I am exhausted. I have spent the last few weeks packing and moving and my wagon is dragin’ and my caboose is loose. Boy does that sound as if my butt is in a rather saggy and in an unbecoming state. I have lost almost 30 lbs since the end of June, my bottom is not in as bad a state as it was three months ago–it’s just tired. Now that I have spent a paragraph talking about my tuckus let’s get back on track.
In the last few days of August two of my favorite authors released books I had been waiting forever for. Tijan’s Broken and Screwed 2 came out on August 30 and on the 27th of August Jennifer L. Armentrout released Origins from her Lux series. Thank God and the way things work for me having a seven hour plane ride so I could really dig in on my way home, before all hell broke loose and I was waist deep in boxes and the internet was gone while I was in moving limbo, so that I could finish one of them.
Origins is the fourth book of Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Sci-fi Young Adult book series about a teen romance between a human girl and her Luxen boyfriend. Luxens are beings from a galaxy far from earth and they and their alien nemesis the Arum came to Earth, as well as many other planetary places, after their homes were destroyed in a war between the two species. Now they fight their battle here under the nose of our Government. The Blacks, Daemon’s family, live in a small town in Virginia, where Katy moves after her father dies. She knows the beautiful people next door aren’t like her but she has no idea just how different they are until Daemon begins to pursue her, romancing her while acting like an arrogant ass at the same time–quickly becoming the guy she loves to hate.
When I read Obsidian I was hooked on Daemon Black. I don’t think there is a girl out there who doesn’t have him on her book boyfriend list. Over the last four books he has really evolved and I don’t think that anyone could have imagined that the Daemon of that first book would ever have grown to the Daemon of the Origins book. How could you imagine him getting hotter and hotter and hotter to the nuclear heat of this book? Is it even scientifically probable of a hot guy to get so dayum fine and it not defy the laws of just about everything?
Origins is probably the most involved of all the Lux books, and even though Obsession was a stand alone, I really feel that if you missed it that Origins might not have felt as epic as it is if you had read it. This fourth book is much more serious and it is unforgiving. The high school romances between Dawson and Beth and Daemon and Katy are so long ago they may as well have been another series. Their lives are hard and harsh now. There is simply no going back, sacrifices are made and no apologies given.
As the cast of characters shift you see a good deal more of an old face. Luc is in Origins 
quite a bit and he is, in my opinion, one of the best characters of the entire series. I love his snappy lines and quirky personality. It’s great to have more of him because he adds a lightness that is needed in this otherwise darker Lux novel. I think one of my favorite exchanges happens a little over halfway through the book between Daemon and Luc.
“I’m pretty sure I locked that door.” Daemon growled.
Luc set the box of doughnuts down, and [Katy] eyed them like they held the held the answer to life. “And I’m pretty sure I let myself in. Hey Katy!”
Jennifer L. Armentrout gives a shout out to another paranormal YA author, Wendy Higgins, who wrote the incredible Sweet Evil series who stars the delicious Kaidan Rowe. I won’t spoil anyone by saying how she gives Wendy Higgins kudos for her lead characters Anna Whitt and Kaidan Rowe but I know that it no doubt made many fans of both series smirk at the idea of the two most lusty and lusted after male characters being used in such a way. Clever. Clever.
As is usual with Jennifer L. Armentrout, she does not fail to leave us with one of her painfully, “OMG” cliffhangers. The end is an unpredictable twist which leaves you dying for more and I think she lives for that. Again, so many of the questions raised in Obsession, which was a stand alone, new adult novel within the same world with a whole lot more steam showing the Arum perspective of things, ripple throughout this book. Although it is very much self contained it adds all the more layers to the Lux books and the Origin story. You can’t help but feel very strongly that the connection seen from Hunters POV in his book and Daemon’s in Origins will play-out in the Lux story at a later time.
This book, like all the Jennifer L. Armentrout Lux books is something I highly recommend. In my opinion it is the best Sci-fi YA romance story out there. Crap, I said that and now I’m back-peddling in my head trying to think if I should have said it. I will say that it is worth every gosh darn penny you spend and all the ones you don’t!
You can visit Jennifer L Armentrout’s website, her Facebook, her blog, Goodreads page, Amazon author page and her house-wait, that is the White House! My bad.
Other books coming soon by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
Unchained – September 17, 2013(as J. Lynn)
Trust in Me – October 22, 2013 (as J. Lynn)
Sentinel – November 2, 2013
Tempting the Bodyguard – November 2013 (as J. Lynn)
Bitter Sweet Love – December 1, 2013
If you would like to add anything to my review or just like what I have to say please leave a comment down below. I have no issues if you are a blogger who has also reviewed the same book leaving a link in the comments but please make sure that you leave a message as well as links alone might be considered spam and be deleted. So it’s best to add a little about your blog. Thanks for reading!
