Tag Archives: the lux series

cover reveal

March 24, 2014 posted by Nichole

LUX: BEGINNINGS cover reveal

O. M. G. That is how I feel about anything that Jennifer L. Armentrout writes. Maybe it’s a sick obsession? Sure. But the fact of the matter is that I love anything this lady writes and I support each and every thing that she does. And that’s why I’m super excited to reveal to all of you the new cover of Lux: Beginnings (Obsidian & Onyx ) which will release on June 3rd, 2014. Will all of you be eye raping and devouring this book (possibly for the second time)? I don’t blame you! Let me know what you think of the cover in the comments section below!

Lux: Beginnings (Obsidian & Onyx) official Blurb:

Obsidian

There’s an alien next door. And with his looming height and eerie green eyes, he’s hot…until he opens his mouth. He’s infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, he lights me up with a big fat bulls-eye. Turns out he has a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal his abilities and the only way I’m getting out of this alive is by sticking close to him until my alien mojo fades. If I don’t kill him first, that is.

Onyx

Daemon’s determined to prove what he feels for me is more than a product of our bizarro alien connection. So I’ve sworn him off, even though he’s running more hot than cold these days. But we’ve got bigger problems. 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?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

# 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer Armentrout lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell, Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen.

She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

LUX: BEGINNING (Obsidian & Onyx) Links:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19081403-beginnings

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Lux-Beginnings-Obsidian-Jennifer-Armentrout/dp/1622664809/

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lux-jennifer-l-armentrout/1117748506

Additional links to Jennifer’s pages:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jlarmentrout

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferLArmentrout

Website: http://www.jenniferarmentrout.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book of the Month

September 22, 2013 posted by Nichole

Origin (Lux #4) - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together?

Last year, I became obsessed with the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. And if you’re a fan of the series, you remember how heartbreaking and startling the ending of Opal was. Just a refresher, the Luxen and Katy stormed Mount Weather and Katy ended up being captured. And of course, we were left with Daemon’s heartfelt and panicked three worded “I love you” to Katy. It was devastating.

Origin takes off a couple weeks after the ending of Opal. Daemon has been locked up by his fellow Luxen to prevent him from rescuing Katy, but of course Daemon breaks free and wrecks havoc on all of those involved in keeping him away from Katy. Now that Katy is with Daedalus, she is getting an inside look of what all is going down there and an idea of what their plans truly are. I don’t want to say too much about what goes down in Daedalus because anything I say will be spoilerish, but I can say that just…..woah. There are a lot of unexpected twists and turns in this one.

I have to admit that Origin was my least favorite book in the Luxen series. It was a little bit of a snooze throughout most of the book. Not a lot happened until the last 50 pages! The time in Daedalus was very uneventful. Nothing really happened that blew me away or shocked me during that section of the book. Honestly, it was kind of repetitive. Go to cell. Refuse to fight. Go to doctor. Repeat. I expected the time in Daedalus to be more eventful and heart pounding.

Unlike the rest of the books in the series, Origin is split between both Katy and Daemon’s POV’s. I typically don’t care for books that have split POV’s, and I do think that it took away from this book. Split POV’s are tricky because the author has to do it just right or the book gets a bit choppy. I wouldn’t say that Origin got choppy, but I think that the story would have been stronger if it had just been Katy’s POV like normal. I often found myself forgetting who I was reading about, and it was really distracting to have my attention shifting direction every so many pages. It definitely took away from the story.

Even though I found Origin to be a little bit boring and not that exciting for the most part, I have to admit that this book was SHOCKING. To give you a non spoilery hint, I can tell you that 5 people die in this book. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out who those 5 people are. Each death was shocking and unexpected. It blew my mind every single time someone was blown to dust. It’s weird that I found a big chunk of this book boring when so much happened, but a lot of the shocking stuff really happened in the last 50-60 pages.

The ending of Origin reminded me a lot of the other books in the series. The last 50-60 pages weren’t amazing but they definitely blew my mind. And the ending?! HOLY SMOKES! I did not see that coming. Just…wow. WOW. It makes me really excited to figure out what is going to happen in the next book. Like….a year from now /=

This section contains spoilers. Nothing TOO major…but be warned.

Ok…so….anytime that an offer adds marriage or pregnancy to a book, it usually turns out to be a disaster. It’s a BAD IDEA. I don’t even know how to stress that. BAD. BAD.BAD. Don’t do it! Well…..Armentrout does both. I won’t say WHO gets married or WHO gets pregnant…but BOTH happen. It’s also not shocking when it does happen. I guessed it toward the beginning of the book. Both twists sort of ruined the book a little. I didn’t like it. I especially didn’t like it happening in a YA book. I know that those two twists are going to be even more enhanced in the next book, and I’m not looking forward to it.

Also….the wedding was stupid. You just learned that the people got married…we didn’t get to see any vows or anything. If you’re going to do something like a wedding…then I want it Twilight style. I WANT TO SEE THE DAMN VOWS. I was annoyed that I didn’t get to.

Ok…spoilers over!

Overall, I liked this book. Was I in love with it? No. Was it my favorite in the series? Not by a long shot. But will I read the next book? Hell to the yes. I’m invested in everything that Armentrout writes, and I would encourage everyone to go read this book!

Pages: 364

Publication Date: August 27th, 2013

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Source: Finished Ecopy

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “I’ve been waiting a long time to run tests on someone like you, ” he said to Daemon, voice high-pitched.
Daemon arched a brow. “Another fanboy. I have them everywhere.”
I muttered, “Only you would see that as a good thing.”
He shot me a grin.”

Book of the Month

July 28, 2013 posted by Nichole

Character Interview with Jennifer L. Armentrout

# 1 New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer L. Armentrout Lives in West Virginia.

All the rumors you heard about her state aren’t true.

Well, mostly. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time, reading, working out, watching zombie movies, and pretending to write.

She is the author of the Covenant Series (Spencer Hill Press), the Lux Series (Entangled Teen), Don’t Look Back (Disney/Hyperion) and a yet untitled novel (Disney/Hyperion), and new YA paranormal series with Harlequin Teen.

Jennifer also writes New Adult and Adult romance under the pen name J. Lynn. The Gamble Brothers Series (Tempting the Best Man/Tempting the Player) and Wait for You. Under her pen name, she is published with Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

What exactly are your feelings for Daemon, Ash?
She shrugs one shoulder. “Of course I care about him, but I don’t have feelings that run deep. I just don’t like him with a human.” She
smiles. “Just being honest.”

You and Daemon were previously in a relationship. What ended that?
“He couldn’t handle me, but he’ll tell you that we didn’t get along. Whatever.”

It must be pretty awful seeing Daemon with Katy. Do you think you could ever grow to like her?
Her eyes roll. “It’s pretty disgusting seeing them together and why would I like her? She’s a problem child.”

I have to say, if some chic dumped food over MY head, that would have been the end of her. Can we expect any retaliation?
“I’ve decided to be the bigger alien and not knock her into outer space.”

I’m really sorry about your brother, Adam. How are you coping?
“I’m dealing,” she said quietly. “As best as I can.”

I’ve noticed that Dee and Andrew are getting closer now. Do you think we might see a romance from them in the future?
Ash laughs. “What? Ew. No.”

And what about you? Is there a romance waiting for you?
“There are several lucky guys waiting for me. Does that count?”

Last question: Regardless of your feelings toward Katy, Daemon obviously loves her. If it came down to it, would you help keep her
safe?
She doesn’t answer immediately. “Depends on my mood, I guess.”

Author Interviews

July 18, 2013 posted by Nichole

This or That with Jennifer L. Armentrout

# 1 New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer L. Armentrout Lives in West Virginia.

All the rumors you heard about her state aren’t true.

Well, mostly. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time, reading, working out, watching zombie movies, and pretending to write.

City or Country?
Somewhere in between.

The Host or The Mortal Instruments?
I probably won’t end up seeing either at the theater, but more interested in TMI.

Pepsi or Coke?
Pepsi

Nashville or The Vampire Diaries?
Vampire Diaries

Ian Somerhalder or Matt Bomer?

Is that a serious question? Ian.

Romance or Paranormal?
Paranormal Romance

Vampires or Werewolves?
Vamps

Twilight or The Hunger Games?
Uh… I haven’t read The Hunger Games. Gasp. I know.

Sweet or Savory?
Saucy

Obsession (Arum #1) – Jennifer L. Armentrout

adult books

June 15, 2013 posted by Nichole

Obsession (Arum #1) - Jennifer L. Armentrout

He’s arrogant, domineering, and… To. Die. For.

Hunter is a ruthless killer. And the Department of Defense has him firmly in their grasp, which usually doesn’t chafe too badly because he gets to kill bad guys. Most of the time he enjoys his job. That is, until he’s saddled with something he’s never had to do before: protect a human from his mortal enemy.

Serena Cross didn’t believe her best friend when she claimed to have seen the son of a powerful senator turn into something… unnatural. Who would? But then she witnesses her friend’s murder at the hands of what can only be an alien, thrusting her into a world that will kill to protect their secret.

Hunter stirs Serena’s temper and her lust despite their differences. Soon he’s doing the unthinkable—breaking the rules he’s lived by, going against the government to keep Serena safe. But are the aliens and the government the biggest threats to Serena’s life… or is it Hunter?

Three words summed up my feelings toward Obsession by Jennifer L. Armentrout: “Oh. My. Goodness.” It was hot, sizzling, and full of one gorgeous, gorgeooouuus man. Obsession is an adult spin off of Armentrout’s Lux series. I had no idea that this book was coming out…let alone that it was already out. Yeah…it’s pretty much a no brainer that I devoured this book in like less than 24 hours.

The number one highlight of this book was Hunter. Oh my gosh..Hunter was absolute perfection. Yes, he was a complete and utter asshole, but he was hunky, snarky, dominant, a natural born killer who didn’t think that he was capable of any human emotions. It was amazing watching those emotions slowly leak out toward Serena. I did think that their “relationship” came on a little too fast. It was cute and hesitant toward the beginning, and then BAM! It was like they’d been together for years. A bit too fast for my liking, but I still loved the book.

Serena was a strong female lead, but I never fell head over heels in love with her. There’s something about Armentrout’s female characters that put me off a bit. Katy, in the Lux series, drives me absolutely bonkers. I can stand her, and I even like her in some situations, but I never fell in love with her. It was pretty much the same thing with Serena. Armentrout’s male and supporting characters, as well as her writing, tend to make me forget all about that. I don’t know how she does it. In normal situations, if I don’t like one of the lead characters, then I’m probably going to hate the book. Somehow that doesn’t work the same way with Armentrout’s books.

The plot of Obsession was really catchy. In Armentrout’s YA series, we learned about the Luxen. Now, we’re learning about the Arum. It was pretty interesting to see how both species view each other and to know that the Arum aren’t completely horrible like we’re led to believe in the Lux series. I didn’t know how I would respond to Hunter, since the Arum are really bad creatures in the Lux series, but I loved the danger, the suspense, and the overall hotness of the book.

Fans of the Lux series will be wayyy excited to read this book since there are appearances from a couple of characters from the Lux series. Remember Luc? The creepy teenager guy in the club? Well, he’s in it. Daemon is also in this book, but only for a brief glimpse. It was really cool getting to see more of Luc, but I’m getting a bit annoyed that I don’t know too much about him, yet. Is more of him going to be leaked out in future books? Is he going to get his own book? These are things I eventually want to know.

Obsession is a tad bit dirty….to the point that I went on Goodreads to see if it was categorized under erotica. It’s not. It’s actually subcategorized under New Adult, which makes nooo sense. I’m not kidding, once you get about halfway through the book there’s like a sex scene every five pages or so. I almost hate myself for saying it, but that took away from the book…a lot. That’s actually one of the reasons I docked it down to a 4 instead of a 5. I wanted more plot and less romance. As I said before, the romance also moved very quickly. I wanted to see Hunter and Serena’s relationship grow over time. While I still loved the book, it was a bit much at times.

Obsession was such a steamy read. I fell head over heels in love with Hunter, and you can bet yourself that I’m going to be reading the next one. This is a great book for someone who enjoys paranormal romances. It’s only available as an eBook, but I got it on Barnes and Nobles for only $2.99. Definitely give this one a shot!

Pages: 370

Publication Date: May 31st, 2013

Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Covet)

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “Are you done acting like a psychotic, cracked-out Muppet baby?” he asked, and I could tell by the way his fingers spasmed around my wrists, he really wanted to shake me.
“Or do you need a couple more moments to return to sanity? I have all day. And you actually feel kind of good under me, so take your time.”

Half Blood (Covenant #1) – Jennifer L. Armentrout

Book Reviews

March 4, 2013 posted by Nichole

Half Blood (Covenant #1) - Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she’s crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn’t her biggest problem-staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

Last year I fell in love with Armentrout’s Lux series, and I have been dying to get my hands on her Covenant series. Half Blood is about a girl named Alexandria, or Alex as she likes to be called, who is a half blood who ran away from the Covenant three years prior to the plot setting with her mother. The story starts out with her mother being killed by a Daimon and a hunky Sentinel named Aiden rescuing her and taking her back to the Covenant.

Once Alex returns to the Covenant, she is automatically threatened with servitude in her step-father’s house. Half Bloods have two purposes in life: They can train to become Sentinel’s or they can be drugged every single day of their life and become servants with basically no thoughts or feelings. Aiden, the hunky Sentinel who saved Alex’s life, ends up standing up for her and offers to train her and catch her up to speed in her training.

As the story progresses, Alex forms feelings for Aiden, learns interesting facts about herself and her mother, and faces the ultimate test of love and loyalty. Jennifer L. Armentrout blew me away with her Lux series, and I was not disappointed with the first book in the Covenant series.

Normally I don’t like reading books about gods and half gods and things around those topics, because I tend to find them overdone and a little dramatic, but I was pleasantly surprised with Half Blood. I’ve read four books by Jennifer L. Armentrout in the past. I have read the Lux series, which I adored, and I have read Cursed, which I absolutely hated. So, I didn’t know quite what to expect. I ended up really liking the story line and the characters….especially Aiden! I was just really blown away.

I really loved both of the main characters, Alex and Aiden. Alex was such a strong female lead who didn’t put up with crap from anyone, and I really respect those types of characters. At the same time, Aiden was hunky, gorgeous, sexy, wonderful, strong, powerful….I could go on and on. I loved him. But I don’t really know what I think about Alex and Aiden as a potential couple. Aiden is mature, strong - willed and loyal, and while Alex shares many of the same traits, she’s also very immature. She’s so immature that I actually had a hard time coupling the two together. Most of the time the two characters seemed to have a relationship of an older brother/father figure and a little sister/daughter figure. Then there were a few moments where they showed interest in each other and that really put me off a little. I wasn’t grossed out or anything, but I was really confused by the relationship itself.

While I really liked the book, it did lack a certain spark. It was also very predictable. I knew almost every single thing that was going to happen in this book from beginning to end. I wanted to be shocked. I wanted to be outraged. I want to see more authors pushing past their limits and creating a twist that will just knock my socks off. I loved the book, but I would have loved it even more if it hadn’t been so predictable.

I’m naming off some negatives in the books, but please don’t think that that means that I disliked the book. I loved the book! I do hope and expect to see some more character development as the series progresses. I’m also looking forward to see where Armentrout takes some of the twists that she introduced. Such a great book. I really enjoyed it.

Armentrout’s writing style is so beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. I found my eyes glued to the pages, and I was devastated whenever I had to set the book down. When it came to the scenes involving Alex’s mother, tears literally sprang to my eyes. The words on the page melted my heart, and I was just an emotional basket case. It is safe to say that I spent many nights staying up till 2 a.m. reading this book.

Fans of Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series will fall head over heels in love with this book. At first it bugged me because there are SO many similarities between the two series. If I really wanted to I could put characters together and say who was who and why everything was so similar, but I finally told myself that it just doesn’t matter. So what if the two series are similar? Does it lack originality? Maybe a little, but it was still a great read, and I would definitely recommend this book to fans of paranormal reads!

Pages: 281

Publication Date: October 18th, 2011

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Source: Library

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “So? What are you going to do about it? Throw your mashed potatoes at me? I’m consumed by terror.”

“Okay. I’m ready to move onto something else, like practicing with knives or defense against the dark arts. Cool things.”
“Did you just quote Harry Potter?”

“Did you think he was just some lazy pure-blood who needed protection?” His voice dripped sarcasm.
“Well he looks like one! How was I supposed to know he was secretly Rambo in Dockers?”

Book Reviews

August 31, 2012 posted by Nichole

Cursed - Jennifer L Armentrout

Dying sucks-and high school senior Ember McWilliams knows firsthand. After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows.

Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things-including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he’s a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she’s more than interested. There’s just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden’s adopted father, a man she’s sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out. However, she’s willing to do anything to hold her sister’s hand again. And hell, she’d also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn’t?

But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not’ve been an accident at all, she’s not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life. For real this time.

Ember has had the power to kill people with the touch of her bare skin ever since her little sister brought her back to life from a fatal car accident that killed both herself and her father. It’s not something that she can turn on and off on her own will. No. if anyone touches her bare skin, they die. This definitely makes it difficult for Ember to cuddle with her little sister, let alone anyone.

With her mother refusing to even take care of her own body, not to mention that she still thinks Ember is dead, it is up to Ember to provide for all three of them. This means that Ember has to pay the rent, do the shopping, take care of her little sister and take herself to school everyday. With her father’s life insurance money running out, Ember does not know how much longer she will be able to provide for her family.

One day when Ember goes to pick up her little sister from school, she finds that someone else signed her out early. It turns out that a family of paranormals (if that’s what you’d like to call them) kidnapped both Ember’s little sister and mother, and now Ember is in their clutches as well. Their mission is to help the girls (mainly Ember’s little sister) control their unique gifts (or curses) and to learn that they can come across normal in an abnormal world. After the move, though, Ember realizes that someone is now hunting her, and she must learn more about her powers in order to save her life.

Lately I’ve been hearing how awesome Jennifer L Armentrout is. It was pretty much demanded, by a wide variety of people, that I read some of her books. Thanks to Spencer Hill Press, I recently received a copy of Armentrout’s newest book, Cursed. I picked it up shortly after I got it, because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

First I have to say that I really enjoyed Jennifer L Armentrout’s writing style. I could tell that this lady could write. The first 3-5 chapters flowed really well, and I was really interested in seeing how the story would play out. That’s when things started to go downhill.

I had major issues with this book because the males in the story completely dominated. The men kidnapped Ember and her family, they threatened to kick her out and never let her see her family again, they grounded her, they yelled at and threatened her, they made her feel guilty for being upset that they initially kidnapped her, they bullied her, and they stalked her in her room while she was sleeping. The men in this story basically could do whatever they wanted. It actually bugged me so much that I couldn’t finish the story. I only got to page 188 before I got so disgusted that I had to set it down.

Ember’s character also really bugged me. Never once (in the whole 188 pages that I made it through) did she even attempt to grab her sister and break out of there. She just sort of submitted to the men because she found them scary. And then she goes and falls for Hayden, the son of the man who kidnapped her. Hayden treated Ember horribly. He constantly made her feel guilty, belittled her, yelled at her whenever she mentioned that they kidnapped her, and he would go up into her room at night and stare at her while she was sleeping. It was creepy! Ember just put up with it because she “liked” him, and she didn’t want to be separated from her little sister. It was all really just so appalling.

For once I would like to see a story where the villains are females. Why do they always have to be males? Why do females always have to be the weak victims? And the worse part? These story lines are usually written by female authors. What kind of impressions are these leaving for young girls? This is my issue. I was so disturbed by this book that I had bigger issues with it than Fifty Shades of Grey. That’s a pretty big deal.

So many people have told me how awesome Armentrout’s Lux series is, but I’m really nervous to read another book by her now. I was really offended and uncomfortable throughout Cursed. I definitely think parents and teachers need to discuss these issues with their children if their kids are going to read this book. It”s not ok for young girls or boys to think that this is how society works. If things are going to change, then people need to grow up with the knowledge that things that occur aren’t always right.

Pages: 312

Publication Date: September 18, 2012

Publisher: Spencer Hill Press

Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “I ran my fingers over the plant. Like it was laughing in my face, the colorful blossoms went first. Pink and white petals broke off, and by the time they hit the soil, they’d turned brown. Ugh. I really was Death in sneakers.”