This review will contain spoilers:

This book was such a disappointment. I got it with a reading subscription box and based on the summary I was super excited to read as it seemed right up my alley in terms of overall theme and premise. It started slow and I figured, give it time....nope. I hated the main character. She was a stereotypical female protganist that is written to be a "strong independent woman" but instead just comes off as annoying as she never listens and just assumes stupid shit. She also claims to be doing everything for her brother and then he just falls to the wayside to focus on romance. She still claims it towards the end of the book, but their entire sibling relationship felt insubstatial because the author just dropped his character for most of the story.

Right off the bat, I wished this book focused on her brother and had him as the main character as he seemed more interesting as he had dark magic until.... she suddenly realizes she had magic and gave it up about half way through the book with almost 0 explanation. You know when shows and movies retcon plots and change direction? That's what he suddenly getting magic felt like.

Absolutely nothing happens in this book. It just repeats like 'we got to fix the corruption!', then they fail. Also this entire story is just set up for a series of some sort, which is beyond frustrating. I wish the author wrapped something with this initial story vs. dragging out a boring plot for 350+ pages and have 0 resolution and a cliff hanger. If you're going to have a sequel, can you at least write an inital good story?

I also want to address what felt like queer baiting with this story. The author very vaguely hinted at Violeta's brother being queer and then also Rowan is mentioned to have had a past boyfriend. Clover, the alchemist, who lives at the estate, is also queer. However, all this is tossed aside to focus on the dullest classic straight romance story. Like I mentioned, I almost wish her brother was aged up, the protganist, and that he had a relationship with Rowan instead. Finally, Violeta has been deemed as being a demisexual character. As someone who identified that way for several years (now ace) this particular fact bothered me. She thinks Rowan is a monster and the second she realizes he's not, she wants him. This book was the repetive trope of her being hot and bothered around Rowan and constantly being like I don't like him though, but why am I blushing? Personally, I don't think not being attracted to an evil monster, then changing your mind once he's not really is demisexual, but to each their own. It felt more like Beauty and the Beast. Her being called demi really did bother me throughout the course of the novel. I never get to see acespec characters in stories so was really hoping for more representation through Violeta vs. what I got.

DNF @ page 110. This just didn’t click with me for some reason. I think it was all atmosphere and not enough plot or development.

L'histoire est intéressante, mais alors la lecture a été laborieuse

3.4/5⭐️

The main girl was getting on my nerves for the first 40% of the book and I didn’t like how it was written, but I enjoyed the story/plot.

Passive MC, forced romance, weak/forced plot

I devoured this in a day- there was some spook, some devilry, and some cute banter and romance. While I hated how whiny Leta was, I would literally die for everyone else and I just want more.

Lakesedge was a really interesting debut novel from Lyndall Clipstone. As a YA book about "monsters and the women who like to kiss them" this is clearly her wheelhouse. The setting was colorful and characters unique enough to stand out clearly. The magic of her world was vague, but felt like there was a depth there beyond the hand-wavey. All of that was for the good.

My issues with the book are mostly about the main character's motivations. When we meet her, we quickly learn that Violeta will do anything, even give up her own life, to protect her brother. She will sacrifice everything she has to protect him, endure physical and emotional trauma, anything. This is who we're cheering for through the entire book when suddenly it all changes.

This next bit is spoiler-y, so I'm using spoiler tags:

Spoiler

When Violeta decides that saving Rowan is worth surrendering the memories of her family for all eternity it just didn't make any sense. It was so entirely against her character that it threw off the rest of the book for me. Once the Lord Under specified that her brother was included in that, and that she'd never remember him, any chance of a better rating went out the window. Honestly at that point of the book it felt like the author forgot that Violeta had a brother at all as she spun up the romance plot, which, in retrospect, was far weaker of a connection to reality than her familial love. No, were I her editor I'd have told her to kill the romance angle completely and have her sacrifice her safety at Lakesedge to save the world, but leave the brother in peace. That fits her character more and avoids the trope.

j'ai rien compris mais j'ai beaucoup aimé

2.5 Stars

The concept was good and the writing was nice, if a little purple at times, but there was nothing for me to latch onto here. The main characters weren't terrible and I liked the casual diversity, especially with the bisexual love interest, but beyond that nothing about them stood out, and the secondary characters might as well have not existed. There wasn't enough mystery in the plot (we spend wayyyy too much time on whether the love interest is actually a good guy when it's pretty obvious from the get go), and there wasn't enough spookiness or horror to make up for the lack of intrigue.

Not writing the author off from this as there wasn't anything here that I actively hated, but this one wasn't for me.

The lore in the book is fantastic. I devoured the book however Leta was a tad annoying but she did have some growth throughout the book. I need more of the Lord Under ASAP. Perfect gothic fantasy vibes