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Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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.

Actual rating 3.95 stars? I don't know...it's not quite a 4-stars read but it definitely deserves more than 3.5 stars.

Okay Obsidian, lets do this!

So...my e-book copy ended up looking something like this;

Yup, I have a habit of highlighting all my favourite quotes in a book. Which in this case, says a lot about my feeling for Obsidian. I actually enjoyed it!

I'm not sure if I need to put spoiler tags anywhere since half of Goodreads population have read this.

I had been avoiding this book long enough. First because it's too mainstream. That book cover is literally everywhere...the fangirls everywhere...it was quite suffocating to be honest. Second, I'm not fond of aliens. Third, I heard that Daemon is such as an ass and I never fancy a combination of good look and rudeness in guys.

Seeing the unbelievably high average rating sparked a curiousity in me so I thought it doesn't hurt to try...

From the first page, it became clear why. Katy is so easy to relate to. Or Zazzy as I'd like to call her (Sorry, giving nicknames to fictional characters is another habit of mine). Why Zazzy? Because she's sassy and her words zing!


Okay, maybe Sheldon had something to do with it too. I mean, Daemon keeps calling her Kitten anyway.

Alright, Zazzy is so relatable because is an avid reader, obssesses about her bookblog and a bit OCD-ish. Doesn't that sort of represents majority of female YA readers? Jennifer Armentrout definitely knows how to make her books marketable.

Now, the one who doesn't need an introduction; Daemon. Contrary to many other YA books, when Zazzy and Daemon first met, whoaaa!!! Sparks didn't fly, profanities did. Not that I'm a fan of profanities but Daemon definitely deserved those.

I actually find it hard not to like Daemon because he is like a doctorate in art of sarcasm. Nevertheless, his mood swings more frequently than a girl on her period. I think the inclusion of the extra scene at the end is very wise considering I changed my view of Daemon quite drastically after I read it.

But the best part is, Daemon found his equal in Zazzy. Oh Zazzy, may I have your DNA profile so that I can breed you to replace our current female population on Earth that consists mainly of bitches and sluts? And Mary Sues. Don't forget Mary Sues. They do exist outside of books. Scary.

So, I heard that Half-Blood, also written by Jennifer Armentrout had many similarities with Vampire Academy, which I haven't read yet. But I have read Twilight, and plotwise, Obsidian sounded similar? Minus the love triangle of course. I mean, Zazzy moved to a small town with her single mom, just like Bella and Charlie. Daemon becomes attracted to her and Dee wants to be friends with her, just like Edward and Alice. Dee is in relationship with the quiet one, Adam, Daemon had a history with Ash and Ash hates Zazzy because she feels protective of her family, just like Jasper and Rosalie. Daemon saved Zazzy from being hit from a truck, Edward saved Bella from a moving van. Daemon possesses super-speed and inhuman-strength, just like Edward. And these aliens are like perfect specimens, just like Stephanie Meyer's vampires.

Honestly, I have no problems with the similarities, whether they are accidental or not because Jennifer Armentrout definitely can write. And she is crazy good at it. Trust me, there was never a dull moment for the first 90% of the book. It was as if the author felt obligated to fix Twilight catastrophe and tried make it right again.

Some things that bothered me; why Zazzy appears to have no friends from Florida? With personalities like that, I don't think she was a social outcast back when she was in Florida. I also didn't get why Zazzy's mom is too trusting of Daemon. I thought he has all those bad boys persona and Zazzy's mom never even met Daemon's parents to make an appropriate judgement (despite she will never have a chance to do so).

Okay, lets move on to the last 10%. I honestly thought Daemon is like Mr Darcy. All arrogant and prideful until he found the love of his life. Can someone please make me understand, why did Daemon thinks it's okay to leave Zazzy topless on the couch? Alien or not, I felt like morphing into Sailormoon and punish him in the name of the Moon. And that make out scene! It was very visual. It's...it's...kind of too Fifty Shades of Grey-ish for a YA book? Okay, maybe it's kind of too Fifty Shades of Grey-ish for me because I don't think I've read enough of YA books yet.

And Daemon blew up Zazzy's laptop.

How could someone blew up something so sacred?

And manners. Didn't they teach those on Lux? Granted, Ash was rude because she was overly protective. But what's up with Andrew? (Andrew, please don't reproduce. Just...don't.) And Daemon at the beginning. With all those 'humans are weak, humans cannot be trusted'. I'm human and I find this offensive.

The climax. I remembered trying to pull out my hairs when Bella decided to bled herself to distract Victoria's attention from Edward in Eclipse. Why Zazzy had to do the same thing by making herself a target for Baruck just to prove she's not a liability? I think it was a rash decision even though the encounter turned out good. Zazzy's loyalty was admirable but if the author could write the climax differently without involving Zazzy doing that reckless act than I would've like this book more.

Overall, aliens premise isn't a bad idea at all. I'm actually satisfied with the explanations (the Luxen can bend time and space, they can hitch a ride by traveling with light etc). I don't know, the last time I learned about Physics is when I was in high school, so I'm not sure how much of those made up facts do make sense, but I find them believable, if nothing else.

And oh, the fanservice was done right most of time. Except this part;

"I could feel every breath he took, and when he shifted his hips, my eyes went wide and I gasped."

Ermm...gross? I agree Zazzy...Daemon could've just told you, instead of shown you.

The inevitable pen poke, the food ninja, the aliens with big appetite...all these small, small things made this such a fun read for me!

*Runs back into Naji's arms* So girls, I'm done with your Daemon, feel free to have him back.

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