A hundred hints that say they actually care about you? I still think you want to kill me and I refuse to consider anything else. The love interests. I have nothing else to say other than Grim is Rhysand from ACOTAR and Oro is Prince Maxon from the Selection if he was OP and had hella magic. That perfectly encapsulates both how their written and the extent of their dynamics. It's so reminiscent of ~other stuff~ it's difficult to see them as their own established characters, especially Grim. They're both like 500 years old and have a rivalry. I rarely use GoodReads, but because I received an advanced copy of the book, I thought it best to distribute this review across all platforms where I have an account. You can find me over on the storygraph, username bean. Thanks for the arc btw! SPEAKING OF DATE, y'all...the ACOTAR really jumped out. Remember when I mentioned the 6 realms, let me repeat them for you: Wildling, Skyling, Moonling, Starling, Nightshade, and Lightlark. If there's a villain (as the author has heavily hinted at "villain gets the girl") guess where he's from. Let me make it worse, his name is Grimshaw LMAOOO. As is to be expected, in the run-up to the release of ‘Lightlark’, Aster’s TikTok was saturated with teasers. And Aster was really hyping up her book – promising readers tropes galore as well as lots of spice (sexual content) for good measure. Naturally, readers were getting pretty excited. That was until ‘Lightlark’ was released missing much of this content, and frenzied excitement began to sour into discontent.

Or so the infamous TikTok goes. You see, what interests me most about ‘Lightlark’ isn’t its plot, but the rather unusual way it came to be published in the first place – and all the controversy that’s come with that. Including, exactly what ‘Lightlark’ means for the future of the publishing industry. From TikTok to Printing Press: How ‘Lightlark’ came to be published And despite my misgivings, I’ll probably read the sequel. I want to see how this messy, strangely addictive story ends 😂 There could have been so much done with all these magic lines and islands and cultures? But basically it's stated they exist and that's it. There's no going into these places and describing them or their people or their magic or why we should care about any of them or how beautiful they can be. I was really excited to dive into this world and none of that occurred at all.The Average Citizen. Isla actually talks to average citizens in this book, but they're all single minded and one note it feels weird. These people don't have interiority or conflicting feelings. They are simply on Isla's side or they are not. Sometimes they switch between the two, but yeah, there isn't much more beyond that. This is especially true when she meets her own Wildling people. Fantasy that reads like a breath of fresh air. Filled with secrets aplenty and enthralling magic, Lightlark will have you gasping then swooning while these valiant rulers fight to break their curses.” Isla Crown is the young ruler of Wildling--a realm of temptresses cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. They are feared and despised, and are counting on Isla to end their suffering by succeeding at the Centennial.

Anyways it’s very clear to me that Aster cares about writing and storytelling, but perhaps not as much the art or craft of it. To quote Billy Joel, slow down you crazy child, you’re so ambitious for a juvenile. I also suspected Isla's dad was probably Nightshade so I'm glad Aster came through on predictability there. Now, this book was touted on the author’s TikTok and in a stupid amount of marketing as enemies-to-lovers, villain-gets-the-girl. It had quotes, tropes etc. Some of the quotes I looked up were there, but I can totally see why people thought the tropes were all a complete lie. Isla has a little love triangle going on with two of the other realm rulers: 500-year-old love interests (bc of course they are) named Grim and Oro. Alexandra Pierson [1] (born August 4, 1995), known professionally by her pen name Alex Aster, is a Colombian-American young adult author. [2] She is best known for the young adult fantasy series, Lightlark, and the middle-grade fantasy series, Emblem Island. [3] Early life [ edit ] Isla Crown is the young ruler of Wildling - a realm of temptresses cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. They are feared and despised, and are counting on Isla to end their suffering by succeeding at the Centennial. To survive, Isla must lie, cheat, and betray... even as love complicates everything.EDIT (4/7/23): oooh I was so close with the title. how many bets Nightbane is a secret item/ingredient etc that Isla has to find in Nightshade one pair in the love triangle (isla and oro) has less chemistry than me and the chewing gum i was chewing yesterday

Honestly, if you hate unoriginal names, don’t read this book. Isla is the ruler of Wildling, Celeste is the ruler of Starling, Cleo is the ruler of Moonling, Azul is the ruler of Skyling, Oro is the ruler of Sunling, and Grim is the ruler of Nightshade. And if that’s not enough: “Sky Isle for the Skylings, Moon Isle for the Moonlings, and Sun Isle for the Sunlings.” Horny. Isla is so horny. Oro and Grim are also horny but they have more of a cap on it. This should not be a YA book for how often these characters are horny. There are multiple romance scenes written for the express purpose of titillation in which all the characters are adults. This is not written for children, or even teenagers. Because this is marketed at YA, most of these scenes end with some bullshit excuse for why they can't bone. Man, what's even the point? It's pushing the boundaries of how horny you can make something, for the pleasure of an adult audience, and still shelving the book as YA. The probably isn't the fact that it's horny, but its horniness skates along in this weird limbo gray area because of its genre, offputting and unsatisfying. I was gonna talk more about the type/count of romance scene, but I'll just leave it at the fact that the special edition of Lightlark from B&N had an extra scene from Grim's POV that you also see in this book through Isla's POV. The author REALLY loves that "I love that dress but it's in my way" line. First and foremost, it's impossible to get a real grasp on stakes. These lands have been suffering with their curses for five hundred years. And some of the curses are gnarly! The wildling's curse is that they have to eat a human heart every month to survive. But then, the people here live to be very old? Which, presumably means that they don't have very many children. The population can't be that high, because it wouldn't be sustainable if people are living longer. So how do they have even a year's supply of hearts? It's explained to us that the wildlings are dying, that their realm is losing power, that they don't have enough hearts to sustain them, but it's so hard to have a good grasp on exactly what's going on because there are so many variables that are vaguely explained. Are they at half their power, a tenth? How big are they compared to other realms? How many people do they lose a year? We need to understand the stakes! Please! 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.)Here’s the tea y’all: the romantic tropes, stupidly enough, were advertised as belonging to ONE love interest. The tropes were ACTUALLY divided up among BOTH of them. So all that enemies-to-lovers, villain-gets-the-girl stuff? Yeah, the author means two different men.

I mentioned in my Lightlark review that I listened to an arc on audiobook. I read Nightbane with my own two eyes, so... I do think that made a lot of the structural issues and prose issues more relevant. But before I get into the negatives, I'd like to discuss the positive Then we have the world-building. It was non-existent. I was extremely confused the entire time. Lightlark is an island that only shows up every 100 years? But then people live on it? But then each magic line has its own island? But Lightlark and Nightshade are at war? Not sure why that is. And why were the curses placed? That doesn't make sense until the plot twist and reveal. There are no rules to the curses? What are all their powers? If you take away everything else, this book is just poorly written and nonsensical. It’s bad. And not in a guilty pleasure sort of way, but in a “I’m offended that you thought you could sell this to readers” sort of way. And honestly, if I was the editor that was in the YAlit Reddit thread arguing with people in the comments, I would be embarrassed to admit that I edited this book. If this is the final product, I can’t imagine what a first draft looked like. Keith Pierson Toyota Staff | Toyota Sales near Fruit Cove, FL". www.keithpiersontoyota.com . Retrieved 2023-07-13.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.