⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

The Lightstruck is the sequel and conclusion in <i>The Darkening duology</i>. Vesper has defeated the storm and taken The Great Queen within her, but a new enemy in the form of The Great King, is at the horizon, threatening her home once again.

“If the King’s light offers a chance to put down the burden of one’s own life, the Queen’s touch forces one to confront what has been buried deep.”

Spoilers for book 1; The Darkening
The Darkening was an anticipated release in 2022 for me and I really enjoyed reading that one! Naturally, its sequel became an anticipated 2023 release! While I enjoyed the book, it did fell a bit flat compared to the first for me.

The story started off very intriguing! It begins in a sort of mirror realm/world, where Vesper resides after dying in book one. I was surprised by this mirror world, where the death resided. I did wonder if it was completely the same, a perfect mirror, or not. I found myself wanting to learn more about this world, which unfortunately didn’t happen.

The pacing was rather slow throughout the whole book. I had a hard time getting into the story. It felt a bit stalled and slow going and I just wanted the pace to pick up, so I could get more excited about the story.

I really liked the contrast of this book and the first! They were almost perfect opposites of each other, from the first book having the storm/dark and The Great Queen as the enemy, to this book with The Great King and the light as the enemy. It was fun to see the opposite happening and also how the lower rings were safe instead of the higher ones this time around.

I also really liked the focus of this book, which was wants and desires. Whereas the first book was very much focused on what someone fears, this one explores the opposite of fear; want. It fits nicely with the contrast compared to the first book. I also liked the underlying message, that we should fight for what we want, but not let our desires rule over us.

With the sixth and seventh ring being free of the storm and habitual, I had expected to learn more about these rings. I found the world-building to be a bit lacking generally this time. A lot of times I just wanted more than the apparent breadcrumbs that were given.

The characters were still amazing, although I was often frustrated for Vesper and how she was treated. I also felt like she was to forgiven at times. I wonder which direction the story would’ve gone if she hadn’t forgiven people so easily. The characters seemed less morally grey this time around, but still very much determined to do what they believed the right course of action. I liked that we got a lot more of Cas, but at the expanse of Dalca, which I didn’t like as much.

I was a bit confused by the overall plot and direction the story was going. I understood the want to defeat The Great King, but I felt like I got lost in the details sometimes, not fully understanding/grasping what was happening.

Overall, The Lightstruck is a nice conclusion to the duology, but I feel like it could’ve been fleshed out better. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it.



SPOILER
<spoiler> a big example is the spectrals; nothing was known about them; why did they take those shapes, did the different colours mean something aside from being a different “person”, how did they come to be? All these questions and no answer, which is a bit frustrating</spoiler>

The Darkening was one of my favourite YA novels of last year, so I was beyond excited to go back into the city with Vesper. Whereas the dark storm Vesper finally banished was the focus of the first book, the light is now the danger in the conclusion to this YA duology.

All the elements that went into making book 1 such a fantastic read are here again. The characters we love are back, such as Izamal, Cas and Dalca, helping Vesper as she adjusts to the pressures and threats of being the vessel of the Queen. The original world building with the Ikons and mythology is built upon and the world expands further. I like Vesper, but felt she didn't grow as much in this book I'd like her to.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to hug or slap Dalca after book 1. He doesn't feature as much in this book as I'd liked, Casvian features a lot more and the relationship between him and Vesper grows though I didn't like how it ended. That's the main reason this book is getting 4 stars and not the five I gave book 1.

It's a satisfying and interesting ending to the duology. If you enjoyed the first book (and why wouldn't you, it was fab!) then you'll really enjoy the second once it gets going. I do have some lingering questions after finishing so I wonder if Mara might be tempted back into the world in the future to tie up some of the loose ends.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publishers for providing an arc in return for an honest review.

I was such a huge fan of The Darkening I could not wait to get my hands on the sequel! And I was not disappointed. Vesper continues to be a powerful feminine protagonist, which I love. The beginning of the book is a little shocking but you can slide nicely back into the story after a while. This was an extremely satisfying follow up in a world that I am absolutely obsessed with. I love how Mara ties in the lore of the world, religion, and magic. It's a brilliant blend and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Thankyou to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton, Hodderscape for a free e-arc in exchange of an honest review.

This book wasnt for me. I did read the first in the series and although it was perfectly fine it just didnt consume me- i thought that perhaps the sequel would spark more interest.

Because of that i did DNF however this is in no reflection of the book- just a book/ story not for me. If you enjoyed The Darkening- definitely pick it up and give it a go.

I'm glad to have finished another series! And I read both books to close to release as well! Feeling accomplished.

This book took me a very long time to read, I think because I may not have been in the mood for a ya fantasy, but I definitely did enjoy diving back into the world. I love a good city setup that is so clear in my head (at least until the lightlines came into it). I loved being inside Vesper's head, and I also loved how the romances wasn't at the forefront. This one felt a lot more serious than the first, and had much more introspection. Will continue to pick up Mara's works

This was a very enjoyable read. The Lightstruck is an incredibly entertaining and beautifully crafted ending to the duology. The ending didn’t disappoint.

I world-building is amazing, the magic system is very rich. Everything feels very unique and it was very nice the way it was developed and explored through the book.

The ending was very good and it felt true to the characters and the world. It was a very enjoyable ending.

Arc generously provided via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

"The Lightstruck" masterfully continues the captivating journey that began in "The Darkening." The story picks up with Vesper awakening from a prolonged slumber, now bearing the mantle of The Great Queen. The city, once saved from a cursed storm, now faces a new menace: the Great King and his army of lightstruck. Vesper, hailed as a goddess, grapples with her new identity and the weight of her people's hope. The tension escalates as she navigates a city in turmoil, torn between factions and haunted by her connection with Dalca, the prince she vowed never to love. The novel expertly explores the complexities of power, sacrifice, and the blurred lines between light and darkness.

Sunya Mara's prose paints a vivid tapestry of a world on the brink, while the characters' struggles and growth add layers of depth. The evolution of Vesper and Dalca's relationship, amid the turmoil and deception, is a central theme that resonates with readers. The magic system continues to intrigue, and the unfolding history between the Great King and Queen adds layers of intrigue and depth to the narrative. "The Lightstruck" is a worthy sequel, delivering a satisfying conclusion to the duology and leaving readers eagerly anticipating Mara's future endeavors.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

After thoroughly enjoying The Darkening, I was very excited to get my hands on The Lightstruck and go back to the rich, magical world Sunya Mara has created.

Three years had passed since the events of The Darkening when Vesper finally emerged from a prolonged coma. The world appeares very ordinary, a stark contrast to the turmoil she remembered. Now hailed as a saint, she navigates this newfound reality by peeling away layers of deception woven around her since her revival.

The familiar characters have returned, accompanied by a handful of commendable additions. However, Dalca's presence, which once commanded attention in the initial installment, now seems to have receded. Perhaps intentionally done to depict his shattered state, it leaves me wondering if his character's depth could have been delved into further with additional focus from the writer.

There are two reasons why I can't give this book five stars. First, Vesper keeps forgiving everyone despite all the lies and deceit around her. Even though people are constantly lying to her and have woven a complete fabrication about how she saved the city, she never shows real anger. Not ever once. It would've been a lot more interesting to see her character grow darker and more morally grey. Especially since she has the dark queen inside of her but unfortunately, that never happens and I thikn it's a really big missed opportunity.

Second, I never believed the love between Dalca and Vesper in the first book but I enjoyed the relationship between Cas and Vesper, and how it grew into a real friendship. A friendship that is even stronger in the second installment. I know a lot of people will disagree with me but I think this relationship should've grown even further and turned into something more. Dalca's treatment of Vesper is one red flag after the other but Cas was always pushing her to be better and never lied to her. To try and continue their romance in the second book after what happened in The Darkening is something I don't understand at all.

Overall, it was a fun and interesting story! I still prefer the first instalment over this one but both have been very enjoyable reads, and I can’t wait to see what Sunya Mara does next!

This was a great sequel to the previous book in the duology, The Darkening.
Vesper wakes up three years after saving the world to find that the sun is shining and life seems to have returned to normal. However, she gradually discovers that things are not as well as they first appear and that almost everyone is either lying to her or at least hiding the truth.
I really enjoyed Vesper’s character in this book and loved her mixed feelings about being treated as a heroine and her realisation that many people don’t actually want her to be a real person, it is much more convenient if she is just a figurehead.
At first, I was a bit disappointed in Dalca’s character arc in this book. After the drama of the final pages of the Darkening and his role at the start of this one, he seemed to almost disappear into the background. However, as the story progressed I really liked the part he played as the events unfolded. I also liked the fact that there is virtually no romance in this story, just the possibility that something might happen.
The minor characters were interesting although I felt that they didn’t have any great depth to them with the exception of Caz. However, this might be because it is a YA novel and I am not its intended audience.
The magic system is brilliant and I loved the unfolding of the history between the Great King and Queen. The change from the threat of darkness to being threatened by light was really interesting and I enjoyed seeing how the war played out. The tension in the final third of the book was good and I liked the way that everything ended. Again, in common with the previous book, I really enjoyed the epilogue.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

After enjoying The Darkening, I had high hopes for The Lightstruck but unfortunately it fell a bit short of the mark for me.
The book was too long and too slow and the ending felt anti-climactic after such a long build up.
I still enjoyed the story and the concept was interesting. I think fans of the first book will enjoy the second, it just could have been executed a little better.

The Lightstruck is the concluding part of a duology that started with The Darkening, one of my 5 star reads of last year.

I really enjoyed this, it starts right in the action and deals with the idea of what happens when you martyr yourself for the people and then come back and see an idealised representation of you being worshipped, when you yourself know you cannot live up to those expectations. I liked the fact that the new threat fit so well into the world that was built up in the first book and the magic system in this is so so original and detailed. Characterisation in this was great and everything wrapped up satisfyingly.

After enjoying The Darkening, I had high hopes for The Lightstruck but unfortunately it fell a bit short of the mark for me.
The book was too long and too slow and the ending felt anti-climactic after such a long build up.
I still enjoyed the story and the concept was interesting. I think fans of the first book will enjoy the second, it just could have been executed a little better.

This was incredible, her writing is incredible and the promotion of her books really is amazing. I definitely will be recommending.

I still loved the writing style of this sequel but I don't think developed any of the characters or plot in any way, which I think really just brought me out of this book.

Great sequel and conclusion! Style and pacing are similar to the first book and we go through story with many same characters. It expands on the world and nicely wraps up the story.

The ending felt a bit rushed and I would have like a longer epilogue.

It only leaves me curious about this potential distant other cities, and I would love to read a prequel or something that talks about the world before Queen was banished.

After loving The Darkening, I was over the moon to see that The Lightstruck was just as captivating and heart stopping and so action packed. This duology is so underhyped - it's criminal!!

After reading and loving The Darkening, I needed to The Lightstruck and boy I was not disappointed.
I loved everything about this novel, the writing, the characters and the description.
It kept me griped from the first page.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for accepting my request to read this novel.

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Lightstruck
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Book 2 of The Darkening duology
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Sunya Mara
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: YA Fantasy
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 29th August 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 3.5/5

“If you should be so lucky as to be deeply defeated—in that moment, you will know the air that becomes your breath, you will know every single drop of your blood, you will know the nature of that electric thing that drives your mind. You will know what it means to be alive.” She leans forward, and the shadows lengthen across her face. “And if you should triumph over it, then go and find something greater to be defeated by.”

The Lightstruck continues from The Darkening, depicting warring gods; sun against storm and storm against sun whilst society fights for balance.

Whilst the first novel in this Duology explores fears, this one explores desires. And when I say explores what I really mean is exploits. This Duology contains the message, we can’t live without fear and desire but we can’t let them rule us either.

This medium paced young adult fantasy has lush building, and a few things clicked into place for me that I was confused about from The Darkening. I thought that the writing was really good although I did struggle with the imagery and wish this duology came with a map.

Whilst I suddenly understood some plot points with the added context from a sequel, I thought that there were quite a lot of loose ends left from the conclusion of this duology. It seemed that nobody had any consequences for their actions from Book 1 or Book 2, and that’s left me a bit unsatisfied, especially as it was such a quick ending and it could have been really fleshed out with further conclusions.

But, what really let this Duology down for me is the main character. I noted in my review of The Darkening that I hoped our main character, Vesper, would get some amazing character growth in book two and to be honest, the growth was more of a little seedling spurt than a blossoming. In the first book, Vesper was incredibly angry because she was poor and her and the other low-ringers were treated poorly. In this book the pendulum swings entirely the other way and she’s fuming that she’s too worshipped. Honestly, I think that if the main character was more likable and stopped trying to invite everybody to her pity party then I would have loved this duology.

Overall, this is a young adult fantasy with nice symmetry to the story which is enjoyable and impressive. The writing is immersive, the tension is consistently high, and the dynamics are good. What this duology suffers from is a dislikable main character who is hard to emotionally invest in and some loose ends that could do with being neatly tied.

—Kayleigh🤍

Rating: 3.75/5⭐️

Thank you to the publisher for providing me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review! There’ll be some spoilers so keep that in mind if you decide to read my review.

I really enjoyed the first book even thought I was very confused with the end… so I decided I should read the sequel and see what would happen next.

The first half is a little bit of filling us into this new post storm world where things are not exactly as they thought it would be and there is a new and apparently more dangerous threat. Vesper is navigating into this new life purpose and finding herself burden by the fact that she was a hero - and therefore needs to uphold that title and dos.

As a character, I find that Vesper grew the most in this book: finding her purpose in the story, what she wants to become, how she can become and what does really matter.

(Spoilers start here)

The thing I missed the most and I think that for me, it was what let me down a little bit: there’s absolutely no romance or whatsoever. I kept waiting and waiting for when will they realize they actually do belong together. It’s very obvious Dalca loves her and would do anything for her (and it’s not only out of guilty) but Vesper doesn’t even glances twice in his direction or even think about what they’ve shared in the past or even think about it - like at all. The romance and the 2nd chance was one of the things I was interested in finding about but none of it happened. At some point I thought there would be another book.

Which brings me to my next point: the action and plot is driven quite at the same pace through the entire book up to the last few chapters/pages where it seems like everything happens at the same time - just like in the first book.

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the ARC of The Lightstruck by Sunya Mara in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Having read and been totally immersed in The Darkening, I eagerly awaited The Lightstruck to see what happened following that cliffhanger. And immediately I was pulled back into a world of risk, adventure, turmoil and action. On the plus side, this meant that there was no delay or lag to the story but, in contrast it also left little time for Vesper to reflect or for there to be a true examination of her new position.

I was pleased to once again meet up with Dalca, Iz and Cas from The Darkening and it soon felt very familiar and warming to be in their presence once again. It was also interesting to meet new characters but, unfortunately that in itself felt very brief, like we only skimmed the surface. Although this does leave opportunity fir spin off stories from the duology.

There’s a lot to like about The Lightstruck as a conclusion to the duology, even if part of me does feel the pace was so fast that it flew by so quickly, omitting opportunities to flesh out the depth of emotion and characters.

Overall though, I can’t deny this was a thrilling ride of a book that closes the story without resorting to trite tropes and immersed me in the world of the storm cursed and Lightstruck.