Lightlark Book Review

I’m a huge fan of romantasy books and have been sprinkling them into my reading queue for the last couple of years.

The YA Lightlark series has been on my list for a while and Book 1 seemed like the perfect choice for our wintery cozy weekends at home this month. It was a fun change of pace from the more lighthearted holiday romances I’ve been reading up until now.

Curious if this book is for you? Check out my full review below.

Summary of Lightlark

Welcome to the Centennial.

Every hundred years, the island of Lightlark appears for only 100 days to host a deadly game, where the rulers of six realms fight to break their curses and win unparalleled power. Each ruler has something to hide. Each curse is uniquely wicked. To break them—and save themselves and their realms—one ruler must die.

To survive, Isla Crown must lie, cheat, and betray. Even as love complicates everything . . .

Book Stats

Published: September 26, 2023
Pages: 448
Genre: YA, Romance, Fantasy
Get Your Copy: Paperback | Kindle | Audiobook | Collector’s Edition Hardcover

What I Liked

Here’s what I would tell my best friend about the book:

1. Creative World Building: I enjoyed the concept of 6 rulers, each from different lands with different powers and curses, all competing at a Centennial challenge. There’s a helpful chart at the start of the book for referencing until you get the hang of the details.
2. Fairy Tale Vibes: As a lifelong fairy tale lover, I loved the magic and romance and villainous aspects of the story all dressed up with fancy outfits and crowns and castles. There are dark forests, hidden libraries, magical creatures, and wicked plants, plenty to tickle your imagination.
3. Powerful Main Female Character: Isla is a powerhouse. I loved how she is presented as super fit, strong, and clever. I think I would have loved a prequel about her training days in the Wildling kingdom because I love origin stories.
4. Lots of Plot Twists: There’s little chance you’ll get bored because there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you going.

What I Didn’t Like

Every reader needs something different from a book. What I may not have preferred may be your favorite part so take this with a grain of salt.

This book is so creative and had a ton of potential but could definitely have benefited from a stronger hand in the editing process. I love a good plot twist, but several of them felt like the literary version of a movie jump scare — they came out of nowhere and jerked the plot in a new direction. After this happened a couple times, it was hard for me to not roll my eyes when it happened again.

I also felt the romances portrayed where quite unbelievable. In one case, this has an explanation at the end for why that’s the case, but it made the reading experience a bit frustrating for me. I suppose you can’t have a fairy tale without the romance, but I loved Isla so much, the romance felt out of touch for her character.

Overall Score

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I give Lightlark 4 stars.

This is a generous rating on my part. It was not problematic enough to earn only 3 stars but I didn’t enjoy it enough to read the next books in this series. Thankfully, though it ends with a mild cliffhanger that sets up Book 2, this book worked as a stand alone story for me and I felt satisfied enough with the ending.

I do not regret the time I spent reading it, Lightlark was a fun escape during a dreary January and I’m keeping my hardcover copy of the book because my youngest daughter will probably love it!

If this is your first time reading one of my reviews, you may want to check out how I score my reads with this scale guide here.

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