Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

GoodReads Summary:
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:
This book will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s the reason that Antonia and I started this very blog. We were inspired by the main character, Katy, who was a book blogger. We read this and thought, “What if we did that?” And so, Classy As F*ck Book Reviews was born. I have to shout out a thank you to the Trashback Book club for prompting me to reread this book this month. Each month we read a paranormal book from the early 2000s. And it’s honestly been so bad but so much fun.
This book objectively was not great. I enjoyed it immensely, for mostly nostalgic reasons. But I enjoyed it nonetheless and I’m excited to reread the rest of the series.
I still loved Katy in all her book blogging and gardening nerdiness. She was fiery and fierce even when she just wanted to escape into her current read or go home and get her book mail.
Daemon is trash and I love him for it. The hate to love trope is strong inn this one. I loved every page of Daemon and Katy bantering and swearing at each other. He’s such a jerk and I’m honestly so here for it.
Then there’s the whole aliens of light thing. Very interesting but also bizarre. I don’t remember as much as I would like to about the rest of the series so I’m in the dark about a lot. I’m interesting to relearn what has happened to Dawson and what will happen next with Katy and Daemon.
This book was honestly not great, I loved it despite its flaws. I have to say, also,  that I’m totally obsessed with  the new covers for this series. They were redone  to  match w ith the  cover of The Darkest Star (the spin off series) and I love them so much.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

Antonia’s Top Ten Tuesday- Travel Bug

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week we’re given a new prompt for a top ten list of all things bookish. This week’s topic is – Top Ten Books That Awaken the Travel Bug in me. I had trouble with this one because most of the books I read don’t take place in the real world. So I came up with five books I’d want to travel to and five books I don’t.

 

Places that Awaken the Travel Bug in Me

 
1. Beastly by Alex Flinn- This is the only book that’s ever made me want to visit New York City even though it barely even takes place there. (The characters rarely leave the house.)
2. Paper Towns by John Green- ROAD TRIP. Their crazy, headlong trip up the East Coast (including pit stops timed to the second) just seemed like so much fun.
3. Friday Harbor series by Lisa Kleypas- I immediately wanted to visit this cute little island off the coast of Washington. I actually now live on another cute little island off the coast of Washington so I plan to visit Friday Harbor sometime soon. (It’s just a ferry ride away.)
4. Cousins O’Dwyer Trilogy by Nora Roberts- Ireland has always been at the top of my travel list but I’d love to visit almost all the settings from Nora’s books.
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen- Yes, I know this takes place in the past. However, the regency era books are the ones that always made me want to visit England.

Places that Don’t Awaken the Travel Bug in Me

 
1. Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout- I loved this series but most of it takes place in West Virginia which, no offense, but I have no interest in going to.
2. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead- I also loved this series but I’m definitely more of a beach girl. The desert just sounds awful.
3. Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts- This one takes place in Montana and I have never in my life thought to myself, “I’d like to go there”. (Again, no offense to Montana.)
4. Year One by Nora Roberts- Fantastic book. However, I could really do without two-thirds of the world’s population dying.
5. Maximum Ride by James Patterson- For me, this one’s mostly included because so many negative things happen to the characters that it skewed the way I thought of all the places they went to.

 

Well these are my answers for this week. I’d love to hear what everyone else came up with. Thanks for reading!

-Antonia

Origin – Jennifer L. Armentrout

Summary:
Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.
After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.
All Katy can do is survive.
Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?
Together, they can face anything.
But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?
And will they even be together?
Review:
How should I start this review? Oh, right, how about with HOLY FUCKING SHIT, HOLY FUCKING SHIT, HOLY FUCKING SHIT…I work at a tourist store, so now that summers over I do a lot of sitting around. The perfect opportunity for some reading. Origin came out recently and Antonia and I HAD to have it. She was nice enough to let me read it first. So, I started it when I got to work at 9:30am, it’s now 1:30pm and I might have a mental breakdown at work. Four hours to read 364 pages, while helping the occasional customer, eating my lunch and texting Antonia freaking out without giving her any details. EVERYONE needs to read this series just so you can read Origin. It was without a doubt the best book in the series, which is subject to change after the fifth book comes out.
Okay, now onto the actual reviewing of the book rather than just fangirling. This series holds a certain sentimental value to me because it is partially where the idea for this review blog came from. The main character, Katy, runs a video book review blog. The storyline that Jennifer L. Armentrout came up with is amazing. I thought it was going to be another paranormal romance series, and boy was I wrong. Armentrout puts her own twist on every aspect of this story. She makes it unique and spectacular. Origin was suspenseful, VERY suspenseful. And if any of you have actually read my reviews you’d know I’m terrible at guessing what comes next. That was no different with Origin. I was shocked with all the twists, turns and surprises Armentrout threw in. I loved every single thing about this book. It made me laugh, made me smile, gave me butterflies; it also made me cry and infuriated me. Origin made me feel any and every emotion in the period of four-ish hours. I literally sat at work going between laughing and crying. That’s how you know it’s seriously good. So read it, because I said so.
The fictional characters that have stolen my heart are next. This series is pretty much 100% about Katy and Daemon, but I’ll start with Katy. I kind of seriously adore her. She takes absolutely no bullshit from anyone, especially Daemon. She’s stubborn and very independent, although Daemon tries his best to shelter her from everything and anything. Kat would do anything for the people she cares about, even some people she’s not fond of but knows Daemon cares about them. She’s fiercely protective of whats hers. Katy’s brave and loyal and gives her all with everything she does. She’s an amazing female lead.
Daemon is the typical asshole with the typical excuse that it’s for her own good. I didn’t like Daemon at the beginning of the series, but he seriously proves himself in Origin, as well as the second and third books. He really loves Katy so much. At the beginning of Origin Daemon says, “I’ll burn the world down to save her.” If I ever find someone that loves me half as much as Daemon loves Katy, I will be the luckiest girl in the world. Daemon shows that his love for Katy is more important than literally anything else. He makes some pretty irrational decisions to save and protect her. In the end, he would do everything exactly the same. Daemon is very protective of his loved one, the people he considers his family, but his loyalty is only to Katy. He makes quite a few really difficult decisions and has to deal with a lot of seriously not okay shit. Katy makes everything better for him. He is strong, but stronger with her. If Daemon existed in real life, I would find him, kidnap him and marry him. But only is Katy didn’t exist as well, because she wouldn’t have any of that.
There are so many other characters I want to mention but they would give too much away. I can mention Archer though. He’s with Katy pretty much every minute while she’s being held captive. I kind of seriously adore him and my adoration just kept growing the more I read about him. He’s technically the enemy, but it’s obvious that he struggles with the beliefs of “his side”. Archer looks out for Katy while she’s captive. He seemed like a good guy in shitty circumstances. If I had him looking out for me, I’d be set for life. I seriously hope to see him in the next book.
Overall, you guys can probably tell I liked this book very much. If I rated the books I review with stars, Origin by Jennifer L Armentrout would get all five stars. It has an amazing plot. A strong female lead (to an extent), romance, a deadly gorgeous male main character, suspense, danger, and action. I would love to be able to tell you, readers, that it has a happy ending, but HOLY FUCKING CLIFFHANGERS. Armentrout has done this to me four times now. Ridiculous cliffhangers, then she makes me wait FOREVER to get the next book and find out what happens. Every reader’s worst nightmare. The Lux series is an amazing series that I suggest to anyone and everyone. But really, go to the bookstore and buy them. Right now.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

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Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Recommend Most

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly post where we talk about our top ten. This weeks topic is our Top Ten books that we would recommend most. This is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

1. Looking for Alaska by John Green – I recommend this book not only because it’s my favorite book, but because it’s thought provoking, interesting, slightly mysterious, and will have you laughing as well as crying and maybe even on the same page.

2. The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout – These are on my list because they’re the no sleep, no eating, skip work and school, forget to pick your kids up kind of good. They have a great female lead character and a relatively unique story line.

3. The Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich – This series has nineteen books out with twenty coming out sometime this year, but they don’t have to be read in order. These should be read because you’ll laugh to the point of tears at the situations the main character gets herself into. They’re great books to read if you’re in the mood for a funny book.

4. Burned by Ellen Hopkins – Hopkins writes about things that most people won’t talk about. She writes about serious issues in fictional story lines. These books make you thing about so many things but you can’t help but keep reading.

5. Eon and Eona by Alison Goodman – I recommend these to anyone that enjoys books with a strong female lead. These two books were amazing. I couldn’t put them down until I was finished reading.

6. The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks – This is another one of my favorites and I’m recommending it because of that. I enjoyed this book very much, to the point where I’ve read it several times. And all I’m saying is that you should do the same.

7. Any of the books written by Susan Elizabeth Phillips – Her romance novels are so easy to get lost in. They’re usually all around fun and enjoyable books. Lots of laughs and some great story lines.

8. The Fault in our Stars by John Green – I’m slightly obsessed with John Green. The Fault in our Stars is my second favorite book. And I suggest it because even my third time reading it I laughed and I cried and I thought about things I never considered thinking about before reading this.

9. Women’s Murder Club Series by James Patterson – I have read most of this series and have decided to re-read them. The four main characters are very strong women. I love these because throughout the books I feel like I gain such a strong bond with these ladies, even though they’re not actually real people.

10. The Bridgerton Series by Julia Quinn – I recommend this series because the first book just sucks you in then each book after you get to learn about the other siblings. With each next book you get to hear the stories of one more sibling until there aren’t any left and they’re all happily married. I just love these books, and that means you should too.

Keep on reading lovelys, Amanda.