“Only joined can they curses be undone, only after one of six has won, when the original offense has been committed again, and a ruling line has come to an end, only then, can history amend.”

Synopsis: Welcome to the Centennial. Every 100 years, the island of Lightlark appears to host the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play. The invitation is a summons—a call to embrace victory and ruin, baubles and blood. The Centennial offers the six rulers one final chance to break the curses that have plagued their realms for centuries. Each ruler has something to hide. Each realm’s curse is uniquely wicked. To destroy the curses, one ruler must die.
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.

Personal review: 3 stars

If you are a fan of ACOTAR, Hunger Games, or need an easy entrance into the fantasy world, without the normal SJM world building- this book is for you. Take it as it is, though, a young adult fantasy. This book became wildly popular on TikTok and was already picked up for film production- additionally it received such raving reviews from early galleys, and terrible audience reviews. My friends tell me it’s because of the authors misappropriation of Hispanic characters such as Azul, and the similarities of certain elements to other popular novels- I don’t ever prejudge a book, based on the internets opinion. Alex Aster is a Columbian writer, and author of the Emblem Island series. I didn’t hate this book at all, and found myself falling in love with Isla, as a character, working her way through the centennial, hiding the biggest secret, and attempting to find the bond breaker. The friendships were…insane…and I never knew who to fully trust, which was the warning coming from the characters. Interesting plot, and conflict, enough resolution to leave me happy, but know it was set up for a sequel. This book contained secrets, romance, dark twists, and deception for young adults- I am happy to have reviewed it.

Thank you @netgalley and @harrynabrams for the advanced review audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately this was a miss for me. One of my least favorite YA tropes is a creepy age dynamic discrepancy and this has it with a 500 year old man and an 18 year old girl...it's just creepy and gross and very tiresome. The writing was repetitive and it was all around a lot of information that wasn't very well constructed.

This book had such great character development and world building. I was swept up right away and I never saw the twists coming. Such a great cast of characters! This was seriously entertaining and I look forward to reading it again soon.

I'm not going to lie, this one disappointed me. It had so much hype around it, maybe my expectations were too high. The concept was somewhat interesting (although it felt like, at times, it was just a mash up of favorite YA novels from decades past), but I feel like the execution was lacking. I do not believe it was well written, and it could've done with a little more editing.

Thank you so much, NetGalley and RB Media for allowing me to listen to this audio ARC in exchange for my honest review and thoughts.

For the most part, I enjoyed listening to this novel. However, at the time of writing this novel, I am reading and skimming the physical book. I can say with confidence that my original thoughts are still the same, solid and true.

I felt like the world-building made little to no sense and it was patchy. Being that I have been following the journey of this novel from TikTok to print almost closely for the last two years, I expected better. I expected this beautifully crafted story of loss and sacrifice with elements that the author herself advertised and marketed it as. Sadly, that is not the case.

As a writer with dreams of becoming an author, I understand how much editing can change a book and make it better and essentially different than the original manuscript. However, if you are advertising and marketing your book with scenes that are no longer in the book, I think that's crossing a line. This book, for me, was nothing (and I mean absolutely nothing) like ACOTAR or The Hunger Games.

The story was good and it kept you guessing, however, I was able to easily figure out the ending fairly quickly. It feels like the author made this book more like an information dump in the form of a prequel to an anticipated second book. Will I read the second book? That's still up in the air.

I did not like the main character. Isla could not stop calling herself a seductress. I wish I counted how many times she called herself this or she was described as this. She did no seducing. If anything, the main love interests seduced her. This was a love triangle with zero romance on one of the sides. The endgame was obvious.

For a book that's been through copious amounts of editing and writing revisions, I expected something a little more gripping and a little less... juvenile? And I understand that this was a young adult novel, I do, but from the way she was marketing it as this "dark and sexy" fantasy story with a morally-gray love interest, I just wanted a run for my money. The plot twist was so watery for me. Just because I did not expect the twist, it doesn't mean that it's a good plot twist.

This novel rubbed me in all the wrong ways. I have the standard first edition and the Barnes & Noble exclusive and even the extra chapter that's supposed to be "spicy" was a letdown. Sure it's an intimate scene with our favorite character and the main female character, but it wasn't that steamy or spicy. It was okay. It was juvenile, so it was right on par with what I was recently expecting since listening to the audiobook. For a young adult novel, this was a little above the maturity level of most young adult novels I've read.

Lightlark was something I expected more of. I really hope the second one does better to mend the controversy surrounding this duology and author, and fix up the *many* plotholes and inconsistencies.

When I first started listening to Lightlark by Alex Aster, I had no idea of the controversy around the book, the author and TikTok. I did hear about the book from BookTok and was super intrigued. I’ll spill the tea in a minute, but first my review.

Every 100 years the island of Lightlark invites six leaders from the six different cursed realms to compete against each other to break the original curse that resulted in the six individual curses. To win, one condition is that a ruler must die. No way to get around it. Each realm has a weakness that was caused by the original curse. Some can’t go out at day, some can’t go out at night. The main female character, Isla Crown, has a curse that punishes those who fall in love and her people can only eat hearts. Human hearts. Her people are called Wildlings. Which seems fitting! As if that isn’t bad enough, the actual worst curse is the one that causes every person in one of the realms to die at age 25. It’s a small population.

I really enjoyed Lightlark! It had all of the elements of my favorite YA fantasy reads. It was a bit like Hunger Games, ACOTAR and The Selection all wrapped up in one. There were some crazy twists at the end. Major betrayals and that connection between the King and Isla does…something. I don’t know that the book was amazingly well written or particularly original, but I really liked it anyway. There were imaginative uses of power in an interesting world, and I liked Isla. I also wanted to strangle her at times. She could be frustrating and immature. It’s YA book; not too surprised at the heroine.

The end is quick. All of these loose ends and major plot points are resolved in a rush with one of those villain type moments where they confess it all and cackle as the heroine suffers. There were some plot holes. And, I still liked the bulk of this book.

The gist is, the book went viral on BookTok, it’s already optioned for a movie. People felt like the author made this book sound spicy, and compared it to some very popular fantasy books. Some readers felt like the author lied to them. There were some very specific criticisms on her writing, which are fair. Someone even compared it to Fyre Festival. Google it…it’s a wild true story about a music festival that promised a luxury experience and was a complete debacle. There’s a great documentary on Netflix. Watch it. And then there’s the more complex issue being tossed in about how authors choose to market their books and that the author has allegedly some privilege (wealthy family). IMO, some reviewers have gotten just outright cruel in the way they’ve gone after the author. The book isn’t even released yet.

My take, the book was so hyped on TikTok and expectations were huge. The author is definitely skilled on TikTok, and has influential authors supporting the book, too. It didn’t deliver the way it should have for many readers. I liked it, it made me happy, and I listened to it for several days on my walks. It got me out the door when I wanted to sleep later.

I was super excited to receive this as an audiobook arc, not only because this was one of my highly anticipated reads of the year, but because this would be my first audiobook ever. I was a little nervous that since this was a fantasy that I would have difficulty following along the audio, but I had no issues at all.

With any book I review, I try my best to go in blind so I won't have any bias or expectation while reading. I do follow the author Alex on social media (which is where I initially learned about Lightlark), but I took the comparisons to popular titles (ACOTAR, Hunger Games) with a grain of salt.

Like many fantasy books, there is a lot of information given to the reader within the first chapters of the book. However, the way it was written, I was able to understand it a little better than some. I would say perhaps some of the language and way things were described were more "middle grade", but that was fine for me, especially since it was an audio,

I really found myself immersed into the story and the characters. I almost exclusively listened to this book while driving, and I would find myself excited to get in the car just so I can continue listening to find out what happens next. There are some things about the plot and characters I would like to be fleshed out more, and I am hopeful that will happen in the next book.

Overall, I enjoyed my time listening to Lightlark and look forward to seeing what happens next. Thank you RB Media and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

I enjoyed this novel and the concept, but the execution for me wasn't exactly what I wanted out of this novel. The characters sometimes felt a little flat for me and I found it a bit predictable, but I really did like the pace of the writing and I'll be interested to see where the series goes from here.

oh geez, i wanted to like this book. I've heard great thing about it, but it did not do it for me. it fell so flat and i'm kinda sad about it but also, like, every book doesn't work for every person, so. thanks netgalley for the e-arc!

I completely missed the hype on this book, so I was unaware that it was supposed to be completely different.

BUT! I was not disappointed. As a matter of fact, I gave this one an initial 4 stars because I actually really enjoyed the story. The main character gave wildling meets succubus vibes that were to die for. The romantic interests that were polar opposites but somehow both fell for the girl who was voted most likely to die... That was the best kind of cliche. The betrayal and heartbreak that our MC went through was shocking, but also made so much sense.

To find out that her whole story had been one massive spiderweb of deceit, orchestrated by those closest to her, was a gut punch.

I'm thoroughly looking forward to book two and seeing our magical maiden coming into her power.

Oh this was a frustrating read...! I went into this book completely blind, having avoided reading other reviews or the author's promotional videos/contents.
The idea behind Lightlark is excellent: an island that appears once every hundred years, where 6 rulers battle to save their own kingdoms from ancient curses. It had some very good twists and turns towards the end and overall enough action to keep me interested.
However, I found the execution often lacking. Despite the 400 pages, I still did not know the characters at all and it was very hard to buy any sort of feeling (friendship, love, hatred) between characters that I knew so little about. I felt little to no connection to the main characters.
Even though this is a YA book, I found the writing to be too simple, too straightforward. It read more like a middle-grade book than an upper-YA book, which is particularly disappointing for a fantasy book, which is supposed to be an almost immersive experience.

Part of me wanted to read/listen to this book because of all the "drama" online, and i wanted to see if it was as good as the author advertised online, or if the negative reviews were correct.
Lets just say i absolutely loved this book. The plot was very unique ( similar ish to the hunger games but still quite different), the characters were brilliant, you really rooted for some and hated others. and the plot twists were amazing. I really didnt predict the end plot twist , it just hit me out of nowhere. There were some parts of the writing that bugged me a little (just the use of some more younger immature language) but i can look past that because the general premise, plot and characterisation were so good. I really cant wait to read the next ones ( i really hope there isnt a proper love triangle situation) Isla should just pick one or the other and let that be it. I really really loved this and the narrator was brilliant as well

I am happy I went in blind for this book. I have heard faintly regarding the drama on TickTock and wanted to approach the book with an open mind.

I did not love this book, but I did not hate it. There were predictable moments and juvenile descriptions. This would be a perfect book for a young reader starting fantasy.

I received an audiobook and I enjoyed narration. The narrator kept me entertained and did a wonderful job with the vocal characterizations. With the right narrator, a story can make a great audiobook.

I want to thank NetGalley, Alex Aster and RB Media, Recorded Books for the e-ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

I think overall this is a really great book and I definitely found it to be worth the read and I want to read the sequel ASAP.

What I liked:
- the characters
- the magic
- a lot of the romance
- a lot of the spice
- the social dynamics
- the plot twists
- the depth of the book
- the complexity of the characters and the plot
- the mysterious, mystical, ancient feeling throughout a lot of the book
- the narration

What I didn’t like:
- some stretches by which I was mostly bored. I felt that they didn’t have enough action or engaging social interactions to keep me captivated.
- I also didn’t like how those stretches slowed the pacing. I felt like those stretches significantly slowed the pacing to the point where I felt bored and struggled to get through those parts.
- I experienced this book as being medium-paced while I generally prefer fast-paced.
- While there was a good amount of spice and romance, there wasn’t as much as I would’ve liked.

I received an ALC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The concept had alot of potential. Rulers of 6 realms, each with their own magic and curse, meet every 100 years in a competition of sorts to break their realms curse.

In more capable hands this could have been a good story. But, unfortunately, the writing was SIGNIFICANTLY subpar.

Somehow Aster achieved dumbing the writing down while also making it so convoluted you never really understood what was going on. It was genuinely difficult to come up with a concise one sentence explanation of the plot.

The pacing was also...just nuts. Descriptions of clothing would get the same amount of attention as an entire battle scene. And don't get me started on the relationship development. What a whiplash of a reading experience. No characters were fleshed out enough to have any meaningful character arc or relationship to the main character.

You could always tell what Aster was trying to accomplish, she just didn't have the chops to do it.

One positive, if you enjoy audiobooks, the narrator was great.

What an interesting book, I had heard about it from a few book friends and had to look and see if I could find it on here and boy was I pleased with it. I loved Isla so much and just reading about her pain in a lot of the trials made me cringe in pain with her. I'd love more books to go along with this one as well.

I listened to an audiobook arc copy of this title and I enjoyed the narrator and their style and voices! I feel like it definitely helped me keep my interest in the story especially in moments where the plot wasn’t particularly capturing my attention so I would definitely recommend going that route if you like listening to audiobooks!

As for the book itself, I did like it but it very much is a typical YA fantasy. I didn’t see really any reason other than the competition factor (and even then it wasn’t anything like the actual game in The Hunger Games) so I don’t understand why it kept being promoted as being similar to The Hunger Games. It did resemble ACOTAR a lot, especially one of the love interests so I’d say that comparison is more accurate. (If you like ACOTAR, particularly the Rhysand plotlines, you’ll probably like this, it’s similar, just a YA version.)

One of my biggest issues was that I was confused for the majority of the book about the curses, the competition, the magic, honestly pretty much all of it. It didn’t feel like anything was fleshed out enough. We just got a lot of repetitive information that wasn’t super helpful. Even the romance aspects were lacking for me. This book was described as a smutty fantasy by the author (I’m unsure if she still describes it this way but I know a few months ago she did) this has no smut, so don’t go into it looking for that!

Overall, this didn’t live up to the hype but it also isn’t the worst book out there! If you like YA stories with a love triangle, a competition, magic and politics, you’d probably enjoy it! This just wasn’t the book for me.

2.5/5

The book in itself has an interesting idea. The execution and marketing as an ACOTAR and THG are not that accurate. I recommend you to forget that and give the book a chance because it is interesting, the characters definitely have space to grow and so does the author.

There are a few confusing things, that as a fantasy, are expected. I didn’t quite understand the motives of all the characters and the world-building was alright but it did leave me confused and not knowing what was happening exactly and what it all meant, Specially the rulers and reasoning for a lot of the things that happen. Once the author worked and explained more of the world it reeled me in and I started to enjoy the characters and story.

I would advise you to read it and take your own conclusions about it, but I think it has space to become something more elaborated with a lot of character and plot development if the author wishes.

I ended up DNFing LightLark. I don’t think that it’s objectively bad by any means and I do not intend on bashing the author like many of people are doing on social media, but ultimately lightlark ended up being riddled with tropes that felt super forced and the writing style just wasn’t for me.

When you get your books mixed up and thought this was a stand-alone 🤦‍♀️. So now to wait far too long for book 2!

I didn't know about any of the hype surrounding this book from booktok. I didn't know the blurbs were from famous authors (bc I don't read them). I didn't know anything about the tropes that were supposed to be in this book. Going into this book blind and on audio I think helped me to appreciate this book for what it was. Since reading this book I have seen it get raked over the coals for all of the above and for bad prose. Audiobooks I think help with prose issues as they aren't as noticeable.

As for the story I found it entertaining and engaging. I listened to this in just 2 sittings and was engrossed in the world and enjoyed it for the YA fantasy it was.