Title: Opal (Lux #3)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Contemporary, Sci-Fi, Aliens
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: December 2012
Pages: 382
Rating: 3.5 stars

Synopsis (from goodreads):
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.

My Review:

After how Onyx ended, Katy and the Luxens are still reeling from how everything went down. Death, destruction and Daemon seem to be following Katy around – and there seems to be nothing she can do to stop any of them. Although the Daemon situation is one that Katy is more than happy with.

If only her friendship with Dee was as strong as her relationship with the arrogant and impossibly sexy alien.

With her world falling apart around her, Katy is doing all she can to keep a handle on her mutated abilities and her boyfriend’s estranged brother being back on the scene. Things only get more complicated when Blake reappears at school and blackmails the Luxens into the most dangerous and insane plan ever – to break into the Department of Defence’s (DoD) secret base and break out his Luxen bondmate.

With less action and more romance, Opal is a very different book than the previous two – all that considered I thought it was a great instalment in the Lux series. Katy is stepping out from the victim role and becoming a character that I like and want to read about. Her relationship with Daemon has evolved – no longer is she convinced he’s just with her because of the bond. Oh no – now they’re “official” with all the trimmings that goes along with their newly defined status. Sweet and sexy as Daemon may now be, I sort of missed the over-confident and harsh character I’d grown to love from the first two books. I found their interactions to be lovely and I’m hoping that they can weather all the DoD and Daedalus throw at them.

Plot wise – this book missed the mark with me. I wanted more action, more development of the new characters (Luc, Paris, Ethan) and some more explanation to some of the crazy twists. Some of the bizarre points seemed a little far-fetched and one part seemed to exist just for some blatant product placement (Macbook Air, anyone?).

Overall, I enjoyed Opal. The characters grow on me more every time I immerse myself into the Lux universe and I’m on the edge of my chair with anticipation awaiting the release of Origin (Lux #4) after the cliff-hanger at the end of Opal. 

Purchase the novel from:

Amazon / Book Depository 

I read this book as part of the 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge