Title: Lightlark
Author: Alex Aster
Series: Lightlark
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Lightlark is the first book in the series. There are 5 different races: Wildling, Nightshade, Starling, Sunling, and Moonling. Each ruled their realm. Before the curse, they lived on the mainland, Lightlark. This story follows a young orphan Wildling, Isla, cared for by two of her guardians before the next Centennial competition. Born without the Wildling magic abilities, this is her only chance to break the curse and rescue her realm before all is gone.
To break the curse, all five realms have to work together, but one of them must die. Isla has to navigate through the competition without rousing suspicions regarding her lack of ability while starting her secret plans cooked up by her guardians to seduce the Sunling king, Oro, avoid the mysterious Nightshade ruler, Grim, and find the bondbreaker with her secret alliance with the Starling ruler, Celeste.
This is a story of friendship, romance, and betrayals which is similar to The Hunger Games. However, Lightlark lacks the intensity of the main competition in The Hunger Games. The main characters in both books are slightly similar to each other, as they’re both skilled in weapons. Katniss is skilled with her bow and arrows, while Isla is skilled with her swords and other weapons. The romance and alliances set Lightlark apart from The Hunger Games.
My opinion: this is my first time reading a book by Alex Aster. I was confused at first because the book didn’t explain the curse or the realms’ relationships. Were they all friendly before the curse, or are they wary and hate each other? I also find the book lacks chemistry between Isla and Grim, so I could not understand the romance between them. I questioned the book as I was reading and kept flipping the pages back to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The end of the book answered many of my questions. I love that different realms have their own abilities that help each other’s growth and weaknesses. Isla’s strong loyalty to her friend is commendable, and it shows that it does not matter how different they are, and they will always help each other. Personally, I lost interest halfway through the book, and it took me longer to finish it because of my confusion at the start of it. I originally wanted to give this book a 3-star rating because I was unsure if I wanted to read the next book in the series, but after reading this book to the end and figuring out how Alex Aster writes and how the ending answered my questions, I changed my rating to 4, and I will pick up the next book, as I want to find out her chemistry and truth between her relationship with Grim and the history of the realms.
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