Review: ‘Obsidian’ by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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.

This is the second Jennifer L. Armentrout book I’ve read; the first was Half-Blood, the review of which you can find here if you’re curious. I saw a review that described Obsidian as Twilight, redone with the leading lady given a dose of spine. And I can definitely see the comparison. It is, however, another paranormal romance — and anyone who read my last review will know they aren’t usually my cup of tea. Why do I do this to myself?

Okay, here we go

I really like Katy. She’s a book blogger who spends a lot of her time reading and reviewing books (which is obviously an awesome hobby to have! 😉 ) and the rest of her time looking after her workaholic nurse mother: cooking, doing groceries, cleaning. Oh, and perving at the hot neighbour.

The neighbour, sadly, is an awful human being (or, actually, not, which you’ll know if you’ve read the blurb).

For the record, I never went through the bad boy phase, and I don’t think I’ve ever been attracted to the moody and broody love interest type in a book. Daemon is, for me, no exception. He is instantly hostile to Katy, I guess because she’s getting human on his porch? He is rude, gets inside Katy’s personal space in a way I frequently found confronting, and is generally unlikeable.

He does have moments where he can be sweet, and, as a reader, it’s pretty obvious from the get-go that he’s trying to drive Katy away so she won’t befriend Daemon’s sister, Dee, and find out their secret (and that, later, he wants Katy away from him because he’s attracted to her and their love is forbidden etc etc). But that’s no excuse for his bad behaviour. And poor Dee a couple of times came across as a battered partner, apologising and cringing about her brother’s attitude. I felt so sad for her.

Now, to Katy’s credit, she doesn’t take Daemon’s crap. She admits to herself that she finds him hot and she lusts after him to her lady parts’ content, but she is more than happy to tell him what she thinks of him, and at no point does the off-the-charts tension between them cross over into (to me) inexplicable love. That fact alone is why I gave this book three stars — it is so unusual to find a paranormal romance where the leading lady doesn’t confuse lust for love, and is willing to say no to the pretty supernatural paramour when he finally caves in and deigns to be with her.

The story is fairly predictable. Katy gets herself in trouble on several occasions, and is saved by Daemon every time. (She does save him once too, which is nice.) The bad guys didn’t scare me as much as I’d hoped they would, probably because I didn’t really get their motivation. The writing is good (especially the kissing scenes), and the story ticks along fast enough that I wasn’t bored.

If you love paranormal romance, brooding-but-super-hot leading men, a heroine with a backbone, and some fairly serious sexual tension with very little follow-through, then this is the book for you.

Mini-reviews: ‘Words of Radiance’ by Brandon Sanderson and ‘Summer Falls’ by James Goss

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status “darkeyes.” Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

The Assassin, Szeth, is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin’s master has much deeper motives.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.

I only just reviewed The Way of Kings (the first book in this series) last month, and a lot of what I said about that book is true for this one too. Hence the mini-review; I think the blurb will be longer than the new things I have to say. :p

Brandon Sanderson: still a world-building god.

My overall impression of Words of Radiance is that the pace feels a little faster than the first book did, but maybe that’s because I’d already been sucked into the story and the descriptions of the world’s little details didn’t bother me so much. Even the interludes were clearly more directly relevant than they seemed in the first book (though they were relevant then, too; as I said in my last review, Sanderson is the master of literary sleight of hand).

I adore Shallan and Kaladin and ship them super-hard — which is awkward (no spoilers). Both of them experience a fair bit of character growth; Shallan needs to face up to her past, while Kaladin needs to overcome his. I adore them. Dalinar is still all noble and awesome, and my other favourite character is Jasnah, Shallan’s mentor. She is an atheist who defies all of the religiously derived expectations of her as a princess and a woman (the world has some unique cultural expectations of both men and women — only women are allowed to read, for example, making them the clerks, scientists and scholars, while only men can fight). She’s basically the best.

The book has intrigue, attempted assassinations, an interesting magic system, visions, a looming Big Bad, characters you love to hate, characters you kinda hate but feel sorry for, and loads more.

The only tragedy is that this is the first time I’ve started on a Sanderson series that wasn’t already complete. The third book doesn’t come out until November. So I’ll be sitting over here.

Waiting.

In the seaside village of Watchcombe, young Kate is determined to make the most of her last week of summer holiday. But when she discovers a mysterious painting entitled ‘The Lord of Winter’ in a charity shop, it leads her on an adventure she never could have planned. Kate soon realises the old seacape, painted long ago by an eccentric local artist, is actually a puzzle. And with the help of some bizarre new acquaintances – including a museum curator’s magical cat, a miserable neighbour, and a lonely boy – she plans on solving it.

And then, one morning Kate wakes up to a world changed forever. For the Lord of Winter is coming – and Kate has a very important decision to make.

This is a fun little novella that is about the length and complexity of a middle grade book. It is published under the pen name Amelia Williams, which fans of Doctor Who will know is the name companion Amy Pond writes under after she is consigned to the past (and out of the Doctor’s life) in series seven. After finishing the tome Words of Radiance, I was in the mood for something short and light.

Kate is a lot like Amy was — she’s strong, decisive, and doesn’t much like the company of silly people. She befriends a man she names Barnabus, the curator of a museum next door to her house. Barnabus is clearly based on Amy’s Doctor, but he doesn’t take over the story, leaving Kate with the agency to investigate and resolve the plot. The plot itself is fairly traditional Doctor Who fare: an alien masquerading as a supernatural force, clearly inspired by Amy’s experiences with the Doctor. It’s a little bit Lovecraftian without being overt horror, which I quite enjoyed, and is entirely suitable for children.

I love the double-layered fiction in this: that it’s written by a fictional character about another fictional character. Amy’s hand being so clear behind the story shows the talent of the real human that wrote it, James Goss. My only regret is that I accidentally bought the stand-alone novella rather than the collection of three (which has almost the same title).