No one is like Daemon Black. When he set out to prove his feelings for me, he wasn’t fooling around. Doubting him isn’t something I’ll do again, and now that we’ve made it through the rough patches, well… There’s a lot of spontaneous combustion going on. But even he can’t protect his family from the danger of trying to free those they love. After everything, I’m no longer the same Katy. I’m different… And I’m not sure what that will mean in the end. When each step we take in discovering the truth puts us in the path of the secret organization responsible for torturing and testing hybrids, the more I realize there is no end to what I’m capable of. The death of someone close still lingers, help comes from the most unlikely source, and friends will become the deadliest of enemies, but we won’t turn back. Even if the outcome will shatter our worlds forever. Together we’re stronger… and they know it.
*** This review is for the third book in a series. There will be spoilers for the previous two books.***
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How ’bout that cliffhanger ending in Onyx, huh? Dawson coming back and so very changed from his time with Daedalus. Daemon’s completely heart-wrenching reaction. Katy’s being captured and tortured by evil Will. Will forcing Daemon’s hand. Adam dying…
Yeah. Things gotta whole lotta messed up last book and loads more serious, leaving me to agonize for months on end as to what the fallout of everything would be in Opal.
So was I excited about this book?
Uh, that would be a ginormous understatement.
If you read my Onyx review, you may remember that I loved that book. Like loved it, loved it. (My exclamation point key still bears some emotional trauma from that particular review.) And so I was expecting nothing short of absolute amazingness from Opal. I may have set my standards a bit too high in this case, though. So please take my following comments with a grain of salt. While I really did enjoy Opal, it didn’t quite leave the impression that Obsidian & Onyx did. It definitely has the feel of a transition book – a middle book. While Jennifer definitely maintains that “when is the other shoe going to drop?!” desperate vibe throughout the book, it just lacks… “oomph?” There is just something missing, and I still can’t quite put my finger on what that is exactly.
Maybe the plot and the pacing just fell a little flat overall? While I love Daemon & Katy as much (or possibly more) than the next person and while the strength of these books really lies in Jennifer’s excellent ability to create characters and connections, in Opal it felt as though the plot suffered for this. The story serves more the purpose of increasing the romantic tension between Daemon & Katy rather than both the plot and romance building simultaneously alongside one another. Which, seriously, I love the romance in these books, BUT in seeing how Jennifer stepped it up in the Covenant series with a largely more sophisticated plot while also ramping up the romance, I was hoping for much of the same in Opal. However, it just didn’t reach that level for me.
Things I love…
Daemon & Katy. Their chemistry is always fantastic, and they remain one of my favorite on-page couples. They are both changing and growing and learning how to navigate the uncharted waters of their new relationship and it’s sweet, it’s butterfly-inducing, it’s painful, and it’s passionate.
Katy. I’ve really enjoyed her growth to this point in the series. No longer is she the quiet bookworm, but rather a strong, confident young woman who fights for those she loves and for what she believes in. I particularly love her internal struggles throughout Opal as she wrestles with difficult moral questions and the ongoing physical changes that are inherent with being a hybrid.
Daemon. Still Daemon, but not quite as rough-edged. He’s sweet. He’s really what he’s always been – a guy who loves his family and will do anything to protect them. We get to see more of Daemon’s vulnerable side with Dawson coming home and the circumstances that they all are thrown into as a consequence of how things played out in Onyx.
In the previous books, I kind of had the sense that nothing could get the best of Daemon. That’s totally silly, I know, and a complete illusion, but he’s just so confident that I just kind of expected him to always get the best of any problem. But he is only… er… Luxen, after all. And though that’s always been the case, that fact didn’t really stand out to me until the end of last book and throughout this one. Oh he’s still extremely confident and totally capable and downright scary sometimes, but what they’re up against… well, it’s pretty formidable.
Dawson. I heart him, and his character development is so wonderfully done. Side note, if you have somehow have missed reading Shadows, the prequel novella, you should definitely read it before reading Opal. It’s rather necessary to understanding Dawson’s character.
The ending. YES. PERFECT. This is what I was hoping for more of throughout the book in general… and I did eventually get it in the end. <cryptic smile>
Overall. Though it didn’t quite live up to my, perhaps, impossibly high hopes, ultimately, Opal is an enjoyable read… and provided me with a much needed Daemon & Katy fix. I’m totally jonesin’ for Origin… it’s about to get super real up in here, y’all.
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout Title: Opal Series: Lux (Book #3) Published: Dec. 11, 2012 by Entangled Teen Format: Paperback, 452 pages; Kindle Website: www.jenniferarmentrout.com Source: Purchased
Happy Reading!
Yes…that…exactly that. We are so on the same page with this. =)
LOL… that is a shocker, huh? 😉
omg, I hated the ending! I was all–really? again?! Do we HAVE to go that route after Onyx? But Daemon always makes me happy. Not so sure I want to read that last chapter form his POV.
lol… I figured that would happen to one of them, so I wasn’t too surprised. Call me sadistic, but I love when things like that happen. 😉
And that last chapter from his point of view? Yeah, that’d probably make me cry. Is she writing Daemon POVs for Opal?
I think JLA posted that she’s got too much going on to do POVs for Opal. But, she might surprise us.
I hope she does, because I feel like after this book there might not be much need for extra POVs… though I might be wrong about that.
Wonderful review! Its like a teaser for the book.
Thanks!
Thank you Sophia Rose!
Armentrout did it again!
Yes. ‘Twas a good book.
Tha ending killed me but I can’t wait to read the next book. Opal wasn’t perfect but the characters keep me reading.
Yeah. Daemon & Katy got me through… looking forward to finding out what happens next 😉
These guys are amazing together!! And I love the alien world for this one – even though I’m not a huge scifi fan. This is a wonderful series – I got my mom hooked too:))
Lovely review:)
They are amazing together…. le sigh…
And the sci-fi element is so light, that’s probably why. It’s always there, but it’s not the intimidating, Star Trekky kind of sci-fi.
This ending just left me absolutely hanging!!! Just when Katy and Daemon are doing fine already!
LOL…I know!
Thanks for the great review! Oh man, I’ve been missing out on some great series! Gotta crawl out from under my rock
You should definitely pick up these books 😉
Great review. I love Jennifer! She is such a fun person! I need to catch up with Onyx so I can read Opal but I really liked the first book. She made me like aliens- something I previously thought was impossible.
Yes, she really is!
The thing about her aliens is that it’s nothing too weird or over-the-top or too techy, they’re very relatable and… kinda human in the way they interact and feel and view the world. So it’s not too surprising that she’s attracted fans that aren’t normally into aliens
So glad you liked Obsidian, and I hope you get the chance to catch up soon!
I haven’t read any of this series yet (or any of Jennifer’s books, actually…and I’m very ashamed of this fact), but I have consistently heard that Daemon is the ultimate sexy book bad boy, so I feel like reading it is a necessity. I guess I have to get started ASAP! 😀
Daemon is pretty…. yeah, awesome. You really should meet him at the earliest available opportunity. 😉