When seventeen-year-old Evie Dasher is caught up in a raid at a notorious club known as one of the few places where humans and the surviving Luxen can mingle freely, she meets Luc, an unnaturally beautiful guy she initially assumes is a Luxen…but he is in fact something much more powerful.
Her growing attraction for Luc will lead her deeper and deeper into a world she’d only heard about, a world where everything she thought she knew will be turned on its head…
#1 New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout returns to the universe of the Lux in this brand new series, featuring beloved characters both new and old.
Review:
I honestly could not stop reading this book. I have never read anything from Armentrout before but I may have to check out some of her other books after this. I know this isn’t the first book she has done in the world of Luxen and I was slightly concerned I wouldn’t understand parts of this book, but Armentrout writes it so you can understand everything without having prior knowledge on the series. She also avoids info-dumping. As you learn things as our MC Evie does it means everything comes in steady waves rather than all at once. The world is also steadily built up where it’s easy to see but not overdone. Armentrout writes the book and manages to bring new readers into the world whilst ensuring returning reader won’t get bored or reread the same thing.
The characters were very well introduced and all complemented and worked well together. I wasn’t sure about Evie at first, but I really started liking her as the book progressed and she felt very relatable. Her relationship and banter with Luc is amazing! It was very obvious to me what their relationship is going to become but they have great chemistry and their banter is hilarious which makes the obviousness matter less to me.
In addition, there are a lot of great, diverse supporting characters. I loved Evie and Heidi’s friendship. Grayson, Zoe, and Daemon are fun side characters. Overall it’s a great cast.
The progression and development of this story is amazing. Throughout the story there were little hints here and there about some changes in Evie like her liking Coke and wanting to watch horror movies. There were even small changes in the way she acted. At the time I didn’t think anything of it, but once the big secret was revealed, it all made sense.
“Nothing is impossible…when you’re me.”
Not many things shock me, but when it was revealed that Evie was Nadia, I’ll admit that I was shook. For those who don’t know Nadia was talked about in the original Lux Series. She was Luc’s girlfriend who had a deathly disease. In this world, the Luxen’s DNA has the ability to save human from certain diseases, and everything that Nadia was given didn’t help. Until he was given a deal by Jason Dasher to save her. The cure that Dasher gave Nadia made her forget all about her past life and Dasher’s wife had taken care of Nadia as Evie for the past four years. I just can’t get over that for four years Evie’s adoptive mom had been weaving this intricate lie and making her believe that she was someone else.
But it also makes sense that Evie is Nadia because in the original series, Luc’s main goal is to find a cure to save Nadia. Throughout the story it’s obvious that Luc is interested in Evie, but I wasn’t sure if he was going to anything about it because he was in love with his childhood friend Nadia. There were times in the book when Luc and Evie would get close and I was thinking how in the world is this going to work if Luc is still in love with Evie. But let’s get something straight, Luc realizes that Evie doesn’t act like Nadia and is basically a completely different person, and he accepts them as two different people.
Also, after finding out Zoe and Evie were friends before Evie was Evie was also mind blowing. I’m not sure why it surprised that there were people who knew her from her past life. Even though Zoe didn’t have any relatives, she chose to stay with Evie and had to make a new friendship even though there was the possibility that it might not work.
This book delves into the Origins more so than the other ones. One of the things that really took me by surprised is that the way they age. Because they were created in a government lab to make the perfect fighters, the scientist gave each newborn group a different serum to help with grow and development. Some worked, and some didn’t. I honestly wasn’t sure how the Origins would grow considering they are part Luxen and part mutated human. Luc was given one of the best batches created because he had seemed to like a regular Luxen, the other Origin (the guy that showed up in the high school parking lot) had aged about a decade in a span of four years.
Oh, and let’s not forget that Evie’s adopted mother is a Luxen, yes, a Luxen! That secret was almost as big as Evie being Nadia. To me, that was a huge shocker because Evelyn was a Luxen because I was getting major vibes that she wasn’t fond of them, but hey apparently everyone has secrets.
“What do you want?” he asked, his gaze holding mine.
“You,” I whispered, cheeks burning.
“You have me.” His thumb dragged along my lower lip. “You’ve always had me. Always.”
My rating: 5/5 stars.
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