Lux: Beginnings | Teenage Angst. Plus Aliens! But Mostly Teenage Angst.

Title: Beginnings: Obsidian and Onyx (Lux #1 and #2)

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal (hardly)

Now available together for the first time, don’t miss Obsidian and Onyx, the first two books in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s bestselling Lux series. Also includes bonus content exclusive to the print edition! “A thrilling ride from start to finish,” says RT Book Reviews.

Obsidian
There’s an alien next door. And with his looming height and eerie green eyes, he’s hot… until he opens his mouth. He’s infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, he marks me. Turns out he has a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal his abilities and the only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to him until my alien mojo fades. If I don’t kill him first, that is.

Onyx
Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems. I’ve seen someone who shouldn’t be alive. And I have to tell Daemon, even though I know he’s never going to stop searching until he gets the truth. What happened to his brother? Who betrayed him? And what does the DOD want from them—from me? 

  

Potential wasted, potential gone. A book blogger meets an alien, think of all the possibilities!

Well, Jennifer L. Armentrout didn’t.

Let me break this down for you: Girl meets boy alien. Boy alien is attractive. Boy alien is not nice. Girl mopes over conflicted feelings. 

Yeah, because I give a crap.

  

The pacing was also all over the place. The first book ended with absolutely no wrap-up to the story and in the start of the first book the story just suddenly changed direction. There was no smooth story arc, it was just random bursts of teenage angst with the occasional alienish scene.
Despite all that, I must admit I was entertained in the following ways:

• The guilty pleasure sort of fun. Everyone loves a fun, light guilty pleasure read every once in a while, and it’s great for a bit. But 760 pages of it? No thanks, chum.
• I love making fun of everything! Because I’m a cynical and very mean human I love picking a story apart and laughing at all the idiocy. I’m really quite good at this, but even an ‘ol pro like myself gets a little tired of all that stupidity.

 

Guess what? The writing was crap too!

It felt like I was reading fan fiction. (Not that I’ve ever read fan fiction don’t worry friends.) Everything was set so poorly because of the writing, the dialogue fake and pasty. (Okay, maybe I’ve read fan fiction, like, once.)

  
  

Katy was ANNOYING, Daemon was ANNOYING, everyone was ANNOYING.

The characters were essentially the same: One-dimensional, stupid, and OH MY WORD ANNOYING.

Now, I don’t need to like a character to enjoy a story, but it certainly helps. What doesn’t help is when I hate every single human or alien being in the book. ONE WELL-WRITTEN CHATACTER I BEG OF YOU.

  

(This is Tom Hiddleston slapping all the characters because they’re stupid but softly and with pillows because he’s a gentleman)

  
Bad plot, worse characters, worst writing. But hey, there’s a hot alien!

lol read if you’re feeling thirsty and over-emotional. 

What books with terrible writing do you feel the need to rant about?