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JENNIFER L. ARMENTROUT REVIEWS
Roth
THE DARK ELEMENTS series
WHITE HOT KISS, STONE COLD TOUCH and EVERY LAST BREATH
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
young adult // paranormal
THESE BOOKS. They are so much fun! I love the way Jennifer tells a story. While her LUX series wasn't my favorite, I knew I'd fallen in love with her addictive storytelling and I needed more. I was fortunate enough to meet her at BEA this year where she signed a copy of Stone Cold Touch for me. After discovering it was part of a series, I knew what my next reads were going to be.
And I devoured them.
We follow Layla who was raised by gargoyles. She herself is half gargoyle, half demon. The purpose of gargoyles is to fight and kill demons who surface in our world. So although Layla renounces her demon half, she's still something of an outcast among the people who raised her.
Then comes Roth. An incredibly powerful, dangerous demon and he entices Layla. Finally she can be herself without being judged or watched. With Roth she begins to accept her dark side and start to question everything about the gargoyles and her life.
These books remind me so much of Charmed-- one of my favorite old tv shows-- which is funny because her LUX series reminded me of Roswell. It's like JLA is breathing new life into my old favorites.
Jennifer excels in creating rich, detailed paranormal environments. The workings of the world and the Luxen species were my favorite parts of LUX, and the Dark Elements world is my favorite aspect of this series as well. I love the idea of the demon familiars and the whole idea of gargoyles. I've never read anything that delves into the history and mythology of these creatures.
Maybe the most surprising thing was how much I genuinely loved Roth. I hate "the bad boy". I loathed Daemon from LUX. And as a pierced, tattooed demon, I expected Roth to be another stereotypical hotheaded jerk. But he wasn't at all. There was much more depth and maturity to him and I greatly appreciated it. I liked him more than the wholesome, sweet "good guy" who also starred in the series.
This is a trilogy that was nicely wrapped up, but I hope Jennifer will continue with these stories someday. For now, I'll be diving into the rest of her work and loving every second.
lux
LUX series
OBSIDIAN, ONYX, OPAL, ORIGIN, OPPOSITION, and SHADOWS
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
young adult // sci-fi // aliens
First of all, shout out to Book Outlet! I don't usually purchase multiple books in a series before reading the first one, but thanks to Book Outlet, I purchased this entire series for about Ten Dollars! For five brand new books and a novella!
Okay moving on...
Roswell (1999) was my entire life for three years (and that's not much of an exaggeration). This show was my oxygen and it will forever remain my favorite show of all-time. It's basically part of ME. This was a serious obsession, people. Serious.
So, Roswell begins with a gorgeous high school alien saving the life of his human crush at the risk of exposing himself and his sister. These teenage aliens have appetite quirks, powers of healing, manipulation, controlling heat, and stopping/reversing bullets with energy shields-- to name a few. They run from both the government and various evil aliens who are out to get them. AND! The healing of the human girl alters something in her body chemistry, resulting in an illness that leads to alien powers of her own.
...Wait, I was talking about Roswell, right? Because... that's also a rundown of the LUX series. So, I was slightly thrown by these similarities, but the LUX story itself was very enjoyable. I flew through all five books in a matter of days and was kept entertained throughout. I love the way Jennifer tells a story. However, I had some issues with the style and I absolutely loathe the love interest.
Style Issues. The whole tone of the book felt a bit like it was all a big joke. Whenever there was any sense of emotion or tension building up, it was destroyed by the characters' comments.
Ex: Character's response to her mother's new boyfriend:
"Their relationship had taken a trip into serious land."
Then there's the fact that the Luxen species were said to have this remarkably advanced maturity and IQ... but this is what we get from them:
"Made me want to kiss her and do other stuff."
Wow. Such eloquence. What otherworldly intelligence.
Not once do we see any glimmer of this "maturity" or unusually high IQ.
I was also a little confused by the characters' need to stop and say "This is bad" during catastrophic moments. Really? This is bad? I HADN'T REALIZED!
All of that aside, I love the idea of the Luxen species. What they are, how they work, where they're from-- it was very well thought out and interesting to read. As a lifelong rock-collecting nerd, I enjoyed how different types of rock could alter their chemistry and interfere with their systems. Their enemies were equally intriguing and it was all unique as far as the Roswell comparison goes. Other than those main points I mentioned earlier, this ended up being very much its own story.
BUT... Daemon freaking Black.
The hotheaded, caveman, lunatic (but of course still lovable) douchebag strikes again.
As JessetheReader once said: "Daemon is just crap."
He is a pile of crap from start to finish. Initially, he's simply a shitty person because he has a nasty attitude and treats a perfectly kind, innocent girl like she's a worthless nuissance. (yeah, yeah he's trying to keep his distance because, danger. Well you know what? You don't need to be a shithead to keep your distance from someone.)
Then, when he miraculously overcomes his attitude problem, he becomes so unbearably overprotective, he's frightening. The most striking example of this (slight spoilers, probably) is when his girlfriend discovers she is being stalked. The stalker has gone so far as to creep into her bed while she sleeps. But she is afraid to go to Daemon about it because she knows for a fact that he will lose his temper and literally kill the guy. She should be able to go to her boyfriend for help and safety and comfort, but instead she keeps the fact that she's being stalked all to herself because she's afraid of her boyfriend's reaction. That's just not okay. (It was an alien thing, so no cops either).
Daemon is one of the worst male protagonists I've ever read and I will never understand his appeal. He prevented me from enjoying the series as much as I otherwise would have.
But overall, I just really enjoyed myself in these books. They're quick, easy reads with a well thought-out extraterrestrial concept. I've already picked up another of Jennifer's books because this series was so readable and fun. I want to see how she handles a different genre. *Fingers crossed for no more Daemons!*
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