Opal and Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Published by: Entangled
Pages: 385
Format: E-Book
Series: Obsidian (Lux #1) | Onyx (#2)
Rating: ★★ & ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Author | Amazon

I’m combining the third and fourth book into one review, because the third book just really didn’t warrant it’s own review. So little happened, it was a blip in my reading schedule and I didn’t have anything insightful to add to my reviews of the series so far. Without further ado, here’s how I think the series is going. (Spoiler: Uphill, thank goodness!)

I believe it. I can breathe a sigh of relief. All of the people that told me this series got better, you have to stick it out, were right. To get to book four out of five and finally have a breakthrough seems a little delayed, so it really depends if you can be bothered to read three books before you get to the good stuff. I’m glad I persevered!

Plot
It’s picking up! Hooray! Katy and her alien posse are all up for taking down some evil alien scum. Getting trapped by them is only a minor setback. Similar to the first two books in style, the action takes a while to build, but when it does, it’s all guns blazing. Kicking, punching, shooting.

There was a lot of death. Deaths that I wasn’t that affected by because I’m not connected enough to the characters to care (sounds harsh, I know) but it did feel like death was only being used to force some emotion out of the audience. There were limited consequences, and limited achievements through these deaths, so they seemed a little unnecessary.

Romance
My constant complaint has been the pace of Katy and Daemon’s relationship. It’s too slow, it’s too fast and there’s no middle ground. Fast is better than slow, I guess, but ‘Origin’ took that to a whole new level. In ‘Opal’, we were up to the pair considering and having sex. In ‘Origin’ we’d suddenly progressed to ‘I’ve always loved you, will you marry me?” I mean, what??? Marriage? They’re 18. And have known each other for under a year.

It seems a side effect of paranormal romance for the characters to be attached to each other so strongly, more than you normally see in a contemporary romance. It’s all, I’ll die for you, and Never leave me. I scoffed a few times at the strength of feeling and the exchanges, but hopefully Armentrout will strike the balance in the final book. It’s about on par with ‘Starcrossed‘ by Josephine Angelini on the ridiculous scale.

Paranormal
More things are explained. The term ‘origin’, at least. We only get to know how the titles are relevant, but nothing else about how the alien species live, survive and conquer. It made sense, and is definitely taking a more ‘Breaking Dawn’ turn. You all know what I mean.

This series had a lot of promise, and I have lowered expectations on what the finale is going to be like, so I can hope to be amazed. I’ve got this far, might as well finish. Let me know what you think of the Lux series. Most likely, you like it more than me!