Skyshade

Skyshade is the third installment of Alex Aster’s young adult fantasy romance series, the Lightlark Saga. Lightlark, which was published in 2022, centers around an event called the Centennial. Every 100 years, six rulers are invited to participate in a series of dangerous games for a chance to break the curses that afflict their realms. The series’s protagonist is 19-year-old Isla Crown, the ruler of a people called the Wildlings, who are cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. While competing in the Centennial, Isla develops romantic feelings for both Grimshaw Malvere, the dark and brooding ruler of Nightshade, and Oro Rey, the stern and golden-haired king of Sun Isle. She also befriends Celeste, the ruler of the Starlings. Unlike the other rulers, Isla is unable to access her magical abilities and mistakenly believes that she has no supernatural powers at all. At the conclusion of Lightlark, Celeste reveals that she is actually Aurora, an ancient ruler who created the curses and who seeks to claim all of the realms’ power for herself. Isla must kill her former friend to reclaim her powers and to break the curses. Adding to the betrayals Isla encounters, Grim reveals that he has been working with Aurora and that he and Isla had a year-long romantic relationship that he’s hidden from her memory. The only person Isla trusts at the end of the first book is Oro, and the two are in love.

Lightlark examines themes including the dangerous allure of beauty and the relationship between power and duty. Many characters distrust Isla because Wildlings are suspected of using their enchanting appearances to lure unsuspecting victims to their deaths. In another example of the dangerous allure of beauty, Grim uses his fantastical good looks to win Isla over while working with Aurora behind her back. Ultimately, Oro becomes Isla’s preferred love interest because their relationship is built on trust rather than appearances. Power and duty are also major themes throughout the series. Crucially, power doesn’t equate to freedom in the world of Lightlark, because rulers are expected to put the greater good of their realms ahead of their own personal desires. This is more than a cultural expectation; the islands are bound to their rulers and will die if the ruler perishes without an heir. Throughout the series, Isla struggles to balance her duty to her realm and her personal desires. The many betrayals that she experiences in the first book hinder her ability to form healthy connections and have a long-term effect on her relationship with Grim.

The series continues in Nightbane, which was published in 2023. Like Skyshade, this book explores The Tension Between Love and Duty. Isla’s memories of her past relationship with Grim return, gradually revealing that he has always been motivated by a deep love for her even when she believed he had betrayed her. Isla discovers that she and Grim were married for a year before the Centennial. As a result, her heart is torn between her love for Grim and Oro. Further complicating matters, a prophecy predicts that Isla will usher in a new age by killing either Grim or Oro. The prophecy develops the theme of The Uncertain Existence of Free Will and strongly influences Isla’s decisions in the third book. When Grim attacks Lightlark with an army of flying monsters called dreks, Isla fights alongside Oro and his allies. Isla seeks to hone the Wildling, Nightshade, and Starling magical powers she gained due to the events of the first book’s climax. She is tormented by apocalyptic visions of destruction throughout Nightbane, and they come true when she unleashes her power to save Grim’s life, inadvertently killing hundreds in the process. Isla’s sacrifice kills her, but Grim saves her by binding their lives together and retreating to Nightshade with her. The danger posed by Isla’s magic and the lengths that she and her lovers go to in order to protect one another illustrate the series’s focus on love and power.