Obsidian (Lux #1) by 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."

Title: Obsidian
Series: Lux #1
Genre: Fantasy, YA, Romance
Pages: 358
Ages: 15-18
My Rating: 3 stars
One Word: Whaaaat IHopeINeverMeetDaemon
Fave Quote(s):
This is for my hate for Daemon >:)
"'Thanks,' I muttered and added under my breath, 'Douchebag.'
He laughed, deep and throaty. 'Now that's not very ladylike, Kittycat.'
I whipped around. 'Don't ever call me that,' I snapped.
'It's better than calling someone a douchebag, isn't it?'
He pushed out the door. 'This has been a stimulating visit. I'll cherish it for a long time to come.'
Okay. That was it. 'You know, you're right. How wrong of me to call you a douchebag. Because a douchebag is too nice of a word for you,' I said, smiling sweetly. 'You're a dickhead.'
'A dichkead?' he repeated. 'How charming.'
I flipped him off" (10).

And these are my favorite anti-romance quotes :D
"I'd brake-checked him several times.
He'd blown his horn.
It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside" (217).

"Daemon's laugh cut me off. 'I don't think that's a good idea. Funny, but not a good idea. Humans are fragile.'
'How about I shove my fragile foot up you ass,' I said" (300).

Review 

Is it just me? I had nagging feelings that Armentrout gave the main character a love for books-no an obsession for books-because she wanted us book lovers to for some reason relate to her and give this book 5 stars? ("I'm just like Katy! I love books! ZOMG now I know a hot alien guy is gonna come be my neighbor, and he's gonna 'accidently' see a video of my book blog and he will love me, and we's gon love each other for ever!1! OMG!")

Sorry, I just had to do that. I had that serious suspicion that that is the reason for Armentrout's main character's personality. *phew* no one get all personal with me now!

Oh and by the way, what's with this cocky daemon business? I think it has something to do with the name Daemon....Damon from the Vampire Diaries would agree with me:


I had mixed feelings about this book...I have no idea how I feel about it, so I've settled on 3 stars because some of the writing and descriptions were just awkward. I'm not gonna get into a whole schmeel about this now, but I'll just say that Dee was always crying (blah) and I literally hate Daemon with a burning passion (I mean seriously, "kitten"?! I would shoot him if he called me that). Plus, I don't understand why stopping a truck made Katy glow up like a Christmas tree, but doing all of that alien wacko stuff around her didn't make her light up as much? It doesn't add up right.

Let me get this straight for you all, I didn't hate this book! I mean, I got frustrated over the writing and the just really annoying Daemeon-attitude (ugggggh *facepalms*) but other than that, I laughed out loud a few times with the funny remarks, and the end was pretty suspenseful. And I gotta admit that the part of the book when Daemon was sleeping with Katy was actually adorable ("His face burrowed into the space between my neck and my shoulder, nuzzling. Sweet baby Jesus..." (291).) And why can't Daemon just admit his feelings for Katy?! Oh wait, because we have two more books to get through to admit that (damn you trilogies).

Anyway, enough of these negative comments, self! I thought the plot was pretty awesome, and the healing thing with Daemon and Katy definitely foreshadowed something. I'm seriously surprised that the gossip going around at their school about the "light people" are only rumors, considering that amount of action that happened (should have attracted some attention, no?)

Oh crap, I'm using too many parentheses. Well, let's just say that this was my first Armentrout book and I guess I had my expectations a little too high (especially since I met her at BookCon and she seemed pretty awesome) damn you parentheses! I did it again. Overall, I actually loved the storyline and it did have me turning pages, but the characters *coughcough* DAEMON just wanted me to punch myself over and over again with his cockiness and his braggines and his UGH EVERYTHINGNESS. He doesn't deserve to be hot, there I said it. Okay I should stop typing now...
★★★

Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols

Synopsis: A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.
When I was fourteen, I made a decision. If I was doomed to live in a trailer park next to an airport, I could complain about the smell of the jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else, or I could learn to fly.

Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.

But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.

By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they’re determined to keep the banner planes flying.

Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.

Title: Such a Rush
Series: None
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 325
Ages: 14-18 (involves some make out sessions)
Date I Finished: January 22nd, 2014
My Rating: 4 stars
My Word(s): LoveTheMainCharacter, BlewMeAway (no pun intended), DifferentYetAmazing
My Fave Quote(s):
"'He's not your type.'
'Oh, really?' I laughed, 'Who's my type, Patrick?'
'His brother,' Patrick said.
'Grayson?'...
'We were pretty good friends. You and me, we like playing with fire for some reason'" (193).

"Most people hear an airplane in the sky and think 'there's and airplane,' and go back to what they were doing. A few folks look around for the airplane, try to figure out what plane it is, and watch it from the time they spot it to the time it disappears on the horizon, maybe after that. Those kids are the ones who will be pilots." He pointed at me. "I knew that about you. I've just been waiting for you to show up."

“When I’m with you," he began again, "it’s like… I still don’t feel normal. But I can see normal at twelve o’clock on the horizon." He pointed past me, through the windshield of an imaginary airplane. "At least I know normal is still out there. I’ve spent the last three months not sure of that at all."

Review

Wholy god....I wrote an amazing review for this book and GoodReads just deleted it D: WHHY??

So basically here it went:
I was wary of reading this book at first because I'm not a fan of contemporary novels. They usually bore me to death through the first 100 pages.

But not this book.

The plot of Such a Rush was absolutely brilliant. It wasn't any of those "boy next door" books like the regular contemporary-romance books. Instead, it involved a trailer park, an airport next door, and two guy pilots trying to run their dead father's business.

The characters were definitely amazing as well. Let's just say, I envy Leah Jones. Leah, the main character, lives in a trailer home, and has a horrible mother and father who she doesn't know and still has the I-don't-give-any-shits kind of attitude. She decides to try to fix the life that her mother put her into by getting a job at the airport near her. Ever since she laid eyes on one of her boss's sons, Grayson, she never stopped crushing on him.

Now, the two sons...Grayson and Alec. After their father's death, Grayson decides to keep the banner-towing business running and Alec helps. Alec is the nice, goody two shoes boy, and Grayson is the I-also-don't-give-any-shits adrenaline junkie. The only thing that confused and frustrated me was that Grayson had two personalities throughout the book. At first he was all "Do as I say" attitude, and then he became a mix of that attitude and the "lovey-dovey perfect boy" personality. Imagine those two personalities together...if I hadn't read the book, I would imagine a bipolar dysfunctional crazy guy...actually maybe I still do... Despite that and the "Do as I say" part of him, I would've fallen for him as well.

The plot. That was probably the reason that this book got four stars. I mean, the main character lives in a trailer park for crying out loud! How interesting does that sound?! After I read the summary, I was very curious to what was going to happen in the book, and my expectations were pretty blown away. When I say pretty blown away, I'm excluding the two personality Grayson because although he was okay at the end, I'm surprised Leah still liked him after all the mean stuff he did and all the fights that they had before they were together. Grayson, Leah's crush, blackmails her by dangling the secret that could ruin her pilot career so she could keep working for him. The whole blackmailing mess results in one fake relationship with Grayson's brother and another relationship at the same time that Leah thinks could never work out (if that makes sense). Basically, once Leah does what Grayson says (not just work for him), a lot of shit goes down that knocked me off my socks (yes...I just said knock me off my socks).

Overall, this review is so messy, and I promise you the one that got deleted was so much better D:. But seriously, this book totally beat my expectations, the characters and plot are deliciously different, yet amazing (besides two faced Grayson although he was still sexy enough for me to like ;) ).
★★★★