Onyx (Lux series, #2 by Jennifer L. Armentrout) Review

Blurb

Being connected to Daemon Black sucks…

Thanks to his alien mojo, 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.

Something worse than the Arum has come to town…

The Department of Defense are here. If they ever find out what Daemon can do and that we're linked, I’m a goner. So is he. And there's this new boy in school who’s got a secret of his own. He knows what’s happened to me and he can help, but to do so, I have to lie to Daemon and stay away from him. Like that's possible. Against all common sense, I'm falling for Daemon. Hard.

But then everything changes…

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?

No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…

Review

There are so many reasons to love this book. 

This is the type of story way out of my comfort zone. It's about Aliens, and suggesting I read a book about Aliens two weeks from today, I would have most probably thrown the book at you and laughed it off. I used to love sci-fi so much that I began to hate it. Now I'm open to all kinds of books.

Katy has changed so much since the beginning of the book, most characters do, however her change was drastic, it sort of became more visible towards the end of the book. Of course, her feelings towards Daemon might've been a huge part of her change considering how now, she feels responsible, and is willing to do whatever it takes to protects those she loves. I love that about her because not many characters, especially girls, tend to work towards wanting to fight and be equal to their 'other half' I suppose. 

Daemon is adorable, I think him wanting to be the one to take all the responsibility ads to his attractiveness, his humor is over the top in a good way, I honestly feel like I can't get enough of him, much like Katy. 

There was so much suspense in the story, so much that my heart lied all the way in my gut, I may have stopped breathing several times, the curiosity I was filled with was just amazing, no book has ever made me feel that way, especially towards the end. I was reading and reading and there was so much description that made time feel like a ticking bomb was placed in my head. And then it stopped when dissappointment took over, the end completely blew me away and took my breath. 

This is a full description of how a good book should always make me feel, that's why it deserved *****! 

Despite the fact that it annoyed me a bit that there were deaths, and that, as inhuman as this sounds, Katy felt guilty and responsible for the deaths, I think it may have just added to the irony of how human-like 'aliens' can be compared to actual humans. If that makes sense... 

The gooey romance stuff going on were, surprisngly, one of my favorite parts of the books. 

"Say it."

"Say what?" I asked.

"Tell me what you told me earlier."

My heart leaped into my throat. I'd told him a lot of things, but I knew what he wanted to hear.

And when she expresses how she feels, about how turned upside down she is. 

"And I never felt this way with anyone else. Like I'm falling every time I'm around you, like I can't catch my breath, and I feel alive-..." 

"..we just make crazy together..." 

THIS IS PERFECT! 

I used to hate Romance, the idea, the image, the everything, it was just so not me, some books however, make it worth the wait. The first book showed no signs of gooey stuff, it was just them two fighting and arguing and when it finally got to this, I was relieved, and happy and it's definitely worth the wait, if I had to wait one more book for those, I would. 

Currently Reading: Obsidian (Lux Series #1 by Jennifer L. Armentrout)

So far, I can't say much, I've read up to eight chapters and I'm not complaining. It's extremely fun and entertaining. The humour is just what keeps me going.

Golden Lily (Bloodlines #2, by Richelle Mead) Review

Blurb

Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?

Review

No, no, no. The book was not supposed to finish like that, I wanted to put a stop to my obsession, it seems like I failed. 

So first things first, what is up with Brayden? I'm sure as hell that Sydney is way smarter than I am, so it should have been easy to spot what an idiot he is. And if Brayden was that smart, he should have done a brief check on what girls like: COMPLIMENTS (I think they tend to just make situations more awkward, but whatever.) But still, Sydney's the best he'll ever strike. 

Second: If I were to take a sip at every mention on Sydney's car 'Latte', I think I would have drowned in a dozen gallons of LATTE. I couldn't bear to keep myself away from coffee while reading. Unluckily for me, when I was reading the first book, I was fasting (No food, no water) and occasionally found myself craving a cup of coffee. 

Third:  I was so, so, so happy at the fact that Adrian's character came floating on the surface compared to the other characters. I got to know him better, Sydney got to know him better, and well I might've gotten more attached to him than she did, but I believe it's what made the book so great. No Adrian, no goody goody stuff. 

Fourth: I absolutely liked the fact that Sydney was so confused as to what she was supposed to feel when she got kissed, when she went on a date, what was appropriate, and I just might've related to her in so many ways at that point, which is very rare because all characters in the books I read seem to magically have a past of boyfriends and whatnot. 

Speaking of magic... I KNEW IT! I knew she was going to use the blind spell, hell, I guessed it from the moment it was mentioned, also I knew about the tattoo and it's significance on Trey's back, I knew he was evil, I think the author intentionally made sure the readers wouldn't get too attached to him, just enough so they would not be disappointed by revealing the sad truth about Trey. 

I like the twist involving Eddie, Angeline and Jill, that love triangle, thankfully it's two girls against a guy instead of the typical stuff with two guys, one girl, despite the fact that, that might have also been there with Mikah and Eddie, however it didn't exactly get to the point of it being annoying, Eddie's decisions were reasonable and I came to appreciate his loyalty and admiration towards Jill, overall I found it cute. 

Vampire hunters?! What- 

That was a bit surprising, not completely, after the way the last book ended, I actually believed this whole idea of a vampire-hunters group would just fade away, clearly it played a major part, and it was different however I wanted more action, maybe Adrian should learn how to throw some punches and start defending Sydney for a change, she's got magic on her side, what's he got? Art skills, which as an artist myself, have come to appreciate that I share so many things in common with him. So yeah, I expected that to be an excuse for the both of them to start learning how to fight, but the sign up classes with Wolfe was a good bonus to their abilities. 

OVERALL: Don't be surprised but I LOVED IT! 

The humor, the characters, story, and as some things may have come off as mysteries, either I'm a genius or they were too obvious. I could be taking into account every little detail, so that could be it.

Bloodlines (Bloodlines series #1 by Richelle Mead) Review

Blurb

Sydney belongs to a secret group who dabble in magic and surf to bridge the world of humans and vampires. But when Sydney is torn from her bed in the middle of the night, she fears she's still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. What unfolds is far worse. The sister of moroi Queen Lisa Dragomir is in mortal danger, and goes into hiding. Now Sydney must act as her protector. The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one. 

Closer review on Bloodlines Series' first book

23 Hours, sleep not included, so that makes it... 14 hours of reading, possibly constant reading, small gaps in between, perhaps no more than 3 hours. That's how long it took me to finish the book. I'd say it was a record, I can't remember finishing a book so fast before.
Meaning... I liked it, perhaps exactly just about how much I wanted to like it.
Despite the boring introduction and everything, it seemed to me like the story progressed quite slowly, but that was just the beginning of it, and then as she had finally moved to Palm Springs, it felt like the story had finally begun.

I loved Adrian's remarks throughout the whole story, the beginning when he opened their door to that mansion, that moment was just AMAZING!

"They're waiting for you. Go on in." Adrian leaned close to Keith's ear and spoke in an ominous voice. 

"If. You. Dare." He poked Keith's shoulder and gave a "Muhahaha" kind of monster laugh. Keith nearly leapt ten feet in the air.

I would ruin it for you if you haven't read the book, so maybe I'll keep those "moments" to myself and laugh out loud at just how hilarious they are so I won't list any of them, just that first one that got me super attached to the rest of the book.

So the story's told from Sydney's point of view, which was something I did NOT expect, I actually thought it would be from Adrian's point of view, and by the time I finished the 'Last Sacrifice', the last book from the Vampire Academy series, I was worried that Adrian would go on and on and on about how sorry he felt for himself that Rose chose -SPOILER- Dimitri over him, that's hardly a spoiler alert because we all expected that-DUH! But what got me super furious was that it kinda seemed like the world revolved around Jill. WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE TO FREAKING FALL FOR HER?! Okay, so if I'm going to be a professional reviewer, perhaps capitalizing how furious I was with Jill's character would be a bad move. She is exactly the perfect description of the most difficult and infuriating teenager I will ever read about. I was fifteen once. like two years ago, and I do not remember being so desperate to be out there, much less be all over this whole idea of wanting to get a boyfriend, or be involved in all this romance-y-stuff. So maybe that kinda almost got me to throw the book out the window, if Adrian would have fallen for her as well, I might've as well burnt the book to ashes, Adrian is for Sydney and that's that. I hope.

So, more infuriating characters... Well the twist at the end with Lee really got me surprised, shocked, all words to describe that emotion. It was crazy and it covered all the missing "climaxes" in the story, which I seemed to not have noticed.

Keith.. if there is any character I could not hate more, it would be Keith, I wanted to cry just as much as Sydney wanted to every time he pissed her-off-excuse my language- but how can he be so ANNOYING and MEAN and RUDE and how in the world could he get away with RAPE?! I would have pinned him near a very-awake-volcano on a stick and let him burn from the increased temperature-he deserves to BURN!

Sydney is the ideal character for this series, I kind of doubted I'd enjoy reading and well seeing everything from her perspective considering how I haven't given her much attention in the Vampire Academy series, to be honest, I hardly noticed the fact that she feared vampires so much. Anyways, the story was interesting BECAUSE she was so scared and despised them. This was no I-hate-them-because-it-is-a-cliche-to-love-them, loving them would be almost like a sin to herself. She was raised to hate them and because of that I came to appreciate her effort at getting closer to them, even though it was not in her job-description to do so, if anything, it was against everything The Alchemists did. Perhaps falling in love with one will be beyond complicated. I can't to find out.

I couldn't help but notice the excess mention of COFFEE. I craved coffee while reading the book, and since it's Ramadan, I could not drink ANYTHING. I kept dreaming of a cold Frappuccino, or a freaking Latte, because her car HAD to be named LATTE! Of course, after the eating hours I made myself a Latte, now, I can't sleep.

Overall the book was amazing and I'll be very likely to read it again, once I'm done with the Goodreads challenge, with reading 30 books in the rest remaining months of 2014.

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