Blog Tour: Luminosity - Review & Giveaway

*Review*

Luminosity 

by Stephanie Thomas
Publisher: Entangled Teen

Release Date: November 13th 2012

Format: e-ARC

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My name is Beatrice. When I was born, I was blessed with the Sight. I was immediately removed from my parents and enrolled in the Institution. At the age of twelve, I had my first true vision, earning my raven’s wings. And when I turned seventeen, one of my visions came true. Things haven’t been the same since.

 The Institution depends on me to keep the City safe from our enemy, the Dreamcatchers, but I’m finding it harder to do while keeping a secret from everyone, including my best friend Gabe. It is a secret that could put us all in danger. A secret that could kill me and everyone close to me. 

 But the enemy has been coming to me in my dreams, and I think I’m falling in love with him. He says they’re coming. He says they’re angry. And I think I’ve already helped them win.

It was impossible for me to pass up the chance to read Luminosity when I read the blurb; it consisted of everything I love in YA books – Institution, paranormal elements and girl falling in love with the enemy? Hell yeah! While Luminosity was beautifully written, well-paced and action-packed, I found myself constantly feeling the urge to just..skim through certain parts or put it down entirely for a while. All I can say is, this is one of those “it's not you, it’s me” cases. I liked it, but for whatever reason, I just couldn’t connect with the story as much as I would’ve liked.

 The concept of ‘Seers’ and ‘Dreamcatchers’ is quite unique and I enjoyed learning about the history of Seers and Dreamcatchers immensely :) Seers, in this case refer to the group of people who can See visions of the future, while Dreamcatchers fulfill the role of preserving the past. I don’t know if it’s because I skimmed certain parts because there was a lot of info-dumping, but I still don’t have a good understanding of the Dreamcatchers – How do their use their skills to kill? Where do they live/Where is the place they live in? How do they survive outside of the City? I suppose the world-building could’ve also been better; I still don’t know much about the City where the Institution, Seers and Citizens reside. 

Beatrice is one of the best, if not the best Seer; her visions are usually clear and accurate. I admired her strength and bravery during the situations these qualities were displayed, however, she made many decisions that left me feeling extremely annoyed. After having dreams of certain events, she decides that she couldn’t tell anyone, not even her best friend her dreams because she “doesn’t want to lose them” and asks them to “trust her”. Both are fine except I still have no idea how keeping those secrets is suppose to help them? And if I was Gabe, I would have a hard time trusting her when she’s purposely keeping important things from me.

 Then, there’s the LOVE TRIANGLE. *shakes head* *groans* Beatrice has feelings for her best friend, Gabe. That’s totally fine. Then, she meets the enemy, Echo, in her dreams, and for some inexplicable reason, decides he is trustworthy, and the third time she “sees” him in her dream, they start kissing.(Like, seriously? There’s more important things going on- like a WAR- and you two strangers are kissing?!) Then follows some weird dream/reality love triangle which annoyed the hell out of me. Echo, most unfortunately was a very empty character. To be honest, if his character was female, the storyline still would’ve worked. To me, he was an unnecessary addition, and the love triangle was also unnecessary. 

So, the verdict? Luminosity was good and many people will enjoy it; there’s war, fighting and one’s fight for survival, which, under normal circumstances I would enjoy greatly. BUT, most unfortunately, I found it hard to connect with the story and characters. Overall, a mediocre read for me.

*Author*

Stephanie Thomas has been writing ever since she could put letters together to form words. When she was a small child, she would present her mother and father with self-made newspapers filled up with make believe stories and pictures. Her love for writing followed her all throughout her schooling, where she entered and won writing contests of all sorts. Stephanie decided to become an English teacher and completed her B.A. at The Pennsylvania State University. While teaching, she later went on to get her Master’s in writing from The Johns Hopkins University. She completed her very first manuscript during her graduate studies, and by the end of the program, she had completed two more. Stephanie is quick to tell anyone that she’s a born and raised Philadelphian, and her heart will always belong there. She moved to Baltimore with her husband, and they’ve been living there for the last five years with their doggie, Sailor, and their rabbit, Buns (aka “T Sizzle).

Official Site | Twitter

*Giveaway*

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