Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Lux #4

Release Date: August 27, 2013

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Source: Bought

Goodreads Stars: 3

Rating: Enjoyable

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together? - Goodreads

I was on fire again.

---

I feel lost. If you've known me for a while, then you will know that I am a huge fan of the first three books in the Lux series. I read them back-to-back in December, and I adored them. They weren't perfect or original, but they were fun and steamy and I didn't have to think while reading them. Origin, on the other hand, was almost the complete opposite. There were parts that made me want to ragequit, and I was too busy making comparisons to other books to love this book.

Don't break out the pitchforks, guys. I tried to love and adore it, I really did.

This review is going to contain mild spoilers within the bulk of the text, and major spoilers under the spoiler tag. I tried to keep it spoiler-free, I really did, but I couldn't help myself. I just had to explain the ridiculous plot points and reveals. Stay away if you're a spoiler-phobe like I am.

I liked Katy, as always, although Daemon drove me insane. And not in a good way. Every other chapter he was talking about how he would burn the world down to save Katy, or kill them all to keep her safe, or sacrifice everything for her. Look, I get that he's protective, and I get that Katy was in danger, but O-M-G tone it down! His chapters kept ending with a sentence that read something like "I would burn everything down for her." "They would burn." It lost its effect after the first time, and every time after that it was just ridiculous. I was a mixture between annoyed and rolling around on the floor with laughter.

I liked Origin. I did. It was fast paced, with a great action scene towards the end, lots of death and destruction, an intriguing ending that made me want to read the next book.

But I had a major problem:

I couldn't stop comparing Origin to Breaking Dawn. I've had a rant discussion with Tatum, and although she hasn't read Origin (yet!), she agrees that there are several similar plot points that connect the two novels. Normally I wouldn't have made the connection, but since I thought (and a lot of other people too) that Obsidian was similar to Twilight, I couldn't help but think that Jennifer L. Armentrout has regressed back to using Meyer's story as a base for her own work. I know, that sounds overly dramatic of me, but that was my feeling throughout most of the novel.

Before I break out the spoiler tag, let me explain briefly why I think that Origin is somewhat a rehash of Breaking Dawn. It's always good to present evidence, right?

Did you know that male Luxen and female hybrids can procreate? No, nor did I. Not until it was revealed in this book, the fourth in the series. That sounds awfully familiar to me, and it should to you, since Breaking Dawn was the book in which we discovered that - SURPRISE - male vampires can impregnate female humans. The science in Origin does make more sense than it does in Breaking Dawn, admittedly. I mean, the Luxen aren't dead, so it's perfectly reasonable that their organs are all working fine. But still.

Then there's that other thing...

Spoilers! 

Don't highlight if you don't want to know that Katy gets pregnant. I'm joking, that does NOT happen. Thank the gods.

I don't know any other way to break it to you so here we go: Katy and Daemon get married. There's no lavish wedding like the one in Breaking Dawn, in fact they go to Vegas and get married under fake names, but they are married nevertheless. This pissed me off majorly for two reasons.

One, Breaking Dawn. The creepy demonic children could have passed for somewhat original, but this marriage thing was too much for me to handle. Especially considering that Obsidian was so much like Twilight. I'm sorry, but I can't take it.

Two, Daemon proposes to Katy while they are on the run, and Katy decides to just go ahead and take the plunge. There's this long monologue from Daemon about how he wants to spend the rest of his life with Katy, and he can't bear to be without her. Look, I get that they have this special connection and their hearts beat in rhythm, but they're teenagers and they're on the run from a crazy government. What possessed them to think this was a good idea? They're married under fake names and identities, so it's not even legal. What is the point? To prove their love and devotion? Why did they need to get married to do that? I don't want to bring my own personal views on marriage into this, so I'm refraining from ranting too much.

The comparisons just ruined the book for me. I enjoyed it, and I found it easy to read, but it pissed me off so much. I feel so conflicted. I don't like that Jennifer L Armentrout seemed to borrow these plot points, especially since her other novel, Half-Blood, came across as a Vampire Academy rip off. 

Yeah. So. This is awkward.

Samantha @ The Secret Life of a Bookworm: 5 out of 5