A review by clem2605
Lavender and Lightning by Thora Woods

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a good book overall, but I’m still a little disappointed. 

I love the characters, especially Alexandra (it’s so difficult to find a book where a woman is truly and fully in charge from the beginning to the end). But I feel like their relationships are under-described.  For one, we’ve still never seen Lucas and Mateo say anything directly to each other. And I’m pretty sure there’s only one scene where they interact with each other. Mateo is supposed to be gay, he even got disowned for it, but we barely see him interact with anyone other than Lydia and Seth. It seems a little like a waste. Couldn't he have a relationship with Lucas, even a small one? Frankly, I feel like if he weren't here, the story would be exactly the same... Lucas is supposed to be close to Lex, but we rarely see them interact and even less in a positive setting. 

When they have a big fight and Lydia leave, Rhett and Lex stop paying attention to Lucas, going as far as avoiding him. I mean, I’m not sure what their relationship is supposed to look like, but it made me feel like Lydia is way more important than Lucas to them both. Especially since it was just a fight. A big one, yes, but Lydia was well and alive, they even knew where she was, and could reasonably guess that she was safe. 
 

It’s my biggest issue: I feel like everyone in the pack is partial to Lydia, and love her more than the others. It feels a little unbalanced to me and unfair to the others. Lucas shouldn’t be less important than her in the grand scheme of things. 

Lydia is also a bit of a hypocrite: she’s really angry when the Alphas hide something from her ‘for her security’ but meanwhile, she’s hiding something from her brother ‘for his security’. 

The are some other minor inconsistencies as well. And I felt like the big fight could have used a bit of reworking because I frankly didn’t understand what was the matter. Plus, Lydia was at least partly to blame for it, and no one ever confront her about it. 

But I’ll be happy to read the next book while hoping to see some things get better in it. 
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