Actual rating is 3.5 stars.
My Initial Reaction...
Obsidian was pretty good. I really liked the MC - How could I not love a character who has a book blog? - but the angst between Daemon and Katy really got old.
The Narration...
Justine Eyre was an okay narrator for me. There's a very growl-like or gravelly aspect to her voice that kind of grated on me at first, but I grew used to it. She did do a good job creating different voices for each character - although at one point I distinctly remember thinking someone else was talking and finding out it was Daemon, so she wasn't as great as I would like at keeping the voices consistently distinct. Oh and she said Daemon's name about three different ways, which really irritated me. One of the things I like about audiobooks is learning how a character's name is "supposed" to be said. So that was a real bummer. I'll probably continue this series on audio just because that's how I started it and the problems aren't enough to take away from Obsidian. They just don't enhance it the way a great narrator does.
The Characters...
I liked most the characters in Obsidian, particularly the main character, Katy. I think I just could associate with her pretty easily because she's a book blogger and at some level that means we have a lot in common. It was neat hearing her mention things like Waiting on Wednesday or getting giddy over her book haul. I also liked her relationship with her mom and felt that she was a pretty decent person. But we didn't get as deep into her personality as I would have liked. Her father died recently and I felt like we should have seen more of that impact on her. She's likable, but I don't love her yet.
I think the only character I loved was Katy's next door neighbor Dee. I loved the way she wanted to be friends with Katy from the start - wants to be as normal as possible and have normal friends. She wants to garden and read Katy's blog. I feel for her, because she's in a tough situation and doing her best to make her life within the restrictions she has to follow. She's a good friend and I hope we'll see a lot more of her in future books.
And Daemon. I get the appeal - hot next door neighbor with amazing abilities. But his attitude grated on me after a while. At first I got it - he's trying to protect his family and Katy's a problem. But after a while it just got OLD and he became less hot and more of an ASS. I do like the personality he's starting to sprout as Obsidian ended, but then Katy's got this stick up her ass too. So IDK, but I'm not feeling their tension. It's more like annoying squabbling than sexual tension at this point for me. I hope that improves in the next book.
The Story...
I like what Armentrout has done with the Luxen in Obsidian. It's creative and different, at least for me. As I started reading Obsidian I hadn't read any reviews recently, so I really didn't know where things were going and for about the first 50% I was on my toes.
But after the first major reveal, things kind of fell into predictable territory for me. Not to say I didn't enjoy Obisidan's story - I really did - but I would have liked it much better if there had been a few more twists and lot less predictability.
I enjoyed the Luxen abilities and the action was pretty great. Based on my comments about the characters, you already know that the romance fell pretty flat for me.
The other thing that kind of frustrated me about Obsidian was the way time passed. It was very choppy - I'd feel like a day had passed but it had been weeks and vice-versa. The same kind of choppiness hurt the general flow of Obisidan. A scene would end very suddenly and we'd pick up at another point and it just felt a bit jarring. I'm willing to entertain the possibility that this was because of the way the audiobook was read, at least in part.
Concluding Sentiments...
All-in-all, I'd say that Obsidian is a pretty solid start to a series and while I'm not in love with it, I'm definitely planning to continue it, in hopes that those things that bugged me will get better.