Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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.

Rating: 5 stars

I was completely prepared to hate this book. I was literally anticipating the hatred I was going to have toward it. I had read some really bad reviews on it, and wanted to see what it was about for myself. I suppose I should've known that I'd like it at least a little bit...I do kind of like the bad boy kind of heroes. There. I said it. It shows that they're not completely wimpy and that they can stand up for themselves. Plus, sass is like, my thing. XP

As soon as Katy, the protagonist, met Daemon, I fangirled. Then he started being a complete douche bag, and then I hated him. Most of the book went like this, switching between loving and hating Daemon. But it wasn't entirely my fault, one minute Daemon would be being a complete and utter jack ass, and the next he would be making sure Katy was okay and completely screwing with my emotions.

Uncool Jennifer, uncool.

The book starts when Katy moves to a new town in West Virginia. If you can call it a town, more like a few streets and a stoplight. Katy's mom is really desperate for her to make some new friends, so she tells her about the hot boy that lives next door. She wants to meet them, but isn't falling head over heels to get all cushy with the neighbors.

Katy has to go shopping for groceries and plants for the garden, which is a complete wreck. She needs directions, so she goes over to her neighbors house and meets Daemon Black. He opens the door, shirtless in all his glory, v-lines showing, along with a nice little show of hair trailing down. There's no denying it, he's an absolute babe. But, all good things come to an end, and the end came when he opened his perfectly shaped mouth. Talk about douche bag. I wanted to climb inside the book and give him a piece of my mind, and I had a few choice words to use.

So you're probably wondering, 'if you hated him so much, then why do you love this book?' And there is a reason, and that reason is...he changes.

I know, so original, right?

But the thing about Daemon is, as soon as he changes into a nice, happy person you could care for, he gets his douche bag on and ruins the moment. Oh, it's so awful and horrible, and yet so artistic and beautiful. I actually don't like the guys who are sweet and nice all the time, they just kind of lack...character, I guess.

Katy was pretty awesome, and she was a pretty cool protagonist. She wasn't the smartest, or the strongest, but that just kind of made her more realistic. She did blush a lot though, I thought that was kind of weird. But non unusual for some people, at least hers was realistic.

Probably my favorite character was Dee, she was just so much fun and happy. She didn't care that people were rude to her, and she was always super sweet to Katy. She went out of her way, and made herself look bad in front of all her 'friends' to make Katy feel comfortable and loved, and she was pretty damn cool for that.

The story was well-paced and well-written, although I did think that the men in black suits would be a bit bigger in it, although they might be in Onyx, I'll have to read it :D

I was originally going to give this book 4 stars. But, I had to give it the extra one, because it's about aliens. Seriously, how on earth do you make aliens cool? (see what I did there) It's darn near impossible. But somehow Jennifer managed it, how, I will never know, but she did it, and for that, she has earned my respect.

I can't wait to read Onyx. *Squeals* Although it takes a certain kind of book lover to like this book, primarily because of Daemon's jack-ass character. Some people like the sweet guys, and Daemon was not that.

xxAvalon