The Darkest Star by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Quick Cut: A girl's world is turned upside down when she is at a club in the middle of a raid and meets Luc - a boy she's incredibly attracted to, but definitely isn't human. Chaos breaks loose when she discovers the truth and worlds are turned upside down.

A Real Review:

Thank you to Macmillan for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Spinoffs in general can be a real shot in the dark. Even though you come with a pre-established world and a built in audience, there is always the risk that a new focus and crew of characters will not bring in the same amount of interest. With this spinoff to the Lux series, the focus is now on a girl named Evie and the boy he meets named Luc.

Evie lives with her military mom after her dad died during the war between the human and the Luxen not so long ago. The remaining peaceful Luxen agreed to wear disabling wristbands and be registered by the government. It's a life and world that can now live in peace. Evie thought that was what she knew when a friend dragged her to a Luxen safe club... until she ended up meeting Luc and her life gets blown to pieces. Luxens aren't the only aliens around, her parents are not who they appear to be, and not everyone is registered for a reason.

Full disclosure: I never read the original series for this one. So I'm a newbie to this universe. That being said, the start was really strong for this book and then really seemed to lose steam. Once the author started unveiling information, it all got confusing VERY quickly and once that happens you lose an audience fast. On top of that, many reveals happen far too late in the game... we're talking the final ten percent or so. With more of a build-up, the emotional power behind that would've been so much stronger.

One piece that was not lacking is the chemistry between Evie and Luc. Their bond is very confusing at first considering Luc has far more information, but the more time they spend together (and pushing back and forth with their power plays) the more clear it becomes how strong their chemistry is. It doesn't get an opportunity to shine until about three quarters of the way through, but once it happens... get yourself some lotion because the fire from their sun is bound to burn.

Although it has a strong start and some heavy chemistry between the leads, the plethora of data spilling put at one time gets confusing for a reader unfamiliar for a new reader.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5