Reviews - Radiance | The StoryGraph

3.68k reviews for:

Radiance

Grace Draven

3.87 AVERAGE

books_daggers_coffee's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

hdabru's review against another edition

4.0

Removed a star just because I thought it was a touch boring. But to be fair, sometimes that’s more my mood than the book itself. This one managed to be engrossing without exaggeration or unnecessary drama or anguish. I’m not usually a fan of friends to lovers but at least with these two you can really see how much they mean to each other, and believe it. It was unencumbered by contrivance, and was refreshingly matter of fact. Not to mention the villain was seriously, awfully nasty. Not morally gray or sympathetic. Just awful, and that was refreshing too.

see_sadie_read's review against another edition

4.0

This was a surprise winner for me. Granted, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a dark read. But it’s actually super sweet and relatively low-angst. And normally, that’s not a combination that works for me. I like some grit in my fantasy. But I also appreciate a practical heroine, and Ildiko is a strong one. And Brishen is just so marvelously noble. Watching them become friends and supports to one another before lovers was nice.

There was also humor, interesting side characters (who are obviously the couple for a future book), an interesting world, and a slow-burn, low-spice romance. I enjoyed the heck out of it.

As much as I liked the above aspects of the book. I did feel a tad bored at times. There isn’t a lot of action, and most of what action there is is packed toward the end. And the villain is a little cliched. All in all, though, I look forward to reading book two.