Review: Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Goodreads Summary:

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.

My Review: 
All I can say is, "Wow!" They must have someone amazing screening for new authors at Entangled Publishing. First, I read Kate Evangelista's book,  Taste. She mentioned to me that in August, she and some other Engtangled authors (she mentioned Jennifer L. Armentrout) are coming to Las Vegas and will be doing a book signing. I live in Vegas, so I decided to read Obsidian. While reading it, I started Pretty Amy and when I went to add it, I noticed that it's also published by Entangled. So, pretty much, if you're published by Entangled, I will give your book a chance from now on. Well, Obsidian has been out for a while, so most people have probably already read this book. For those who haven't, it's great! So good that after finishing I immediately went and bought the novella, Shadows. I don't normally read short stories or novellas, but I just had to because I can't wait for the next book in the series. 


I'm not going to do a review-type review. Because basically everyone but me has read this. Instead, I'm going to discuss the appeal of this novel. The Bad Boy. Ah, the literary and movie bad boy... he's the kissing cousin to the Hooker With a Heart of Gold. Meaning, they only exist in fiction. Which, I guess is part of the appeal. Well, before I get into what's appealing about the bad boy, let's meet one, shall we?

Sorry, couldn't find the end to this scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, in which Jennifer Gray (Jeanie) and Charlie Sheen (no name, just "Boy in Police Station") kiss. This so rocks Jeanie's world that her grannie panties get transformed and she skips out of the police station with a smile singing "Danke Schoen". The power of the bad boy in action.

This is the problem though... you've got to date a bad boy when you're young. This should be on the "Teenage Bucket List" of things to do before you become an adult (along with weird haircuts and facial piercings) and one of us comes to your house late at night to suck all the joy out of your life. Oh, and your soul (we have special machines), but we teach you the secret handshake. Look, you don't need joy and happiness- the secret handshake will get you special deals on vitamins, Metamucil, and white cotton underwear. It's really quite a good exchange. Why only when you're young? Well, if you date a bad boy, something like this will happen. He'll show up drunk on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas- at lunchtime no less. He'll vomit in your mother's fake plant in the corner of the room, put out his cigarette in the gravy dish, hit on your sister and maybe mother, get into an argument with your grandmother and call her the "b" word, etc. The only defense to this is youth- you have no defense if you're still doing this at 30, 35, or 40.

How to find a bad boy (Here are some groups with an unusually high concentrations of bad boys):
1.  The very, very attractive. This is self-explanatory.
2. Smokers. For some reason, many bad boys smoke. Note: I said smokers, not stoners. The greatest skill of a bad boy is not being able to shove two of these in his mouth:

3. Musicians, but not drummers. Drummers are not bad boys. Oh, you're a drummer. I'm sorry about that. (You can take that however you want) But dating a drummer does not count as dating a musician. (Look, I don't want to hear the mantra of all drummers, "But, Tommy Lee." [Me, looking down] You're not Tommy Lee. Sorry. Really, really, sorry.)

To clarify, I'm saying "DATE" a bad boy. [I'm beginning the MOM VOICE] Not sleep with. Never sleep with a bad boy- you both know where it's been (Eww!) and don't know where it's been. The don't know where it's been is really a problem because if a bad boy is ashamed enough to hide something, it's not a place you want to be- even second hand. Unless you can walk around with a syringe full of Drano in the jugular of the person who manufactured the condom for the next 10 years, stay away from the penis! [END MOM VOICE]

Okay, back to the literary bad boy as personified by Daemon- who is a great literary bad boy. Here are some reasons why we love to READ about bad boys:

1.The literary bad boy is appealing because deep down, he's sensitive. He's hiding the little boy behind the jerk because he's scared of being hurt/had a bad childhood, etc. Eventually the heroine will figure it out and fix him and they will live happily ever after...and this is why it's so appealing. Because life with a bad boy rarely has a happily ever after- remember? It usually ends with a drunken holiday revelation that he's impregnated your sister.
2. You never dated a bad boy and now can only live vicariously through fiction.
3. You were one of the rare women who snagged a bad boy and domesticated him. Now, he isn't so bad- more like bald.