Becca's Bursting Bookshelf

After the completely cruel and horrifying cliffhanger at the end of Opal, I knew I had to get my hands on Origin as soon as possible. The Lux series definitely has that addictive feel to it, and I'm sad to see that there will only be one more novel set in this world (okay, so five books is a pretty decent length for one series, but still.). I kind of dislike the cover change, though. It's not too different, but I feel like the first three had a much darker tone and the bright blue on this one would just look kind of weird sitting next to the other three. Also, the summary of Origin asks if Daemon and Katy will be together at the end of the story, and combined with the fact that only he was on the cover, whereas they both had been previously, it made me a little nervous. I guess it was all about creating lots of suspense, but they should stop foretelling the end of Daemon's and Katy's relationship for the sake of my heart and stress level, seriously.

Thankfully, Origin picks up immediately after Opal. I hate it when something major happens at the end of one book and when you pick up the next it's suddenly six months later and we have to go through endless chapters containing flashbacks of things that already happened. That's not to say that occasionally this technique isn't done well - it is - but it's definitely not my favorite method of gathering information. Obviously at the start of this book, Katy is not in a good place, physically or mentally. She's just been captured by Daedalus, a big bad government organization that likes to work with the Arum in its spare time. The summary also hinted that maybe this giant corporation wasn't quite as bad as we first thought, but honestly I never believed that for a second. There were just way too many bad things they've done for me to even consider that they were good people. Perhaps the employees who work there believe they're doing the right thing, but the ways in which they went about everything was horrifying. They tortured and hurt Katy multiple times all for the sake of research, and this tactic is something that is used on a regular basis. I very much wanted to jump into the book and slap everyone there, especially Nancy, the evil boss lady who's in charge.

I had no idea what Origins were going to be, but I figured they would be something along alien-ish lines, and I was right. Finding out exactly what they were was a little surprising, though, and I definitely appreciated the new plot twist. It was interesting and very unexpected. However, I hate it when there's a bunch of creepy little kids running around in books. Something about evil kids just really scares me (the same goes for dolls, by the way). I did find it a little odd that the government continued to encourage the creation of Origins when apparently they have so much power. I can see making one or two just to study, but making lots and lots? It doesn't make a lot of sense, considering all the things they can do. That was just an accident waiting to happen. I know Daedalus had a lot of fancy gadgets to contain them, but honestly, how can they hope to do that forever? I was instantly annoyed when Blake popped back up into the story. Even when he was portrayed as a decent guy - as well as a love interest - I never liked him much (I mean, really, very few men could compete with Daemon in the Lux world). However, I was pretty surprised at the decision the author made regarding his character. I can't say too much without spoiling anything, but the suddenness of said decision was a little disorienting because it was so fast.

One of the best aspects of this series besides all the alien awesomeness is the romance. I first began to root for Daemon and Katy as a couple towards the end of Obsidian; even though they frequently argued they were so cute together. I was irritated when Onyx came along and the dreaded love triangle reared its ugly head. Thankfully, it ended when the second book did and I didn't have to worry about it anymore but for that reason Onyx is definitely my least favorite Lux book. But what makes this particular romance special is the fact that for two whole books now Daemon and Katy have managed to stay together, and it's so refreshing to see because it seems like in all YA books these days, the two main characters who end up together spend most of their respective stories being distracted by a second love interest, or they are forced to stay away from their loved one to keep him/her safe. Armentrout does an amazing job keeping up the chemistry between them even though the reader is no longer waiting impatiently for them to admit their feelings and just be together. The love and intensity between them was just great and they're most definitely among my favorite couples. They make a lot of leaps and bounds together in Origin (and if you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about), and I can't wait to see where they go from here.

Sadly, though, Daemon and Katy don't really have a lot of time to focus on just each other what with Daedalus hanging around all the time. They are constantly around to screw things up, but after what happened at the very end of Origin, I can't help but wonder if there's some truth in what they said about the Luxen - they are firmly convinced that a good chuck of them are hellbent on coming to Earth and taking over completely. I'm pretty sure the final novel will cover that topic in greater depth. The climatic battle sequence was done very well; the descriptions had me imagining everything very vividly and putting down the book was nearly impossible. We don't see much of the secondary characters until later on, but I was glad when they finally showed up. Beth is mostly sane, but she has episodes here and there, and Dawson does his best to help her. I was happy when Dee finally made up with Katy - I wasn't sure if it was ever going to happen. After all, Dee had a pretty good reason for being mad. While Origin's cliffhanger ending is not quite as bad as Opal's, it still stops on a pretty interesting place. I'm very excited to see how all of this ends, and hopefully I won't have to wait very long - the author seems to have no problem with writing fast (and I am grateful for it).

4.5 stars