* This review may contain spoilers for the previous books, Obsidian and Onyx. *
Opal (Lux #3)By Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Entangled Teen
To Sum It Up:
Daemon and Dee have their brother, Dawson, back, but they’ve also suffered a loss that Katy blames herself for. Dawson is determined to rescue his girlfriend from the Department of Defense’s clutches—with or without anyone’s help. No one wants him to get taken by the DoD again, either, so Katy, Daemon, and the rest of their group begin planning a rescue operation. They wind up having to rely on information from one of the last people they’d ever trust, but they have no other options if they even hope to break into the DoD’s secret facility.
Review:
I believe that the novelty of the Lux series has officially worn off for me. Opal was a long, slow read that I never thought I’d finish. I really had to push myself through some parts where it seemed like absolutely nothing was happening.So much of this book felt repetitive to me, as though the series has settled into a fixed pattern. Katy worries about something. Daemon assures her that everything is going to be all right. Katy gets distracted by Daemon’s hotness. Katy and Daemon commence extended smooching session then return to matters at hand, like dealing with the evil Department of Defense. Start all over again with Katy stressing out. I’ve always thought the aliens vs. the government story line was cool, and Dawson was a welcome addition; his despair over being separated from his girlfriend, Beth, was so sad. At this point, though, I need more than that to remain invested in the series.
Opal seemed overly long to me, and I even lost track of how much time had passed in the book once or twice. There’s a big build-up to the big break-in at the DoD’s top secret facility where Beth is being held, but the emphasis is all on the training and the planning, which I didn’t find all that interesting. After a while, I just wanted Katy, Daemon, Dawson, and everybody else to just storm the place and get it over with.
In my review of Onyx, I went on a mini-rant about one Blake Saunders. It was too much to hope that he had disappeared for good at the end of that book. I knew he’d return, because Blake has the persistence of a bedbug infestation. Ugh, and he’s got the gall to act all arrogant! What I didn’t expect was the new low to which he took creepiness; seriously, Blake is a real piece of work.
While there’s a lot of tension to the story in Opal, the novel’s unhurried pace tends to knock the punch out of it. This book really dragged for me, and I couldn’t shake a sense of déjà vu that a lot of scenes and dialogue were very familiar. I do have to say, the ending was such a shocker that even though I’d thought perhaps this series and I were going to part ways, we can’t now. I may regret it afterwards, but I feel obligated to hang in there for one more book because I need to know what happens after a jaw-dropping ending like this one.
Ugh, this series sounds like the romance is taking over the plot. I'm def. passing on this whole series although I heard that JLA is a great author. I hate redundancy in books and especially when the female protagonist can't stop thinking about the guy. Like, come'on! Get on with the story! I feel like the romance was overdone.
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Little Book Star
The series started well, but it's kind of fizzled out for me now. I really liked the alien-related stuff over the romance, but the latter has indeed quite taken over the story.
DeleteI haven't read any of the books in this series but I do love Pepe and Stella. I remember this promo she did to feature these two. A little disappointed they're not on the cover of the latest book.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Happy to report I'm a new email subscriber so I'll be here more often. Yay!
Happy weekend!
I do love the covers; the one for Obsidian is what first brought my attention to the series. The cover for the next book really makes me want to read it, though I'm also leery about the book itself.
DeleteAnd yay to seeing you here more often! I've decided that I must see The White Queen, so I'll probably be seeing you on Twitter in a few weeks. I'm pretty sure I'm also going to be doing a recap-type thing here on the blog, like for GoT, because it gives me an excuse to fangirl about Richard III (well, he's not king yet on the show, lol).
I find the writing pretty addictive, but not memorable. I've read the first of the spin off of this series into the NA/Adult genre, and I wonder if the Lux series wasn't first written as racier novel before being toned down and reworked for YA.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite a possiblity; Lux is definitely one of the steamier YA series I've read, lol. I bought Obsession when the Kindle version was 99 cents and am curious to see how it compares to Lux.
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