Highlights / Lowlights: OBSIDIAN by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: OBSIDIAN
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout (@JLArmentrout)
Published: November 2011
Series: Lux #1
Genre: YA Sci-fi
Publisher: Entangled Publishing POV: 1st person Pages: 294  Format: Kindle eBook Source: Bought Rating: The Great Hall

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.

Highlights: New town, new school, new friends, and a few new problems – Katy is off to quite a start. Katy is an amusing narrator, not to mention a book blogger, so it was easy enough to enjoy and relate to her character. OBSIDIAN is an entertaining story to read, and I can see why so many readers love this book. I was grinning, laughing out loud, scoffing, and utterly unable to contain my wide variety of reactions once I began this novel. While I found the romance to be underwhelming, I highly enjoyed character interactions and Armentrout's type of humor. 

Lowlights: Predictable, with an overall plot that is reminiscent of other stories, and some clichés are thrown in as well. Daemon was a frustrating love interest, what with his constant need to act like a jerk. The summary states that there are aliens, but it took what felt like an eternity for Katy to figure it out¹. The alien "reveal" had too much info-dumping, too. 

Rating: The Great Hall (high 3 out of 5). OBSIDIAN was very likable, but honestly, the only reason I bought this book was because it was on sale for Kindle. While there are some flaws, I do think I would read it again, but I'm not sure if I'll ever read the rest of this series. But, anyone who is interested in OBSIDIAN should definitely check it out, because it is a humorous and fun story. 
1 Which sucks, because then you're all "Katy, they're aliens! ALIENS!!" until she finally figures it out. And then once the alien reveal happens, you're like "Duh, I've only been been telling you that they're aliens for how many pages?"² 2 Umm, I mean, there was no talking to fictional characters. I would never do that, because that would be crazy. *walks away innocently*

Let's Talk: Books I Read Because Of Another Blogger's Totally Awesome Review

LET'S TALK is a weekly discussion meme created and hosted by the lovely Melissa from I Swim For Oceans! Every Friday, there is a new discussion topic for bloggers to discuss. If you want to know more about this feature, then go check out I Swim For Oceans for more information! 

What books, if any, have you read only because a blogger's review convinced you to? Did it live up?

Fabulous topic! Below are four books that blogger reviews convinced me to read (after I originally - and stupidly - convinced myself not to check them out):

Book: THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER

Blogger: Melissa at I Swim For Oceans

Melissa's review was only one I had in the back of my mind when I stumbled across a copy of MARA DYER, and the fact that she loved it Hodkin's novel so much is what gave me the push I needed to purchase it. I was incredibly excited for MARA DYER prior to the release date, but then the hype scared me off early on (and books with a lot of positive reviews can go either way with me). Thank goodness that I read Melissa's review and remembered it all of those months later, because MARA DYER was incredible!

Book: OUT OF THE EASY

Blogger: Christina from Confessions of a Book Addict

I was very, very skeptical when it came to this book. I loved Sepetys's debut, but I doubted her latest novel could live up to that story. But, after reading Christina's fantastic review, I knew I needed to start reading my ARC right away. And, Christina was right -- the characters were fantastic and the setting was wonderfully written. Such a great book!

Book: SHADES OF EARTH

Blogger: Aylee from Recovering Potter Addict

I've actually purchased a lot of books after reading Aylee's reviews (like CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS, THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST, THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO, ETIQUETTE AND ESPIONAGE - I just need to hurry up and read them). While she and I think differently regarding some novels, I've noticed that we do seem to enjoy similar stories for the most part, so I tend to take her positive reviews very seriously. And, no surprise, she was right about SHADES OF EARTH! 

Book: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

Blogger: Can't remember - Multiple bloggers! 

All of the insanely positive blogger reviews for TFIOS convinced me to check it out of the library. It was, unsurprisingly, an amazing book that I had to purchase right away. I feel like an idiot for waiting so long to read this book, but I'm grateful to all the bloggers who reviewed TFIOS - I might have ignored TFIOS without those glowing reviews!

I could name a few more, but then we'd be here all day! ;)

Let's Talk image from I Swim For Oceans

Let's Talk: Two Challenges For My Book Blogger Self

What's one thing you'd like to challenge yourself as a book blogger to do this year?

Since I'm apparently a huge cheater when it comes to narrowing things down, I actually have two things I'd like to challenge myself to do as a book blogger this year. 

Challenge One: Blog however / whenever I want to blog.

Sometimes, it's easy to get caught up in memes and trying to stay on top of everything. I honestly do not know how some bloggers manage to post 5+ times a week, or even daily! Despite having been a book blogger for almost four years, I consider YA Book Queen to be a small blog. I do not receive bundles of review books each week (thankfully, because I'd probably lose my mind from stress), so I tend to run my blog a bit more slowly. I take a lot of breaks whenever life gets too crazy, and sometimes I feel guilty for doing so. So, it's a goal of mine to keep my blog as relaxed as possible. If I want to post 5 posts a week, awesome. But if I only manage a couple, then it's still fantastic so long as I'm happy with my content. In essence, my goal is to simply be happy with what I'm blogging about and not rush my content just so I can keep up with the "big" bloggers! 

Challenge Two: Interact more with my readers and other bloggers. 

Readers who comment regularly might have noticed that I started answering comments in the comment section during the last month or so, instead of emailing my responses. I've been trying to be a bit more active on Twitter, too. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage adding in more time to interact with readers and bloggers, but I know that I really want to make the time to do so, even if it's only 10-15 minutes a day. I tend to be more of an anonymous blogger, so I want to engage my readers more, since I do read and appreciate every comment I receive. I especially want to interact more with my fellow bloggers, because I rarely get to talk about bookish things in real life - the closest I get to bookish discussions are always about  Shakespeare or BEOWULF whenever I talk to classmates, but it's more fun to talk about YA lit. ;)

Visit I Swim For Oceans to participate and see more responses! 

Image from I Swim For Oceans

Why Blog? What My Peers and Family Don’t Understand

             For any other blogger’s out there, especially you book bloggers, I’m sure you’ve gotten this from at least one person, if not more. If you haven’t, I envy you (seriously, because you are lucky).

            “You have a blog? Why would you want to do that? Especially for something as lame as books.”

            I only told a few people in my life about my blog after it was started (and even then, it was months after), and one new friend I met in my first year at college really loved the idea of it, and sometimes she even visits. However, I’ve had a few friends who’ve mocked me for it. My friends and I joke constantly about anything and everything, but now I almost feel like making my book blog or my nickname (Lea is a nickname) a part of the joke is just going a bit too far since it’s so personal to me.  

            I blog because I love to read, and I never got quite the fulfillment out of books until I discovered the blogosphere. My reviews are my thoughts, and it can be hard sometimes to post a review because I’m putting myself out there. The blogosphere gives me a huge online book club that varies and has a myriad of ideas and opinions. We can all talk about whatever topics/books we want on so many blogs. I can’t get this kind of interaction with my friends or family, because they don’t read. These people I meet online, bloggers, readers and authors all hold meaningful places in my heart. I wish I could dedicate more time to talking to them. 

            To have people I consider friends, and good friends, mock me for it and joke about it, without even really letting me defend it, hurts. I can come up with a lot of reasons why blogging, and book blogging in particular, is useful and instrumental in teaching me about life and skills I can use.

            I’m learning how to network; how to contact someone professionally, with the right touch of impersonal writing mixed in with professional; computer skills, like using HTML; managing skills, how to prepare posts and decide what happens on what day and time; and so much more. Blogging is a lesson, and it’s one I enjoy. It is useful to me. 

            Even with my real name, I shortened it for my blog. Friends and family alike both seem to take great enjoyment out of mocking that (whether they realize it or not, they all use the same tone in their voices that sound a lot like mocking), and I never let that bother me on the surface until recently. YA Book Queen is a part of me, and I’m a huge part of it. I can’t change that, and I’m not ashamed to be Lea of YA Book Queen, book blogger. I know now that I would stand up any day, wherever, and say “I’m a book blogger, and I’m proud of it”. I have so much pride in myself for doing something so out of the box for me, something that can be difficult at times, and sticking with it, through the thick and thin. I have so much pride in all book bloggers, because some of them do amazing things beyond just review - like fundraising and donating books. 

            Honestly, it takes every bit of my patience not to retaliate with some witty verbal comment I spent time making up or even some quick remark that may be taken badly whenever someone makes a snide or mocking comment about my nickname on the blogosphere, or even the blog itself. There is a huge part of me that wants to be on the offensive and defend blogging as a positive thing, and that it’s nothing to be laughed at. There’s another part of me that hates to bring about verbal conflict, or encourage it. I've almost always taken the "Kill them with kindness" route, letting these things slide. 

Yet, I feel like blogging and my life itself has changed me to a point where I can’t let these things slide. If someone in my friends and family cannot respect this part of my life, then I sadly cannot respect them in return. When I started this out, it was just a blog, but now it’s something special.

With this post, I’m promising myself that I won’t let anyone mock my blog, my nickname, and my love for YA literature. I don’t need that negativity in life, and I don’t need those opinions poisoning something I love. It breaks my heart that it’s people I’m close to that commit the worst of these problems, because I know I would back them up in whatever they wanted to do, even if I didn’t understand it (as long as it’s morally okay, people, I’m not condoning stealing or anything illegal here). Right here, right now, I’m saying I’m Lea from YA Book Queen, and it’s okay for anyone to not like that or understand that, but I ask that it is and I am respected for this, and not mocked, because I would do the same for anyone else.

I’m a book blogger, and I’ve got no shame in that. =)

Lea 

*For any regular readers, you know that this is a very rare post for me. I felt it needed to be posted, because I need a reminder for myself that this blog isn't a joke to me. I need something to look back on when I have doubts. I love my readers, and I love so many other blogs and bloggers. I think they have value, and to be able to run a blog is quite a commitment that should be respected, above all else.

** On a more happy note, Happy Fourth of July!!!