I wanted to enjoy this so much but I just didn't. Lunav wasn't a bad book but it wasn't all that good either? There were lots of nice ideas behind the story but none of them every developed into anything truly interesting and the whole story was just like hundreds of other fantasy stories with nothing to truly set it apart.

I was impressed by the first book by this author that I read, but the world building in this novel didn't catch me. It was too complex with not enough explanation for the reader. The characters also read flat. As I did not finish this book, I will post a middle of the range rating.

There is much to love about this epic fantasy book. There is a lot of world-building, the plot is beautiful and the storytelling is beautiful. The writing style is also incredible.
However you should be warned that this plot is not without it's dark aspects.
However, talks of dragons, faeries and magic is something that should keep the reader reading on.
Her imagination is commendable.

So you already know about how I embarrassed myself publicly for this book and you must be wondering why. Well there are so many reasons. The world building here is rich, detailed, and superb. There's a wealth of magic, color, and injustice. I could feel the rage simmering beneath the pages. Lunav encapsulates the true potential of speculative fiction - to transport us to another world while still commenting on the conditions of our times. At the same time, the characters make you cry big ugly tears, smile from ear to ear, and laugh aloud. The writing is multi-dimensional, layered, and has amazing themes throughout.

3.25 Stars. We all know never to judge a book by its cover. But NineStar Press has been putting out such beautiful covers lately, I could not help but be drawn to this book because of that. Of course realizing that this was a YA lesfic fantasy book just insured it would be a must read for me. I did like this read, I just didn’t love it like I was hoping too.

Dragons, magic and the fae, this book really should have been perfect for me. For one, I thought this was going to be more of a high fantasy romance book. Instead this is more dark epic fantasy. (Epic fantasy meaning a large cast of characters and multiple books) I love epic fantasy don’t get me wrong, it is more the dark part that bothered me. And really thinking back, there are not many moments that are not dark, sad, or depressing. It was a bit too much for my tastes I need more moments of hope. This is more like it will be bad or it could be even worse. Secondly, I saw nowhere mentioned that this is just the first book in a series. I was surprised at the ending I did not see coming because of that. I was left feeling a little deflated at the end.

This book is hard to get into at first. There are so many names, types of magical beings, and a whole new world to learn. It is a lot of info to take in at the beginning. It is not info-dumping, in fact there were things I wished where explained much better, it’s more that Polish lets you as a reader figure things out in your own time. This works, but not always, since I’m still confused about a few things. I do have to say this magical fae world is wonderfully imagined. I have never read anything quite like it which I always appreciate.

I think the biggest issue I had with this book is it seemed like it had trouble deciding if it wanted to be YA or an adult book. The characters are supposed to be around 16, but almost never act their age. Secrets are discovered near the end that makes their young age seem even odder. Not to mention this is pretty dark for a YA book. I think if the main characters where in their early 20’s even just that small difference would have made the book work much better for me. There is a romance, but it is very light and quick since not a lot of happiness happens in this book.

I give Polish credit for a brilliant imagination. She has dreamt up things I don’t think have ever been dreamt up before. I just really wish this book had some more good feels. I don’t know how long she plans on making this series. I am willing to give the next book a chance. I just hope I can put at least one smile on my face.

There was a lot going on in Lunav. So much that I found it hard to engage at first. As I got deeper into the book the story pulled me in though.
I DO wish there had been a bit more world building/history in the story though. We're thrown into a world in conflict, with a bunch of different races/species, dialects, magical abilities, pronouns, etc, and there's no explanation of anything. We learn different abilities as the story goes on and sometimes it makes you stop and go "wait, what?" For example, there's a type of faerie that flies sideways somehow, and there's no real distinction of anything. This aside, I found the magical realm interesting. I also liked how the characters were defined as quer until they either chose or announced their pronouns, though there was nothing to show this in the story. It just was. Which was a bit confusing at times. I feel like there could be some way to integrate various explanations and history into the story without detracting too much.

Sadie lives in a faerie world where each faerie is paired with a magical dragon as they grow. Humans fear and hate the faeries and dragons though and have enslaved them (somehow), blaming dragons for a plague that kills on contact. In order to suppress the faeries Humans perform an operation on them that prevents their dragon from developing and prevents the faeries from Dreaming. (Still not sure what Dreaming is.) Sadie is half-human so uses her ability to pass to spy on the Humans nearby. On one of her spying excursions she spies Evelyn, the new Commander for the Human army, and falls into instant crush.

I enjoyed the diversity of Lunav, but really wish there had been more explanation of what was the history and description of the worlds.

This was weird, but it was good. I'm obsessed with the characters and the writing in this book.