3.5 Stars 
 "You might have a face to turn my hair white, but your honesty is handsome." 
 Radiance starts out pretty strong. The characters were emotionally mature and charming. Their first meeting actually managed to be sort of swoon-y despite the fact that they found each other physically repulsive. Their reasonable temperaments and lack of self pity or wallowing over their situation was refreshing. I was pretty sure I was going to love this. However as the story goes on, though we are told the stakes are high and much is made out of the awkwardness that comes when these two cultures blend, there didn't seem to be enough momentum or actual plot. I never believed in the urgency or lack of safety. 
 This was primarily a romance with almost all the focus being on the development between Ildiko and Brishen as they graduate from deep emotional connection (which happens very quickly) to physical attraction and love. I appreciated that this was a love story where the focus was first on respect and emotional compatibility between two people. Watching them come to see each other as beautiful because of their emotional bond when neither meets the others cultural bias for beauty added to the romance. Sadly there wasn't enough else going on to get me hooked into the story. 
 The middle portion dragged due to lack of action. Neither Ildiko or Brishen seem to progress as characters, partly because they are a bit too perfect to start out with. Once Ildiko arrives in the Kingdom of Kai chapters are spent featuring her being thrust into one supposedly challenging social situation after another, all which she carries off with nearly effortless aplomb. She never seems to make any mistakes or have any trouble handling the alien culture she has been handed off to. Brishen's parents, the King and Queen, are one dimensional villains who act as a destabilizing force and so that we can contrast them the perfect paragon of goodness that is Brishen at all times. When real danger and tragedy finally come into play during the last quarter it still doesn't manage to have any lasting impact on the characters as people. It happens, they deal with it, and after they are still the same perfect people they were. Part of the point of major events is to come out changed or to have learned things. I'm not certain what the point of this was other than to make good on a danger we already knew existed. I really wanted to like this book and I think it had good bones but ultimately suffers from a thin plot and a black and white approach to characterization. I may still read the next book in this series when it comes out later in spring, occasionally the second book in a series has turned out better than the first for me. My opinions aside, this has an overall good score on Goodreads and if you are in the mood for a romantic fantasy about two good hearted (and often times funny) people then this may work better for you than it did for me.