Thursday 12 April 2012

Book Review: Obsisian by Jennifer L. Armentrout


Title: Obsidian (Lux #1)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Pages: 294
Release Date: 29th November 2011
Read in: April 2012
Goodreads-Amazon.co.uk/com
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.

I’ve heard many good things about Jennifer L. Armentrout. However, after reading Half Blood and now Obsidian, I’m afraid she is not a favourite for me. 

“Daemon smiled tightly. “I can tell what you’re thinking. Not that I can read you mind, but it’s written all over your face. You think I’m dangerous.” And a jerk…and hot, but I wasn’t admitting that.”

The first thing that I have to say is the surprising resemblance Jennifer’s books have to other popular series’. Ok, in her defence, I’ll admit it is hard to write a book series that has no resemblance at all to another. However I don’t want to see too many similarities to one series, and I preferably want it to be just as good (or better). 

While Half-Blood felt a lot like I was re-reading Vampire Academy, Obsidian didn’t feel like I was re-reading Twilight. But it was similar to Twilight; a bit too much for my liking. Fortunately, I am not as big fan of Twilight as I am of Vampire Academy. 

The connections; mysterious group of good looking people, something non-human about them, then finding out all in one go what they are. Followed by a group of evil people out to hurt them for what seems like a pretty poor reason (or one that wasn’t explained very well).   

Kudos to Jennifer for being funny. I found myself sniggering quite a bit in the beginning. This was probably down to the character of Katy.

It is fairly easy for me to say that Katy was, by far, my favourite character. Yes even more than Daemon, I will get onto him a minute. My favourite thing about her is her snarky attitude especially towards Daemon. I mean, sometimes, he deserved it. She knows how to make a joke and even outwit someone she was in an argument with *cough* Daemon. Above all I liked that she stuck to her guns in situations and wasn’t so easily pushed aside which could of happened more times than it did. Plus she likes paranormal romance and book blogging. :)

Ok. I may upset a few people with this but as reviewing is about being honest, I am saying it.

All I heard was blazing praise for Daemon before I started reading this book; that he was one of the best book boyfriends on the YA market at the moment. However, by halfway, I still hadn’t seen anything to make him any better than other boys. The second half didn’t do him any favours either. His only redeeming quality was his protectiveness towards his sister and people he cares about. He was a bit rude and full of himself, a bit hypocritical; saying one thing then doing something completely different. Above all, he was a jerk, just as Katy kept saying. Thankfully, Katy didn’t seem to want much to do with him even if he was good looking. 

The main mystery of the book is “What creatures are Dee, Daemon and all the others?”. When we find this out, we find it out all in one go. All I could say was, “oh was that it?” Now that Katy knows everything, there was not much more to the book. The introduction of Dawson perked my interest a bit but that left unfulfilled as well.

All in all, I found the book ok. I may continue with the series but as book 2, Onyx, is not out until August I’ll think about it then. However, bear in mind that this book is getting some amazing reviews and just because the book wasn’t for me, it is for many. So it could be for you. Don’t rule it out completely.


Becky

2 comments:

  1. The story is fun and fast paced through out the entire novel. Jennifer took aliens to an entire different level for me. They went from being something that is stereo typically over done to something new and fun. How she did this and made it so amazing is beyond amazing. I would like to say Jennifer L. Armentrout has brought on an entire new meaning to out of this world!

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  2. I completely 100% agree with your review! I'm a big aliens fan and was looking really forward to reading it as well, but it just didn't hold up to my expectation. I can definitely see the appeal of Daemon, but I was the same...He was a fun character and hot, but I just didn't yearn for him much. Great review!!

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