Jasmine was happy with her foster family. They were nice and treated her well, she felt like she was one of their own children. But then her happy life changed drastically when she is moved from their home into one where she is treated like an outcast. From the moment she stepped foot into the house, she has been met with discontent and hatred. But why? Why does this family hate her so much without knowing her? There is one shining light in the darkness; Nathan. At times he seems friendly enough, but other times he can be just as cruel as the others. What does Jasmine's life have in store for her within this family? Will she be able to win over their affections?
This novel picks up where Candlelight left off, but not through the eyes of Nathan, but the eyes of Jasmine. We see her fear, confusion and heartache through the novel as she is mistreated and given mixed signals from Nate. While I enjoyed the perspective of Jasmine and getting inside her head, I preferred Nathan's viewpoint. We get more of the true story through Nathan as he is the one who needs to perform the sacrifice, it is his cultural ritual that the story is based on. We have none of that within this novel. It felt like we missed out on a lot of different elements with the story being through Jasmine's eyes.
The story itself is very well written, I enjoyed the addition of handwritten notes from Nathan and Mrs. Stevenson. They added a different quality to the story, broke it up a little bit with written dialogue rather than verbal. Nice touch. Again, because Luminosity is a novella, it seems we miss out on a little more, although it seemed there was more story to this one. There was more of a climax as readers get to the end, and when it does end with a cliffhanger of sorts I felt like trying to find the next installment.
McWilliams does a wonderful job drawing her readers in and capturing their attention throughout her whole story. There are characters you grow to love in order to hate such as Mr. Stevenson and Jenny. Jasmine developed most throughout this story since it focused primarily on her. Even though there are other characters in the story, it didn't seem they played as major a role in this installment as they did previous, probably because they did not have direct correlation to Jasmine. There are I still want to know about like the Luminosity of a sacrifice as well as the reason why they need the Luminosity and why it needs to be a certain member of the clan. I guess more will be answered later.
Luminosity as well as Candlelight are two books that stay with the reader once they set the books aside. Readers are eager to get back to reading and finding out where the story will progress next and what will happen to their favorite characters. Stacey McWilliams does a fantastic job with both her books and I am honored to have read them.
I highly recommend this novel to those who enjoy dark fantasy, young adult, the paranormal and a great story. I give this novel a 4 out of 5 rating. Good job Stacey, can't wait to see what you have planned next.
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