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Illuminated
In this coming-of-age YA contemporary fantasy, a teenage girl has her life turned upside down when her family is breaking apart, and she discovers her supernatural powers. There’s no time to deal with it, however, as she’s targeted by a dangerous power-siphoner.
Nikki Chase, a 16-year-old striver, feels like her life is falling apart around her. Her parents’ marriage seems in trouble, her best friend prefers to spend time with the popular girl, and she’s quite certain she’s on the verge of a psychosis. After all, normal people don’t see colors around people or hear voices, right?
When a volunteering assignment leads her to a mental hospital, Nikki is determined to figure out what’s going on with her—and if perhaps she belongs in that facility.
What she discovers is nothing she expected: Lorene, a volunteer, tells Nikki she’s not crazy but, in fact, has the power to influence people’s thoughts and beliefs. However, someone has been sucking the power out of people just like her, leaving them behind as an empty shell.
Desperate for help and someone to trust, Nikki teams up with Lorene to discover who is behind the siphoning. But can she stop them before she becomes a victim? And can she do so without becoming addicted to the power herself?
Fans of suspenseful contemporary fantasy will love this YA coming-of-age fantasy thriller book about coping with difficult emotions, navigating relationships with family and friends, and the addictive quality of power.
Nikki Chase, a 16-year-old striver, feels like her life is falling apart around her. Her parents’ marriage seems in trouble, her best friend prefers to spend time with the popular girl, and she’s quite certain she’s on the verge of a psychosis. After all, normal people don’t see colors around people or hear voices, right?
When a volunteering assignment leads her to a mental hospital, Nikki is determined to figure out what’s going on with her—and if perhaps she belongs in that facility.
What she discovers is nothing she expected: Lorene, a volunteer, tells Nikki she’s not crazy but, in fact, has the power to influence people’s thoughts and beliefs. However, someone has been sucking the power out of people just like her, leaving them behind as an empty shell.
Desperate for help and someone to trust, Nikki teams up with Lorene to discover who is behind the siphoning. But can she stop them before she becomes a victim? And can she do so without becoming addicted to the power herself?
Fans of suspenseful contemporary fantasy will love this YA coming-of-age fantasy thriller book about coping with difficult emotions, navigating relationships with family and friends, and the addictive quality of power.
341 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 21, 2022
11 people are currently reading
933 people want to read
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November 10, 2022I can't say anything other than that I love this book, and I'm proud that this is my very first book--the first of hopefully many. I'm not going to say too much about it (again, I'm pretty biased), but if you love YA, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and a relatable cast of characters, then I'm quite confident you'll enjoy it!
February 15, 2023
I enjoyed it! Nice YA novel!
January 26, 2023
A young adult fantasy that will keep you turning the page.
Set in this time period, the book follows a young teenager who finds out she can control people with her mind and see their auras. However, the more she uses her powers, the more the siphoners can find her and use her power to become immortal.
Iris Marsh puts a new swing on young adult fantasy with a young girl who is able to control people with her mind. The book is long with 400 pages but it includes short chapters for an easy read. This book only took me a couple weeks to finish. The author leaves the readers with a cliffhanger at the end so we can see that there might be another book. (I have my fingers crossed because I really enjoyed this book and hope there is more.)
The main character--Nikki-- is thrown into a world of chaos where she has to decide on whether to choose her new found abilities for good or evil. We see how much she matures and grows throughout the book along with learning to use her powers and listening to the people around her. However, some of the people she comes to trust might not be on the right side. So, what will Nikki do? Will she succumb to her powers and use them for evil or will she stay on the good side?
This book gets five stars from because not only does the author pull you in with her descriptive imagery, but she also uses her words as a way to connect with her characters. The main character--Nikki--goes through a real life scenario as she learns about her special powers which can connect with young adult readers who might be going through the same thing. She shows them that everything in the end will work itself out and it'll be okay!
Set in this time period, the book follows a young teenager who finds out she can control people with her mind and see their auras. However, the more she uses her powers, the more the siphoners can find her and use her power to become immortal.
Iris Marsh puts a new swing on young adult fantasy with a young girl who is able to control people with her mind. The book is long with 400 pages but it includes short chapters for an easy read. This book only took me a couple weeks to finish. The author leaves the readers with a cliffhanger at the end so we can see that there might be another book. (I have my fingers crossed because I really enjoyed this book and hope there is more.)
The main character--Nikki-- is thrown into a world of chaos where she has to decide on whether to choose her new found abilities for good or evil. We see how much she matures and grows throughout the book along with learning to use her powers and listening to the people around her. However, some of the people she comes to trust might not be on the right side. So, what will Nikki do? Will she succumb to her powers and use them for evil or will she stay on the good side?
This book gets five stars from because not only does the author pull you in with her descriptive imagery, but she also uses her words as a way to connect with her characters. The main character--Nikki--goes through a real life scenario as she learns about her special powers which can connect with young adult readers who might be going through the same thing. She shows them that everything in the end will work itself out and it'll be okay!
January 12, 2023
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
It's a good read that flows well and has exciting action scenes. The suspense was so palpable that you just wanted the story to end.
Nikki is extremely insecure, and to make matters worse, when she discovers that she possesses supernatural abilities and that her parents are aware of this, her entire world is shattered. Not only that, her parents want a divorce. Also, it appears that her best friend Carmen has made a new best friend. This literally drives Nikki into Lorene's sanctuary to learn how to control her magical abilities.
However, a Siphoner is on the loose, sucking magical abilities from Illuminai members. Will Nikki succumb, making the Siphoner immortal and enslaving the entire world? This made me feel so uneasy that I couldn't help but cheer for Nikki to make the right decisions and resist giving in to her addictions, despite the fact that she is increasingly tempted to do so.
A warm story about real friendship, families and love.
It's a good read that flows well and has exciting action scenes. The suspense was so palpable that you just wanted the story to end.
Nikki is extremely insecure, and to make matters worse, when she discovers that she possesses supernatural abilities and that her parents are aware of this, her entire world is shattered. Not only that, her parents want a divorce. Also, it appears that her best friend Carmen has made a new best friend. This literally drives Nikki into Lorene's sanctuary to learn how to control her magical abilities.
However, a Siphoner is on the loose, sucking magical abilities from Illuminai members. Will Nikki succumb, making the Siphoner immortal and enslaving the entire world? This made me feel so uneasy that I couldn't help but cheer for Nikki to make the right decisions and resist giving in to her addictions, despite the fact that she is increasingly tempted to do so.
A warm story about real friendship, families and love.
March 11, 2023
A dark story
It was a bit too intense at times, I just had to take a break. Hadn't it been for the few misspelled words and other inconsistencies, I would've given it a five star review.
It was a bit too intense at times, I just had to take a break. Hadn't it been for the few misspelled words and other inconsistencies, I would've given it a five star review.
November 29, 2022
Nikki has always strived for the best, but she is struggling. Her parents marriage is falling apart, and is finding it hard to cope with the fact that they might separate. Her best friend is drifting away from her, preferring to spend her time with one of the school’s popular girls. And most of all, Nikki is certain she is suffering from some kind of mental illness, because she is seeing things, colours, where they shouldn’t be.
Nikki hopes that the volunteer work the school has set up in a mental hospital might lead her to some answers, but the ones she ends up getting are a lot different than what she expected. Lorene, one of the volunteers at the hospital, explains the truth to Nikki, a truth that has been hidden from her for her entire life – she has powers, the ability to see into others’ minds, and adapt what they do and think. But with the power comes danger. There is a siphoner, taking these kinds of powers from people, and leaving them a human body with little mind left. And the use of her powers will not only reveal Nikki to the siphoner, but will also make her more susceptible to an addiction that comes along with using the power.
With her father preferring to keep her in the dark, rather than teach her how to use her powers properly, Nikki turns to Lorene for guidance. Lorene takes Nikki under her wing, and begins the task of teaching Nikki how to control the power she holds within her. But the longer they spend learning, the more time the siphoner has to find her, and the more danger she is in.
Nikki is a character I initially struggled to connect with. She is very self-centred, she often does not see things that are right in front of her, and she comes to terms with everything almost too easily. There are a lot of things that stare her right in the face throughout the entire book, and she jumps to the wrong conclusions and is too caught up with her own problems to see what is going on around her. She is not particularly fazed by the idea of ‘magic’ being real, but more angry at her father that she was not told before. I won’t lie, I did figure out the main plot twist, which is not revealed until the end of the book, within the first few chapters. This in itself meant that I spent most of the book yelling at Nikki to figure it out as well, so she could progress with her story somewhat safely, although I knew this wasn't particularly likely to happen! On a second read-through, if you only figure out the twist at the end, this book would be very different, as knowing the outcome of the twist changes a lot. By the end, I definitely liked Nikki more, for she went through a lot of character development throughout the book, although it is her flaws that make her come across as real in the telling.
The whole concept of Nikki’s powers is one I haven’t come across before. Nikki has an influence over others’ thoughts, she can see what they are feeling, and can adjust their beliefs to change their entire way of thinking. By having such control, she can also put suggestions of things to do in their heads, effectively controlling them without them ever knowing. The possibilities for villains and heroes with such powers are almost endless, and it made for a very interesting story.
In this book, those with powers are a rare occurrence, a lot having died out, been victims of the siphoner, or gone into hiding to try and stay safe. But although she may feel it, Nikki is never alone in her journey. She does not always appreciate it, but her father is always ready to protect her, and Nikki finds a teacher and a friend in Lorene. She also has Alex, a boy who very much likes her, although she finds it difficult to open up enough to grow close to him. I did particularly like Alex. He is always ready to jump to Nikki's side when she needs him, although he is not always aware of the danger he is putting himself in when he does so.
This book does have a cliffhanger ending, although the book itself does come to somewhat of a close. It is not an ending to be satisfied with, but one that is not annoying as you wait for the next book to come out. Enough was revealed and dealt with that I can wait patiently for book 2, but it was left suspenseful enough that I need book 2 soon to know how the story continues. The perfect example of what a cliffhanger ending should be, in my opinion!
Although I wasn’t immediately hooked on reading this book, it did take a few chapters, this was a book I did really enjoy reading. Nikki’s journey is one that I would happily read again, and would love to continue following in book 2.
Nikki hopes that the volunteer work the school has set up in a mental hospital might lead her to some answers, but the ones she ends up getting are a lot different than what she expected. Lorene, one of the volunteers at the hospital, explains the truth to Nikki, a truth that has been hidden from her for her entire life – she has powers, the ability to see into others’ minds, and adapt what they do and think. But with the power comes danger. There is a siphoner, taking these kinds of powers from people, and leaving them a human body with little mind left. And the use of her powers will not only reveal Nikki to the siphoner, but will also make her more susceptible to an addiction that comes along with using the power.
With her father preferring to keep her in the dark, rather than teach her how to use her powers properly, Nikki turns to Lorene for guidance. Lorene takes Nikki under her wing, and begins the task of teaching Nikki how to control the power she holds within her. But the longer they spend learning, the more time the siphoner has to find her, and the more danger she is in.
Nikki is a character I initially struggled to connect with. She is very self-centred, she often does not see things that are right in front of her, and she comes to terms with everything almost too easily. There are a lot of things that stare her right in the face throughout the entire book, and she jumps to the wrong conclusions and is too caught up with her own problems to see what is going on around her. She is not particularly fazed by the idea of ‘magic’ being real, but more angry at her father that she was not told before. I won’t lie, I did figure out the main plot twist, which is not revealed until the end of the book, within the first few chapters. This in itself meant that I spent most of the book yelling at Nikki to figure it out as well, so she could progress with her story somewhat safely, although I knew this wasn't particularly likely to happen! On a second read-through, if you only figure out the twist at the end, this book would be very different, as knowing the outcome of the twist changes a lot. By the end, I definitely liked Nikki more, for she went through a lot of character development throughout the book, although it is her flaws that make her come across as real in the telling.
The whole concept of Nikki’s powers is one I haven’t come across before. Nikki has an influence over others’ thoughts, she can see what they are feeling, and can adjust their beliefs to change their entire way of thinking. By having such control, she can also put suggestions of things to do in their heads, effectively controlling them without them ever knowing. The possibilities for villains and heroes with such powers are almost endless, and it made for a very interesting story.
In this book, those with powers are a rare occurrence, a lot having died out, been victims of the siphoner, or gone into hiding to try and stay safe. But although she may feel it, Nikki is never alone in her journey. She does not always appreciate it, but her father is always ready to protect her, and Nikki finds a teacher and a friend in Lorene. She also has Alex, a boy who very much likes her, although she finds it difficult to open up enough to grow close to him. I did particularly like Alex. He is always ready to jump to Nikki's side when she needs him, although he is not always aware of the danger he is putting himself in when he does so.
This book does have a cliffhanger ending, although the book itself does come to somewhat of a close. It is not an ending to be satisfied with, but one that is not annoying as you wait for the next book to come out. Enough was revealed and dealt with that I can wait patiently for book 2, but it was left suspenseful enough that I need book 2 soon to know how the story continues. The perfect example of what a cliffhanger ending should be, in my opinion!
Although I wasn’t immediately hooked on reading this book, it did take a few chapters, this was a book I did really enjoy reading. Nikki’s journey is one that I would happily read again, and would love to continue following in book 2.
December 4, 2022
This was a wild and crazy read. It is really YA fiction and the main character is so 16 years old. While Nikki has the usual issues of a teen, she also thinks she is going crazy and that is how the story begins with watching her life go sideways in a very teen way. But along the way she finds out about her powers and begins to learn from Lorene and the fun really begins. A mix of teen angst, surprises, mystery, suspense, imploding family and the typical school issues with a mix of the scary paranormal. Was easy to get sucked into the story to watch Nikki come into her powers and hunt for the bad guy. And the journey was wild and fun. Writing was good and made me feel like I was there as I wanted sometimes to smack Nikki in the back of the head and tell her to use her brain.
December 7, 2022
Illuminated tells sixteen-year-old Nikki Chase’s story of how she became aware of her powers. Nikki is not only having to deal with her parent's separation and divorce she is having to deal with the fact that she believes she is going crazy. Nikki sees colors around people and hears voices.
Nikki has no clue about any of the things that are happening to her. I can only imagine how she may be feeling with her parents separating which probably only heightens the feelings she is having about the things she is able to do. Or maybe it is the other way around. Oh, and did I mention that she is afraid that she is losing her best friend to the popular girls?
Nikki meets this lady Lorene who tells her that she is not crazy. She tells Nikki that she has these powers. She also informs Nikki that someone is going around trying to take people’s powers. Nikki then sets out to find the person who is responsible for taking people’s powers and stopping them.
Illuminated has many twists that kept the pages turning. They had me racing to the end to see how it all turned out. Illuminated has lots of suspense that kept me hooked as well.
I really enjoyed reading Illuminated and look forward to the next book in the series.
I would recommend Illuminated to all fans of magic and fantasy! Grab your copy of Illuminated today!
Nikki has no clue about any of the things that are happening to her. I can only imagine how she may be feeling with her parents separating which probably only heightens the feelings she is having about the things she is able to do. Or maybe it is the other way around. Oh, and did I mention that she is afraid that she is losing her best friend to the popular girls?
Nikki meets this lady Lorene who tells her that she is not crazy. She tells Nikki that she has these powers. She also informs Nikki that someone is going around trying to take people’s powers. Nikki then sets out to find the person who is responsible for taking people’s powers and stopping them.
Illuminated has many twists that kept the pages turning. They had me racing to the end to see how it all turned out. Illuminated has lots of suspense that kept me hooked as well.
I really enjoyed reading Illuminated and look forward to the next book in the series.
I would recommend Illuminated to all fans of magic and fantasy! Grab your copy of Illuminated today!
November 22, 2022
Nikki a 16-year-old girl is struggling with issues in her parent’s marriage, her best friend is spending more time with the popular girl, and the fear that she is starting to develop psychosis because of her ability to see colors around others. After a volunteer assignment at a mental hospital, she meets a woman, Lorene who tells her that she isn’t crazy but has the power to manipulate people’s thoughts, but there is someone taking the power from others like her, and she must find a way to keep herself safe without turning into this person herself.
This was a really interesting and unique story. Nikki’s character was great, I loved how much she changes from the start of the story to the end. You really see her grow and develop as a character throughout the book. I loved going along with her and experiencing all these difficult circumstances that she was put in through the book and how she handled them and overcame them. You see a variety of emotions from Nikki that she experiences throughout the story and these emotions really translated from the pages to the reader.
We get a lot of backstory and information on the character’s past which I really loved since it helped me connect with the character much more quickly than I would have without all this extra information about them. We were left on a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of the story but I didn’t mind too much because it felt like the best possible way that the book could have ended.
This was really great and entertains fantasy-thriller, that keeps you hooked from start to end. Great read and definitely recommend reading this book!
This was a really interesting and unique story. Nikki’s character was great, I loved how much she changes from the start of the story to the end. You really see her grow and develop as a character throughout the book. I loved going along with her and experiencing all these difficult circumstances that she was put in through the book and how she handled them and overcame them. You see a variety of emotions from Nikki that she experiences throughout the story and these emotions really translated from the pages to the reader.
We get a lot of backstory and information on the character’s past which I really loved since it helped me connect with the character much more quickly than I would have without all this extra information about them. We were left on a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of the story but I didn’t mind too much because it felt like the best possible way that the book could have ended.
This was really great and entertains fantasy-thriller, that keeps you hooked from start to end. Great read and definitely recommend reading this book!
November 16, 2022
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
This is book one of a duology, with a cliffhanger type ending.
Nikki has a rough start in her journey, she believes she's on the verge of a mental breakdown. She wants answers and is desperate for any information she can get.
Like most of us(probably all) she makes mistakes and a lot of this is due to being a teenager.
She has things to learn about her powers, those around her, and herself. The journey has just begun for Nikki.
YA Fantasy, urban setting, and little to no violence. A sweet mild romance. There is a good bit of profanity.
Possible triggers: There is an affair, a discussion of other affairs, a talk of divorce. While these things are not triggers for all they can be for some.
This is book one of a duology, with a cliffhanger type ending.
Nikki has a rough start in her journey, she believes she's on the verge of a mental breakdown. She wants answers and is desperate for any information she can get.
Like most of us(probably all) she makes mistakes and a lot of this is due to being a teenager.
She has things to learn about her powers, those around her, and herself. The journey has just begun for Nikki.
YA Fantasy, urban setting, and little to no violence. A sweet mild romance. There is a good bit of profanity.
Possible triggers: There is an affair, a discussion of other affairs, a talk of divorce. While these things are not triggers for all they can be for some.
December 2, 2022
this was a great start to the Illuminated series, it did what I was hoping for from the description. Iris Marsh has a great writing style and it did a great job in telling the story. The characters were what I was hoping for and I enjoyed reading this. I look forward to reading more in this series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
January 2, 2023
Actually a 3.5 I liked getting to know the characters and the magic. Medium paced, at times fast at times slow. It will be interesting to see where the author takes this in the next book. I did get this as an ARC in return for an honest review.
April 4, 2023
I won this book in a GoodReads drawing. Overall, I quite enjoyed this book. I liked the story line, although I do wish there had been more details of her powers. The powers, the background and everything that they entail seemed sort of glossed over. While I found the story pretty predictable, it was still a nice, interesting read.
December 15, 2025
Really great book! Was a bit intense at times, but was worth it. Very adventurous. Great read for young adults. First of a duology. Next book is Intertwined.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews