Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Book Review: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

*This review may contain spoilers*

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 neighbour, 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 faces.
If I don't kill him first, that is.


I can guarantee that if a book has a kick-ass heroine, sarcastic humour, amazing fight scenes, a little bit of romance, and a lot of paranormal activity - I will love it. Last week I was looking for books that fall under this very category and came across the Lux series by Jennifer Armentrout. I found the book on Goodreads, read the summary, reviews, all that jazz, and decided to put it on my list-of-books-I-desperately-need. That was a bit presumptuous of me, because now that I've read it online for free, I'm glad that I didn't buy it outright. 

I'm not saying Obsidian is a waste of money, because it's probably my favourite book in the series, but it just lacks something. The writing isn't very good, the plot can get a little thin at times, and it's pretty damn predictable. While reading it, and I really hate to say this, I kept comparing it to Twilight and Evernight. You know, those really predictable stories about a girl being thrust into a world she never understood, fighting for her life, finding a guy, all that jazz. 

I feel like Simon Cowell right now, because I'm being really mean to this book. I actually enjoyed the book, I think it's the next books in the series I have trouble with and I've got a lot of lingering resentment over the characters. 

The protagonist, Kat, is a lovely girl at the start of the book, as is her new friend Dee. I found the way Kat and Dee became friends very forced and sudden, but I they're a perfect team so it's all good. The Kat and Daemon storyline is a bit…
…weird. 

I have no words for it, not really. I absolutely adore the love/hate relationship between the two. In this first book, Armentrout wrote Daemon perfectly. He's a troubled guy who lost a brother, on a foreign planet, trying to look after his twin sister. So of course he's going to be an asshole, and Kat is going to be a bitch right back. Kat can't quite match Daemon's attitude, but they are pretty evenly matched and she really isn't what Daemon had expected her to be. She's his equal, not a lowlife human.

That is something that we should all take away from reading this book; we're equals, there's no one that was put on this Earth to be better than you. Although the message is communicated in a lame way (love triangles, wow, never saw that coming), it's very true. 

I did love the angst between Kat and Daemon, Kat's friendship with Dee and Daemon's ex who's kind of evil. But my love for the book stops there, in other aspects it's just average. I think the major issue I have with this book is the world building and the fact that most important things in the book don't go further then a brief explanation. I would have loved to see a broader world, you know what I mean? There was no depth to this magical, alien-filled universe that Armentrout created. 

Most aspects of the book are just so one-sided, and I feel like the reader really misses out on things that could have been amazing but only ended up as average. The question is, do these things outweigh the great character development and the fact that a smoking hot alien is just chillin' right next door? I honestly don't know, I really did enjoy this book. It was an easy book to read, fun, and I got along well with Kat. Probably the best in the Lux series, but on the grand scheme of things it just didn't do it for me. On a scale form 1-10, I'd give Obsidian a 6.25. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped to. I would definitely recommend this book to people that love a lot of romance in their cocktail!

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