#Isla crown

[chi-the-idiot]

Im actually going to complain a bit about Lightlark's character designs, more specifically Isla's, because you cannot tell me this woman

Is meant to represent an amazonian warrior princess who has been trained since she was a literal child to fight to the death with others like her.

Who had to build up her body strength in order to actually stand a chance against people much older than her, with magical powers, while she had none.

This isnt the artist's fault btw, they probably just followed Aster's instructions and did a great job at that. This is just a nitpick of mine against YA female main characters in general. Because women cannot be both femenine AND have muscles in YA books apparently.

So have a modern AU of my Isla redesign as a gift.

ISLA CROWN COULD'VE BEEN THE HOTTEST WOMAN ON ALL OF LIGHTLARK

BUFF WOMEN FOR THE FUCKING WIN

[midiosaamor]

bro i aint kidding get oiled up and in my bed rn bro. im so fr rn.

[angel-maybe-alive]

I love character design, any good story starts with a good character

So I was looking trough lightlark characters Design and by god they made me angry so let's go talk shit about this book again

This is by the way no criticisms of artstyle or the artist but the authors inputs that made those characters such piles of shit

Starting with these crimes against design

This is the same woman,like a different filter in the same woman without context they look either as the same person or close twins and I know the reason why they are so similar but I will talk about it later, the dress the hair the bitchy stand it's the same.

Now the boys

I really like goldie design because it fits the rulers aesthetic but he also looks like Jeoffrey Baratheon put him in red and I would want to punch his face, Now Grease, I mean goth I mean Grim holy edgylord grim design it's borderline stupid, and I blame Sarah j Maas for this it's long haired rhysand the thing I hate the most it's the shattered crown is that like a single piece of metal with shattered parts poking up from his hair or like multiple hair clips that can eventually fall o floating pieces he has to use magic to keep up?

Azul my darling poor sad gay widow you deserved so much better, I'm still trying to understand what is going on with his clothes but at least the crown looks good I would've given him like an extra earring or more gemstones or really lean on a more art nouveau aesthetic his worse crime is look better than boring pale Caucasian and boring tan Caucasian but of course not being a love interest and only exist so the author can kill two representation bird with one boring rock

And lastly

Her

She is wearing bbl fashion, fantasy bbl fashion she looks like a Kardashian the thorns thing is so ridiculously stupid why you have thorns in your clothes you late time emo bastard but the stupidest part is how the author clearly made the shiny gray twins so boring and identical to make this girl stand out as a living embodiment of not like the other girls very literally and still he has the most boring design of them all I'm surprised no one figured out earlier that she was a powerless fuck when they meet this living breathing default setting

[islahearteater]

haven't had the chance to read nightbane yet but the thing is i knooowww alex is going to have isla and grim end up together because god forbid the ya fantasy series stray from the dark haired morally grey love interest even if the mc has had more buildup and chemistry with the golden haired "good" boy but fuck. i'm not going to be happy about it

[koresflowers]

please let this not be another ruin and rising. alex aster i’m speaking to you. i am currently reading nightbane and i’ve seen her tiktoks. WDYM THAT ONE CHARACTER ISN’T GOING TO SURVIVE THE SERIES? i am on page 10 but that doens’t matter.

i wish my suspicions aren’t true. if grim dies we are going to fight. i can’t have another ‘aleksander dying at the hands of the girl he is mad obsessed with’. like please. make isla press the medalion and get her to grim asap. and i refuse to think she doesn’t love him anymore. BECAUSE WDYM GRIM COULDN’T USE HER POWERS? she just like that fell out of love with him and chose oro? oro is fine ig.like he isn’t that bad. but grim tho…

[vino---delectable]

(spoiler alert)

So... Let me get this straight.. In the past they started out as enemies to lovers.

He causes her to lose the memories they shared making him a stranger. Then at the centennial once again they are enemies to lovers.

Until he tells her that the dreams she's been having are actually memories of them together..

So in the second book she hates his guts... And then she over time starts to remember when she was with him and at the end of the book realized how much she did love him..

Causing them again.. To be, you guessed it, enemies to lovers.

[girlhelpicf]

two chapters into lightlark bad news it is in fact written like a middle grade fantasy. good news i love middle grade fantasy

[unyieldingwings]

My thoughts on Isla Crown so far (from Lightlark up to Nightbane lol)

I seriously dislike her and her choices even from Lightlark. But Nightbane is sort of shaping up to be better.

[arcadialedger]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying Lightlark on an entertainment level. But gue description of our heroine cracks me up cause like

Oh gee, I wonder if Alex Aster is self inserting here.

[meggerzzzz]

If there was one book, I wanted to recommend to make someone stop reading it would be lightlark . 0/10 trassssh

[bggmergal]

she is the most useless girl in the whole world damn you can’t do anything

[midiosaamor]

get oiled up rn.

[jimblejamblewritings]

Rewriting Lightlark | part 1.

Summary: That's it. I literally just rewrote Lightlark and tried to make it better. Read if you want.

Grimshaw’s castle always had the lights on. Not a single corridor of the great stone fortress was without a lantern. It had taken Isla Crown forever to fall asleep and the sunlight streaming through the open windows woke her up after what felt like only minutes. She couldn’t even pull the comforter over her head to avoid the light — the fabric was translucent. Quietly, she sat up and stretched, trying not to disturb the sleeping body next to her. 

Her brown bare feet took light steps across the floor, making flowers spring up through the grout between the stone tiles. The cold floor made her shudder. Isla paused and looked down before turning to see the flower trail behind her. She groaned internally — she knew she had kicked her socks off in the middle of the night. Instead of going back for the socks, she continued to the ensuite bathroom. The flowers could be dealt with later. Her bladder couldn’t. 

The toilet, thankfully, made no noise as she flushed it. She figured she might as well brush her teeth while she was in the bathroom. Isla cleaned herself up quickly, wanting to get back to the warmth of the comforter. The small daisies continued springing up behind her as she left the bathroom. An undignified scream left her mouth when two hands reached for her. Isla turned to see nothing in the shadow of the bathroom door. 

“Get out of there, Grimshaw, before you kill yourself.” 

She held her hand out, waiting for something in the shadows to grab it. Grim’s white hand reached for her and he allowed himself to be pulled out of the shadows. Isla rolled her eyes as she led her boyfriend away from his own death. He was always doing that, ignoring his curse. All the realms of Lightlark were cursed. The people were forced to suffer all at the hands of the Grand Queen Aurora — a woman who relished in irony and cruel punishments. 

But Grim never seemed to take it as seriously as he should have. He was a Nightshade and didn’t care that being in the dark for too long would literally kill him. He kept pushing the boundaries and lengths of time he could stay in the shadows, worrying Isla that one day he wouldn’t come back from them. Grim looked down at her, playing with the material of her silk nightgown. 

“You know, it’s a good thing you are only half-Wildling,” he said with a mischievous smile. “I couldn’t handle my Hearteater being taller than me. It would severely bruise my ego, you know.” 

Isla scoffed and gently pushed him. “Oh, please. Your ego disappeared the moment you met me.” 

“Do you really think you have that much control over me?” 

Isla blinked. Her mouth contorted into odd shapes as she tried to stop herself from laughing. A pansy began to bloom behind Grim’s right ear, touching the bottom of his ink black hair. He could bluff all he wanted but magic never lied. Love was a magic the people of Lightlark still didn’t quite understand.

They supposed it was because Lark Crown, their founder, nurtured the Heart of Lightlark. The Heart was a flower and the source of their magic. When Lark died, the Heart’s original form did too. The people thought it was because the plant was forever indebted to Lark’s love for it. 

That was the only explanation they had for why falling in love with someone meant you were able to wield their powers. With Aurora’s curses, the wielding ability wasn’t as strong as it used to be. But it still appeared now and then, usually when the person in love was focused solely on their lover. 

Isla picked the flower from behind his ear. “Grim, I want breakfast.” 

He kissed her cheek and walked to his bedroom door. “I’m going to have to pick all these flowers out of the floor, you know.” 

“Sorry.” 

Isla clambered onto his side of the bed while Grim opened the door just enough to stick his head out of. She was only supposed to be on Night Isle when she held meetings with their king, not when she was sleeping in his bed. Grimshaw loved and trusted his people but he also knew how strong fear could be. 

If the servants ever thought he and Isla were in a relationship, they would report it to Aurora out of fear of her killing them if she ever found out they had known about it. Children of two different isles weren’t allowed to be born. It made the curses weaker when the babies inherited both of their parents’ magic, turning imminent death into a minor inconvenience. Aurora killed those babies and publicly murdered their parents to discourage anyone from attempting another defiance.  

It was a punishment Isla knew too well. Her mother was a Wildling. Her father was a Nightshade and the only person stupid enough to fall in love with a Wildling. If a Wildling loved someone, they were cursed to eat their heart. Maybe because he was a general in the army he wasn’t afraid of dying. 

Her father, Ellisar, stayed in the shadows for as long as he could whenever her mother’s hunger took over. Isla heard stories from the servants about the few times that Alenia’s hunger wasn’t subdued but Ellisar had to leave the shadows or die. She almost caught him as he ran through the entirety of Wild Isle, able to smell him from miles away. 

They lived well enough to have a proper family— Isla’s older brother was passed off as the son of a Wildling guard. But the happiness wasn’t forever. Alenia didn’t kill Ellisar. Aurora did. A Wildling doctor had told the Grand Queen what the entire isle managed to keep secret. Isla was grateful to all of the castle. They begged Aurora to take their lives instead of hers. Half the castle died for baby Isla’s life. As a child, she swore she would never put the castle through that again. So Grim was forever her secret. 

He came back to the bed with a tray of food. The two were quiet as they ate. Isla closed her eyes in delight at the taste of eggy toast. It was made with sunbread. The Sunlings were the best bakers of Lightlark. Isla had tried to make her own bread for eggy toast but nothing ever tasted as good as sunbread. She finished her last bite of breakfast and snuggled back into Grim’s open arms. Her fingers trailed up down his arms covered by his long sleeve sleepshirt. 

“I have to leave soon,” she muttered more to herself than to her boyfriend. 

“You’ll be missing my celebration. It isn’t every day a man turns twenty.” 

“Well, you’ll be missing my coronation.” 

“Hmm, I believe birthdays are more important.” Grim hugged her tighter. “I am sorry about your brother.” 

Talon Crown was more adventurer than ruler. He left Wild Isle only a couple of weeks before Aurora’s Decennial in hopes of finding a way to end the curses. Lightlark might have been abundant in magic but the newlands had a little bit of magic as well. But the storm grabbed Talon before his ship ever reached the other continents. The storm was another one of Aurora’s gifts to Lightlark. It surrounded all the islands and made trade or travel to the newlands a rather dangerous feat. Not everyone died but few made it back, including Talon. 

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. Talon’s gone. We always knew it was a possibility. I’ve been training to be his heir ever since the day he took the throne.” 

“But you’ve never trained for the Decennial.”  

Isla kissed the corner of his mouth. “Let’s not talk about the Decennial. We still have three days and I must leave in an hour or two. I’d rather spend that time with you.” 

Grimm peppered kisses all over her face. “Is that spending time with me dressed like this or with my shirt off?” 

Instead of answering him, Isla pulled away from his grasp. Grim eagerly took off his shirt. When the white fabric no longer covered his eyes, he found Isla straddling his lap. The hands roamed up and down each other’s bodies as their lips touched. They kissed like they wouldn’t see each other tomorrow. The Decennial’s arrival made them desperate. The two of them realized how little time they might have left. At any moment in the tournament, one of them could die. Isla pulled back when Grim hissed. 

“Did I bite you?” 

He shook his head. “It was probably my fault, really. I got a bit too eager… You look beautiful.” 

“You say that all the time.” 

“I mean it.” 

He began to kiss her jaw and down her neck. Isla threw her head back, eyes closed. She and Grim never really got the chance to savor each other. They were always quick, just to calm down their excitement, before having to leave to handle duties on their respective isles. Her eyes opened as she felt saliva fill her mouth. Isla swallowed it down. 

“Grimshaw, wait.” 

“Are you okay?” he asked as he pulled away eyes wide. “Hey, hey, it’s alright, Hearteater.”

Isla squeezed her eyes shut. Grim could see the teeth in her mouth that went from smooth to sharp. Part of the wildling curse. Being half-Nightshade, the curse wasn’t deadly but Isla still felt hunger whenever her excitement and passion became a bit too much. She snapped at the air before doubling over in pain as if she hadn’t eaten for weeks. Grim wormed himself out from under her, knowing she needed a moment without their bodies touching. Isla took in slow and deep breaths. 

“Thank yo—” Her hand reached for Grim’s throat. 

He watched the brown of her eyes turn completely black. Grim grabbed Isla’s other hand before it landed on his chest. He grunted in pain as her nails turned claws dug into his palm, drops of blood landing on the bed. The only thing between Isla’s snapping teeth and Grim’s face was his foot on her stomach. He tried to extend his leg to push her away but she wouldn’t budge. Wildlings gained a ridiculous amount of strength when hunting for a heart. 

Isla breathed through her nose as she glared at Grimshaw, letting go of his throat. Before he could move, she bit his leg. The pain made him let go of her hand. Grim’s breathing became short and shallow as he found himself pinned. A silent scream left his mouth when Isla’s claws dug into his chest, trying to tear through the first layers of his body. Grim’s hand flailed as he tried to move just enough to reach the pillows shoved against the headboard. His fingers stretched until he felt the burning sensation of darkness. Grim grabbed the shadow and pulled himself into it. 

Isla’s head shot up in confusion. She could smell her lover but she couldn’t find him. The pillows garnered her attention. She squinted. She was half Nightshade but never bothered to learn that magic properly, too fearful of upsetting Aurora. But some things still came naturally. She knew Grim was in the shadow of the pillow, hiding somewhere from her deep in the Shadow Realm. But she couldn’t reach into the shadow herself and grab him. 

A growl of frustration erupted from her throat. Isla’s eyes went wide. She scrambled backwards until she hit the wooden footboard of the bed. Her hand covered her mouth as tears streamed down her face. She could feel the sharp teeth become normal again. Isla felt her chest tighten. She had never lost control before. Her head shot up when Grim slowly crept out of the shadows. 

“No, Grim, stay away from me.” 

“Isl—”

“I almost killed you… I almost killed you.” 

“You didn’t.” 

“Grimshaw.” 

“I knew what loving you might bring,” he said, offering his hand. 

Isla gently took it. “But I never thought it would bring this. I thought the curse was supposed to be mild.” 

“When you think about it, it was. I felt the teeth and you were able to warn me. We both just didn’t take it seriously enough.” 

Isla stared at the cut on his chest, inches from his heart. “That isn’t good enough… I… I’m not ready to accept it as easily as you.” 

“What are you saying, Isla?” 

She pulled his hand to her mouth and kissed it. “I’m saying I need time… Grim, I’m asking you t—” 

“No.” Grim pulled his hand out of her grasp. 

“You don’t even know what I was going to say.” 

“You want me to hide your memories of us in the shadows of your mind and make it like you’ve never met me. I won’t do it. I don’t want to end my relationship with you.” 

“I don’t either. But I need time to think about how to be with you when the curse is stronger than I thought.” 

“Then take all the time in the world but don’t end us.” 

“You don’t understand. The Decennial is in a few days. I won’t be focused if I can only think about how I almost killed you.” 

Grim clenched his teeth. He looked around his entire room before facing Isla again. There was truth to her words and they both knew it. Distraction could mean death. With a slow nod of his head, Grim let Isla lay her head down in his lap. His fingers gently rested on her forehead. 

“Go to sleep, my Hearteater. You’ll be back on Wild Isle when you wake and it’ll be like we never met past a Realm Dinner. I’ll never forget you.” 

“I’ll come back to you, Grim.” 

Isla closed her eyes and let the shadows of her mind pull her into sleep.

[islahearteater]

you know, maybe the reason i prefer isla and oro over isla and grim is because we got to see their relationship build and their love bloom. like it's so satisfying to me to watch oro's behavior towards her change over the course of the book. god i love them

[koresflowers]

credit:tabbiesart

GRIMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

respectfully smash

me patiently waiting for lightlark casting

[vino---delectable]

Oh.. So.. Everyone hates this book?

It's dumb?

I'll let you in on a secret...

I'm dumb too so that means nothing to me