I did not finish this book (only got to about 25-30%) so please do not take it as a full impression of the book. My main issue was with the lack of dimension in the characters and plot. I had the impression that only the fmc and mmc would be receiving much attention later on, and I didn’t find the fmc very attractive to follow. I think this could be attributed to the writing, which in early stages I found to be stiff and had a repetitive sentence structure. This did become easier to read after a few chapters, but the inner monologue was so heavy-handed in terms of explaining everything very thoroughly and not allowing the reader space to interpret emotions and reflect on how previous events informed current perspectives. All the supporting characters are very one-dimensional, and more time could have been spent in this first third developing the setting more and making it seem more fantastical. I think the unique small coastal town setting had a lot of potential but descriptions were strangely focused on small, mundane details of objects that were only in that single scene? It was jarring to pay so much attention to a cupcake and not to the forest or beach or other surroundings.

Again, these are all things that may have improved leading further into the book but I wasn’t interested in continuing. I would aim this book for a younger audience, perhaps pre-teen and early teen years who might find it more relatable and enjoy the setting.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

I genuinely, genuinely wish I could say I loved this book. I've followed the author, Kiana, on twitter (X) for years now and was around to watch her get her publishing deal and announce the title, the cover, etc, etc, etc. I've waited for a long time for this novel and was one of the first people to receive an ARC when she first announced it was live on Netgalley on her twitter (I was approved for this book almost immediately). With that being said, I'm going to try to give this novel a proper critic and leave my opinions out of it... hopefully.

Let's start with what I liked:
The vibes/aesthetic. I'm not much of a girly-girl (I wish I was but I don't think that's my style/I don't think I'd look good in that style). I do like to dress up and have girly things though and I am also Asian (half Filipino and half-white) and I used to be a ballerina!!! So all around I felt like this book was made for me (aesthetically speaking)!!

Roisin is the best character in this whole novel. She's understanding and considerate and kept trying to be Lila's friend despite the events that transpired in the novel. (Lila would constantly not talk to Roisin about what was happening with her and the angel Damien).

Here is what I didn't like:
Basically the things I said I liked above, don't work in the long run. The vibes/aesthetic of the novel can only get you so far and I felt like the novel was so focused on these elements that it took away from the whole plot. Roisin, when you first meet her, talks about her girlfriend Nadine and how she's gone now and nobody knows what happens to her. The whole point of Roisin joining the pageant is so she can win to find out what happened to her. There was never enough urgency on Roisin's end about this though. She mentions it once or twice but then doesn't get upset with Lila who is also actively trying to win the pageant for her own reasons (? I honestly don't know why Lila wanted to win. It kind of felt like she wanted to win out of spite because Damien told her not too). I understand that Roisin wanted a friend of her own but it always felt like a very one sided friendship since Lila would often run away from Roisin or not tell her what she was upset about or snap at her for the smallest things etc. etc. etc.

A lot of the novel was also really repetitive with Lila chasing after Damien over and over and over. Or, like I already mentioned with Lila running away from Roisin. Or just in general running away from her problems. Lila's self-loathing and self-pitying was also a constant theme of the story. She would think about, constantly, what a horrible "monster" she was. There were two lines (really the same line) that I felt didn't match with the vibe of the story presented to us. Lila mentions twice that she would slit her throat or in the other case slit her fathers throat. Both lines happened very suddenly and felt like they came out of nowhere. With the line where she was talking about her father, we still hadn't even learned as the reader why she was so angry at her parents and all the clues we'd received up until then didn't really add up. Admittedly, my parents were also not the best at showing their love (still aren't honestly) and my mom in particular often berated me and my siblings constantly (and still does on occasion) about the things we do that she doesn't like. But it honestly didn't sound like that the incident with Lila and her parents was that bad at that point for her to say a line like this. Even I've never thought about hurting my parents like that despite what they've done to me (speaking from experience where I've been hit with various objects). When you do find out what happened (she tried to choke her mother and apparently drew blood) it didn't have the kind of affect on me I think it was meant to have. It also didn't seem very believable. Lila mentioned she thought she killed her mom when she did this but the force required to do that plus the time length would have to be very long and it sounded like her dad intervened quickly. It is still, obviously, a very traumatic thing to do and experience but I just anticipated more I guess. The way Lila vaguely talked about it made it sound like there was A LOT of blood.

I also can't get over the fact that she never ACTUALLY reconciles with her parents. We never physically meet them in the story to get that kind of closure about everything. Lila merely receives a letter from them where she finds out they sent audition tapes of hers to the ballet school of Paris and...? That's another confusing thing. Audition tapes feel like the first step I was under the impression there was more you had to do like interviews and an in-person audition etc. Maybe I'm wrong but I thought it was A LOT harder to get into ballet schools of that caliber.

I also don't understand the comparison to Phantom of the Opera (something I adore) because Lila is a dancer, not a singer, and she doesn't feel drawn to the Devil (who I assume is meant to be the "Phantom" in this situation). She's drawn to him but not in an "I love you" kind of way more like against her will. The comparison is really far fetched for me

While the premise of this book sounded really unique with coquette cult vibes, it fell flat and just didn't deliver like I had hoped as the blurb had me really excited for the potential.

This story felt so repetitive more often than not with the same lines and descriptions being used. I can see that the author was clearly looking to write a whimsical and prose-filled story, but instead it translated into constant and unnecessary descriptions that kept using the same flowery language and made me skim so much of the story. It's clearly supposed to be an aesthetic story, but it left it boring with characters I couldn't come to care about and overall a story that just was a big disappointment.

Lila gave me such whiplash as she was constantly back and forth between thinking herself powerful and thinking everyone hates her. And it's not just a few times in the whole story, but it could be back and forth like this in just one chapter and it got old very fast. The magic didn't make much sense, especially since somehow she's powerful enough to take on this all-powerful being and it was all very anticlimactic. Damien's story was boring and somehow he loved her immediately despite them barely spending time together and none of it made sense to me and I truly don't think I've care for a love interest less than I have this one. This book was superficial with a weak plot, characters that I never could find it in me to care about, and a love interest with family trauma where Lila was quick to physically abuse him herself despite her trying to relate to him.

I had high hopes for what I thought was going to be a unique and fresh story with coquette and whimsical vibes and a deep, dark plot to uncover with dance magic. But all it is is a pretty picture with no substance and an easily forgettable story that's simply catering to trends.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Peachtree Teen for granting me an ARC of this book!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 3.5

I’m debating whether that should be rounded of to 4 stars in Goodreads official ratings but for now I’m keeping it at 3 stars 😆

Dance of the Starlit Sea by Kiana Krystle is a YA paranormal/fantasy romance set in the modern world in the fictional island of Luna Island.

This is the story of Lila Rose Li (that’s Lee-lah btw just fyi lol), an ex-ballerina with a mysterious past who was banished by her parents, due to something really bad she did, to Luna Island. There she stays with her aunt Laina and soon discovers that there was more to Luna Island than meets the eye.

A mysterious island, unfamiliar people, and a pageant to become the Angel of the Sea. Oh, and how could I forget the angels? ☁️

This book is strong on the aesthetics and heavy on the poetic or lyrical writing. Soft on the vibes but contains some bit of heavy themes, not too much but still there. I don’t think they were treated very well with care, though. Love the SEA representation most of all, since I'm a SEA myself! 🇵🇭

Chaotic thoughts incoming!!!!!! 😆🤣

The synopsis really caught my attention and the cover as well. They both exude a whimsical vibe and I do love books with romance and fantasy and competitions so I was like, I’m in!

This was my first time reading the author and I haven’t read from her before which was why I was also excited. I love discovering new authors and going in blindly in their books; I rarely look at reviews before I start reading and I didn’t before reading this one.

I think I get what the author was trying to do here, with the writing I mean. The story itself is not so bad and I actually enjoyed the ✨aesthetics✨ of it all lol in fact this book is just that: it’s full of aesthetics and written around it so much and there were times that it worked for me but I feel like it’s too much 😅 that it just became all ‘feels and vibes and atmosphere’ that it got quite confusing??

Like, I get being descriptive to establish the setting (e.g., hot warm bath in a clawfoot tub with lavender essential oils and the window showing the moon and the stars and the calm night, this sounds soooo relaxing and I’d want to have it lol but while not exactly written like this in the book, I still asked myself how did we get here? What’s the importance of this if not for the author’s self fulfillment maybe?? 🤔🤣🙈), but sometimes it feels over-the-top, too much, or unnecessary.

There were some hidden gems in there but how should I put it… it was like there were pretty good lines and dialogues on there that made me go ‘wow’ but put together without a solid context/groundwork to support them, it just didn’t work for me 🙈 also, this book is set in modern times like we have what seemed to be like hundreds of mentions of coffin nails or stiletto nails more like it lmfao, but like there were times when the writing changes tone as if it was a medieval fantasy romance and I was just thrown off by that.

Also, I didn’t feel connected to Lila. She seems like another one of the ‘not like other girls’ archetype and while I loved reading about them especially on Wattpad, I don’t think it worked for me in this book. I could clearly guess what Lila had ‘mysteriously’ done before but being ‘punished’ for it by being thrown in an island with a distant and forgotten relative instead of trying to solve it and be better by seeking professional help from a therapist???? I’m not a fan of her parents either 😭

I think I liked the other characters, even Damien. Reading them felt strange because I didn’t feel like their personalities shone through past the basic ‘mysterious love interest’, ‘supportive bff’, ‘mean girls’, etc.

I read Dance of the Starlit Sea with another book (Circe by Madeline Miller, also: yes, I read multiple books at a time sorrynotsorry 😆) that was written in the way I think what the author of this book meant to. For comparison, this book like I mentioned before contained poetic writing and descriptive language, similar to Circe. Individually, they read okay and actually liked them. Again, one by one 😆. But in Circe, it’s actually purposeful because of the nature of the book. It’s a Greek retelling and the first pov main character is a goddess who lived in ancient times.

The writing in Circe was also clear even as it was littered with beautiful passages and they all meant something when put together. In this book, I had a hard time knowing where the characters are, what the purpose of each scene was, what the characters were doing, and what’s supposed to be going on. The pacing was also not to my liking, but once I get used to a scene I quickly got into the groove. I think. It was the complete opposite in Circe.

Basically, I think the poetic writing was not utilized well which resulted in a non coherent narrative that read like a smorgasbord of pretty passages that didn’t go well together nor did they add anything substantial to the plot or any character development.

Maybe it’s the editing that needed more focus? I feel like the book would benefit more if there were some more added to each scene so they wouldn’t read very long without anything important going on at all. The facts could also use more polishing because I get that mystery elevates a story but confusing writing doesn’t.

Anyway all in all I think I get what this book is about and how it was meant to be perceived as. I would love to read an aesthetic writing that would fit in more with certain heavier themes of this book, like a dark storytelling with beautiful prose.

A lot of potential this book has and I’m really grateful for the chance to read it in advance.

I really liked this retelling of phantom of the opera very cute and I will be recommending it to others. It was well written and had a hard time putting it down.

I really wanted to love this. The cover is so extremely beautiful, and it drew me in and the synopsis told of a great story line but the execution fell very short for me.

I was unable to get emotionally involved in this book at all. It seemed to focus way more on aesthetics , descriptions, and the FMCs nails than the actually story line, which was bland and was everywhere. It was so confusing. I have no idea what this story was even meant to be and I just finished it.

I did not like Lila at all. She just didn't seem genuine at all and how she treated Damien was terrible. Isn't he the love interest? She didn't treat him like she even liked him. The character development was lacking, and Lila really needed it and both her and Damien were so one dimensional and he had no personality other than being an angel and liking Lila. And Lila founds out she has magic and is way to chill about it.

Lila's strangling of her mother because of ballet was just insane. And was there a reason for Lila's aunt to exist other than to house and atttempt to give support for her emotionally unstable neice after she strangled her mother?

The entire book after Lila wins the pageant is just so crazy to me. I did not enjoy any of it. The big "climax" of the story was just a major let down. Lila is just insanely unstable and needs to go through a million therapy sessions and realize that she's got a lot wrong with her that she needs to work on. Because why is she out here throwing tantrums, destroying the island, and BEATING her boyfriend? Very much overkill.

Roisin was the only good thing in this book. She actually cared for Lila for some reason and I wish that this relationship was explored more. Lila did not deserve Roisin. Roisin wanting to win the pageant to find out what happened to her missing girlfriend was sweet, and then you get to Lila wanting to win because she wanted popularity.

I was really excited for this book. However it fell a little flat. It had so much promise with the stories it was compared to, but I don't feel like it executed very well and I just couldn't get past the poor editing. 2.5 stars 🌟

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

First off, lets start with what I loved. I loved the depiction of girlhood in this book. It is one of my favorite themes, a theme I am very passionate about, and I feel like it was executed really well! I also really loved the darker elements to this book. I think the juxtaposition between the coquette island vibe and the horror leaning element was really interesting and unique! I certainly have not read anything like it before and I found that very refreshing! I am always on the lookout for unique stories so I'm glad this one delivered in that aspect. I also enjoyed the romance in this book but I felt like I couldn't connect to Damien (the male love interest) 100% which may be due to the author's focus on aesthetics in this book over character work and plot details. I normally love descriptive writing, but I feel like there were points in this book where the writing was over done. The descriptions of things like what they wore and what they ate were too much for me at times and took away from the story, and they were also quite repetitive. Which going off of that, I feel like this book was a lot more of "no plot, just vibes" than I am a fan of usually. Now my cons for this book may be pros to someone else (purple prose flowery writing, no plot just vibes) so if that still sounds like a good time to you I would definitely recommend!

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Dance of the Starlit Sea by Kiana Krystle is a first person-POV YA contemporary romantic fantasy. When Lila is sent to Luna Island to live with her aunt, she gives up ballet and declares she will never dance again. A recent accident keeps her away from performances and what she loves, until she learns of a pageant on the island to find the new Priestess of Luna Island, a priestess who serves angels.

One of the more interesting parts of this was that Lila was born on Luna Island but was raised in San Francisco. She doesn’t have a strong connection to the pageant or the island’s particular culture and forges a connection with her new friend Roisin. Roisin’s ex-girlfriend, Nadine, was the last Priestess before she burnt up. Roisin is entering the contest to learn what happened to Nadine and Lila enters as well to support Roisin.

Lila’s love interest is an angel with black wings named Damien. Damien is the son of the leader of the angel commune and doesn’t mix much with humans, spending most of their time among themselves. There’s some light magic that the angels perform but most of the magical elements stem from the Devil who has power around Luna Island. The angels and demons aren’t really tied to Biblical elements but more to horror-ish ideas and traditional battles of good and evil.

I would recommend this to readers looking for an Asian-American ballerina lead, fans of YA fantasy that has softer magic systems, and those looking for a contemporary fantasy with some more traditional elements.

The premise sounded so good and interesting but then I find myself pushing myself to read it.. I really don't want to be negative about it but really made me sad because I had high hopes for this one

FR
Tout d'abord, je tiens à remercier NetGalley et Peachtree Teen pour l'ARC de ce livre.
Quand j'ai entendu parler de ce livre la première fois, on m'a dit que c'était de la fantasy, que la protagoniste était une danseuse de ballet; alors, les deux combinés, j'étais extrêmement impatiente de me plonger dans ce livre.
Et malheureusement… Je fus grandement déçue…
Ce n'était pas du tout ce à quoi je m'attendais. Je n'ai ni aimé les personnages, l'endroit, la façon dont certain.e.s parlent; l'histoire.. Vraiment, une grosse déception..
Et à noter qu'il y a également des cw; mais qu'ils sont facilement trouvables !

ENG
First of all, I want to thank NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for the ARC of this book.
When I first heard about this book, I was told it was fantasy, that the protagonist was a ballet dancer; so, the two combined, I was extremely excited to delve into this book.
And unfortunately... I was greatly disappointed...
It wasn't at all what I expected. I didn't like the characters, the place, the way some people speak; the story... Really, a big disappointment...
And note that there are also cw; but they can be easily found !

This book was described as a Hades and Persephone meets Phantom of the Opera story, which are HUGE shoes to fit. Both of those stories are some of my favorite, and Phantom of the Opera IS my favorite story of all time. So, I came into this book with the biggest expectations. First, it's astounding how this made it past editing at all. She needs a new editor, agent, and/or publishing company because my high school students could edit this better. That part wasn't really her fault, but the lack of world building and the writing style are. I think I was extra critical of her writing style and the story telling because of her self-proclaimed comparisons, but I didn't like it. Ultimately, I DNF'd around the 45% mark.

“You aren’t your worst moments.”

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me have an eARC of this book for an honest review! I loved this book. I loved the whole idea of forgiving yourself and self love and letting yourself be loved despite all your darknesses. I loved the idea of the Devil being the Phantom and Damien being Raoul. Roisin was so cute and sweet and had every capability of being the mean girl who tried to sabotage Lila. Except she was this super sweet girl who understood Lila’s pain. Damien was super sweet with this dark secret and helps Lila start to understand that she can be everything she is and still be loved. Even if she doesn’t realize it til the end. This book is all about self-acceptance and realizing that we are not our worst parts. I loved this book and absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of it.

This book had such a promising premise. I was expecting something dark, mysterious, magical, and tragic since the story describes itself as “Hades and Persephone” meets “Phantom of the Opera.” However, I was greatly disappointed. The writing was overly descriptive. The author uses a lot of metaphors, similes, and flowery expressions. Although at times, it does create a strong imagery relevant to the story, majority of the time, it just additional words that became repetitive and tedious to read.

In addition to the writing, the plot was also very inconsistent. For example, there is a scene in the novel where our main character, Lila, witness a horrific ritual of a girl on an alter surrounded by angels. She runs away, but later encounters our male angel, Damien, where she than learns about the reason behind the pageant. She is then offered an Angel Fruit, which is basically a psychedelic to humans to help them forget to the point where all they feel is euphoria. However, she ends up remembering certain memories of that day. This is where the plot just kind of broke down for me. Why would Lila even consider eating a fruit offered by an angel after witnessing the horrific event? Why would she even participate in the pageant when she remembers running from an incident that might have been a sacrifice? Also, later on it was mentioned that she didn’t remember the ritual until after the Faith trial. That made no sense, because in earlier chapters it was hinted, she might remember snippets of it. Other things that didn’t make sense in the novel was the lore. Why would Lucifer want to destroy the island he loved so much? It seemed like he was happy being human on the island. If anything, I feel bad for him being trapped in the sea after saving his brothers and sisters. It was just never explained what made him truly a demon.

Besides the plot, the characters are also under developed. Lila is just pure guilt and self-loathing. At first you can kind of sympathize with her. What Asian child haven’t felt the pressure and disappointment of not living up to their parents’ expectations. I mean all she wanted was to be respected and loved. However, as the story progressed you would expect the character to self-reflect and develop over time, but that is not the case in Lila’s situation. Even though there are moments of revelation where she acknowledges that she is enough, these moments are very short lived, because in the next sentence/paragraph she is back to being angsty. It’s very exhausting to read. Then you find out what happened between Lila and her mother, and I can’t help thinking to myself, what she really needs is intensive therapy and not be sent to an island. As for Damien, I felt the author really didn’t do his character justice. He was just there to support and dance with Lila. Damien went through so much with his family, especially with his abusive father, and yet this sensitive topic was never fully discussed in the story. The author brings up a lot of sensitive topics, but never fully address them, which is a shame. I felt it was important for the characters to talk about these issues, and not just brush it aside and move on. There is also romance in this story, but I honestly don’t understand why they like each other. There is no foundation.

Overall, this story did not live up to my expectations. As stated previously, the writing, the plot, and the characters were just so underwhelming and not well developed. Even the ending was just ridiculous. I am sorry, but you can’t solve everything through magical dancing. I felt the author spend too much time on the aesthetics of the story, and because of that, everything else just suffered. Honestly, I was really excited to read this story, but in the end, it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers (Holiday House/Peachtree/Pixel+Ink) for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Dance of the Starlit Sea by Kiana Krystle drew me in with a fun premise and stunning cover but did have a few notable hiccups.

What I loved
1. The poetic style of the prose was very reminiscent of Lani Taylor, an author I love dearly
2. Our main character dealing with being effectively banished from her caregivers for what is fairly normal young adult behavior was heartbreakingly relatable.
3. Pacing for character arcs and overall plot development was handled well.
What didn't work for me?
1. The dialogue does not work at all with the character's personalities as presented or the author's chosen style of prose.
2. The hades and Persephone comparison didn't come through for me.
Who I would recommend this title for
Dance of the Stalit Sea will likely be an enjoyable read for fans of works like The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin.

I was able to make it 25% of the way through this book before I gave up.

This book is incredibly poorly written and needs to be heavily edited or not published at all.

Krystle uses way too much purple prose and needs to tone down on the thesaurus use. I'm also confused about the entire premise of this island as it makes zero sense. I have no idea why the main character would just buy into the magic of the place after spending a day there. The dialogue does not sound like actual human conversation and seemed like it was lifted from poorly written fanfiction. The characters are als shaping up to be incredibly one dimensional including the tired stereotype of a mean girl.

I will mention this book as part of my July wrap up on TIk tok but otherwise won't publish any reviews as I don't like publishing reviews of books I technically didn't finish.

I didn't finish this book, I stopped reading 25% in.
I really wanted to love this book. I adore the Hades & Persephone dynamic, and I was excited to see how it was done in this story, but unfortunately, I didn't make it very far into the plot. I don't think this is a horrible book, I just knew three sentences in that this writing style was not for me. The only way I know to describe it is that I just think there's too much of a focus on the aesthetic of it all. I didn't feel connected to the main character at all, partly due to the writing and partly because she was simply annoying in my eyes. Maybe she gets better later on, I didn't want to risk it. The love interest... I'm sure he's interesting. At some point. I didn't get that far.
All in all, I didn't see anything in the writing or plot that made me wanna stick around.

It pains me to write this review, and I will try to be as critical as possible without hurting anybody's feelings because, after all, authors put their time and soul into writing books, especially debut novels. However, I hope the author takes into consideration the reviews, even the bad ones because they will always be part of their career, but they can also help make the next book awesome.

"Dance of the Starlit Sea" has an appealing cover that captures the audience's attention. It also has an eye-catching synopsis, encouraging readers to give the book a chance. However, beyond the visual appeal, the story itself needs some revision and editing.
The book follows the story of Lila Rose, a former ballerina who was banished from her home by her parents for "misbehaving" against her mother. She is sent to live with her aunt on a magical island where angels exist and the people there host a pageant to choose a sacrifice to worship the angels, introducing a cult-like theme.

Readers' initial impressions of the book change quickly after the first chapter. I must say that the concept of the cult island seems unrealistic, and despite the overwritten prose, the protagonist also seems quite erratic with the whole "pick me girl" idea that gets out of control. I don't think the book lives up to its marketing references, such as "Hades and Persephone meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone" and "Inspired by the Phantom of the Opera." As a big fan of all three inspirations, I don't see any of those references reflected in the book. Moreover, the promised aesthetics from the cover and description do not come through in the dialogue. I go as far as comparing it with the dialogue that dubbed movies use, which never seems to make sense with what's going on in the movie.

I wish the author success with the next book, and I hope her editing team improves.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF.
While the cover was gorgeous, I couldn't get very far before I had to stop.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of this book.

Dance of the Starlit Sea described itself as being Hades and Persephone meets The Phantom of the Opera by way of Laini Taylor, and that was enough to sell me on this title. I love all 3 of those things! Unfortunately, that's not quite what was delivered with this book.

While the ideas and concepts themselves were interesting, the execution fell flat. I might not be a ballerina, but I am a Chinese immigrant who understands much of what Lila Rose Li struggles with. Striving for perfection to repay those who fought tooth and nail to create a life in a foreign country, the feeling of not belonging, learning who you are when you aren't trying to meet other people's expectations. These are all powerful themes, but they did not mesh well with the wish-fulfillment, pastel Barbie dream aesthetic. Taking a step back from that beautiful dream and having Lila's jaded outsider perspective notice how things are off—discordant, strange, rotting beneath the spun-sugar veneer—would've added tension while parallelling Lila's own inner darkness. Sure, Lila notices weird things happening on the island, but she is perfectly comfortable stepping back into boy talk over tea with her new friend Roisin.

This book loves to make references to Persephone, and there was a perfect opportunity to examine the stifling weight of being forced to remain in girlhood as your parents' obedient child when it's time to emerge from that chrysalis into adulthood. It didn't really do that, instead focusing on giving Lila everything she could ever want as she outshines every other girl on this picture-perfect island without even trying. All of her triumphant Persephone one-liners subsequently fall flat.

The writing is so determined to deliver a very intricate aesthetic that it veers into purple prose territory instead. When presented with all of these fantastical details, I end up distracted, taken out of the story. My brain starts to wonder in disbelief how anything on this island functions, even if the story handwaves it all away as being "thanks to the angels." Compared to a book like The Night Circus, which similarly uses long passages of fantastical prose to create atmosphere, Starlit Sea was unable to capture me. The dialogue felt unnatural, and the character beats felt random rather than organically developed. Lila's relationship with Damien seemed to flip back and forth with no rhyme or reason. Events were repetitive as Lila would see something and run off, with either her aunt or Roisin asking after her without pressing for details, every 1-2 business days. She would attend a tea party, try on a new dress, and fight with Damien before doing it all over again.

If Krystle would cut some of the fluff for more meaningful character development and a thoughtful deconstruction of girlhood underneath the frills, that would go a long way in helping the book feel like it is building up to its climax. There is a powerful story here, but it unfortunately needs to be polished and cut a lot more before it can truly shine.