Obsession (Arum)

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

A thrilling standalone novel from New York Times bestselling novelist Jennifer L. Armentrout, author of the Covenant and Lux series.

He's arrogant, domineering, and... To. Die. For.

Hunter is a ruthless killer. And the Department of Defense has him firmly in their grasp, which usually doesn't chafe too badly because he gets to kill bad guys. Most of the time he enjoys his job. That is, until he's saddled with something he's never had to do before: protect a human from his mortal enemy.

Serena Cross didn't believe her best friend when she claimed to have seen the son of a powerful senator turn into something...unnatural. Who would? But then she witnesses her friend's murder at the hands of what can only be an alien, thrusting her into a world that will kill to protect their secret.

Hunter stirs Serena's temper and her lust despite their differences. Soon he's doing the unthinkable - breaking the rules he's lived by, going against the government to keep Serena safe. But are the aliens and the government the biggest threats to Serena's life... or is it Hunter?

• ISBN10: 1473615925
• ISBN13: 9781473615922
• Publish Date: 4 June 2015 (first published 31 May 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder Paperback
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[pagingserenity]

It was really interesting to read about the world in the Lux series from an Arum's point of view. Hunter and Serena are like more mature versions of Daemon and Katy, which I really liked.

[Angie]

Aliens are sexy! And I totally think I've switched to team Arum after meeting Hunter. The Luxen are great, but Arum do it better! Obsession starts off in Colorado with Serena listening to her friend Mel recount a pretty unbelievable story. She believes her boyfriend, the son of a Senator, is not human after seeing him turn into a ball of light while arguing with his brother about Project Eagle and some such about kids in Pennsylvania. Serena is supportive of her friend, even if she doesn't quite believe her, but this changes when she sees a man move faster than any human could and blow up Mel's car with her in it. Now Serena is in trouble, and Hunter is sent to protect her while the DOD figure out what to do with her. Hunter does not want to babysit a human, but once he gets her to his cabin in West Virginia, his job becomes a bit more hands on.

I really enjoyed Obsession! It's sexy and dangerous! Hunter is sexy and dangerous! There's just so much tension between him and Serena, since he makes it clear that he doesn't want to be her protector but has no choice. He takes out his anger on her by bossing her around instead of trying to keep her in the loop, but she eventually gets under his skin. It may have had something do with him being able to see her emotions, which included arousal at his presence. Hunter tries to control himself around her, not just because he doesn't want to want a human, but because he could kill her by feeding off of her if he lost control of his human self. Serena doesn't want to want the super arrogant, bossy alien, but she's drawn to him and can't bring herself to be afraid of him. So much sexy times ensues! And Hunter gives a whole new meaning to phone sex! Swoon!

The only reason I didn't rate Obsession higher was because I didn't feel like the plot was fully resolved. I believe this is happening partially parallel to Origin (which I haven't read yet), since there's a brief cameo from Daemon after he lost Kat. Plus there's a mention of something called "origin" in regards to the plan Serena stumbled upon. There's a lot going on, and by the end, nothing has been done. Sure, Hunter ultimately saved Serena's life which is enough for the romance portion, but the overall plot is still wide open. Maybe that's going to be left to the main series, but even so, as a standalone that is suppose to be separate from the Lux series, the story should have been more self contained. This wouldn't have bothered me, if the focus remained on the romance and the plot hadn't been so detailed.

Overall, Obsession is a great read. The romance was obviously my favorite part. I could not get enough of Hunter!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Romance Schmomance]

Me love, me love.

[chemicalscream]

OH H-O-L-Y CRAP.

So Obsession came out on Friday (5/31), but I was lucky enough to win an ARC from the Publisher the night before so I got an early start on my reading!!

This book was a great way to hold us ADULT fans of the LUX series over until the release of Origin. When I found out that JLA was releasing an adult book from the LUX universe I got super excited!! I love super hot romances and I must say Obsession is SMOKIN’ HOT!!!! I almost had to take a cold shower when I got done reading it because it had some SUPER HOT SEXY TIMES!!!

I LOVED LOVED LOVED HUNTER!! He consisted of all the best ingredients to make a super hot alpha male WHO IS AN ALIEN!!!! He was cocky, arrogant, bossy, snarky, etc, etc.. He was PERRRRRFECT!!! Amazing!

“That´s an alien. I´m an alien. We´re aliens. Aliens everywhere, actually, which is why we have to leave. I´m sure someone called the police by now.” – Hunter
Serena was also amazing…She didn’t take Hunter’s crap at all and dished it right back at him! We like girls who are sassy, makes for interesting banter between characters!! But like most girls who are sassy, they usually don’t always know what’s good for them..so they tend to do some stupid things and Serena is not any different!

“Never in my life had I been more frustrated. Go figure it wouldn’t be with a human but a freaking alien. At least I now knew that the male species were asses no matter what planet they hailed from.” -Serena
In this book we learn that maaaaaybe the LUXEN aren’t always going to be the good guys and just maybe the Arum aren’t always going to be the bad guys. It was interesting to get a whole different angle of the luxenverse (HA. YES! I JUST CAME UP WITH THAT. Let’s now refer to the world of the LUXEN and ARUM novels as LUXENVERSE. ) and see it from the POV of someone who is one of the supposed “bad guys” of the story.

We also learn a little bit of information about something called Project Eagle in and how it may play part in the next LUX book, Origin.


Project Eagle was in response to the government organization known as the Daedelus. What Mel had overheard reallyw ouldn’t have made any sense to her, but it did to me knowing what I did.

Project Eagle was world domination.

It was a plan to contact the Luxen who hadn’t come to Earth yet–an honest to God invasion from within the Daedelus, using the Origin. There was nothing explaining what the “origin” was, but those hundreds of thousands of Luxen Hunter had spoken about? Project Eagle was about bringing them here.


Wow. Yeah..I’m wondering if maybe the Good Luxen and the good Arum will be teaming up in the future? We shall see….

Overall this book was a great read, I couldn’t put it down once I started reading it. It is supposed to be a stand alone novel, so if you’ve never read the LUX series, it’s alright because JLA does a good job of explaining things as the story goes along. I do hope that we get to see more of Hunter & Serena in the future!

Oh, I forgot to mention…I’m totally conflicted now. I don’t know whether I should be #TeamLuxen or #TeamArum!!!!

http://www.luxenarmy.net
http://www.mereadalot.com