Obsession

By: Jennifer Armentrout

Narrated by: Alexandra R. Josephs

Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

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?

©2013 Jennifer L. Armentrout (P)2015 Audible Inc.

Holy Alien Hotness

After reading the YA series Lux, I had no idea the author was writing a more adult spin-off book set in the same timeline/world as Lux. I never cared for the Arum in that series but I did enjoy Hunter. And Holy Alien Hotness Ms. Armentrout gave him his own book. He was so cocky, ruthless and deadly but he had a soft side and it was smoking hot.
If you liked the Lux series, chances are you will like this one too. However, it’s a stand alone listen so you don’t have to read the Lux books to understand Obsession. My only complaint was with the narration, it should have been read by a male for the dual POV. I had a hard time distinguishing who was speaking at times (the narrator did a poor job with it). Otherwise, the story and writing were outstanding!

Fun book... not so much love for the narrator

What didn’t you like about Alexandra R. Josephs’s performance?

I don't need a dramatic interpretation of the text. Just read the f****** book. This is killing me.

OH MY..... MY, MY, MY YUM!

Who could have thought aliens could be this intense! Jennifer Armentrout has my vote with this book!

The basic of the book is Earth has more than just human inhabitants, the government knows this but the people don't! Serena (lead female) discovers the existence of these other races when she happens to watch her best friend murdered in an unnatural way. When she runs to the cops to report this, like any normal human would, she finds herself placed in the safety of one of these aliens. In comes in Hunter (lead hero), of the Arum race. The best words I have to describe him is cold, scary & sexy .

As the two are forced to stick by each other, a bond is formed. This is despite the fact that Hunter almost lost control of himself and 'ate' Serena not once but TWICE! There is a lot of story telling in this book, both Serena & Hunter piece together what is happening in the world as Hunter does what he does best and protects Serena and on the other hand Serena does what she can as a human and wiggles her way into Hunter's soul. She becomes his light when all he has ever known is darkness.

The book has very interesting characters... I will give away this wee bit of info: Hunter has brothers! who, well, I look forward to seeing how much trouble they can cause....

I like Alexandra's narration but I think they book would have been a lot more entertaining with a dual narration.

Overall I think this is book worth a credit, even better if there is a sale!

great story but need different reader

excellent story but we use a different person to read it next time. her voice isn't deep enough to do the male voices

Enjoyed even though...

I still enjoyed this even though: The story plot was a bit weak - its a good thing I have a great imagination and loads of patience since the narrators’ pace in spots were unnecessarily slow and halting. She read it like she was reading aloud to children - annoying. Clearly not a children’s book. The romance and love scenes were highlights - along with the last fight scene. I liked that.

Suspenseful Dark Lux Rival

Well-done Audiobook full of suspense. Great narration with versatile voices for the characters. Very enjoyable to listen to. I was never a fan of the Arum until this story. Now I wish that the author will do other Arum stories.

I loved get more out of the Lux world.

I loved hearing more about the couple who we first meet in the Lux series, but the narrater kept pulling me out of the story. They were not the worst narrater I have heard but not the best either.

Bad narration

What can I say? The story is great, but I was forced to find the print version because the narrator absolutely wrecked this book. She left huge pauses between sentences, sometimes even in the MIDDLE of sentences. Example: “Blah blah blah” FOUR SECOND PAUSE (yes I actually checked) “he said”. Seriously? Who could tolerate that? Even speeding up to 1.5x speed the narration jerks around in weird stops and starts. And it’s not just here and there. It is a consistent verbal gaffe that the narrator makes for nearly every sentence. It’s awful.

Add that to the poor separation between characters, unfortunate male voice and the fact that she reads both the male and female POV and the audiobook is just ruined. It is unlistenable.

However, as I mentioned earlier, it is a good story. It will appeal to “grown up” fans of Twilight, as it has that feel of the antihero who wants her but constantly has to fight his nature around her. It is, however, very steamy and not at all YA. I recommend you find the print version and skip the audio.

Very good story :)

4-4.5 stars

I will preface this review by saying that I've never read any of the books from the Lux series so I came into this world new. As a matter of fact, I've never read anything by Armentrout before.

This was a very good story. I really liked Hunter and Serena was pretty cool too. I don't think you have to read the Lux series to get into this book (obviously I didn't) but now that I'm done I am finding myself wanting to read the Lux series because I really liked this story and am curious. On the down side, Hunter is an Arum and most of the Luxen in the story are bad guys so I'm afraid that I might not have a good opinion of the Luxen when I do read the series.

Serena is a good woman and is trying to help out a friend when she gets sucked in to a horrible mess. Her friend saw aliens (in their true form) and hears things she shouldn't have and is killed for the knowledge. Then the aliens (the Luxen) start trying to kill Serena thinking she knows all their nefarious plans. The DoD knows all about the Luxen and has some Arum (the Luxen's mortal enemies) working for them to try to keep control of the Luxen population on Earth. To protect Serena, the DoD brings in Hunter as a bodyguard.

Hunter is an Arum. He hates the Luxen (the two races have been at war for generations) and is satisfied to work for the DoD for the time being. He isn't happy to be saddled with a human woman to protect. Arum aren't protectors, they hunt and kill. He's not even sure if he'll be able to restrain his desires (for feeding or sex) and it could be deadly for her if he doesn't. He is able to but it's hard. Fortunately it gets easier the longer he's around her because he finds unexpected feelings coming over him. Ones that make him want to protect and cherish Serena.

Hunter is rather uncomfortable with the new feelings that Serena brings out in him. It's funny to hear his inner dialog as he's trying to figure out where these strange instincts and thoughts are coming from. I just loved seeing him grow warmer (personality wise) and more caring towards Serena.

Serena doesn't always make things easy as they deal with their situation. While Hunter doesn't mind her spirit (even liked it at times) there are a few times in the book when she should have reined it in....like when she runs towards danger instead of away from it. But, other than a few TSTL moments on her part I thought that she did pretty good. She has a strong core and it certainly helped with all she had to deal with. She didn't let Hunter intimidate her and dealt with all the crap that was thrust at her without losing it. Even accepting Hunter in his alien form and not freaking out about that or the violence she witnesses throughout the story.

Hunter and Serena do have a good amount to deal with which makes things interesting. She's hunted by Luxen that the big, bad Luxen is sending to kill her and that's not even the worst of her issues (all I can say is never trust the government because sometimes the right thing isn't always the easiest or most expedient thing to do). There is a point where Hunter (alien or not all men suffer from it) suffers from a bout of relationship dumbassedness and I wondered how badly he would mess things up but fortunately he fixes things with Serena.

I won't go into details but there is a pretty good ending. There's action and danger that make a very good dramatic ending. I was very happy for Serena and Hunter but wish things had been a little more settled The ending is probably what you'd consider a HEA but it ends with them together and in love but still hiding out because they're still in danger . Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was really good and I liked the characters quite a bit. Based on this book I will have to read the Lux series...it just looks too good regardless of who is the bad and/or good guys. I'd recommend this book. :D

5/29/16 - I've been reading the Lux series and reread this as a part of the series. I saw somewhere that this story is supposed to be taking place between books # 3 & 4 of the Lux series but it seems to me that this book and Origins (book #4 in the Lux series) take place approximately during the same time.

TBH, in this reread Hunter seemed like a bigger asshole than he did the first time around. I'm not sure why but I still liked him very much once he started developing feelings for Serena. It's been quite a while since I read this the first time and now that I'm reading the Lux series, I did see the Arum as more of the bad guys. But then after rereading this book I have to say that it seems like there's good and bad on all sides, Luxen, Arum and Human. I'm going to continue with the Lux series so I can find out what's going to happen next...I do hope that Hunter and Serena show up in the Lux series. :D

* note - My reread of this book was via the audio version of this book. The narrator did an alright job but I wasn't completely happy with it. There were times it seemed like she had pauses in the wrong place or they were longer than they should be. Also, it seemed like the inflections she added were a bit off at times. It wasn't enough to ruin the book...it just made me realize she wasn't the best narrator.

Not all arum are bad

I’m not going to lie to you, I have always been scared of aliens. Yes. I won’t even watch ET. This series didn’t appeal to me much and it took a friend pushing me into reading it for me to pick it up. Unsurprisingly, I am obsessed. I am glad that i read the prequel first so that I know why Daemon is so prickly towards Katy. He lost his brother because of a human so it is understandable why he would want to fight this feeling he has and stay far away from her. The problem is, he can’t. There is a physical pull that keeps him coming back to her. The banter back and forth with them is what makes the book. Katy stands up for herself and Daemon can’t help but respect her.