Title: ObsidianAuthor: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: The Lux Series (#1)
Pages: 335 (paperback)
Published: May 2012 by Entangled Teen
Summary: Starting over sucks. When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.
And then he opened his mouth. Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something... unexpected happens.
The hot alien living next door marks me. You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.
If I don't kill him first, that is.
My Thoughts:One of my favorite parts about this book was how much I could relate to it. No, I don't have a hot alien dude living next door to me with the ability to manipulate stuff and leave lit up traces on me (I wish). But it was nice and refreshing to see the protagonist be a book blogger like myself.
Katy wasn't your typical clumsy YA protagonist that enjoys reading every once in a while but hides behind her awkwardness until she needs to be dubbed "spunky" as a plot device. She was unapologetically nerdy about her book blog and everything related to it and was herself from the get go around everyone, no strings attached. She didn't brood too much or pine after anyone, either, which was a relief seeing as how overdone that has gotten in some parts of YA literature.
Not only that but I like to think of myself as witty with the banter every once in a while, and that was in abundance throughout this novel. I mean this book was hilarious. First of all, I'm officially adding the phrases "sweet baby jesus," and "for the love of babies," to my vocabulary, fyi. Secondly, I was laughing and snorting out loud during many parts of this book, which let me assure you doesn't happen that often and it made me appreciate Jennifer L. Armentrout as a writer just that much more. Her humor felt effortless, which I loved, as did the connection between Daemon and Katy.
*Sigh* and what can I say about Daemon. Let's just say he reminds of a similarly named vampire on a certain diary centered vampire show that is currently airing on TV. Arrogant, conceited, hot, likes a girl he probably shouldn't like in the first place, puts family before himself, hot, deeper than he lets on, witty, hot, and has wonderful hair that you could easily take a nap in. These similarities are not necessarily a bad thing. Actually I think these traits are what made me enjoy him as a character in the first place, along with a few other differentiating characteristics, too.
The only thing I didn't like about this novel was how it seemed to jump ahead and skip too quickly through a scene. I almost got whiplash toward the ending considering how much happened was in just the last quarter of the book. Other than that, I was completely sucked into the storyline and couldn't put the book down. This book wasn't exactly high-brow by any means, but it was such a fun read.
I mean Daemon's world alone was so appealing, as well. I haven't read many alien themed novels for fear of them being too hokey, but this one was very enjoyable and actually quite believable when it came down to it. I didn't once think anything along the lines of "This is ridiculous," or "Who would possibly believe any of this," while reading this book. This novel definitely exceeded my expectations as a sci-fi alien novel as well as a YA book and I cannot wait to read the next book of this series.
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
