Lightlark (The Lightlark Saga Book 1) (The Lightlark Saga, 1)

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I don’t really get too invested in most book romances, but since people always ask about them I will include some of that in my review. There is romance, plus a few popular tropes, though I feel like revealing the specific tropes may be considered a spoiler, so I will refrain. I think because the events are spread over several months the romance(s) don’t appear to be an insta-love situation but instead something that has developed organically. My understanding is that all of the characters involved are adults (some have a kind of Edward Cullen age thing going on), so though Aster doesn’t take it as far as she could, none of their interactions feel sanitized for a younger audience. then there’s the worst part of this book: the romance. it was so. bad. just thinking about the love triangle, instalove, 500+ year old love interests with huge power imbalances, and weird ass men that were supposed to be hot ( “I’m not sure what I enjoy more. Seeing the way you grip a sword . . . or the way your dress grips you.” AND HIS NAME IS GRIM 💀💀) brings me pain. update: the overall star rating for this not-even-fully-released-yet book is killing me. i will still be reading (because i’m nosey). i dropped an early bad review of lightlark. i found it to be pretty shallow and silly, sparse in its worldbuilding and preoccupied with romance but. i guess that has a place. looking over that review, i stand by it and am here to report that the prose was less try-hard lyrical and adverby. the rest of the book however?

Dropping it to one star for visibility and also because I thought more about the plot twist and realized none of the actual actions lined up with the convoluted motivations. Isla Crown has secured the love of two powerful rulers and broken the curses that plagued the six realms for centuries, but few know the true origins of her powers. Now, in the wake of a crushing betrayal, Isla finds herself hungry for distraction, preferring to frequent Lightlark’s seductive haunts instead of embracing her duties as the newly crowned leader of two separate realms. Worse, her fellow rulers haven’t ceded victory quietly, and there are others in Isla’s midst who don’t believe her ascent to power was earned. As certain death races toward Lightlark and secrets from the past begin to unravel, Isla must weigh her responsibility to her people against the whims of the most dangerous traitor of all: her heart. one pair in the love triangle (isla and oro) has less chemistry than me and the chewing gum i was chewing yesterday the plot twists would give you " i am a genius" moment because they are predictable.. really predictable my point in this review is not that this book is good. i don’t think it is. it’s that comparatively, i find it unfair for y’all to shit on it but then go read (insert book) and sleep with it under your pillow every night.Sequel is called Nightshade (duh, Isla is half Nightshade because her dad was some Nightshade general and all signs point to Isla x Grim endgame) With maybe one of the most interactive cover reveal processes ever (letting readers vote on TikTok and then revealing the winner on a Times Square Jumbotron), it’s probably safe to assume that the early hype around Lightlark is going to be enough to propel it to the top of many people’s TBRs. But these kind of super popular YA Fantasy books are usually hit or miss for me, so I went into Alex Aster’s debut excited, while also managing my expectations. We are told that Isla feels dread, that her people are dying, but I never felt an urgency in the atmosphere of the story. The fact that Isla has time to go on a chocolate-eating date with one of the other realm rulers makes me doubt the stakes of the Centennial. Love Interest #2: Oro, a mysterious, all-powerful golden king (“oro” literally translates to “gold” in Spanish), is 100% my favorite character. He honestly was the reason this book wasn’t a one star for me. This man knew what he wanted and was willing to sacrifice everything to make it happen. Like Isla, in a way, but he was better because he was smart about his decisions. And he actually RESPECTED Isla, unlike a CERTAIN SOMEONE WHOSE NAME STARTS WITH A G– It hits shelves on 23 August, and BookTok – a thriving sub-community of avid readers on TikTok – is going crazy for this story which hits the sweet spot between the deadly competition of The Hunger Games, and the “romantasy” of Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses. It is gloriously overdramatic and passionate, just how BookTok likes it. Isla’s first meeting with Grim, the Nightshade ruler with a “cruelly cut face” and a voice “dark and striking as midnight” finds his “eyes all over her” and her skin feeling “inexplicably electric”. There are fireworks ahead for sure, and teen readers will love Aster’s intricate details about the different realms that make up the world – Wildling, Starling, Moonling, Skyling, Sunling and Nightshade. Isla, we learn, is a Wildling – one of a race that has “always been proud of their bodies … loved wildly, lived freely, and fought fiercely”. Their curse is an unfortunate one – to kill anyone they fall in love with – and to “live exclusively on human hearts”.

Also this is a minor thing but from the character reveals we've had so far and the general Eurocentric fantasy world vibes, I'm sensing the book is gonna be very white/white-passing. I know Aster is Colombian so I give her kudos for being a WOC author in such a difficult industry. But I also can't deny that she is very white-passing and that does play a role in the diversity we might see in this book.) Grim (bootleg Rhysand - seriously, he comes from a night themed realm/court and can read minds - but somehow, 13239x creepier. Every time he's mentioned he's "raking his eyes over Isla's scantily clad body." Not at all swoony. I would not trust this man to hold my drink.) I really, really enjoyed LIGHTLARK. The whimsical fun, the mystery, the triangle, the anxiety and betrayal Then there’s the logistical issues, such as a half a dozen bridges connecting these islands made of rope (???) that people have to cross on foot (??????) and where exactly these foreign realms that people fled to actually are. And sorry Skylings, Imma let you finish, but your curse being that you can’t fly anymore when Starlings drop dead at 25 and Wildlings have to do cannibalism is absolutely INSANE. Maybe I missed the second part of their curse, but they seem kinda chill with the whole arrangement on the whole.But what if you want some of these special editions for your own book collection – books with sprayed edges, beautiful designs, limited editions – without the sort of serious financial commitment of a subscription or fine press edition – how can you get them? Well, I’m glad you asked, because I’m here to help! About this list BookTok phenomenon and award-winning author Alex Aster delivers listeners a masterfully written, utterly gripping YA fantasy novel. this book was REPETITIVE. i thought i was listening to the same chapter SEVERAL times ffs. if i see the words "centennial" and "100 years" again istg- LIKE OKAY WE GET IT. it felt like i was studying for the book the way you study for a test, repeating everything until it's buried into your brain. im tired okay? i don't know what im saying either. at least im not saying stupid shit like "she glared at him meanly". HOW ELSE WOULD SHE GLARE AT HIM? CHEERFULLY??? KINDLY???? glaring itself is an act of meanness dear and if it's an oxymoron of some sort, you're overusing it <3 Last time I wrote this, I was up to the start of the Centennial. Now my thing about the Centennial is that it's the dumbest concept despite instigating the sequences of events in this book. It's 100 days but in the first 50 days, all the rulers have to do demonstrations for the people of Lightlark to observe. It's supposed to be like the training days in the Hunger Games where the tributes show off their skills to secure donors during the games but the idea falls flat in Lightlark because the people who live on Lightlark don't...do anything. They watch? They attend parties? But their role is so unnecessary. Another component of these demonstrations is for rulers to scope out each other's powers but the "winning" isn't always straightforward. For Grim's demonstration, everyone had to battle it out, but the King of Lightlark, Oro, had a demonstration where everyone had the chance to show their greatest secret. Like?? Oro ends up being the winner of these demonstrations and is allowed to choose who to pair up for the next 75 days.