“Yes, Venera and Hawk and all of your family may be illusions, but they still love you. And love is real. Love is a choice”

So I was going through my reviews and realized I never posted my review for this book. It's been too long since I read this for me to create paragraphs so I just decided to post here the notes that I took down while reading. (Note: I apologize in advance for my lack of eloquence, this was originally for my eyes only)

— overall thoughts: 4.25 —
- everything is so not typical
- its not even the cliche kind of unique. like its not normal, but you still expect it. this is really extraordinary in a way i didn’t expect it to be

— characters —
- i love how amanda foody was not scared to step out of the ya fantasy box when it came to the character designs
- i mean... SORINA!!!!!!
- both sorina and luca mean sun/light KANDKANFKSNFKSNDNSJD
- just like sorina’s illusions i feel like amanda foody created these characters but they were the ones who wrote their own story with their own personalities
- they just came to life
- LUCA OMG the dude... likes ... STARGAZING!!! am i already in love
- they were lovable individually and were endearing as a couple [of friends], but the romance still felt rushed

— plot —
- even though the pacing was quite slow at first, the details were explained, thus good world building
- the general idea was already intriguing enough, the story telling made it that much more lovable
- i didn’t feel the build up towards the major scenes in the first part of the book, so it felt flat but by the end part, i was finally feeling everything to the point that i was crying with the characters as well
- it was one twist after another
- the pacing of the plot in the first part of the book just needed a little something, and i think i could have enjoyed it more
- not saying the plot was bad because it was very much enjoyable
- the pacing was off because at 30% i still wasn’t feeling the life of the book that much... though i found myself feeling nostalgic by the end, so something changed in the middle <3
- i always feel like the ideas are so great but it can be maximized so much more
- it’s like the plot was trying so hard to focus on how gamorah was her hoke but i found the family aspect to be more compelling and evident
- it was also explored despite it not being the main focus that amanda foody had in mind i believe (I don't even remember what I was referring to here)
- my only problem was that this was tagged as a mystery and i felt like it was lacking in that sense
- though, the fact that there were SO MANY twists and that they were all one after the other, was able to treat my problem a bit
- PERFECT ENDING

— themes —
- the fact that you can’t make someone love you... *screams*
- you choose your family
- the fact that amanda foody can come up with these kind of stories is already so unique and great in itself

— writing style —
- amanda foody does not have a flowery kind of writing style but its the kind that you figure out and slowly build in your head as you go along with the book and the story
- the story kept trying to focus on gamorah being sorina’s home when the family aspect was much more evident without the book even trying to go there
- so for me the building up of the world could have been done at the very first part and then focused on the family aspect of the book for the rest
- but this could be just me

i love how you can always expect amanda foody’s books to be something different and diverse. exploring the uniqueness in the modern world