Lumière (The Illumination Paradox #1) byJacqueline Garlick

Alice in Wonderland with more bitter taste of reality mixed with lies, cruelty and a sweet lovestory.

★★★☆☆ 3 Stars for this story of loss, trust, love and bravery.

I received a free ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Eyelet suffers from seizures and her father invents a machine that is supposed to look inside her head in order to find the cause and cure her of the illness.

Her father's promise to heal her never gets fulfilled. He dies and leaves behind a strangely glowing pendant whixh is passed onto Eyelet when her mother is killed years later. Eyelet is on the run. The brigsmen, guards of the city, are ordered to catch her so she'll either meet the same fate as her mother or get thrown into an asylum for the mentally insane.

While trying to stay alive and locate her father's machine she meets Urlick. Together they try to get the Illuminator working. On the way they uncover too many things and truths neither of them wants to be true.

A few parts parts made it difficult for me to get into the storyworld. Like the fact Urlick doesn't believe in magic but how came Bertie into existence then? Some things felt a bit inconsistent and the lack of urgency at some points made me feel irritated with the characters. Their behaviour in times of danger and when time is of the essence is neither convincing nor suitable for the situation from time to time, which put me a bit off.

Both Urlick and Eyelet are really likeable main characters, though they both need time to warm to each other. Urlick is super cute and I just want to hug and pet him. Such a cutiepie!

Eyelet is a strong female character to my liking and I look forward to reading more about both of them.

A few of the other characters weren't clear enough positioned so that some plot twists felt rather weird. Another thing I want to point out is that the timing of some plot twists was just too convenient to be believeable and felt a bit forced.

Still, I enjoyed Urlick's and Eyelet's story, though I probably won't consider rereading it.