DNF @ 8%

After averaging almost a book a day over the last couple of months, I went two days barely looking at my Kindle with no desire to pick up this book. Nothing is catching my attention. The narrator is just handing over information with no emotion, and there’s no drive or motivation to keep reading. Considering how beautiful the cover is and how interesting it sounded, I’m pretty disappointed. If I continue at this rate, though, I’ll be stuck reading Luminiferos for months.

The concept of Luminiferos is amazing, where Lilly, our main female character, is in search of her identity and wants answers to her dreams filled with fantastical beasts.

The story is filled with dryads, sirens, and other fantasy creatures. The world building in this novel is really good. The characters, though I was not favorite of. Hopefully, the author will be in the rest of the series, giving more background to Lilly White. How she made money and how she survived is unclear. Will's and Lilly's story arc doesn't make too much sense. The constant preaching to Lilly by one or another character was a bit annoying. I loved Hairito.

There's a lot of hints of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter influence in the story (at least I felt that), which honestly I didn't mind. I am definitely invested in this world and will be looking forward to the next book.

Sadly not my kinda book. The cover definitely made me want to pick it and I’m grateful to have been approved to read it but it unfortunately didn’t work for me. Several aspects turned me off.

I received an advance review copy for free on Netgalley. However, I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

I was drawn to this book by its interesting description and stunning cover.It got off to a really good start, however, I found the pacing really slow and struggled to connect to the plot. The writing style was also pretty difficult to gel with, I’d say the first 70% was a massive info dump and the plot didn’t really pick up until the last 30%.

This book also had a few tropes that I don’t personally love, including the ‘chosen one’ narrative, forbidden romance and a world-saving quest. Although these are really fun, they’re just not for me and I feel like it’s been done so many times.

That being said, I really enjoyed the characters. They were entreating, dynamic and fleshed out. Particularly Lilly, who went on a journey of emotional growth throughout the boom which was really compelling to witness.

The world-building was also done very well and will completely draw you in. It’s a shame because I really really enjoyed the last 30% of the book, I found the magic system to be very interesting and intricate.

Overall, I thought that this was a really great debut, it had a lot of potential and, despite the execution falling short, I will definitely read more books from this author.

#Luminiferos #NetGalley

My review will not be based on the whole book - DNFed at 24%. I couldn’t get into this but I can’t pinpoint why- which leads me to think it’s a timing issue. I enjoy YA and I enjoyed the idea of the parallel worlds. I will try again at some point!

The cover of Luminiferos: The Omen of Light, the first novel in the Luminiferos series, immediately drew my eye and made me want to read it. I believe there will be seven novels in this series, which gives a lot of room to develop everything from the characters to the story. In this first novel, it does feel a little shaky as it tries to find its ground. I believe as the story moves forward, it will begin to feel more solid, so, even though, I have mixed feelings for this one, I think the rest, when they are available, would be worth a try. The story follows Lilly White, who is trying to find her place in a magical world after living in an orphanage since she was five for thirteen years. As the lives in the modern world, this magical world initially seems to exist only in her mind, but Lilly believes it is real.

The story’s world-building is interesting, although a little wordy in places. Some of it is told through dialogue, which threw me off a little, but was a nice way to introduce everything. As for the actual dialogue, though, there was a bit too much for my taste. Sometimes there would be pages of it and I feel it took me out of the story. The story also has a lot of telling over showing, this is especially true in a two-month time jump in the story where there is some telling to fill in the gaps. For me, this took me right out of the story as the reader loses connecting to any develop. Another element of the writing was an increased use of adjectives as there seemed to be tons per page. It was easy enough to picture everything, but I think a little more polish was needed to make it flow smoother.

As a character, Lilly was filled with self-doubt and anxiety as she goes through her journey. Since there are some moments that seem unrealistic given her age, I do wish her character was aged up slightly. Her inner dialogue, however, sometimes read a lot younger, so, for me, she was not quite consistent as a character. Since her story seemed to follow the “chosen one” trope, I feel there needed a little more set-up in the very beginning. I can see readers no finishing the story as it takes a bit to understand the reasons behind different events, which can be frustrating. Since I read the entire story, I think some of this initial set-up could be moved to earlier sections of the story and it would entice the reader to continue more than its current state. Overall, this series has a lot of potential and has a lot of room to grow. The novel itself has some polish needed, but it is off to a great start and a great introduction to the author.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, 1137 PRESS, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

I was intrigued by the synopsis and the magic system, but I found that I liked the book, I didn't love it. I think that the book just didn't fall into my taste, it was too dreamy and I'm not the biggest fan of this sub-genre. It reminded me of other books that I didn't finish, I think that if you like strange the dreamer or clockwork angels, you would probably like this book more than I did. It had a really stunning world and magic system, but I didn't like Lily all that much. I think the writing style of this book had lots of thoughts, each chapter felt oddly heavy, it felt like I was thrown into the world, with too much information that I didn't need to know, and the information I needed wasn't there. But I did love the details of the world itself, that was super fun to delve into. The book has a lot of potential, but it just isn't my taste.

Lily was too much of a dreamer for me, she was so hopeful that I thought some of her actions were just ill-informed. I couldn't get myself to like her. She felt passive, and I wish she would take initiative more. She was like a baby deer, but to be fair, it is a new world for her. But I did like her growth by the end of the book, and am hoping to see the growth for the books and Lily for this series.

I would love to read the next books and see the progression, I have hope that Lily will become a stronger character. Now that the world has also been established, I do believe that the next books will have less info dumps. If you like fantasy because of the world-building, you will like this book. There was lots of lore and myths in the book, the author was able to pull different myths into one book beautifully.

Although I found the premise of this book to be amazingly intriguing. I unfortunately could not bring myself to finish the book. There was too much information to take in right as the book began and not enough to detail given to draw the reader in. All in all, its a whimsical story about a character seeming to be stuck in the wrong realm/world and desperately is in search of their real home and family. Looking at some other reviews it seems that some other readers were able to thoroughly enjoy the book and makes me think that it might get better the farther into the story you dive.

This book is a bit of a heavy one. It makes you want to ponder some of the bigger questions in life - who you are, what makes you “you,” and how you respond to the world around you. Do you give in because things look bad, or do you keep fighting to make a better world?

I liked this book and found it generally enjoyable…but also it didn’t fully hold me. I never felt like I got attached to the characters in any way, the plot took a little too long to get moving and kept getting lost under the heavy-handed philosophizing, and the ending was a little confusing.

This is the first book in a series, and while I enjoyed my time with Luminiferos enough, I don’t know if I’ll be continuing with it. However, the cover is gorgeous and I do appreciate the message of the story a lot!

Writing style was not for me. I really wanted to enjoy it, but it just was too wordy for what set itself up as a modern fantasy

First at all thank you for the arc of this book

I requested this arc for the cover and I think that was a mistake
I was not into the book I dfn at 50%

This book was really interesting. For a fantasy novel it did not spend a lot of time world building, however you could still picture where you were with the characters. I really enjoyed the twists, the characters, and the story as a whole. I am excited to see where it goes and learn more about each of the characters in the next books!

Favorite quote: “For you, only good people exist tho whom bad things have happened.”
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I was initially attracted to this book by its cover and started reading it blindly only knowing it was fantasy. Ooh I was not disappointed. I could not put this book down. Some great tropes from found family and forced proximity. This book was absolutely enchanting and executed beautifully. The vivid descriptions, characters development and world building it was more than I could ever ask for. The different levels of worlds and magic was so intriguing. The main character Lilly White is a strong headed orphan that is determined to find her family and where she came from as she is convinced she is not from the human world and from a “parallel world”. She is eventually proven right that she is is not from the realm she has been living in for the past 7 years, but going back to where she is from didn’t goes as she thought it would. I have been left with so many questions. I cannot wait for the next book!!

Lilly White is looking for her parents and meaning in this fantasy book. After she is given a paper by a magical creature inviting her back to the land she has been searching for, she is thrown into a world filled with magic, evil, and hard decisions that will alter her life forever.
I gave this book 2/5 stars. I found the plot to be a bit basic and thought the events of the book were rushed. I didn't like the characters and thought that they acted annoying and didn't have normal dialogue. I feel like this book could be hard to follow at times because of how fast everything was happening. Overall, I didn't like this book but I like the cliffhanger at the end. However, I would not recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Luminiferous has such great world-building you can easily get lost. The characters are great as well, especially Lilly and the gargoyle. One of the great things about Lilly is she is actually likable, something that seems to be lacking in a lot of the books I have read lately. It is much more fun to read a story with a main character you root for. I am a huge fan of parallel worlds and such so this was right up my alley. Lastly, I have to say that the cover is stunning. This is an all-around enjoyable book and I look forward to reading more by this author.

DNF at 12%

Maybe, if I'd read this a couple of years ago, I'd have liked it more. But today, it sadly doesn't match my taste.
The synopsis promises adventure, the clash between different worlds, and the fusion of different genres. So far, it did show a glimpse of that, but it also have me a YA protagonist who says one thing but does the other and who feels like she could end up being a slightly awkward-ish Mary Sue. The plot so far felt very ... random, as did the writing style.
Overall, the book just didn't click with me so far, which is why I am dnf'ing it.

Thank you, NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the ARC. As always, my opinion hasn't been influenced by this in any way.

My favourite thing about this book was the authors world building. I could picture everything described and became fully immersed in this new world. I connected with the characters a lot, especially Lilly as I could relate a lot to her fears and emotions. The reason I’m only giving four stars is some sections felt a little young and wattpad-like to me, however this may just be my personal experience. If you are interested in fantasy novels full of adventures and twists I would definitely recommend this book for you. I never expected the ending, and can’t wait for the next book!

This follows Lilly, who has always believed she is from a parallel world from ours, but has never been able to find it, she only has dreams about it and her family where her mother is and who speaks to her. She doesn’t think she’ll ever return home until a little gargoyle appears one day with a message.

What I appreciated the most about this book is that it is unique. It has a unique world, a unique idea and story and reminded me of Alice in Wonderland at times, especially with the world that seemed a bit out there, and yet worked for this book.

At times, I was definitely confused and the plot seemed a bit disjointed at times, especially at the beginning, but once you get past that and the fact that this I think is supposed to be a bit like Alice in Wonderland where you’re wondering whether the main character is actually crazy and everything we’re reading is essentially made up in her mind, it’s really actually a good book, just could have had some points of it written a little more clearly.

The romance I really liked and thought it was very sweet and quite adorable. It’s a bit insta-love, however, I still really liked it. It might be because I liked the characters a lot, and Lilly actually thought before she acted. She never created unnecessary drama, especially when some big secrets spilled out. She starts to react emotionally and then stops and thinks and realizes despite the secret, she can work with it and thinks logically rather than emotionally. I really appreciated that about her character and is one of the reasons I gave this book a higher rating. A character who didn’t cause me to rip my hair out 😂

Overall, I think it’s a very interesting read and I get the impression there should be a sequel, so I look forward to seeing how it continues!

I received a free digital copy to read. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I do not know what to say about this book. I finished it a week ago, and I really fell in love with the world. The idea that there is an evil presence behind human nature is just so creative. Lilly's quest to find the Luminiferos was such a fun adventure. Also, I am a sucker for a "our last hope," heroine trope.

I personally would have liked more development with all the characters, and their relationships with each other. The instant love trope is not my favourite, so this is likely a personal bias. But all the characters seemed to lack some sort of development. Their connection to Lilly was so fast, I was very confused as to why Lilly considered them all her family. That being said, I love the found family trope and this book definitely has potential to develop this in the later books. Again, I would love to develop Lilly's relationship with Will. I love the forbidden love trope, I love the "touch her and you die" trope. It just seemed to come out of nowhere. I know this author plans on writing more books, so I am excited to see this story progress.


Overall, I am so happy I had the opportunity to ARC read this book. Cannot wait for the next book!

3,5 ⭐️ favorite quote of the book: “Emotion and thoughts… they just come and go. Be aware of them, watch them as if from a distance. But don’t let them to determine who you are.”
Enemy to lover, a fantastic world-building and a story filled with big plot twist.
The world-building of this book is incredible, the entire plot was so entertaining right from the start. It was filled with suspense and so many details. Sometimes I even thought they were too many of them for my liking. This book was very nice but I would have loved it even more if it had been divided into two books, a lot of things seemed to happen at once and I was a bit overwhelmed by it.
The characters written by Yana Metro are amazing, and each of them is super interesting. In fantasy novels, you usually meet these dreamy very perfect characters and even if Will does fit in this category, he is the only one. The others could have been actual real-life humans facing problems we could all come across in our day-to-day life. For example, burning out or losing all joy in life and needing a hand up for help.
One of the very reasons this book got three and a half stars and not four is because of three things. One, the chapters were too long and it was sometimes a bit much for me (because I can’t stop in between two chapters but I guess that’s a me problem haha). Two, everything felt a bit too magical in the way that the characters most certainly always found a way to resolve their problems. And the last one, THE MAIN CHARACTER IS BORN IN 2005!!! And now you might be asking, ‘But emi, why would this be a problem right?’ Well, my little sister is an 05 and it simply made me realize that I am growing older and I am no longer the same age as most main characters in ya fantasy and this is depressive…
Hahahah joke aside, this book was very good and super fun to read. The characters were so funny (Vesta and Darius are the best), and some made my heart skip a beat (Will I am talking about you darling). The end was completely mind-blowing and Metro managed to shock me throughout the entire book.
Last but not least, the cover is absolutely stunning. I love it so much and I want to get the final real version (and obviously the next book).