you continue to write. You’re amazing! 🩷
Again, I can’t put into words how much I loved this story. SIX STARS 100% my fav read of the year. 💗
Review of advance copy received from Author
A beautiful and captivating journey of cosmic love, the friends who become family and the absolutely exhausting and rewarding experience that is being alive.
I really enjoyed experiencing this universe and fell in love with the characters who are not only interesting and complex but also very real!! The friendship between Ivor, Elio and Pallas felt so much like a real world friendship, I want to hang out with them! They were hilarious and moving and flawed and perfect all at the same time.
Also the stunning depiction of what it’s like to live with chronic illness was truly 10/10. “The little island that pain had made of his life” 😭
While I had some trouble following along in the beginning with all of the characters, timelines and magic systems, once it clicked, I was hooked. I was genuinely surprised with some of the twists which doesn’t happen often!!
Overall, super grateful for the opportunity to read this advanced copy and cannot wait to see what comes next from this author!!
Some favorite quotes:
“Dreaming of something bigger than the tall reed of her body and the narrow margins of herself.”
“And at long last, the sun had risen over a cool, bright winter.”
I really enjoyed experiencing this universe and fell in love with the characters who are not only interesting and complex but also very real!! The friendship between Ivor, Elio and Pallas felt so much like a real world friendship, I want to hang out with them! They were hilarious and moving and flawed and perfect all at the same time.
Also the stunning depiction of what it’s like to live with chronic illness was truly 10/10. “The little island that pain had made of his life” 😭
While I had some trouble following along in the beginning with all of the characters, timelines and magic systems, once it clicked, I was hooked. I was genuinely surprised with some of the twists which doesn’t happen often!!
Overall, super grateful for the opportunity to read this advanced copy and cannot wait to see what comes next from this author!!
Some favorite quotes:
“Dreaming of something bigger than the tall reed of her body and the narrow margins of herself.”
“And at long last, the sun had risen over a cool, bright winter.”
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
one of my top reads… ever?
i received this as an arc read and it’s one of the best decisions i ever made (dramatic but also true). this book is very special to me.
the story follows ivor and elio - along with some other incredible characters - in a world mixed with a dying magic and modernity. ivor is kind, unapologetic, strong and funny. elio is earnest, warm, compassionate and a gentle giant. this book has everything - tension, adventure, love, loss, grief and disability representation. the world maddie built is beautiful and complex, really making you feel immersed within it.
if i could give it 6 stars i would!
i received this as an arc read and it’s one of the best decisions i ever made (dramatic but also true). this book is very special to me.
the story follows ivor and elio - along with some other incredible characters - in a world mixed with a dying magic and modernity. ivor is kind, unapologetic, strong and funny. elio is earnest, warm, compassionate and a gentle giant. this book has everything - tension, adventure, love, loss, grief and disability representation. the world maddie built is beautiful and complex, really making you feel immersed within it.
if i could give it 6 stars i would!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews