My yearly craving for romance has hit! Last year at this time, I pretty much made it through almost all of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books (of which there are a truly impressive number) in about 3 weeks. When this mood gets me, binge reading is an understatement. A few days ago, my “winter reading slump,” if you will, crept up on me, and I knew it was time. After a little research, I settled on the Lux series by Jennifer Armentrout. I had heard a lot about this author before, I know a lot of people like her books (though of course with many romances, the detractors are loud), and I figured now was as good a time as any to see what the hype is about.

First, this is successfully scratching my romance itch (in a wonderful paranormal way). Short synopsis: Katy and her mother move from Florida to a middle of nowhere town in West Virginia to start over after the death of her father a few years ago. Katy is a pretty normal girl, on the shy/well behaved side, and a huge book nerd (be still my heart). They move in next door to Daemon and Dee, who turn out to be aliens (super hot ones), and things get intense. Daemon, though beautiful, turns out to be kind of a jerk. (Personal note, due to the dark hair and name, I cannot help but picture Damon from TVD in all their sexy scenes, which is definitely a plus for me.) But since Dee is so nice and really wants to be friends, Katy puts up with him. Things happen, they end up having to spend time together, and a connection sparks between them (literally).

To start, the good things. This is the best example of a slow burn romance that I’ve read in a long time. The sexual tension is real, and exactly what I wanted. Katy is a pretty awesome main character – she has a book blog that she’s super into (and now that I’ve been blogging for about a year, I recognize a lot of the special blog related terms, etc. that she uses and it’s really fun, if cheesy!). The alien thing is a nice change of pace from the zombie/werewolf/vampire paranormal situation that’s been so common recently. And overall, the plot is smooth and not uninteresting, if not spectacularly original. In fact, I will say hard to overlook some of the similarities to the Twilight books (I can’t lie, even though I’d rather not notice), in regards to main character draw, the local “family” of the paranormal variety, and the normal vs paranormal friend groups issues. But definitely between the two, this one far outstrips Twilight in regards to stronger/more self-assured female lead and less creepy possessiveness from the male lead. I particularly liked the ending, as it relates to the relationship between Katy and Daemon – it’s most assuredly not the normal “human girls falls for paranormal hot dude,” and vice versa, ending and it had me all silently applauding Katy.

It’s definitely cheesy, but it’s not completely tasteless/tawdry, and the steaminess is exactly what I needed right now. Also, for the genre, the writing itself (the showing instead of telling, the dialogue, and - always one of the worst parts in this genre - the inner dialogue) is, for the most part, no cringe-worthy. So success there! I’m definitely hooked after book and am jumping into the next one asap.