Book Review: Obsidian and Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Book Information:
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: SciFy, Romance
Series: Yes, ordered
The Lux Series has been on my TBR radar for well over a year, but I kept pushing it to the back burner because I had been reading a lot of other YA paranormal/sci-fi books and needed a break from long series reads. Looking for something different, I finally purchased Obsidian and Onyx, and over four days I cruised through these first two books -- barely leaving my reading spot for bathroom breaks.
Obsidian (#1)
(Blurb): 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.
Review:
What I liked
This was agreat perfect series intro book! The book starts off a couple of years after the death of Katy's father. I mention this not because that is a main point, but because it creates a great emotional time frame and present frame of mind for Katy. Having a parent taken by cancer has forced her to face certain realities at a young age. The healing process is just now starting to allow Katy to come to terms, take charge of her life, and relish the memories rather than hate certain things because of the memories. Thus, you aren't reading an angsty teen's thoughts about life and death perspective and hating the world and everything in it.
Then you add to this the main story line; once again forcing her through stages of shock, denial, fear, learning, and acceptance.
Katy behaves and rationalizes certain things a little differently because of this loss in her life. She is a smart, witty, and strong MC, yet she isn't an in your face "I can do everything on my own" MC -- which is quite refreshing for this genre. This is what really drew me to Katy and Obsidian.
Daemon Black is also a breath of fresh air. While he has the typical Godly good looks, he isn't just some brooding mystery boy with abs and a perfect smirk. He's also not all about dropping everything in his life just for Katy. He rationalizes what is good for him, his family, and his kind; all of which is up to him to protect. It takes all of Obsidian to see his many sides.
There's a love-hate relationship between him and both the reader and Katy. Neither him nor Katy just throw themselves at each other in a rage of hormones and star-crossed lust. Katy has a strong backbone when it comes to dealing with Daemon and his antics, but neither are afraid to call mercy every now and then. And when they do decide to give each other an inch every now and then, it's truly for the development of their relationship in the story and not for smut readers.
What I'm neutral about
This wasn't an action packed book. It's an intro book. You learn about the character and their worlds. You get to know about some of the major players and develop some ideas about who you can and cannot trust.
This book doesn't offer a major intergalactic showdown, but there's some pretty crazy stuff that happens in the last couple chapters that leaves all sorts of ideas in your head about where book 2 Onyx is headed.
Onyx (#2) Does not contain series spoilers
(Blurb): Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…
Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon's determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I've sworn him off, even though he's running more hot than cold these days. But we've got bigger problems.
Something worse than the Arum has come to town…
The Department of Defense is here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I'm a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who's got a secret of his own. He knows what's happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.
But then everything changes…
I've seen someone who shouldn't be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he's never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them--from me?
No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…
Review
I rolled from the last page of Obsidian right into Onyx. In hindsight, I probably should have given myself a a day, or at least a couple of hours, to digest Obsidian. Comparatively, the development of Onyx was very similar to Obsidian, and while Onyx still held my undivided attention, I felt like there wasn't much excitement until about 60% of the way through the book, but it was well worth the wait!
What I loved
The slow burn of everything!! From the relationships (Katy/Daemon, to Katy/Blake, to Blake/Everyone, to Everyone/DOD, to Will/Everyone), to the last crazy events...the book was a slow burn that threw every different emotion at you and left you happy/sad/laughing/crying/fearful/and relieved all at the same time.
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: SciFy, Romance
Series: Yes, ordered
The Lux Series has been on my TBR radar for well over a year, but I kept pushing it to the back burner because I had been reading a lot of other YA paranormal/sci-fi books and needed a break from long series reads. Looking for something different, I finally purchased Obsidian and Onyx, and over four days I cruised through these first two books -- barely leaving my reading spot for bathroom breaks.
Obsidian (#1)(Blurb): 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.
Review:
What I liked
This was a
Then you add to this the main story line; once again forcing her through stages of shock, denial, fear, learning, and acceptance.
Katy behaves and rationalizes certain things a little differently because of this loss in her life. She is a smart, witty, and strong MC, yet she isn't an in your face "I can do everything on my own" MC -- which is quite refreshing for this genre. This is what really drew me to Katy and Obsidian.
Daemon Black is also a breath of fresh air. While he has the typical Godly good looks, he isn't just some brooding mystery boy with abs and a perfect smirk. He's also not all about dropping everything in his life just for Katy. He rationalizes what is good for him, his family, and his kind; all of which is up to him to protect. It takes all of Obsidian to see his many sides.
There's a love-hate relationship between him and both the reader and Katy. Neither him nor Katy just throw themselves at each other in a rage of hormones and star-crossed lust. Katy has a strong backbone when it comes to dealing with Daemon and his antics, but neither are afraid to call mercy every now and then. And when they do decide to give each other an inch every now and then, it's truly for the development of their relationship in the story and not for smut readers.
What I'm neutral about
This wasn't an action packed book. It's an intro book. You learn about the character and their worlds. You get to know about some of the major players and develop some ideas about who you can and cannot trust.
This book doesn't offer a major intergalactic showdown, but there's some pretty crazy stuff that happens in the last couple chapters that leaves all sorts of ideas in your head about where book 2 Onyx is headed.
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| Rated 5 out of 5 |
Onyx (#2) Does not contain series spoilers(Blurb): Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…
Thanks to his alien mojo, Daemon's determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I've sworn him off, even though he's running more hot than cold these days. But we've got bigger problems.
Something worse than the Arum has come to town…
The Department of Defense is here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I'm a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who's got a secret of his own. He knows what's happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.
But then everything changes…
I've seen someone who shouldn't be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he's never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them--from me?
No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…
Review
I rolled from the last page of Obsidian right into Onyx. In hindsight, I probably should have given myself a a day, or at least a couple of hours, to digest Obsidian. Comparatively, the development of Onyx was very similar to Obsidian, and while Onyx still held my undivided attention, I felt like there wasn't much excitement until about 60% of the way through the book, but it was well worth the wait!
What I loved
The slow burn of everything!! From the relationships (Katy/Daemon, to Katy/Blake, to Blake/Everyone, to Everyone/DOD, to Will/Everyone), to the last crazy events...the book was a slow burn that threw every different emotion at you and left you happy/sad/laughing/crying/fearful/and relieved all at the same time.
What I liked
Obsidian left the characters with a lot of paths to go down in Onyx. First and foremost, there's Katy trying to figure out what the heck happened to her when she killed that Arum. Then there's everyone trying to figure out what part the US Department of Deference really plays in the Human/Luxen/Arum relationship. Add in some new characters, Blake (the new kid in town) and Will (the town Doctor/Katy's mom's boyfriend), and Katy and Daemon's rollercoaster of convoluted feelings and you have almost a whole new story line compared with book 1.
Blake is what really takes Onyx in a different direction. From the first introduction up to the 75% mark, you're never quite sure what his true intentions are. This provides a great back and forth mind game that constantly leaves you conjuring up some crazy idea about what his involvement -- if any -- really is.
The relationship between Katy and Daemon is more fun in Onyx. The tension (of every kind) is still there, but they finally start moving past the denial of their feelings and more towards the acceptance that they really can be together as long as they're willing to face the consequences. They're not jumping each other's bones 24/7 (sorry smutties) but there are deeper moments between them that continuously make you fall in love with both of them over and over again.
What I'm neutral about
I mentioned that the development of Onyx is very similar to that of Obsidian. In Obsidian, Katy is introduced to the Luxen world and the book mostly shows how she learns of and deals with this crazy information. In Onxy, Katy has a whole new can of worms to deal with when she is personally affected by her killing of an Arum. Once again, she has to learn-digest-learn-digest information and figure out how to deal with it. Every now and then there's an event that raises the anxiety level for a few pages, but the real feeling of anxiety/fear/excitement on every page holds out until the later part of the book.
What I didn't like
There were a couple of grammar issues in Onxy that muddled up the sentences (the double-reading of lines is what brought it to my attention) and I was surprised that they slipped by editors (one use of me instead of my, and two missing pronouns). I also noticed one or two in Obsidian. I ignore grammar as long as it doesn't take away from the book, and these were fine in that sense. It's just odd that these simple errors weren't caught when the rest of the book(s) was so well done. I'll just blame it on a formatting issue...
I mentioned that the development of Onyx is very similar to that of Obsidian. In Obsidian, Katy is introduced to the Luxen world and the book mostly shows how she learns of and deals with this crazy information. In Onxy, Katy has a whole new can of worms to deal with when she is personally affected by her killing of an Arum. Once again, she has to learn-digest-learn-digest information and figure out how to deal with it. Every now and then there's an event that raises the anxiety level for a few pages, but the real feeling of anxiety/fear/excitement on every page holds out until the later part of the book.
What I didn't like
There were a couple of grammar issues in Onxy that muddled up the sentences (the double-reading of lines is what brought it to my attention) and I was surprised that they slipped by editors (one use of me instead of my, and two missing pronouns). I also noticed one or two in Obsidian. I ignore grammar as long as it doesn't take away from the book, and these were fine in that sense. It's just odd that these simple errors weren't caught when the rest of the book(s) was so well done. I'll just blame it on a formatting issue...
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| Rated 5 out of 5 |
Great reviews -- this is one of my all time favorite series and I need to re-read it! I remember the first time I read Obsidian, I was just so in love with that book!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm still working my way through book 3
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