Lakesedge was a really interesting debut novel from Lyndall Clipstone. As a YA book about "monsters and the women who like to kiss them" this is clearly her wheelhouse. The setting was colorful and characters unique enough to stand out clearly. The magic of her world was vague, but felt like there was a depth there beyond the hand-wavey. All of that was for the good.

My issues with the book are mostly about the main character's motivations. When we meet her, we quickly learn that Violeta will do anything, even give up her own life, to protect her brother. She will sacrifice everything she has to protect him, endure physical and emotional trauma, anything. This is who we're cheering for through the entire book when suddenly it all changes.

This next bit is spoiler-y, so I'm using spoiler tags:

When Violeta decides that saving Rowan is worth surrendering the memories of her family for all eternity it just didn't make any sense. It was so entirely against her character that it threw off the rest of the book for me. Once the Lord Under specified that her brother was included in that, and that she'd never remember him, any chance of a better rating went out the window. Honestly at that point of the book it felt like the author forgot that Violeta had a brother at all as she spun up the romance plot, which, in retrospect, was far weaker of a connection to reality than her familial love. No, were I her editor I'd have told her to kill the romance angle completely and have her sacrifice her safety at Lakesedge to save the world, but leave the brother in peace. That fits her character more and avoids the trope.