Name: Amber & Dusk
Rating: 3.25 (16 reviews)
ISBN: 9781338210033

Lyra Selene

Lyra Selene weaves a lush and thrilling story of sacrifice, secrets, and star-crossed love set in a Parisian-inspired world where the sun never sets in this remarkable YA fantasy debut.

Amber & Dusk

Callisone Dozier

I couldn't really connect with Mirage, and there really weren't any other characters I just loved. It was a solid beginning of a new series, and I have both hopes for the sequel. Selene writes well, and the plot is interesting.

Story Eater

***Can't wait to get my hands on this. Any interested in getting their hands on it earlier than 27 November can order through a Scholastic book club online.***

Meanwhile, after reading...

I bought this book from a Scholastic book club sale before it hit regular shelves. I’m sorry I spent money on it. To start, it is a bit unbalanced. It takes 52 pages for Sylvie, our MC, to get to the Amber palais but only 28 pages for the climax to begin and end. For a pretty huge lead up to a supposedly huge showdown, that’s a bit of a letdown. 

On the surface, Sylvie reads like a version of Rey with her desert surroundings and abandonment issues. She finds her way to the Amber palais in a caravan headed up by an ore miner and transporter when the Imperial Guard descends on the whole group demanding to know if there are any refugees among them (because refugees are illegal and unwelcome in the kingdom). The whole scene plays out like a bad stereotype that made me want to quit reading. I can’t stand stereotypes of any kind, and the scene with this one in it was too political for my taste. I didn’t like the writing, and the story had too many 2018-style political digs for my taste (any mention of modern political anything in a fictional fantasy tale puts me off of a story immediately). 

For a court intrigue, it didn’t really feel like the MC had teeth so much as she was teething because of all the whining and complaining she did throughout the book about her entitlement to be in the court her inability to quickly adapt to court mannerisms and customs. Lots of complaining and simpering. 

Also, I noticed quite a few similarities to other characters and parts of movies or stories that randomly came to my head when I read certain parts. Some of them would give away big plot points, so alas, I will not mention them. But one rather funny example would be the caravan storyteller’s tale at the beginning felt like the scene from Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure when Tink learns where to get another moonstone. The fairy storytellers and their pixie dust cinema came to mind immediately. 

For all the things I did not like about it, there were some parts that had redeemable qualities. Just none that outshine what made it such a chore to read. I hate it, too-I read the synopsis and got really excited about it.

Stephanie Haynes

Geneviève Rouleau

"[...] an ignorant, unreliable, loudmouthed provincial with delusions of grandeur and an entitlement complex as big as this château?" 

This summarizes my feelings for this book 😂 and here's why : when I first started reading this book, I was intrigued by the promising world building and the fast pace of the story. But there were so many confusing elements that were never explained. For example, this world lives in eternal daylight. Or dusk, guessing from the title? 😂 It remains unclear. I also feel like so many aspects could've been developed more. It didn't help that the pace slowed down dreadfully. 

And then I started having issues with the main character. She is so entitled, it's ridiculous. annnnd she develops a love interest seemingly out of thin air. For the beautiful, cruel noble (of course). Overall, I felt like this world was so promising, but after the original descriptions, the story revolved only around the usual lies and intrigues of courtisans living in a grand palace. 

The paced finally picked up again in the last 80 pages. Everything started coming together, even if it was a tad predictable. I didn't hate this book, I actually enjoyed quite a few passages. The author occasionally wrote some beautiful, flowy descriptions. But it still fell flat for me.

Manon van Heumen

This was such a good book! I enjoyed every bit of it!

Lisa Beasley

This was well written but I didnt like the main character much. She was too self important and whiney for me. I didnt care much about her and got really sick of her me, me, me attitude. I did really like a couple of side characters much more but we didnt learn enough about them. Not sure if i will read the next one (though i may skim through as i want to know the fate of one of the aforementioned side characters as we were left with a bit of a cliffhanger)

Liz Griffin

3.5/5 - the world was fascinating, but the main character takes herself way too seriously and sometimes the dialogue rubbed me the wrong way.

Amber & Dusk

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