young adult, fantasy, audiobook
Talia and her boyfriend, Nate, are students at a boarding school. Talia has a genetic heart condition and Nate is a popular student who also happens to be a secret mystic - a member of the magical community. His particular magical community is secretive and lives on an island, only among themselves. When Talia is invited to Nate's island for a cousin's wedding, she is eager to go despite her life-long hatred of mystics.
Lumara was a quick, easy and sometimes interesting book.
Lumara was a quick, easy and sometimes interesting book.
Melissa Landers created an interesting world, where magical and non-magical people coexist, to an extent. Obviously there is deep distrust, and sometimes fear about the unknown, but Talia and Nate have to figure out how to break a generational curse to save the day.
As the leaves get pulled back to reveal the situation Talia finds herself in, she learns that the world may not be what she has been led to believe and that reality is often what you make of it. The cover art gives some sense of what's going to happen. Some of the big reveals in the plot were incredibly obvious, but it was still fun to read.
I did not love Nate the boyfriend - he was too perfect and, frankly, kind of dull in the way that rule-followers often are. This was a world that called for thinking outside the box and I never felt that he was up to the task. His sister Olive is a great character but she and her disability were treated poorly by the family; there were some real moments there that made me cringe.
The best character in the book was the island itself, Lumara. I would have liked to read more about the island and its abilities, frankly. I think it was a plot device that sparked my imagination but was never really fulfilled.
I read the book & listened to the audiobook version as well. Marni Penning was the narrator and it took me about an hour to figure out what was bothering me about her. If you've ever seen the musical or listened to the soundtrack for Legally Blond, Laura Bell Bundy has a particular sound that Penning reminded me of. Oddly, I liked her male voices better than her female voices. It wasn't off-putting enough not to listen to the audiobook, but I definitely enjoyed the reading experience more on this one. I will say though, Penning did an excellent job of making Talia's voice sound young.
This book reads young. Middle school students and maybe high school students will probably get the most from it.
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