Exactly 100 years ago, President Warren Gamaliel Harding escaped the sweltering summer weather and increasingly dark political climate of Washington, D.C. to embark upon a lengthy cross-country trip through parts of the American West still relatively unaccustomed to frequent visits by the nation’s Chief Executive. Billed as a “Voyage of Understanding”, Harding’s trip was seen as a prelude to his potential campaign for re-election the following year, and an opportunity to put some literal and figurative distance between the President and the rumors of rampant corruption swirling around some of Harding’s friends and closest aides from Ohio, as well as several Cabinet members — rumors eventually proven to be true, resulting in indictments, convictions, prison sentences, and even suicides. As President Harding prepared for his Western tour, he could feel the heat as the scandals plaguing his Administration began to reach a boiling point. Speaking privately to the famous journalist and editor William Allen White, Harding said of the Presidency, “My God, this is a hell of a job! I have no trouble with my enemies…But my damn friends, they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights.”

Harding’s planned 15,000-mile Voyage of Understanding began on June 20, 1923. Traveling aboard the private Pullman railroad car Superb, the 57-year-old President left Washington, D.C. accompanied by First Lady Florence Harding, Speaker of the House of Representatives Frederick H. Gillett, new Interior Secretary Hubert Work, and a large retinue of aides, friends and their families, doctors, Secret Service agents, and members of the press. Work had become Secretary of the Interior a few months earlier when the previous Secretary, Albert B. Fall, became the “fall guy” for the Teapot Dome scandal. For his role in the scandal, Fall was later convicted of accepting bribes — the first former Cabinet member in American history to serve time in prison for crimes committed while in office. At later points along the journey, Harding’s party was also joined by Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace (father of future Vice President Henry A. Wallace) and Secretary of Commerce (and future President) Herbert Hoover.

The last week of June 1923 was spent traveling through the Mountain West — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Yellowstone National Park. The beginning of July saw the Presidential party in the Northwest and celebrating Independence Day in Portland, Oregon before boarding the USS Henderson in Tacoma, Washington on July 5, 1923 to sail to Alaska. One of the expected highlights of the Voyage of Understanding was the northernmost  leg of the trip, as Harding became the first incumbent President of the United States to visit Alaska and Canada. The Territory of Alaska had been purchased for the United States by Secretary of State William Seward in 1867 when Warren G. Harding was two years old, and at the time of Harding’s visit, Alaska was still 35 years from being admitted to the Union as the 49th state. But the President spent nearly the entire month of July traveling through the state, mixing public appearances with private recreation and sightseeing. On July 15, 1923, Harding hammered a golden spike in Nenana, Alaska to officially complete the Alaska Railroad. And ten days later, the President crossed into Canada, fishing on the Campbell River in British Columbia on July 25th and then making an official visit the following day in Vancouver, where he was greeted by one of the largest crowds of his voyage — estimated at over 40,000 people — and where he also squeezed in a round of golf at the exclusive Shaughnessy Golf Club.

The President returned to American soil on July 27th, arriving in Seattle and making several speeches in a busy six-hour period — first to Camp Fire Girls at Volunteer Park, then to nearly 30,000 Boy Scouts at Woodland Park, and finishing the day addressing over 30,000 people at what is now Husky Stadium at the University of Washington where he predicted statehood for Alaska, where he had spent most of the month. After making a brief appearance that evening at the Seattle Press Club, Harding boarded his train that night to travel to Portland, Oregon.

But something was not right. The President seemed to be exhausted, perhaps from the grueling trip through geography much wilder than Harding’s native Ohio or swampy Washington, D.C. Despite his exciting journey through Alaska and the energetic welcome provided by the Canadian people, Harding was clearly wiped out by the time he reached British Columbia. The President did head to the country club while in Vancouver, but he was so tired that after six holes of golf his foursome skipped directly to the eighteenth hole, seemingly completing the round without tipping off the press that Harding couldn’t play the entire course.

From the White House, nine days before embarking upon his Voyage of Understanding, Harding wrote a quick note to Solicitor General James M. Beck who had wished the President a safe journey on his upcoming trip. Thanking Beck, Harding wrote, “I shall try to remember not to overdo (it) in crossing the continent.” And, on June 14, 1923, six days before leaving, President Harding wrote a short letter to a young girl from Hartford, Connecticut named Vivian Little, who had recently sent the President a four-leaf clover as a good luck charm. “Thank you so much for the four-leaf clover which you were so good as to press and send to me,” the President wrote. “I hope it will bring me good luck and that it will bring you still more of the same.”

However, any luck that President Warren G. Harding still had seemed to be running out. Ill and exhausted after leaving Vancouver, Harding tried to rest aboard the USS Henderson as it sailed to Seattle in the early morning hours of July 27. At some point around 3 AM, Harding and the other passengers aboard the Henderson were jolted awake as the ship crashed into the USS Zeilin, an American destroyer accompanying the Presidential party while they traveled through the foggy Puget Sound. This was not the first mishap of the Voyage of Understanding. While traveling through Colorado early in the trip, three people from the President’s party had been killed in a car accident. And now, after a few weeks in Alaska where Harding was able to at least temporarily forget about his Administration’s many troubles, the President was not only sick and tired but two of his Navy’s ships had just smashed into each other almost as soon as he had returned to the continental United States. While the USS Zeilin was badly damaged in the collision, the USS Henderson was not and there were apparently no major injuries on either vessel. But when the President’s valet, Major Arthur Brooks, came to Harding’s stateroom aboard the Henderson to inform him that the captain was calling for all hands on deck, he found the depressed President lying on his bed with his face buried in his hands. “I hope the boat sinks,” President Harding quietly muttered.

It was just hours later that Harding made his whirlwind tour through Seattle, putting on a brave face at his public appearances, but clearly not feeling well. While he was never considered a brilliant orator like Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, or his immediate predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, Harding was a strong speaker and excellent communicator who had a unique ability to connect with audiences, but he was obviously — and unusually — halting and confused while speaking in Seattle on July 27th. As he boarded his train at Seattle’s King Street Station that night, Harding was examined by his doctor and by Interior Secretary Hubert Work, who had once been a physician, and they decided to cancel the next several days of planned activities. Instead of stopping in Portland and then visiting Yosemite National Park, the Presidential party was ordered to proceed directly to San Francisco where Harding could rest before giving a speech on the radio planned for July 31st which was expected to be heard by over 5 million people.

Despite the four-leaf clover that had been sent to him by Vivian Little before his Voyage of Understanding, Warren Gamaliel Harding’s luck seemed to be running out. And, as his train sped through Oregon en route to San Francisco’s Palace Hotel on July 28, 1923, President Harding was also running out of time.  

CHICAGO

Seen in 2024:

The Runaway (Dave Fleischer), 1924

Hob Gadling be like:

Remembering Marlon Brando on what would have been his 100th birthday.

April 3, 1924 - July 1, 2004.

Harney County, Oregon Centennial Coin - 1889 to 1989

Proud Of The Past

Poised For The Future

Judy Garland was born 100 years ago today, June 10, 1922. Here she is in New York on September 5, 1950.

Source: Judy Garland News

[Eddie Vedder voice] Bugs in your sleeping bag . . .

Bear Bottom Bar & Grill - Wyoming Highway 30 in Centennial, WY

Pictured above is a pepperoni and pineapple pizza with green chili sauce instead of tomato our midwest correspondent Denis had. See below for his thoughts!

Florence Kling Harding was a divorcée who had a son from her first marriage that she had given up to be raised by her parents by the time she met Warren Gamaliel Harding in 1890 when he was the owner and editor of the Marion Star newspaper in Marion, Ohio. Florence was instantly attracted to the handsome Harding, but the feeling wasn’t immediately reciprocated. Harding was five years younger than Florence and already had a reputation as a notorious womanizer. However, Florence was persistent in her advances and Harding was practically incapable of turning women down — his father, Dr. George Tryon Harding, once told him, “Warren, it’s a good thing you wasn’t born a gal. Because you’d be in the family way all the time. You can’t say no.” — and they were married in July 1891. It’s impossible to know whether Harding truly fell in lover with Florence, or if he saw her as a potential key to unlock his burning ambition, but it’s worth noting that Florence very quickly went to work running nearly every aspect of Harding’s newspaper business and helping turn it into a success financially. And that Harding was relentlessly unfaithful to his wife throughout their marriage. Warren and Florence never had a child together, but Harding fathered an illegitimate daughter with a young girl from their hometown of Marion, Ohio just a year before he was elected President (Harding’s daughter, Elizabeth Ann Britton, kept a low profile and avoided publicity throughout her life and died in 2005).

But despite Harding’s extensive infidelity and the scandals and allegations of corruption swirling around Harding’s Administration, Florence Harding — now First Lady — tirelessly attended to the 29th President of the United States after he fell ill during his cross-country Voyage of Understanding in the summer of 1923. She remained near his bedside as Harding rested and hoped to recuperate at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in early August 1923. When they had first arrived in San Francisco on July 29th after canceling all planned events in California due to Harding’s illness, the President’s doctors were worried by his condition, which they had described as “grave”. Originally announced as “ptomaine poisoning” with severe indigestion caused by crabs or seafood that Harding had eaten while visiting Alaska, the bulletins released by his medical advisers noted that the President’s breathing was labored and he had a dangerously rapid pulse. After taking X-rays, the doctors also diagnosed Harding with pneumonia and were worried about the effects of his illness on his heart. But by August 1st, Harding’s fever had broken and his pulse and breathing were closer to normal. Although they had expected to remain in San Francisco for at least two weeks while Harding recovered, the President was in good enough spirits on August 1st to talk about traveling to Catalina Island where he was originally scheduled to go on a deep-sea fishing trip with his friend and supporter William Wrigley Jr.

As President Harding rested in Room 8064 of the Palace Hotel on Thursday, August 2, 1923, he was feeling better than he had in days. To the members of the Presidential traveling party that visited him throughout the day Harding acknowledged that he was tired but said that he felt “out of the woods.” In the afternoon, Harding  and Secret Service agent Colonel Edmund Starling spoke again about deep-sea fishing off of Catalina Island before returning to Washington, D.C. and Harding joked about how he hoped to have better luck there than in Alaska where he didn’t catch any fish.

Early in the evening of August 2nd, Mrs. Harding brought in a copy of the latest edition of the Saturday Evening Post and thumbed to a story by Samuel George Blythe called “A Calm Review of a Calm Man”. With allegations of corruption bearing down on several of Harding’s closest aides and Cabinet officials, the President had been depressed and unable to find silver linings in the clouds gathering over his Administration. But as the First Lady read Blythe’s article out loud to him, Harding was pleased to actually hear some positive reviews about the President’s governing style. “That’s good,” said the President. “Go on; read some more.” As Mrs. Harding was reading, the President closed his eyes while reclining on the bed with his head propped up by the pillows. When she finished reading, the First Lady left Harding’s room and went to her nearby room in the suite while the President was seemingly sleeping.

One of the nurses attending to the President, Ruth Powdery, filled a glass with water in the bathroom and brought it to Harding so that he could take his medication before going to sleep for the night. The nurse was walking towards Harding when she noticed that his face suddenly twitched and his mouth dropped open. As the President’s head fell limply to the side and he slumped over the nurse called for Mrs. Harding who rushed into the room and instantly screamed for a doctor. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover and Interior Secretary Herbert Work ran into the room almost immediately along with Harding’s personal physician, Brigadier General Dr. Charles E. Sawyer, but it made no difference. It was 7:32 PM on August 2, 1923 and President Harding was dead. He was 57 years old.

Dr. Sawyer quickly declared that Harding had died of a cerebral hemorrhage, but there was some disagreement by others present about the exact cause of death. As other doctors arrived on the scene the distraught First Lady asked whether any of them could do anything for the President and it took nearly an hour before she could be convinced that Harding was actually dead. With the doctors disagreeing about whether or not the President had died of a stroke or a heart attack or some other cause, there was a push to conduct an autopsy in order to make a final determination. However, Mrs. Harding was adamantly opposed to allowing an autopsy to be performed on President Harding. She even refused permission for an artist to make a death mask of her late husband. Florence Harding’s actions in the wake of her husband’s death would later lead to allegations that she may have poisoned the President — either to punish him for humiliating her by engaging in numerous extramarital affairs or out of mercy to prevent his reputation from being further tarnished by the many scandals of his Administration. The rumors about Florence Harding possibly poisoning Warren G. Harding have never been backed by any solid evidence, but some of Mrs. Harding’s actions immediately after the President’s death were unusual. After Harding’s body was returned to Washington, D.C. and he was lying in state in the East Room of the White House, Mrs. Harding reportedly sat next to his open casket for several hours overnight while saying to the dead President’s face, “No one can hurt you now, Warren.”

In Plymouth Notch, Vermont, telephone services were turned off at night in 1923. At a farmhouse in this small rural area of Vermont, Colonel John Calvin Coolidge Sr., who was a justice of the peace and a notary public, was hosting his son and daughter-in-law, who had come to town for a few days of vacation. The Colonel’s son was the Vice President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, and while he had learned of President Harding’s illness a few days ago, he was under the impression that Harding was improving and would make a full recovery. On August 2, Calvin Coolidge had helped his father with some yard work around the farm and went to bed fairly early. Late that night, Colonel Coolidge heard someone knocking on his door and answered it while Vice President Coolidge was still sleeping. Since there was no way to contact the Coolidge household by phone, the nearest telegraph operator rounded up two members of the Vice President’s staff who were staying nearby and a reporter and drove to Plymouth Notch. When Colonel Coolidge opened the door at about 10:30 PM, the men handed him a note for the Vice President that read, “The President died instantly and without warning and while conversing with members of his family at 7:30 PM. His physicians report that death was apparently due to some brain embolism, probably an apoplexy.”

The Vice President and his wife, Grace, were awakened shortly afterwards by his father calling for them and they headed downstairs. When Coolidge saw the look on his father’s face and heard the tone of his voice, he realized that President Harding was dead. “The only times I have ever observed that before,” Coolidge said of his father’s demeanor that night, “were when death had visited our family. I knew something of the gravest nature had occurred.” A special phone line was opened for Coolidge at a store near his father’s farm so that Coolidge could speak to Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. Hughes recommended that Coolidge take the Presidential oath of office as soon as possible, seconding the opinion of the Attorney General, who had sent a telegram to Coolidge suggesting the same thing. The Secretary of State told Coolidge that he could be sworn in by any notary and Coolidge told Hughes, “My father is a notary.”

Colonel John Coolidge searched through his private library for a copy of the Constitution, which had the exact wording of the Presidential oath of office. A kerosene lamp was lit in Colonel Coolidge’s sitting room and at 2:47 AM on August 3, 1923, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th President of the United States by his own father. When asked later what he was thinking at that moment, Coolidge remembered, “I thought I could swing it.” After he was sworn in, President Coolidge went upstairs and promptly went back to sleep. The new President and his family traveled to Washington, D.C. later that day to await the return of President Harding’s body, which was traveling on the same train that had taken him on his “Voyage of Understanding” as it crossed a country in deep mourning and the nation prepared for a State Funeral.

LIGHTLARK BY ALEX ASTER REVIEW

Title: Lightlark

Author: Alex Aster

Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Romance, YA, Romantasy

Series: Yes

Rating: 3.5/5

Duration of read: 5 days

Page count: 409

I finally finished Lightlark!

It was such a wild read. I can honestly say that the book did make me feel a lot of emotions, and it was certainly a rollercoaster for me, and I decided to tab the book in this category: World Building/Important Stuff, Happy Stuff, Sad Stuff, Romantic, Suspicious and Frustrating/Making  Me Mad, which all the more proves that this was such an emotional read for me.

Though the premise of the plot of Lightlark was certainly interesting, I remember the first time that it came through my TikTok fyp, I immediately favorited the original video from Alex's account and decided to wait for it to be released in my country, and after finishing it, I did give it a rating of 3.5/5. The reason for this is because as I was going through the book, all the information that we needed to get to fully grasp the story were a little bit disjointed, incomplete and disconnected. To be frank, it was a little difficult for me to follow at first because in the beginning of the book, we would get descriptions, a few sentences of important information and then we would skip over to a new scene and then circle back to the original thought/information that was being discussed by the main character. I do understand that it is entirely possible that that is what the author wanted us to feel while reading the book, maybe she wanted us to feel exactly as clueless, as scared, as desperate and as helpless as the main character/main narrator to better connect with her, it just wasn't the easiest thing to follow for me. Even though I gave the book a solid 3.5, there are still things that I liked and did not like with it. Let me tell you more about them.

I loved the idea of Lightlark and the division into six rulers and realms (Sunling, Wildling, Nightshade, Skyling, Moonling and Starling). I loved the premise of participating in a deadly political game called The Centennial to decide which ruler and realm would die to free the entirety of their people from the curses that were spun 500+ years ago. I absolutely loved the drama of the fact that there were rules to be followed for the duration of The Centennial, and I also loved that there was drama among all the rulers. I also loved how the mentality of a person who has been manipulated by those around her was shown in the context of Isla's character--how she seems to struggle with her own identity, her own decisions and how she feels guilty for standing up for what she personally believes in, but I loved it more when she was able to gain a sense of confidence in her abilities, her identity and in who she is. Out of everything else though, the one thing I loved most about Lightlark is Grimshaw Malvere, ruler of Nightshade. I know, I know, Isla is the main character, but I cannot help it. Grimshaw is painted in such a mysterious, and admittedly, delicious way that I can't help but love him--flaws and all.

Moving on to the things that I did not particularly like about Lightlark. There are a few, and I think I would need to use bullet points for this.

I guess the main one would be the predictability of the major twists of the book. I don’t know if it was just me, but it was very easy to follow the clues leading us to the true villain of the story. It felt like we were trying to be misled to another conclusion, but the clues were just there and very easy to connect.

Another thing that I struggled with in the book is how it is always reinforced that Isla has been trained her entire life by her caretakers, however she always seems to get into precarious situations that could have been avoided if she actually used her training. It felt like her training was conveniently mentioned when it would suit the plot for some scheme-y type events, but would be conveniently shelved otherwise. It felt like her training was implied to be second nature to her, but actually isn't. This is what I meant by the information being a little bit disjointed because if she were actually trained to a point where she was one with all of her skills, she would not easily forget her own strength and fall prey to all the misfortunes that happened to her. I get it, The Centennial is supposed to be dangerous and Isla is supposed to be one of the youngest rulers in all the realms, however, it just really doesn't track for me how she's only well trained when it suits the plot, but she conveniently gets into so much trouble when it also suits the plot. I hope I'm still making sense.

It absolutely infuriated me how Poppy and Terra were the ones who mainly manipulated Isla, but it felt like it was only skimmed over when in truth, their betrayal of Isla's trust is so much more disgusting than what happened with Grim. It kinda felt to me like it's going to be some sort of set up for a possible redemption arc for Grim because it felt like I was being forced to vilify him in all ways possible.

I also did not like how the Centennial was presented to be a deadly, political, game that would showcase just how cruel, and cunning all these centuries old characters are, however it did not give me that sort of experience while reading it. I guess it's closely related to how I didn't get a lot of consolidated and solid information about Lightlark and the Centennial as much as I wanted to, then again, it is only the first book so that still remains to be seen for the remaining part of the series. In terms of it being political and exciting and anxiety inducing, and them showing just how cunning they can be, it wasn't really all that for me. I kind of expected a more complex way of all the rulers trying to manipulate, expose and spy on each other all the while trying to understand the prophecy and break the curse on Lightlark. I also kind of expected the entire Centennial to be more than a few paragraphs and chapters of them showing bits and pieces of their power, the weird tests they have for each other, and the demonstrations that feel like are just being used to further the plot of a love triangle instead of actually showing how deadly the competition is. I also had some trouble understanding how this was classified as a game when it sort of wasn't? I just had a lot of trouble with it. As I said earlier, it was a somewhat difficult read for me as it was hard to follow at times (except for the main villain plot thing.)

Main Characters:

Isla Crown, Grimshaw Malvere - ruler of Nightshade, Oro Rey - King of Lightlark.

Main Antagonist:

Celeste/Aurora ruler of Starling.

Supporting Characters: Azul, Cleo, Ella, Poppy, Terra, Juniper

MAIN CHARACTERS

Isla Crown:

Description: Isla has long, dark brown hair, green eyes, and tan skin.

Thoughts on Isla:

I personally did not like Isla as a main character. She infuriated me way too much. I understand that she has been manipulated by every single person in her life from the day she was born, and that does have a lot of consequences and effects on someone's life, however, I just didn't connect with her as well as I expected to. I have read a lot of fantasy series where the main character is a woman, a lot of them even younger than Isla's character, and a lot of them have also gone through very traumatic experiences (yeah, I know, trauma is trauma and people are allowed to react and feel differently because any experience is unique to the person). I feel like, Isla could have been written in a better way that showcases so much more of her strengths and her abilities as a supposedly fully trained warrior leader of the Wildling realm. As I mentioned earlier, it was difficult to swallow the fact that Isla keeps on boasting about her extremely harsh training that she received ever since she was a child, however it's still very easy for her to be taken advantage of, beaten and be basically helpless and be a damsel in distress negating all of the training that has been beaten into her bones and body, and then she suddenly becomes this well-trained girl who is one with her skills and abilities when the plot suits it.

Grimshaw Malvere, ruler of Nightshade:

Description: Grim is tall with pale skin, black eyes, black hair, and a dimple on his cruelly cut face.

Thoughts on Grim:

Where do I even begin? Grim is my favorite character out of all the people currently known to us in the Lightlark universe. Maybe I'm just being extremely biased, because he does feel very Rhys coded to me and I am absolutely in love with Rhysand (from acotar). Other than that though, I do love how Grim is written in a way that is very playful. I also love how he is very unconditional towards Isla. (Yeah I know, shit move on the memory erasing thing, but come on, we have to give him some leeway about that. More on that later) An example I have about him being unconditional towards her, whenever she asks him something that is absolutely within his power to answer, he doesn't act all high and mighty like the information only belongs to him, he answers as honestly as he can. He doesn't make her 'work' for the truth or the answers that she seeks as if she isn't worth honesty. Another thing I like about him is how he seems more than willing to sacrifice something about himself for the good of Isla (I absolutely love to see a whipped man for the main character). An example of this is how he was more than willing to expose his own flair when Isla's secret about her not having power was revealed by Oro just to make sure that Isla would be safe, away from the other rulers who might have nefarious plans for Isla. I also love how he  helped her move from the palace to the Wildling fortress no questions asked. Anything for Isla, anything she asks, he does. Anything she needs he gives with no conditions. Especially with the black diamond necklace he gifted Isla for whenever she's in trouble, I loved that so much. Grimshaw Malvere has shown us through his actions multiple times already how he is someone Isla CAN and SHOULD trust even though his own words say otherwise. More on the stuff about him feeling very Rhys coded to me is the tortured soul vibe I get off of him. Yeah sure, you can justify it as him feeling tortured because he did wipe Isla's memories for an entire year , but it kinda feels like it's more than that you know? I just have so many things that I love about Grim, and I hope that we get to know more about him in the next book. I hope we get to know him more, how he actually acts in his realm, what is important to him other than Isla, how he thinks, how he feels and why he acts the way he does. Let's not forget all the times that he refers to himself as a monster, how he always says that he is playing a role that is already expected of him by the other rulers--he must have a reason for that. There must be something that he is trying to protect in his realm, in his lands, or something that he is trying to expose which could be the reason that he acts the way he does. Now, I do understand that Grim is a controversial character for most readers because of the memory stealing thing that he did for Isla, I get it, that was definitely violating on so many levels, however, we should still give him some leeway about the fact that he was also manipulated by Celeste/Aurora. Remember, he suddenly inherited the power of his father when his father died for the prophecy to break the curse, and at this point Celeste/Aurora was already hundreds of years old, so she was already a conniving bitch, and as per the book, the Nightshade realm and Grimshaw are the only ones standing against some greater evil that Oro doesn't even want to explain to Isla (because he's manipulative like that. More on him later), so there must actually be MORE to him and how he is important to the story than we actually know. I know I'm rambling, but I just have so many thoughts about him and as much as I try to organize it, I just want to gush about him.

YES I AM A GRIMSHAW MALVERE APOLOGIST.

Oro Rey - King of Lightlark, ruler of Sunling:

Description: Oro has blond hair, gold eyes and fair skin.

Thoughts on Oro: 

I don't particularly like Oro. Yeah I get he saved Isla in the first part of the Centennial, but he really only saved her for his own purpose not because he actually loves her. I also understand that he is an untrusting person because he had been played and plagued by people who want to get close to him because of his status as the King of Lightlark, however, with the many changes of his personality, attitude, I don't even believe any of the faces that he shows us in the book. Oro to me, feels very icky. In a sense that he is not very forthcoming with information. Every time Isla asks him questions, he either dodges it or makes Isla work for the answer, he withholds information as if no one else is deserving of the truth other than he. He is a very conditional person, and I guess I just don't agree with people or characters that always have conditions for everything. I don't like how secretive he is, it doesn't feel mysterious for me, It feels manipulative. Especially with his sudden decision to kill off Grim. It felt very convenient how he and the other rulers just suddenly decided to off Grim just like that. It feels like he and the others were already planning something for Grim because he wasn't even invited by Oro in the past few Centennials and was only invited to this one when Isla would be playing. It just feels like there's more bad to him than good.

MAIN ANTAGONIST:

Celeste/Aurora:

Description: Celeste has a long, straight sheet of hair and a heart-shaped faced.

Thoughts on Celeste/Aurora

From the moment I read about her, she was already feeling kind of sketchy and shady for me. The way she was written didn't feel like she was someone I could trust. She loved to restrict Isla, and loved to remind her how she was weak and insignificant and needed protection. From those things alone, I already felt like she had something to do with the curse. It seemed like she was in the business of minimizing Isla as much as she can, she also seemed to always be in the most convenient of places to make sure she can reinforce her agenda of protecting Isla as well as the idea that she needs help. I understand she was supposed to be written as a major betrayal, however, it was very easy to follow the trail of the villain back to her. Just studying her actions, her words, what she does are kind of some flags pointing towards her.

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:

Azul, Cleo, Ella, Poppy, Terra and Juniper.

I loved how friendly Azul was to Isla, and I am very sad for him in regards to what happened with his husband. Cleo felt like she was planted as an obvious choice for Isla to hate, or be suspicious of, though I do like her as a ruler because it was shown just how loyal her subjects are to her, and how far she'll go to protect them. Ella was very easy to like. She made me feel like she's someone I want to protect. With regards to Poppy and Terra, I am able to understand why they did what they did to Isla and her parents, however I cannot accept or ignore it. What they did to Isla--gaslighting her, manipulating her, lying to her, that is something that I cannot understand nor accept. I don't get why it was just skimmed over, I get it it was nearing the end of the book, but come on. I really hoped it would have warranted a little bit more of a reaction from Isla. She had more of a reaction towards Grim than them which was really rude imho. Out of all the supporting characters, I would like to see more of Cleo, and see how she plays into the plot of Lightlark.

Theories

Do I have theories about Lightlark? I'm not sure if these actually counts as theories, they're more like hopeful predictions for me, maybe even wishful thinking. Haha.

Mainly, I hope that the second book would be better written than the first in a way that it would be less difficult to follow, and it would have a more consolidated approach to the information we would need to understand the lore of Lightlark.

Now, for what I think will actually happen in the next book, I just have a few thoughts to share. First, I think that when Isla regains her full memories about her time with Grimshaw, she will understand further why Grim did what he did. Second, I think that Isla is going to find out the truth about the darkness/evil that the Nightshade realm is standing against, and I think Isla will find out that Oro is either behind that evil or he has something to do with it, and in a way has either convinced the other rulers to side with him or he has tricked them to side with him. I think that Isla will go back to Grim (because Oro feels more icky than Grim lol) and I do honestly think that something else is causing Oro's degeneration (the thing that's happening to his arm and body). I think we're also going to see how powerful Isla actually is when she finally trains her abilities as a Wildling ruler, and also her Nightshade powers plus the powers she got from winning the Centennial, and lastly, I think we're going to see just how Rhys coded Grimshaw Malvere actually is lol.

Will I be continuing the series and buying the next book or dropping it entirely?

I will be buying the next book -- Nightbane. At first I thought I would actually be DNF-ing the book, but I wanted to find out more about Grim, and after reading the last few chapters, I am determined to know more about him.

Seen in 2024:

The Cartoon Factory (Max Fleischer & Dave Fleischer), 1924

Call the Midwife (2012) Episode #11.3

Shelagh organizes a special celebration to mark 100 years since the Order first arrived in Poplar - although Sister Hilda feels that she should have been in charge of the festivities.

Violet must balance her professional and personal views to tackle the issue of meths drinkers. Nurse Crane treats a promising young singer who must decide between two very different futures. Trixie and Matthew’s friendship blossoms into something deeper.

Centennial by James A. Michener

Candy: "The Fight"