Obsidian (Lux #1) – Jennifer L. Armentrout
Synopsis
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
The first thing I want to say is that I postponed reading this book for too long. Many times, while looking for what to read, this saga appeared to me as a recommendation, however, a book of aliens did not call my attention at all. At least until I ended up having the Covenant saga in my hands, from the same author and OMG, I became obsessed with it on another level. After my fascination with the plot and writing style of that saga, I finally decided to give Lux a chance, ready to obsess me again. I was not wrong …
“Welcome to West Virginia, the supermodel land!”
– Katy
The book tells the story of Katy, who leads a normal life until she moves to the house next to the Blacks, the twins Dee and Damon.
Daemon was a real jerk at the beginning of the book. However, when reading the chapters from his perspective, things change a lot. He is still an unpleasant type because of his initial behavior with Kat, but at least it is possible to understand that he really good reasons.
The chemistry between Daemon and Kat is incredible, even when they are insulting each other you can see that there is something else between them. The fangirl in me explodes with the relationship of these two. It is very funny to see how every time Daemon is cute with Kat, her neurons fry and she is incapable of giving an intelligent response like the ones she gives when he acts like a cretin. And the clear effect she has on Daemon is really exciting, although Kat doesn’t realize this.
I really recommend reading this book. At least for me it is wonderfully written and keeps your attention all the time. The main characters are well developed and each one has a strong story as the basis of their personality. In addition, this book contains a lot of humor characteristic of Jennifer that fascinates me.
If you read this and have not read the Lux saga you have to give it a try. And when you finish it run through Covenant, which probably became my favorite saga ever and I have read quite a few sagas.
* From this point on, this review contains spoilers, nothing that will ruin the reading, but I do add some details that might be interesting to read in the book first *
The main character is Katy Swartz, a normal 17-year-old girl who has just moved to “the Puritan West Virginia” from Florida with her mother after her father’s death. She is a shy and “bored” girl who loves to read, even has a blog about it.
“Mom has beautiful blond straight hair and very vivacious hazel eyes. Even with the uniform on, it made my gray eyes and my ordinary brown hair look like the pile. Besides, I am … more round, so to speak. I have the widest hips, the full lips and the very big eyes, like of a small doll”
Katy
Let’s see … it’s curvy, with big gray eyes, light brown hair and full lips. How horrible must be your life Kat …
Her mother is a nurse and obsessed with work, so they have very little time together and Katy has had to get used to fending for herself.
Since Kat had to go to school and didn’t know anyone in town, her mother insists that she make an effort to meet her neighbors, who turned out to be a boy and a girl her age.
With the excuse of getting directions to a store, she approaches the house next door and meets Daemon Black …
“The eyelashes rose, revealing eyes so green and bright that they couldn’t be real. They were an intense emerald tone that stood out by contrast against tanned skin”
Katy
Daemon was probably the most handsome boy in the universe, but the moment he opened his mouth he also turned out to be the biggest jerk, treating her in a very bad way.
After this, Kat goes to Petersburg for shopping and in the supermarket she meets Dee, the twin sister of the cretin Daemon , who, unlike her brother, is super excited that they are neighbors and practically begs her to be friends.
Dee’s personality is lovely. Always overflowing with energy and joy, so much so that it should become annoying, however, it feels so authentic that it became one of my favorite characters in this saga.
“Not that she was simply an animated girl, she was pure life …”
Katy
As she adapted to the village, she noticed more and more strange things about the Blacks. Mistrustful looks from people, superhuman reflexes, in addition to the fact that Daemon kept trying to get Katy away from her sister, arguing that they were different.
The real reason for Daemon’s hatred was because his twin brother had fallen in love with a human and everything had ended badly.
The Luxen were always born as triplets, 2 men and one woman. Dawson, the brother of Daemon and Dee, had disappeared a year ago along with his human girlfriend.
“My brother fell in love with a human … and now they are both dead.”
Daemon
When Daemon saw a human coming to the house next door, and realized that he was unable to ignore her, he probably panicked and the only solution he saw to continue protecting his family was to try to scare her away.
This could have been a good plan if it weren’t because Dee was determined that Daemon would accept her and, in reality, he didn’t want to push her away either.
Anyway, Daemon has his moments …
I have always believed that people who are truly beautiful, inside and out, are those who are not aware of the effect they have on others. Those who show their beauty spoil it. Beauty is temporary. It is a shell that hides the shadows and the emptiness inside…
“ I have always believed that people who are truly beautiful, inside and out, are those who are not aware of the effect they have on others.
Those who show their beauty spoil it. Beauty is temporary. It is a shell that hides the shadows and the emptiness inside… ”
Daemon
Anyway, after embarrassing Katy to the limit of her patience, Daemon tries to apologize, but this goes wrong and Kat ends up running away from him until she is right in front of a truck. Daemon, to save her, freezes the truck revealing the great secret they were trying to hide. It turns out that he and his sister, in addition to their friends, are aliens. Luxen to be exact. Their real form is that of a body made of light, like a giant firefly, and they can control the light in a thousand different ways.
They hide their identity because the government knows about their existence and the Department of Defense leaves them alone as long as they don’t reveal too much. In addition, every time they use their powers near a human, this absorbs part of their energy and is left with a “trail” of light resembling Christmas trees, which only the Luxen can see and the Arum, shadow beings of an enemy planet who destroyed the planet Lux and now came to earth to look for the Luxen to steal their powers.
Katy is involved in this world and is obliged to stay close to Daemon until the trail left in her by the truck incident disappears.
From here many interesting things happen but I hate spoilers, so I won’t say anything else.
Read the book and tell me if you liked it as much as I did 🙂
* I read this book in Spanish, so the quotes are translated by me and may not be identical to the English version *
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