LUX NOVEL: OBSIDIAN and ONYX

       

Raise your hand if you’ve read OBSIDIAN and ONYX by JenniferL. Armentrout. Hmmm… I’m not seeing a whole lot of hands. This is no bueno people! Allow me to explain why.

*Leans forward in seat and cocks a no-nonsense finger in your direction*

Listen here. You read YA goodies, right? You like high-stake plots that push the MC to their limit and beyond? You lust after…um…enjoy swoonable guys who are not only strong, loyal, and fiercely protective, but also smexy as hell? Yeah, thought so.

OBSIDIAN had been sitting on my TBR stack for longer than I’d like to admit. Finally, in a moment of my own WIP frustration, I plucked it off the Tower of Neglect and began to read. I couldn’t stop. Then, when the remaining pages to read dwindled, I jumped on Amazon and ordered ONYX. From my PHONE. That’s right. Sitting at work, ignoring what I was supposed to doing and thinking about Katy and Daemon, I jumped on my trusty iPhone and gave in to my crack-head like addictions to have MORE YA.

Oh. My. GAWD!

I cannot say enough about this series so far! OBSIDIAN pulls you in with its building tension between Kat and Daemon. And when I mean tension, I mean nail biting - stay up all night to get to the next chapter – holy crap will you freakin’ kiss her already – kind of drama! The chemistry between Kat and Daemon is so beyond hot I had dreams about it. Oh yeah, people. Awesome.

The characters themselves are fantastic as well. Kat is totally your average teen with all around normal going for her. Seriously, she could have been me in high school. A good kid, does well in school, but sort of invisible in an average way. She’s not the most popular girl, but far from the school misfit. In a word – real.

Then we have Daemon. Sure, he’s super hot and knows it, but there’s so much more to him than a pretty…um…well everything. Daemon in dedicated to his family, his sister, Dee. He would do anything to keep her safe, even go against what he truly wants. The boy has so much responsibility it’s crazy, but he does all he can (and then some) to live up to those expectations. All without feeling sorry for himself or wanting to shirk off some of the load. Daemon is also very much broken in a way. He’s angry, scared, and flat out suicidal in his attempts to keep those he loves protected.

OBSIDIAN introduces us to the world of the Luxen, an alien race that has defected to Earth. They’ve been here for ages and are ‘protected’ (read controlled) by the DOD (Department of Defense). They live among us, but are not allowed to get too close.

After a few run-ins with Daemon’s alien mo-jo, Kat ends up with a trace (alien cooties, or residual energy) that lights her up like a disco ball to non-human eyes. This would be all fine and good if the Arum, the baddie equivalent to the Luxen, weren’t able to see the trace as well. Forced into a babysitting arrangement, the fire builds between Kat and Daemon until it finally explodes. Literally. Poor laptop… HA!

Just when things couldn’t get worse, a nasty run-in with some Arum ends in near death and a freakish connection between Daemon and Kat. Suddenly, he is all about being with Katy and she is so not having it. Katy wants more, she wants real.

ONYX is nothing short of amazing. It picks up where OBSIDIAN leaves off and takes you away. The plot thickens. There is betrayal somewhere in the circle of trust. The Arum are still on the hunt. A new boy at school knows more about Katy’s…um…situation than he should. And to top things off, Katy is showing Close Encounter symptoms in the form of things moving randomly, exploding, and all sorts of crazy.

And there is a possibility that Dawson, Daemon and Dee’s brother, is still alive.

ONYX was a rollercoaster of everything. Kat is such an awesome character. She is the girl next door and so relatable. Far from perfect, she makes loads of mistakes and trusts the wrong people. When she should be listening to her gut, she doesn’t, and pays the price. Daemon struggles so much in ONYX it broke my heart. He is pushed to the point of ultimate loss so many times you almost see him fracture.

Miss Jen is such a phenomenal writer. Her characters are so well done I scream with writer envy. Each book I read of hers gets better and better. Her snark was off the hook in the CONENANT series, but it’s the chemistry that stands out in the LUX series. The bonds she creates between characters and how they play off each other is so amazing I’m at a loss.

NEED. MORE. NOW. JEN!