Early Review: Luminous

Luminous
By Mara Rutherford

Published By: Inkyard Press
Publication Date: October 5, 2021
Date Read: August 29, 2021
Genre: YA – Fantasy
Source: eARC from Inkyard Press
Format: E-Book
Pages: 384

From Goodreads:
A witch who must learn to harness her power–or risk losing her loved ones forever.

Liora has spent her life in hiding, knowing discovery could mean falling prey to the king’s warlock, Darius, who uses mages’ magic to grow his own power. But when her worst nightmare comes to pass, Darius doesn’t take her. Instead, he demands that her younger sister return to the capital with him. To make matters worse, Evran, Liora’s childhood friend and the only one who knows her secret, goes missing following Darius’s visit, leaving her without anyone to turn to.

To find Evran and to save her sister, Liora must embrace the power she has always feared. But the greatest danger she’ll face is yet to come, for Darius has plans in motion that will cause the world to fall into chaos–and Liora and Evran may be the only ones who can stop him.

Luminous was a book I hadn’t really heard much about until I was offered the ARC. When looking it up I was super intrigued by the blurb. This book has such a wonderful premise and fantastic potential but unfortunately the execution just didn’t work for me. I ended up feeling very disappointed and deflated after finishing this one.

Luminous follows the story of Liora, a young witch living in a world where the king’s mage hunts witches and enslaves them. He is desperate to hold on to his power and captures witches, especially those that might hold more power than he has. Because of this Liora’s family have kept her hidden in their house where she is safe. I thought this was such an intriguing premise and had such potential to be an absolutely incredible story.

This was my first book from Mara Rutherford, and after this one I’m not sure I will be seeking out her other work. I just don’t feel like her writing style is for me. My main issue with this book is that I felt like the majority of the time, I was being told things rather than being shown them. We were told how in love with main characters were, but I didn’t really feel any of it. We were told how terrible and evil the villain was, but he felt so lackluster. Due to this being told it rather than shown it, I just didn’t feel any emotional connection to the characters or the story and I ended up growing bored because of this. For me, I am a very emotive reader so if I don’t feel anything, then I tend to struggle with the book. This is what happened with this one.

Luminous has a great premise… it really does. And I still think this book has great potential but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. I grew bored and the more I read, the more I wasn’t really bothered about what was happening. I’m glad I finished it and found out how it ended but I definitely won’t be re-reading this one. Unfortunately it just fell a little short for me.

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