The Dreaming Reader: aliens

Book: Obsidian
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Lux
Publication Date: May 8th, 2012
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Rating: 3.5 Stars

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.

THIS BOOK HAS MADE ME SO CONFUSED. If you look at the shelves I've placed it on in my Goodreads review, you'll probably think I have schizophrenia or some other terrible psychological disorder that only comes into play when I'm reading books.

I was so angry at the start of this book. To me, Kat (Katy? Kittycat? Kitten? WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR NAME?) was suffering from a severe case of Bella Swan Idiocy, what with her stumbling over tree roots and flat ground and ogling Daemon just because of his insanely good looks.

Even though I couldn’t stand him, and I actually think he might be the first person I ever hated, he was…he was a god. Who knew the kind of girls he was used to seeing in bathing suits.

She was every bit the annoying girl who doesn't know she's pretty, gets insanely jealous whenever another girl gets within ten inches of a guy she says she hates, and gets distracted whenever he takes off his shirt (which is a lot, in this book).

I was sick of that. Frankly, I was ready to flip some tables and call it a day.

But then... something changed. Maybe it was around the time Katy dumped a tray of spaghetti over Daemon and his fake girlfriend's head, or maybe it was when her comebacks started getting better. At any rate, that was when I began getting interested. It amazed me that this book had such a high rating, and they definitely didn't skimp on the advertising, since covers popped up everywhere. My every step on GR was dogged by the stupid green cover with its flawless models with their glowy green eyes. Which led me to believe that there was something about this book that I was missing. In the first half, all I could think was two stars this book sucks two stars why would anyone read this piece of crap TWO ST--

I mean, it's horribly cliche-ridden. As I've already mentioned, we have the cutely clumsy heroine, who attracts the attention of a guy who's 1000000x hotter than her and his hot sister, they're hiding some freaky supernatural secret, and the heroine discovers this secret because she's stupid enough to walk in front of a truck. It's a recipe for disaster.

Strangely enough, it works. Not for the first half. That was just frustrating and made me want to stab Katy in the face. But after she discovers their secret, I looked forward to the book. One thing that I absolutely love, and that I have to commend Armentrout on, is that the woman knows how to write chemistry. Not only do they have a fuse-blowing make-out session (literally), Katy and Daemon have these sweet and hot moments together that made me root for them. The ending was a nice addendum to this, and it shows that Katy isn't a weak-spined character like I originally believed. Rather, she's pretty liberal with her middle fingers and insults.

Daemon fell to his knees beside me, pulling me into his strong, solid arms. “Kat, say something insulting. Come on."

There were just these moments that made me laugh, which contrasted with my eye-rolling in the beginning. I know a lot of people have issues with Daemon, but I have already come to this understanding with myself that I'm attracted to douchebags, so despite Daemon's controlling, possessive, and overconfident demeanor, I find it very endearing. Others might think I'm a whacked out freak who will end up calling the suicide hotline sobbing about domestic abuse, and I am perfectly fine with that. Just leave me to my own dysfunctionality, and we'll be good.

Barring the fact that I like assholes, the plot of the book was strangely intriguing, too. This is my second alien book, Gravity being my first. And I think I realized with this one how much liberty writing about aliens affords you. I mean, with vampires and werewolves there's all that stuff about sticking to the rules with the bloodsucking and silver bullets and garlic necklaces. But with aliens, all that's really required is that they're from another planet. That's it. They could look like Alex Pettyfer or a half-cooked pig with an apple in its mouth, and nobody would complain. Although I prefer Alex Pettyfer. Anyhow, the plot's not that incredible or special, but it was mysterious, and there are still a bunch of things that haven't been explained fully.

In conclusion, I am so bewildered. Everything inside me is screaming at me not to like this book because it smolders of cliche, but what has made us believe that cliche is bad? If it's written well, why shouldn't I like it? Why should I let the critical reviewer inside me say otherwise? Oh yeah, Katy's a book blogger too. It sort of annoyed me in the beginning, just because she annoyed me and so consequently everything about her annoyed me, but then I started liking it towards the end, especially since I empathize. It's been so long since I've read something that had legit chemistry, I think I'm okay with all the possible problems lurking in the book. I feel quite mellow right now.

If anyone was able to make sense of this garbled review, I applaud you. You guys should be running the nation, not those seat-warming nobodies.
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Book: Gravity
Author: Melissa West
Series: The Taking
Publication Date: December 18th, 2012
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Rating: 3.5 Stars

In the future, only one rule will matter:

Don’t. Ever. Peek.

Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed — arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die.

Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know — especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.

This was a book I was really looking forward to reading. I kept stalking its page on Goodreads for new reviews that would praise it. I enlarged the cover and mooned over it thousands of times because that blue is absolutely lovely. Also, I kept forgetting the publication date, so I kept hoping that it was earlier than I thought it was (it wasn't.).

In conclusion, I had very high hopes for this book. Very. High. Which will probably mean my review isn't too trustworthy and that this book is much better than I say it is. Because Gravity isn't a bad book. Not by a long shot. It's actually quite interesting, what with its synthetic foods and the existence of another planet that's basically paradise apart from earth. And in the middle of it all, we have Ari, who's the Commander's daughter and a future leader herself. In addition, she knows how to shoot a gun and disarm an enemy in ten seconds. Instead of crying at every turn, she holds back a scream. Which is an improvement, but not much of one.

My biggest issue with the book is the lack of world-building. I didn't know the origin of half of the things that were mentioned, from how Earth was split up the way it was, to why people didn't want to go to Loge when it seemed like such a great place. Also, I didn't understand why Ari trusted Jackson so easily. Their love never seemed real. Rather, it felt contrived. I just didn't know why Ari threw away her connection to her father and her years of training because of a boy she's only seen from a distance telling her that her own side wasn't to be trusted. It made her seem way too malleable and manipulable, which contrasted with the whole strong, untouchable persona she's supposed to be portraying.

I liked the idea and Ari's parents, especially her mother. But as with the other components of the world that she lives in, the other people in her life are too one-dimensional. Her parents, Gretchen, Lawrence. We only get tiny glimpses that they're people other than the roles they're supposed to lead in the book, but it's not enough to convince us that they're worth rooting for. Maybe if I hadn't been expecting this book to exceed my expectations so much, I wouldn't have been so disappointed. It's an original idea, but the execution wasn't all that special. I was especially disappointed by the flop of a love story and how there was no reference to peeking except in the tagline of the cover. The entire book has made me despairing for a good love story, so if anyone has recommendations, I'll gladly take them!
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