Lightlark: Lightlark, Book 1
4.3 | 19,115 ratings
Price: 19.56
Last update: 12-09-2025
Top reviews from the United States
- dani ????quick read that will keep you interested!!i want to begin this review by stating that many (not all) of the negative reviews i have seen are either from people who have not even finished the book, or people who were simply review-bombing it.
putting everything aside that you may have heard or seen about it, i really enjoyed this book.
yes, there were things that could've been better, such as the world-building and dialogue variety for the characters. however, this is the case with many books, which usually improves the more a writer writes over time. if i'm being honest, i did not have an issue with the slight lack of descriptors for characters' looks because tbh, the story matters more than what a character may look like.
isla crown, our protagonist, has a lot of issues to overcome. she's a very strong character, but struggles with knowing who to trust, and who to avoid. as the rulers are pitted against one another to try and solve the riddle to break the curses, she grows into a person who is able to find herself and overcome her challenges. she's very smart, but tends to fall short most of the time and seem as if she is the opposite. it's okay isla, i still love you!! she must learn to form alliances, and avoid the discovery of her biggest secret.
the story of Lightlark and the Centennial kept me turning page after page, always wanting to find out what the next twist will be. and i definitely was impressed and captivated by everything i read.
*spoilers incoming*
isla was born powerless, or so she thought...
THE PLOT TWISTS!! absolutely amazing. alex aster really knows how to keep you on your toes throughout the story. i could never see some of the twists coming, and that made this book all the more worth the read to me. i think the biggest twist of all would have to be grim's "betrayal."
let's talk about the love interests for a moment:
typically, i am a huge hater of love triangles, BUT, this book really does it well.
love interest #1: oro. oro is the King of Lightlark, and angry fellow who simply needs his walls broken down and to find someone who loves him for the person that he is. a ruler capable of anything and everything who must put on a brave and powerful face in public. he has many cute moments with isla, and she ultimately chooses him at the end of this book (which following the plot twists, makes sense.) oro is a character who you hate at the beginning, and gradually grows on you as the story progresses.
love interest #2: grim. grimshaw, ruler of nightshade is full of mystery. he almost had a "relationship" with isla, but it fell through the cracks once she found out he had wiped her memories of them together prior to the Centennial. he wields shadows (my fav type of character), and will do anything to protect isla, and win her heart again.
i cannot choose who i would rather she end up with, both are written really well so i wouldn't be angry regardless. grim has been my favorite throughout the book though, so i'm rooting for him in Nightbane (book #2).
for what it was, this book really was an interesting and entertaining read. i think a lot of the times, people forget it's YA, and even the part that is not is something that has happened in other YA books too. YA doesn't necessarily equal no explicit content of any kind.
i'm definitely excited to read Nightbane in November to continue isla's story!! <3 - Abigail WAdolescent turmoil seriesI’m being generous with 4 stars, because I completely agree with the reviews regarding the writing format and sentence structures, as well as the redundancy in descriptions. However, this is a young adults book so the writing format correlates with the audience intended. The world building is simple and straightforward, making the book an easy read which I finished in about 3 days. The characters lacked development and depth, while some of the plot twists were extremely predictable. That being said, I think the book will make a fantastic movie, and quality fantasy movies are far and few these days. I read the book with very little expectations and did find myself drawn to the created world including the problems that the main character was facing throughout the story. I wished there was a bit more action and less drama but that is a personal preference. I liked the book enough to give the characters a second chance at making bolder choices by buying the next edition. Overall, if you are looking for a light, fun read, with adolescent struggles that can remind you of your naive youth, then I would recommend this book to you.
- A. BurnettI shouldn’t have listened to the haters on BookTok and waited to long, because this was great!This was a whole vibe, and I loved it. I don’t understand all the hate about this book because it was written exceptionally well for a first time author. Some notable writing achievements: the plot developed the story rather than the writer using internal monologue to develop it. There was very little of the typical endless world building that most fantasies have. She gave a little, then let the rest of the world unfold along with the plot (which was perfect). And most importantly, she didn’t fall into typical lazy writing devices which are so prevalent with new fantasy authors, like using an unreliable narrator to fill an obvious plot hole, THANK THE GODS! So touché to Alex Astor for doing the dang thing!!
Now onto the book. It was definitely YA. The only spicy scene was fade to black. I normally like my books heavy on the spice but I was OK with this one being one ????️. This was fantasy with a romantic subplot. Like it was always there waiting in the background but never the main point of the story.
I adored both Grimm and Oro for different reasons. Grimm definitely gave Rhysand vibes, though his actions left me super salty. Oro was NOT Matt Donovan like some reviews have suggested. He was broken and dying and I think that impacted his personality a great deal in the first book. I’m excited to see how the romance plays out in the next book.
I adored Isla. She was two sides of a coin in nearly every aspect of her personality: strong and weak, skilled and unskilled, trusting and untrusting, ruthless and too compassionate. She was very relatable, and I loved that her personality wasn’t built around an MMC. She was truly her own person with her own agendas and struggles.
I enjoyed the plot a lot. Honestly the “competition” thing was a turn off when I was was hesitating to start the book, but once I got into it I didn’t mind. It wasn’t“hunger games” like I was expecting. It was more a series of demonstrations with a lot of scheming and plotting between. It wasn’t super high action. I did find the rules of the Centennial confusing but it sorted itself out in the end.
Overall I just really enjoyed the book.