Review: Obsidian & Onyx - Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Lux series, #1) (Link to Goodreads)

Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Lux series, #2) (Link to Goodreads) 

Released: May 8th, 2012 / August 14th, 2012

Purchased the E-books on my Kindle

Description on Goodreads for Obsidian: (Onyx under cut as to hide any spoilers)

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.

Review: The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (Link to Goodreads)
Released: June 26th, 2012
Pined over for months, finally bought it!

Description from Goodreads:

“It still amazes me how little we really knew. . . . Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It’s possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.”

Luminous, haunting, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles is a stunning fiction debut by a superb new writer, a story about coming of age during extraordinary times, about people going on with their lives in an era of profound uncertainty.

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, 11-year-old Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

With spare, graceful prose and the emotional wisdom of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker has created a singular narrator in Julia, a resilient and insightful young girl, and a moving portrait of family life set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world.


At the beginning of the summer, I saw a blurb for this book in a magazine. I saved that magazine page in the back of my copy of Pure, and after months of thinking about it and wondering if I should spend the money to buy it, I went for it. I also shocked myself in reading this in 3 sittings over the past 3 days. This book helped me break out of my reading slump and I am forever grateful. Not only because this book helped me get back on the wagon, but because this story was fantastically written. I am heartbroken over this story at the same time as I am afraid.

Onto the review!

Review: Pure - Julianna Baggott

Pure by Julianna Baggott (Link to Goodreads)
Released: February 8th, 2012
Bought the hardcover after keeping library copy overdue for weeks!

Description on Goodreads:


We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.


Originally, I had borrowed this book from the library, but it sat on my bed side table for 2 months. Overdue fees got higher and higher, and I finally had to relinquish the book back. I then decided to just buy the darn thing, but it then too sat on my bookshelf for months. I finally picked it back up yesterday and FINISHED IT. One of the things I don't want anyone to think is that since it took me so long to finish is that it was hard to get through. Yes, it was hard to get through, but because it has so much going for it.


Onto the review!

Finally!

I FINISHED PURE!

It only took me about a million years, but I finally finished it last night and now I'm bummed because Fuse (book 2) by Julianna Baggott doesn't come out until the middle of February 2013! The book has definitely given me plenty to think about for the next book in the series. I've got lots of questions and I can't wait to see how they will be answered in Fuse.

My review for Pure by Julianna Baggott will be up soon, as well as my review for The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, which I also finished yesterday.

I was in such a slump that getting more than a few pages through any book was just too much for me. I wish I could say  it was because I was distracted with work or hobbies, but I think it was just a long span of time when I needed visual stimulation from movies/television versus the more intellectual stimulation you get from reading. It's not to say I haven't kept up with buying a few new releases that I HAD TO HAVE, but they were gathering dust on my bookshelf. I'm happy to say, I'm back in the game!

Next on my reading list is Eve by Anna Carey, which I had previously started, as well as my ARC of Splintered by A.G. Howard, which was given to me by my fabulous local indie bookseller Cindy, owner of Island Bound bookstore.

Now all I have to work on is my Showcase Sunday... for the past 2 months!

Happy Reading!

(All links for book titles to Goodreads)