Jennifer Lynn Armentrout's Lux Series. Five Reviews in One Post.

Do you remember the first time you saw Daemon?  Hm?

I do. I was surfin' the web and saw this blogger totally FAN-GIRLING over this creepy-creepy alien - ALIEN - and I was, like, WHA-?  Oh... *^&# no!  I subsequently avoided all things alien and JLA.

*wince*

I don't say that as a recommendation. If you see a BLOGGER fan-girlin' over something... well, that'd be one of us flippin' out which is, like, really cool. This series even has a blogger in it. Which, of course, I thought of some reason to dis. (Sometimes I battle negativity pointing a finger at me. Got a problem with that?!  *snort*  Me, too. I stink. Oh... that's me doing it again.)

My point is... I picked up Obsidian 'cause it was on sale recently. Or free.

I got sucked in to the story while laughing all the while in my head. And sometimes out loud. Kind of like this...

Oh, that wasn't cliche...

Of COURSE the alien is mega-hot. And can't keep his shirt on. *rolls eyes*

Naturally, they're in high school.

Why wouldn't he be dangerous, huh?

Yeppers... and he'd have to fall for her for no other reason than... he just does.

The part that sort of caught my attention was when I ran into a few typos.  Normally a typo means not-much-editing, right? Which you'd think would make me feel justified in my sniveling. It had the opposite affect. I literally did the head-tilt thing the Luxen do and thought...

Are you telling me this stuff came straight out of JLA's head?!  You're kidding me!!

And then I started to fall in love. I resisted, but... dang.  This story is a flippin' fun ride no matter how you dis it. The parents are absent, the neighbors are HOT, the romantic tension is at a 15 on a scale of 1-10... I can feel the different characters no matter how many come and go in the story, they're all vibrant and solid, like you could punch 'em in the arm.

Of course, I downloaded the next book on my phone imediatemente.

Ok... what was Onyx about?

*taps fingers*

This is the part of the story where I did not obsess about how much I did not like the cover. (Sorry. It looks like Creepy Again to me.)  (Plus... that is not the Daemon who resided in my head these last few weeks. Again, sorry.) (Mine is waaayyyy hotter.) (Sorry, dude.) (Not saying you're not hot, but... you're just... well... and that girl doesn't look like she has muscles and when I'm Katy, I have more muscles.)

As I was saying, I quit being so PICKY and when that voice wanted to sneer about something other I just *shrugged* and told myself to GO-FOR-IT. Meaning, jump in the story. If Katy feels that way, I can see how she would. Even if I had my suspicions about "normal guy" early on, I thought, Hey... maybe he pulls off normal better than he looks like he does. When he wasn't normal and he got all... you know, hybrid-y (that was in this book, right? Last book? Then I was furious at what's-his-butt in this one.)  I went with it. I quit dippin' my toes in, you now and just jumped all the way in and got soaking wet with the story. (Figuratively... not whatever twisted romantic thing you could be thinking right now. This is a YA book. Pretty much. With lots of awesome romance.)

I love Daemon's terms of endearment... Kitten?!  Lol. Yeah, I wish my name was Katy now. I had no idea that name had so much potential! I'm not sure where Onyx ended and the next one began...

Opal really builds... like hums with SOMETHING.

I loved this book best so far. There's just a hint of so much MORE coming, more story, bigger plot, louder danger... just more POP!

The first book seemed so simple by comparison. Which gets all kinds of warm snugglies from me. Plus... there's nothing like giving in to a sweet romance and just knowing, KNOWING that it wouldn't stay that easy.

I had to peak ahead at reviews and saw a cliff-hanger was coming. The first two books make you HAVE to keep reading, but this one had the feeling of being a doozy even a ways off.

The only way to take on a cliff hanger of that magnitude is to read faster and just take a flying leap off the end.  I had to chuckle at the nod to coming cliffhangers - I can't believe JLA threw that in there!  and then I flew... right into downloading...



Origin. *sigh*


Now the cover is starting to match the story in my head. Ominous, cocky-as-heck, Daemon with a purpose.

The beauty of this story is... the bad guys step into the light. And they're horrible. They're powerful, too, and bad-bad-bad. I love how Daemon doesn't fuss... he just gets busy. This is the story that sold me on Daemon's awesomeness.

Katy? She doesn't give in and try to be "bad", which I also love. She's strong in resisting the evil authorities. Those bad guys?  Soooooooooooo bad. Evil. Twisted. Heartless. I can't help LOVING to hate them. Hate-hate-hate-hate them.  It was refreshing to hate them so much. Ha.  It's refreshing to feel so strongly. We don't go back to any of the previous relationship levels, we just keep going deeper and I LOVE IT.

It took me awhile to realize that A) This wasn't the last book in the series and B) the last book just came out which is C) probably why Obsidian was on sale and D) I totally fell for the awesome marketing plan.

0.0

I do love marketing.  Haven't really fallen for any marketing scheme so ignorantly before. Not sure how I feel about that.


Opposition was practically perfect.

The threat is soooo real and deadly and unstoppable. For some reason, I really get a kick out of that. I love that there is real danger, real death, real consequences to big explosions and stuff.  I was frightened for every breathing being that I'd come to love... even when I felt hopeless about sis.

The story is so fast moving, I forget everyone's names. Not them, their personalities and what they do, but what to call 'em? Yeah...

Pathetic, I know.

I was absolutely delighted to descend into the depths of more danger. I think I chewed all my fingernails off, but it was awesome.

The lord of the underworld? *snort* He was perfectly horrible and... funny? Who'd've guessed. Like another Armentrout solute to "bad guys" who require disgusting favors.

The moment the unlikely allies leave for groceries for "only an hour". Lol. That was ominous right from the mention of a time limit. What could possibly happen within any given space of time around these people? Lol.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of Opposition and by extension, the entire series. *shrug*  Nothing was shoved under a carpet and yet Armentrout didn't destroy everyone just because it could've happened. I felt justified and relieved and satisfied at the end. Thank you for wrapping up the series, Jennifer, so completely. It was kind and thoughtful and completely exhilarating.

Review - Half-Blood by Jennifer L Armentrout

Half-Blood
by Jennifer L Armentrout
Paperback, 281 pages
Published October 18th 2011 by Spencer Hill Press

Premise: Ganked from Goodreads:

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. 

Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. 

Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. 

But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

My Review:

I came to this book full of curiosity about the author. I see the covers of her books everywhere with enthusiastic reviews and I was intrigued.

The fun part is, I was not disappointed. Half-Blood starts with an exciting rush. Daimons are on Alex’s tail and closing in fast. When the first rush of danger slows to a persistent throb, Aidan shines brilliantly. As a pure-blood Hematoi, he has his own reasons for being a (darn good) Sentinel and agrees to train Alex in a last-ditch effort to avoid becoming a mindless slave. And those training sessions?  Whoa!  No one is human, so the drills are super-fast, brutally hard, and mega-hot. I love the moments of emotional connection between Aidan and Alex. Any relationship between them is absolutely forbidden, which makes those tiny connections that more loaded with sparks.

I had a little trouble wrapping my head around the non-human aspects of these guys, all of ‘em. I think this will clear up the more I read in the series. (That’s a theory I’m willing to test.) The hours Alex puts into running, the bruising that covers her body after practicing… I kept pausing to wonder how she could put her body through that. I’m not a runner, per se, so I don’t know what it feels like to run hours on end, for example, or work out “all day”. It sounds like torture!  Then again, it was kind of fun being that buff. So I wanted to believe it. 

Aidan is pathetically lacking in flaws. It’s true. He’s a chiseled god. Literally. All the Hemetoi were made into believable characters with these “perfect” flaws. Aidan has some past pain he’s dealing with, a overly large sense of responsibility and maybe a dash of Too-Serious. But those are like… like… non-flaws, you know what I mean? Like attempts to turn a sculpture into something pliable while still using granite.

I was almost relieved when whatshisface showed up and threw a wrench in the convulsing love story. I mean, it’s circling, growing more intense by the minute and BAM! Wrench.  Nice touch. I have forgotten his (highness's) name, unbelievably, but he's one of the main reasons I'm excited to continue this series.

One more thing bugged me to irritation. Only it’s spoilerish. So everyone who hasn’t read this book, cover your eyes –n- ears and blow raspberries loudly.

  ____________________________________________________

So, I “get” that Alex is young. And she really misses her mom. So far, so logical. But when she realizes that she’s… you know, what she is. And then she realizes that she can’t fight those nasty daimons fer nothin’. You would think that LOGICALLY she would keep… what’s she’s about to become… away from the daimons. Even if “mom” was one of them. Maybe especially since mom is one of them!!  This was an issue for me, although I love many of the results. (She looks so... Wow!! afterwards!!  Wow.) I just wish I could have grasped more WHY she felt she could put herself in that position with any hope of success. ‘Cause from MY point of view it looked like MEGA BAD IDEA for the entire world, but especially all the pure & half bloods in existence.

  ____________________________________________________

Ok… spoiler-filled section over. You can open your eyes again.

Rating: 4 - Too, too fun!!  I couldn't put this book down!!  Something about Armentrout's writing is downright GRIPPING! Yea, I ran into some bumps, but I read this while on vacation. I'll always remember the swimming resort we were at that day for the frantic reading pace rather than the fun slides! I'm looking forward to more of JLA's books!

About the Author:

Jennifer L. Armentrout Lives in West Virginia. 

All the rumors you heard about her state aren’t true. 

Well, mostly. When she's not hard at work writing, she spends her time, reading, working out, watching zombie movies, and pretending to write.

She is the author of the Covenant Series (Spencer Hill Press), the Lux Series (Entangled Teen), Don't Look Back (Disney/Hyperion) and a yet untitled novel (Disney/Hyperion).

Jennifer also writes adult romance under the pen name J. Lynn

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Breaking News!

Onyx just came out this week. You already knew that, though, right?

Release Party!

Vacation Reads Giveaway!!

Hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & The Bookish Mama...

It's summer... you're on vacation... you need a book YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN!!

Like one of Jennifer L. Armentrout's books. Seriously... get comfortable and hang on tight!!!  

Choose one e-book in either series, including not-yet-been-released:

(Click the cover to check 'em out on Goodreads.)

The Covenant Series:

        

The Lux Series:

    

You know, of course, that this is a lure to get you sucked into a series that is only half-way complete (either of 'em) and you'll be lining up like the rest of us for each new book as it's published.  Muahahahaha...

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