Lightlark by Alex Aster

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

First off, let me make one thing clear. This review is in no way promoting my own book. I’m writing this as a reader who picked up Lightlark expecting deadly games, magical stakes, and a twisty polyamorous romance and came away blinking into the void wondering what the hell just happened.

I do love polyamorous romance. Hell, I AM polyamorous. I’m married to a golden retriever of an American. He is all sunshine, loyalty, and boy-next-door charm. And I’m dating a black cat of a Korean man. Sharp, calculating, emotionally guarded, and somehow always judging me from across the room while holding my hand. So yes, I know what healthy, complex, delicious poly dynamics look like. What I got in this book was a half-hearted love triangle written like someone skimmed a fanfiction summary and called it chemistry. If you are not fully aware of what a poly relationship, please do some research before attempting to write about one. There are a plethora of polyamorous couples who are willing to discuss any respectful question. There was no emotional development. No believable connection. Just eyes meeting and apparently now we’re ready to die for each other. Excuse me? It was all tell, no show, and entirely devoid of tension.

Isla Crown is supposed to be dangerous. A ruler of a cursed realm. A secret wielder of power. A player in a deadly game. She is introduced as cunning and powerful, but what I got was someone making decisions like she wandered in from a CW teen drama. She trusts people without reason. She spills secrets like she is narrating a diary. She flips from skeptical to emotionally attached in the span of a chapter. I kept waiting for her to step into the role of morally gray strategist. Instead, she acts like a protagonist in a low-budget fantasy romance where survival depends on vibes and hot guys.

The writing style tries to be poetic. It is not. It is short. Choppy. Dramatic. Over and over again. Every sentence feels like it was styled for maximum aesthetic and minimum emotional impact. The metaphors are heavy, the rhythm disjointed, and the pacing suffers for it. It is less lyrical and more like the book is trying to convince itself it has depth. At times, it genuinely felt like the story had been filtered through a Pinterest board of quotes. That kind of writing only works when the emotional stakes back it up. Here, it just made the shallow moments feel even more hollow.

And the romance. I sighed. One brooding, morally ambiguous man with secrets. I can get behind this, if done correctly. One golden, charming alternative who exists purely to create a triangle. Neither had depth. Neither had real chemistry with Isla. The dynamic was meant to feel intense. It felt like a YA checklist. One moment Isla is conflicted and cautious. The next she is kissing someone she barely knows with the weight of destiny behind it. There was no tension. No build. Just plot convenience disguised as passion.

The plot twist at the end could have worked. It wanted to be clever. It wanted to shock me. It did not. It felt rushed, poorly foreshadowed, and emotionally empty. A twist only works when the groundwork has been carefully laid. Here, it felt like the story suddenly remembered it needed a climax and threw one in before the final chapter.

And yes. I read the second and third books. I do not quit easily. I kept waiting for the worldbuilding to settle. For Isla to grow into her power. For the romance to make sense. For the plot to deliver on all the drama it promised. None of that happened. By the end of the third book, I felt like I had sat through a three-season show that never figured out what it wanted to be. The stakes stayed low. The emotional arcs went nowhere. The resolution was as unsatisfying as the beginning.

I wanted to love this series. The concept is brilliant:

A cursed island.

Dangerous rulers.

Magic, betrayal, temptation.

It had the bones of something truly great. But the execution felt like it had been written for a trailer instead of a story. Lightlark is pretty on the outside and empty on the inside. It is Instagram fantasy. All glitter, no grit.

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Questions and Answers

Would I recommend it?

Only if you are curious, patient, and not expecting emotional payoff. Otherwise, admire the cover and leave it on the shelf.

How would I have made it different?

What needed to change the most?

Why did it need to change?

What should Isla have been?

What would have fixed the romance?

What could the plot have done better?

Could this have been good?

Would I read a rewrite?