i can forgive a book for being bad if it then means ill be able to hate read but i can't forgive one for being boring.

i picked this one not just for the cover (which is absolutely stunning) but also because the premise promised a fantasy with philosophy and i got 25% into the book and am wondering where the philosophy is. we maybe got one mention of plato in passing but that was it which was very disappointing

in fantasy worlds, especially when the mc is also being introduced to the world i get wanting to have her and the readers understand what's going on but when you have 2 chapters full of info dumping about the world and exposition and a history lesson and have nothing happen it extremely difficult to keep going i could not do it i was gonna cry if i saw one more never ending paragraph explaining something. and the world was interesting don't get me wrong but it was too much tells and not enough show

the main character lilly feels like a passive character in her own story she does almost nothing. she gets invited to this world and has to go with this gargoyle who saves her and the journey to this world was so ?????? to put it eloquently (/s) she meets someone while going there they tell her she can't go in with the gargoyle she says please they let her in. now copy and paste that 3 times. she's always GETTING saved, BEING told stuff never does SHE do anything (maybe she does later on but im not reading any more to know)

Came for the cover. stayed for gargoyle.

This was a very fun fantasy read and I can't remember the last time I had so much fun reading a book. I wasn't a fan of the remonce (but I never am I), but loved the world building and the plot.

I’d like to start off by saying that this story has so much potential, the execution wasn’t amazing though. I found myself flip flopping between being invested and utterly confused with what was going on. The first half of the book was really heavy on the world building/info dumping but was very tell not show as others have mentioned. Certain characters lacked development (especially the love interests and main deceiver) and I felt like entire relationships between characters changed with little information/description as to why or what happened. I can tell that the author has envisioned a beautiful world and story, and the cover is lush! Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for giving me an arc in return for an honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of this book. Below is my honest review.

Lilly White is convinced that she is from a parallel world but no one believes her. She thinks, even after growing up unloved in an orphanage in England, that she has a living family in the other world. She sees them in visions and dreams. After a particularly frightening dream, Lilly fears the worst for her mother.

One day, after being kicked out of her apartment for paying her rent late one too many times, a benign gargoyle brings Lilly a note from the keeper of the portal keys. The parallel world is real and she has an invitation to travel there.

At the portal, she meets William C. J. Raven who takes her to the spirit world. Lilly has two options—stay in the human world or leave. Either way, her choice is permanent. She leaves with Will and Hairito, her benign gargoyle.

In this spirit world, Lilly is assigned a mentor named Aisha, who a witch. She studies and trains all while searching for her family.

Will she find her parents and brother? Will the looming danger pass? Will she figure out her gift? Will she quit and go back to the human world?

This book was … okay. The first chapter was captivating but I soon lost interest. The writing style felt a bit simplistic and there was much too much info dumping. Although I wasn’t a fan of her name, Hairito was by far my favorite character. The others were likable but no one really stood out. I saw several of the twists coming.

Let's begin with the good things:
The author's descriptions of the setting made for vivid images in my mind and I enjoyed the stream of consciousness type narration. The background of the MC was presented clearly. The cover art is beautiful, and I love the title!

Now we will get into the other less pleasant stuff:
I found that while I often liked the language used by the author, the dialogue and interactions fell so flat. I could have liked this book much better had the interactions felt more realistic or if there was more of a focus on getting the reader to feel something rather than know something. It made for a strange experience while reading a fantasy novel, because there was next to no immersion for me. Readers do not want to be told everything so plainly. It is the difference between saying a character is feeling nervous directly and describing the feeling in their stomach or pounding heartbeat instead. The latter makes for a more enjoyable immersive experience.

Thank you Yana Metro, Netgalley and Books Go Social, for this free ARC in exchange for a review.

Unfortunately, as others have mentioned, the book suffers from too much telling instead of showing. I also found that the characters lacked distinct personalities. So I was unable to finish the book.

Sadly, this book wasn't for me, which is a shame as it's one I was really looking forward to! I just couldn't get into the world building or connect to the main character - for me, it just felt almost too descriptive ("The lush evergreen world, where nature is alive and forests have souls? The world where trees have spirits? The world parallel to this one? Does it exist?") - so many adjectives being used, and it would have been nicer to have been shown how wonderful this place was rather than told.
On the subject of 'parallel', the phrase 'parallel world' was used 22 times in the first 44 pages (sometimes 3 times on the same page) which was just so off-putting and unnecessarily repetitive.
I found myself getting quite frustrated with Lilly's inner dialogue also.

Overall, the narrative and writing led to a DNF for me

Thank you to Yana Metro/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review

3.6 (rounded up to 4) out of 5 stars.

I don’t like leaving books bad ratings when it was a personal reason why I had to DNF it- which unfortunately I did at 68%.

The beautiful cover and description totally caught me for this read! Going into it, I was pretty excited about how it would play out. I was sort of expecting something like ‘Narnia’ or ‘The Light Between Worlds’ where you are given a character who has lived this spectacular life in another world, only to go back to their normal one and things are- bland and they want nothing more than to return whatever the cost.

It wasn’t solely like that, but close to it. I think the concept/idea was all there, really interesting. I just, personally, couldn’t get behind the characters, the pacing, and the writing so much.

It’s definitely a trope-y/cliche-y book. It has your usual ‘chosen one’, ‘save the world!’, love interest with A Past’, low-key ‘forbidden love’ feel. Personally, I feel like the romance arc of things moved a bit too quickly. In general, the book had little skips that avoided some details I wish would’ve actually been played out.
There’s a dance suddenly sprung in that I don’t remember being brought up until the chapter it happens which didn’t make sense to me (unless I missed a mention of it which could be possible!). You’re told that a Little Bad (minor (?) bad character) *does* something bad, but you don’t *see* them do the bad. You’re told the love interest is cold and harsh and then suddenly he’s in love with the main character.
Yana Metro does a lot of ‘tell don’t show’ rather than ‘show don’t tell’ which I think was a major losing factor for me. I love it when books show development like- yes please, show me why we hate this person, show me the cold hearted lover melting for this person and *just* this person, show me how this found family group of mismatched people learn to rely on each other!

Something I *did* love about Yana Metro’s writing though, is her world building. This other world we’re given sounds so amazing. There’s detail put into describing this otherworldly place- how houses float in trees, how magic is entirely real, how the world speaks to the people who can speak back to it. It’s lovely really! I wish that detail was put into those aforementioned things I noted earlier!

I wish I could’ve stuck with this book, but these little things made it not for me. It has a lot of potential and maybe I’ll try to pick it up again one day, but for now I’ve chosen to DNF it for the fact that it got to a point where I just couldn’t vibe with it anymore- and I didn’t want to hate the book because of that!
It’s not an entirely bad read at all, it just turned out to not be for me.

The cover of Luminiferos is absolutely stunning, and drew me in immediately. The premise also sounded very exciting and different, which is refreshing in a genre saturated in a lot of extremely similar stories.

However, I really really struggled to get into this story. I wanted to so badly, but it just fell flat to me. The main character felt more like a 12 or 13 year old than an 18 year old to me, and I felt like I was able to skip through an entire page without missing any plot. I really appreciated Emily's drive and determination, but what really lacked for me was the urgency in how high the stakes were.

I think for a debut novel, it was very creative, however, this felt like it would be better suited for audiences that enjoy middle grade than YA.

I might’ve requested this ARC, because I was attracted to the stunning cover, and then I became intrigued by the charming characters, and honestly I couldn’t put this book down!

Maybe it’s Yana Metro’s enchanting writing style? Or the stunning world building? Or possibly these great characters? But I haven’t read an entire book (in a single sitting) in months… until this book. I have a feeling it’s the combination of these, and so much more. I’ll admit I don’t read YA fantasy or YA magical realism often, but if it could hold my attention, and not even make me wish for more “adult themes”, I think that speaks volumes of the writers talent.

This book made me feel in the beginning, like I was experiencing a beautifully dark combination of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and Avatar. Then it evolved into a bit of a “Harry Potter-esque” magical quest. But it always felt unique and fresh. I never knew what to expect, and couldn’t believe that cliffhanger of an ending!

I’m looking forward to the next installment of this series.

Thank you to Yana Metro, and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to read this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

“Maybe the library in London would hire me back and I could spend my life escaping into fictional worlds far more interesting than my own.”
“Awaken the darkness within you. Become the omen of light..”
Intriguing and entertaining, this book fed my curiosity about a brand new fantasy world that was so good to explore.
With the found family trope and a love that at first seems to be impossible but soon enough impossible to avoid, Lilly stories goes from one parallel universe to the author, meeting amazing friends and magical people and creature who will each have an important part in shaping her future and her past.
Looking for her parents she will find also some magical truths about herself that she has never tried to deny but also been taught how to. I really enjoyed reading this book. Despite the intricate world building, I found the magical system easy to get into and the narrative quite fluid. I felt compelled , as from a spell, to get to the end of it. I felt somehow the need to know what was supposed to happen to these characters and the fact that the ending is quite opened … it leaves me very curious for the future !!!
And the romance blossoming between the characters … so cute and so sweet!! Again I fell in love with another young man … nothing strange about that !!!
I’m very grateful I had the chance to read this book and I can’t wait for the story to continue !!!
'You look breathtak-ing, my delicate white lily.'
'You look like a delicate lily on a thin fragile stem.
Too kind, probably, for this world.'

I'll be honest this book did not really vibe with me. I made it to Chapter 4 then had to put it aside. The substance of the book was very telling and not showing of the story. It made it difficult to get a sense of who the character was. The few instances of seemingly dangerous situations in the first four chapters brought forth no sense of urgency or fear.

DNF'd this at around 20%. It is extremely rare for me to not finish a book, but I could not make myself spend my time on this. It is a "chosen one" story, where a girl has a destiny to save the human world and the Spirit world. She just sort of wanders into the story, and is brought into the Spirit world without much actually happening internally. It's like watching a paper doll stiffly be moved into random situation after situation. The writing is verbose — there are so many adjectives used, and often odd ones at that (like using the word "scent" so often in the first 40 pages that I noticed it). It's another destined girl who goes into a strangely (and over-explained) magical world, without an actual hook for why we're rooting for her... or why her in the first place. It seemed like the magical world had some intrigue, but I couldn't take the narrative and the writing.

I didn't know what to expect when I started read this book, but it absolutely blew my mind. Normally I don't give easily 5 stars, but Luminiferos deserves 5 stars. The world-building was phenomenal and the Characters had so much personality and were so lovable. So much stuff happened in this book, but it wasn't overwhelming much. A small detail I'm absolutely obsessed with are the little titles over each chapter. Also, the Found family trope in this book was amazing .

𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙧: 𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙙𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙢𝙮 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜(𝙨) 𝙤𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬.

I admit, I only decided to open this book because of that GORGEOUS cover because omg when this book comes out I WILL be buying a physical copy just to have it on my shelf. (I really hope all that gorgeous gold bits have foil 👀)

“𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴. 𝘐’𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭. 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘨𝘰.”

Even though I went into this book with no expectations, it SERVED. it gave what it was supposed to give.🤭

“𝘈𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵…”

When I first read the name ‘Lilly White’, I was worried we were going to be meeting a pick me character. However, she ended up being really likeable! I enjoyed getting to know her.🤝

“𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦?
𝘐’𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥.
𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥!”

I didn’t enjoy the romance aspect of this book too much, but I’m hoping it improves in the next book.

However, there was some sort of a found family trope in there, and I ate it up. I LIVE for found family tropess!!🫶🫶

I’ve mentioned this before, but I ended up loving this more than I expected. I loved Lilly’s journey of self discovery.

“ ‘𝘋𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵, 𝘓𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯.”

And that ending?? I am so excited for a sequel, this book series has so much potential, and I can see it getting better! I want to read more about Lilly and see her character develops further along with her relationships 💕

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙔𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣 𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 🤍

I went into this book blindly and I was not sure what to expect. I am so glad that I read this book because it did not disappoint. I read this book in one sitting and I truly enjoyed it. If there is going to be a second book then I will definitely read it. Lilly White is a very likable character, and I was rooting for her the entire time. Thanks NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this ARC!