From the Bookshelf of Addicted to YA…

Lightlark (Lightlark, #1)

Alex Aster

Start date: June 1, 2025

Finish date: June 30, 2025

Discussion: Series

Why we're reading this: Won the new series poll for June.
[close] Won the new series poll for June.

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Series

* Continuing Series- Nightbane
By Bailey · 4 posts · 30 views

last updated Aug 12, 2025 07:32AM

* New Series- The Princess Trials
By Bailey · 10 posts · 59 views

last updated Aug 27, 2025 04:41PM

What Members Thought

Aug 29, 2023 Susan rated it it was amazing

REREAD 3/13/25
I had to reread this book to try to remember what it was about. When I first read Light lark I was flying back and forth to Las Vegas from Reno. We lived in Las Vegas my whole life so 57 years (we moved to Reno in 4/1/20203. We have 7 kids and 12 grandkids and we left half our kids in Vegas. I would go for 2 to 6 weeks at a time to help my 2nd oldest. He and his wife worked nights and therefore had no one to watch their 4 children. Anyway I was in Vegas at the time and things were REREAD 3/13/25
I had to reread this book to try to remember what it was about. When I first read Light lark I was flying back and forth to Las Vegas from Reno. We lived in Las Vegas my whole life so 57 years (we moved to Reno in 4/1/20203. We have 7 kids and 12 grandkids and we left half our kids in Vegas. I would go for 2 to 6 weeks at a time to help my 2nd oldest. He and his wife worked nights and therefore had no one to watch their 4 children. Anyway I was in Vegas at the time and things were just pure chaos which is why I didn't remember one thing from this book.

As I started my reread a few things came back to me but mainly I remembered nothing and I really didn't remember that ending. I still think this book deserves the 5 stars I gave it initially so that won't change.

I loved Isla the ruler of the Wildlings and Grim I think was my favorite of the 2 men that were seeking Isla out. The betrayal in this book I hadn't remember and loved that it felt new to me.

I've never heard of this book before and I loved it so much more than I thought I would 💜

It's a great fantasy story with each of the world's have one ruler. Each of the world's have their own magic systems and the rulers magic is stronger then everyone else's in that world. There are Starlings, Moonlings, Sunlings, Nightshade and Wildlings. The Nightshades can't come out at night or they'll die. The Sunlings can't come out when the sun comes up or they'll burst into flames.

The ruler of the Wildlings is Isla and she was born with no powers which is very odd for that to happen. The king is Oro and he rules over all the kingdoms but is the sole ruler of the Sunlings. Grim is the ruler of Nightshade and he can fade into the shadows among other powers.

There are some twists and turn in this book that were so amazing. It really made this book as great as it was. I love the magic system in this book. I loved the lies that were told to Isla and how they were unraveled and what we discovered as the lies were uncovered.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves fantasy or is new to fantasy. It would be a great book to start your journey in discovering the fun of reading fantasy. ...more

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Jan 03, 2025 Veronica245 rated it liked it

Well, so this was an interesting experiment.

I had this book on my radar since it came out(I don’t have TikTok I am 42) but I’ve seen it on some Facebook sites and so on, and the worlds “Hunger Games” were used in correlation to it, which obviously(stupidly) peaked my interest. I would like to mention this right off so there wouldn’t be any confusion and it could be potentially useful for anyone who reads this review. THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE THE HUNGER GAMES. It does not have the vib Well, so this was an interesting experiment.

I had this book on my radar since it came out(I don’t have TikTok I am 42) but I’ve seen it on some Facebook sites and so on, and the worlds “Hunger Games” were used in correlation to it, which obviously(stupidly) peaked my interest. I would like to mention this right off so there wouldn’t be any confusion and it could be potentially useful for anyone who reads this review. THIS BOOK IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE THE HUNGER GAMES. It does not have the vibes of Hunger Games, it’s not even in the same genre as Hunger Games. Actually this book would greatly benefit from not having any mentions of it, in the same breath as Hunger Games ever. Not because it’s worse(it is but it’s not the point), but because it gives people absolutely unrealistic expectations. Now that I’m done with this, disclaimer, moving on.

I enjoy YA fiction as an adult, I’ve always enjoyed YA fiction and I’ve read a lot of it. Does it make me a picky reader and does it make me often roll my eyes at 17 year olds saving the world? Yes. But I do still enjoy it and it brings me joy, mostly. Am I able to differentiate good quality YA from something that isn’t, absolutely. This is an OK book. It’s not a bad book, it’s definitely not a good book. It’s an OK book with genius marketing. Really I need to clap 👏 to that marketing team, fantastic job(except for the Hunger games reference like i did already mentioned). This had moments That kept me interested and a few that dragged. There wasn’t much developing in a sense of world building, which I thought was ok, considering it is not a high fantasy with an extensive lore and backstory. But there was quite a lot of confusing and contradictory information about the realms, its curses and the rulers. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the curses kind of did not make sense 🤷🏻‍♀️
The characters is what made this just okeyish for me, I did not feel that they were developed enough and to me they did not feel real or relatable. And there is of course my personal pet peeve of 500 years old males with a teenage female. This trope really should seize to exist, because frankly it’s always grooming, regardless is how romantic it sounds(yes I am guilty of liking some of it, not here but in other books), but that’s an adult in me speaking I know. Anyway there is somewhat of a love triangle(also not my favorite) and it’s not a spoiler, it’s clearly obvious from the start, but it’s not written well, usually I feel the need to “ship” (can’t believe I said this), one of the love interests with the main heroine and root for them for it to really keep my interest, but here I honestly did not feel the chemistry much with either of the guys. It felt a bit forced. I did prefer one to the other but not particularly. The cast of secondary characters felt not developed at all and to me this really is a difference between a really good story and a just so so one, like here.
The twist, well I kind of immediately picked up on a person involved, but I guess it’s because I am not really a target audience and I now recognize red flags 😂. But it was obvious to me that there would be a betrayal from that side and when it happened I was like ok yawn 🥱.

At the end this book was good enough for me to finish, I didn’t feel like I had to DNF, but it’s still a disappointment somewhat. And at this point I am not sure if I will continue the series. ...more

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