Starlight Jewel by E.L. Lyons

Starlight Jewel is the first book in a series titled Gifts of the Auldtree, and is an utterly unique work of fantasy that shouldn’t work for me nearly as well as it does.

Let’s get this out of the way first, this book is not a romance novel, though romance does play an important role. I’ll admit I initially dismissed the book based on the cover and title, thinking it was a fantasy romance. After seeing the author talk about her book on Twitter though I put it on my TBR because it piqued my interest, and when the author reached out an asked if I wanted a review copy, I gladly accepted. And I am so glad she did because this book surprised me in so many ways.

Truly though this book has no business being as enjoyable for me as it was. There are elements to it that on the surface are not my cup of tea, such as the romance or heavy focus on characters over plot. But everything about this book is just so wonderfully crafted that it overshadowed what could have otherwise easily stifled my enjoyment. The prose is brilliant and eloquent, the characters flawed and compelling, the world intriguing and complex. But this intro is getting much too long so let’s dive into what makes this book so good.

I love good fantasy worldbuilding, and Starlight Jewel has that in spades. Our main character Axly is a hybrid, meaning she is half human and half sprygan. The sprygan are basically tree humanoids with some magic abilities. Many years ago sprygans and humans fought in a devastating war, though they eventually signed a peace treaty and live in an uneasy truce. Their hybrid children act as a bridge between the two races, facilitating trade and keeping the peace. Even so, they are tolerated but not accepted by either one. Hybrids can inherit a few or many of the abilities of their parents, and though are mostly human in form, they can have a varying amount of tree bark features. As such, they are not welcome to live with the sprygan, and only those that can pass as fully human can roam freely. This leads to an interesting dynamic where hybrids are vital to the peace and stability of the city of Minalav, but must remain an open secret. Both humans and sprygan need them to exist, but neither want to fully acknowledge or accept them. And it is even worse for those hybrids that look more sprygan than human, forced to live underground in hiding, even from their hybrid siblings. These elements serve to introduce some important themes that the author begins to deal with in the novel, and I am interested to see where she takes it later in the series.

The hybrids mostly make a living off assassinations and seduction. The assassinations are self-explanatory but the seduction piece is one of the most fascinating aspects of the book. As I mentioned, hybrids can inherit a variety of abilities from their sprygan parents, most dealing with heightened senses and physical abilities. Which without spelling it out for you, make them quite good at seduction. However, some also have the talent of effacing, where they can remove an individual from a person’s memory, without removing the feelings and sensations associated with those memories. So basically rich people come for a fun night, bring money to get “robbed” by the hybrids, and then leave after being effaced, with the feelings of their time in Minalav but not remembering the hybrids themselves. And they keep coming back for more.

This effacing is really interesting, the way hybrids use it is mostly harmless, but you can see how it can be a dangerous tool. Without going into spoilers, effacing plays an important role in the novel, especially in the romance element, where multiple times one person is effaced so they are unable to remember the other, but they still have the feelings associated with their now erased relationship. While I am normally not a fan of romance, this added an element to the story that I really enjoyed and I am sure that readers that do like romance in their novels will love it.

The other highlight of Starlight Jewel is the character work. Axly in particular draws you in and just never lets you go. Her life is a series of choosing the lesser of two evils and making the best out of terrible situations. She is driven by love for her brother, friends, and people, but has to make terrible decisions in order to protect them, and sometimes she has to decide between them as well. A fascinating dynamic of sprygan/hybrid magic is the ability to perceive the “aura” of pureness around a person. When they make decisions they feel guilty about, their aura darkens around different parts of their body. But despite the many, many awful things that Axly is forced to do, her aura never darkens, except for one lone spot she earned long ago. She often feels like she is a terrible person unworthy of affection, but she never lets her past drag her into darkness. As the story progresses we learn more about Axly’s past and the reasons for her actions, and she only became more compelling with each revelation. The twists were handled expertly and left me wanting to know more.

Every character in this novel is so well done, they each feel distinct and fleshed out, there are no shallow side characters to be found. All of the more important characters have meaningful development as the book progresses, though many of them not in a direction that could be considered happy. I could go on about several of the characters that I really liked but without a doubt Axly is the star of the show. And that is definitely intentional, the novel largely is focused around Axly rather than any bigger conflict. There isn’t much of an overarching plot line, it is mostly comprised of a series of subplots woven together to form the web of Axly’s complicated life. This is another thing that honestly just shouldn’t work for me. I don’t mind character-driven books but I’ve found I need a plot, I need something to be going on in the books I read. Starlight Jewel’s structure is nothing like what I typically search for in a book but the combination of Axly’s crazy life, the author’s magnetic prose, and the fascinating world all held it together enough for me to really get sucked into the story.

That’s not to say that is without its flaws though. The lack of a larger plot does cause the book to drag at certain points as we are unaware of where the current storyline is taking us, and I think having an underlying something to tie everything together would have helped at these points. Honestly though, the fact that it worked as well as it did, especially for a reader like me, is a testament to the skill of the author. I think most book structured in this way would fall apart but it’s clear the author knows what she is doing and her talent is obvious throughout the book.

For me Starlight Jewel was a book that defied all odds to become a favorite read. I am deeply invested in where the story and characters go from here, and I anxiously await the sequel. I can’t recommend this novel enough for fantasy readers looking for something truly unique in the genre.