Unwrapping a Review of OBSESSION, an Arum novel by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I’m going to be honest up front and say that before now, I had not read anything by Jennifer L. Armentrout. I had meant to because I’d heard such good things about her stories but hadn’t gotten around to it. I’ve actually had the first Lux book, OBSIDIAN, on my reader since November 2015 when Entangled brought it to my attention but it was OBSESSION that caught my attention better in May, because it was adult rather than YA. I’ll get around to the Lux book later.  All of these books have been available for years actually…yes…I’m still trying to catch up.

***purchased for my own personal reading but sharing my honest and unscripted review

This is a stand-alone novel that is an adult spin-off of the Lux Series—You do not need to read a Lux book to read OBSESSION and vice versa.

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?

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When a man, who glowed with bright light and shot electricity from his hands, murders Serena Cross’s best friend Mel in a parking garage she doesn’t know what to believe anymore. When the same man shows up at her apartment and tries to kill her, a man who claims to be with the Department of Defense turns into smoke, and then something dark and even more unusual, saving her life but then seemingly sucks part of her life away. When she wakes up, she’s far from home and discovers it’s not a dream but that aliens are indeed real—very real.

Hunter is an Arum. Arum are a race of beings bred to kill Luxen, an alien species that nearly wiped out the Arum. Now both species are living among humans on Earth, only the humans don’t know it and if they find out, those in charge exterminate them. Now Hunter has been asked to babysit a human female until it can be determined exactly what she knows. His only problem is that she is unlike any human female he’s ever met before and he’s not sure what to do about the situation, or her. If he doesn’t protect her, she will die but it’s very possible that if she stays with him, he may kill her—and he doesn’t want her dead. He wants something he never thought capable of an Arum. He wants her.

OBSESSION by Jennifer L. Armentrout is a good story…not a great one…but I liked it. There were times I felt it stagnate a bit but then it would pick up with deadly action and so kept me hooked. I liked Hunter, he was hard with a soft center that he was only just beginning to recognize, but there were times I just couldn’t understand why he had such thoughts about killing her when he seemed to have so much control the rest of the time. Serena did get on my nerves a bit, but I appreciated her desire to find out the truth in regards to her best friend’s death even though her nearly immediate attraction to a very bizarre alien was a bit unrealistic. I can understand her attraction to the human Hunter but the alien one…yikes, he sounded anything but attractive even if still muscular.

Overall, it was an interesting read and since I’m all for aliens, government cover-ups, and science fiction, I will say that it was worth the visit. I’m still up in the air about reading the Lux series but I know that eventually, I will read my copy of OBSIDIAN—because I have it and I don’t like to let books go unloved and because I am curious about the Luxen side of the story now. Whereas, OBSESSION by Jennifer L. Armentrout isn’t the most intriguing or even the best-written story, I will say that if you’re into alien/government cover-up stories, it’s a good read so try it out. It might surprise you more than me. OBSESSION is promoted as a standalone, and it does work but perhaps it would have been received better had I read the Lux series first.

Happy Reading Everyone!

OBSESSION, an Arum novel by Jennifer L. Armentrout, Entangled Embrace, available in print and ebook formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobobooks.