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A review by the_ya_assassin
Luminous by Mara Rutherford
4.0
Thank you to Mara Rutherford and Inkyard Press for sending me an ARC to read and give an honest review.
"I was lost, even before the tapestry. I was afraid of myself, of what I might become. And you found me. You were my light in the darkness."
This book was an enjoyable, fast read! If you enjoyed Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo, this is a book for you! It had many parallels to the S&B trilogy, including the childhood friends to lovers romance, a Mal (Evran in Luminous), a Darkling (Darius), an Alina (Liora), a Shadow Fold (the Shadow Tapestry), Margana is like the Darkling's mother, and the Lusiri were like the animal Amplifiers Alina and Mal were hunting.
Pretty much this is what goes on: Liora, our main character, has been told to hide her magic her whole life because if she doesn't, Darius, the king's warlock, will take her magic to grow his own power. Instead of taking her magic, he takes her little sister, Mina. And the only person who knows about her human glowstick magic is Evran, her childhood friend, who falls into the Shadow Tapestry. She has to save him to stop Darius from allowing the shadow world in the Tapestry devour their whole world. Liora must embrace her suppressed magic to help save the world.
The plot was pretty predictable. There were a few moments I was questioning who was really the antagonist and some of the twists were surprising. The world-building and characters were kind of bland The worldbuilding would've been better if Rutherford had better developed the setting versus only describing what Liora interacted with. I also thought the inclusion of mythology was just thrown in since it was only mentioned once throughout the entire book. I wish Rutherford had elaborated on the magic system - there was so much potential to make this a truly complex magic system. Alas . . .
There was also a lot more telling than showing which is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to books. It would've been more impactful to the story if Rutherford had described how Liora felt by showing her emotions versus saying she felt "guilty" or "sad". This would've better developed her as a character and made the story-telling stronger.
Overall, though, the story itself was enjoyable which is why I give it 3.5 stars.
"I was lost, even before the tapestry. I was afraid of myself, of what I might become. And you found me. You were my light in the darkness."
This book was an enjoyable, fast read! If you enjoyed Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo, this is a book for you! It had many parallels to the S&B trilogy, including the childhood friends to lovers romance, a Mal (Evran in Luminous), a Darkling (Darius), an Alina (Liora), a Shadow Fold (the Shadow Tapestry), Margana is like the Darkling's mother, and the Lusiri were like the animal Amplifiers Alina and Mal were hunting.
Pretty much this is what goes on: Liora, our main character, has been told to hide her magic her whole life because if she doesn't, Darius, the king's warlock, will take her magic to grow his own power. Instead of taking her magic, he takes her little sister, Mina. And the only person who knows about her human glowstick magic is Evran, her childhood friend, who falls into the Shadow Tapestry. She has to save him to stop Darius from allowing the shadow world in the Tapestry devour their whole world. Liora must embrace her suppressed magic to help save the world.
The plot was pretty predictable. There were a few moments I was questioning who was really the antagonist and some of the twists were surprising. The world-building and characters were kind of bland The worldbuilding would've been better if Rutherford had better developed the setting versus only describing what Liora interacted with. I also thought the inclusion of mythology was just thrown in since it was only mentioned once throughout the entire book. I wish Rutherford had elaborated on the magic system - there was so much potential to make this a truly complex magic system. Alas . . .
There was also a lot more telling than showing which is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to books. It would've been more impactful to the story if Rutherford had described how Liora felt by showing her emotions versus saying she felt "guilty" or "sad". This would've better developed her as a character and made the story-telling stronger.
Overall, though, the story itself was enjoyable which is why I give it 3.5 stars.