Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout: Review

Title: Obsidian (Lux #1)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Buy This Book: Amazon / Book Depository

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.

My review in simple terms, would be this, I loved it. The characters were strong, the storyline was solid and, oh my god, the sexual tension is intense. It made me think of Twilight, so so much but I didn't even care. Will definitely be recommending this over and over again!

I have to thank the blogosphere for introducing me to this amazing series. Now I completely understand why people kept telling me how amazing this book is. I loved it!

Katy, our main character, finds herself moved from Florida to West Virginia, and if that wasn't bad enough, she finds herself living next door to the biggest jerk ever. Katy was an enjoyable character, although I kept completely forgetting what her name was throughout the entire book. I adored that she could see how much of a dick Daemon was, even though she still found him attractive. I liked that she wasn't blinded by his amazing abs, well maybe she was slightly, but at least she was still aware that he was not a nice guy.

Daemon... Where do I even begin with Daemon? He might have one or two sweet or redeemable moments in this book, but for the most part he is exactly what Katy calls him - a dickhead. Plain and simple. He is a jerk of the highest order, which is just not attractive. I have to believe he has much nicer moments in books to come or I will have no respect for Katy if she gets with him. But, let's be honest, there is just something about him! I think it's all the sexual tension that Jennifer L. Armentrout puts across so well. She is, quite clearly, the queen of sexual tension. But, Daemon is infuriating and I have full sympathy with Katy. I would want to bitch slap him too.

Katy runs her own book review blog, which is obviously something myself and other bloggers can understand and relate to. All her talk of review posts and waiting on Wednesday posts was oh so familiar. And I adored the following quote because I'm sure a lot of us have felt the same:
'If anything, his expression took on a mask of grudging acceptance, probably how I looked when I had to give a book I'd been excited about a less than stellar review." 

The storyline, to me, seemed a bit slow going at times but was solid. It seemed to take so long to get into the action and most of that came right at the end. I think it annoyed me that it took so long for Katy to find out what Daemon and Dee were, especially since you know straight away just from reading the blurb. I did love the idea of the Luxen, I really loved the alien aspect of this and especially loved the evil Arum! They made this very interesting.

I have to mention that Katy got bonus points from me for being scared of children; mainly because I can totally relate to that. And her explanation why is, pretty much, exactly what I tell people when they ask me: 'They jabber and stuff, and I have no idea what they are saying.' I feel the exact same way, having to do story-time at work is especially horrific for me, children seem like an alien species to me.

I can't finish my review without mentioning Twilight. If you have read both then I am sure you saw the similarities too. Once you start seeing the similarities, it's really hard to stop. It's different in how it's written, the characters are different but they are strikingly similar at times. I can only show a couple because I don't want to ruin anything from the story:

• Daemon acts like a jerk to her, pushes her away because she poses a risk to them all if she finds out what they are - the exact same thing Edward does to Bella in Twilight.
• Daemon's unbelievably cheery sister wants to be bestest best friends with Katy, despite what her brother thinks - just like super happy Alice does with Bella in Twilight.
• There are 5 aliens at her school in total, 3 boys and two girls - Twilight there are 5 vampires, 3 guys and 2 girls. 
• Every alien is absolutely gorgeous for some unknown reason - all vampires are gorgeous in Twilight. 
• Ashley is ridiculously mean and horrible to Katy for no good reason - she is basically the Rosalie of this story.
• Luxen don't need to breathe - exact same for vamps. 
• Plus Katy is always having to be saved by Daemon - exactly like Bella and Edward

There are more but I can't mention them without ruining plot points. But the end storyline is ridiculously similar to the end storyline in Twilight, like really, really similar. But, to be honest, Twilight was ridiculously similar to other vampire books at the time. The similarities didn't stop me from enjoying the book, I just couldn't help but notice them.

I also need to mention the names. There are twins names Daemon and Dee, and then we have the triplets Ashley, Andrew and Adam. I could not stop laughing, the names are normal but the whole idea was just ridiculous to me.

I feel like I have in no way put across how amazingly awesome this book is. So seriously, if you take away nothing else from this review, make sure you know that this is incredible and you need to read it.

4/5 Stars

Great characters and storyline. Makes you want to immediately pick up the sequel - which I did. Only loses a star because I found it a bit slow going and prefer my male leads to be less arseholeish!