Somnolence #1

I didn’t fully know what I was getting into when I started this, but I was so glad I picked up Raiden!

Lilah is just going about her normal life with her friend Vivi, avoiding her abusive father as much as possible, when she walks into the front office of her school to see her favorite rock band picking up their school schedules. She gets volunteered to show the guys around and they all instantly click, except for Jonah/Jordan (that will make sense after you read the book) who pushes her away due to past girls hanging around the band.

Raiden the lead singer takes up an instant connection to Lilah or as he calls her Lilac. Once the boys find out about Lilah and her home situation they take her under their wings and watch out for her. And as Lilah gets closer to the guys she realizes they aren’t all human.

Will Lilah get out from her father’s thumb?

What exactly are the boys?

What about the boys music career?

All of which is answered in the book!

Lilah I felt opened up to the boys very quickly. More quickly than what would be believable. I don’t know if that’s just the way that her character was written or if you could chalk it up to ptsd from everything. She does say that everyone at school knows her situation so she might as well come out with it as soon as she meets them, but still if what was happening to me at home like what was happening with her I wouldn’t be telling people that I just met about it, especially if it was a band I idolized.

It was also pretty fast paced, which I didn’t fully mind as it kept it interesting and kept me wanting to read and if it was slower I think it might have lost my interest.

I think it would’ve been interesting to have a few chapters in Raiden’s POV just to get his side of things at least a few times. But with the secret of what paranormal things are going on I see why that wasn’t included.

Jumper and Lilah’s relationship was the best one after her and Raiden’s. I loved their brother/sister banter and playfulness, it made the story!

They played tons and tons of truth or dare… and towards the last couple games of it I was asking myself if they just didn’t know another game or what cause every free time was spent with that game, but several of the guys were absolutely obsessed with it.

Sky's world building was great! It's a paranormal story but set in the regular world where these paranormal beings (won't tell you what they are cause that's a spoiler) are living right along with humans. She also gives the reader a look at a high school rockstar life of both managing classes and concerts.

I went from ARC reading this first book Raiden, to beta reading the second book Trace, and I'm now currently alpha reading the third book Jonah. Ali Lucia Sky quickly became a favorite author of mine! Her writing is amazing and she's such a sweet person!