Purchased this YA/middle grade novel for my middle school library.  Superb character development, elegant world building, and compelling plotting.  I am a fan of JLA.

Jennifer Armentrout never dissappoints! I enjoyed reading the Lux Series and am very excited to dive back into the Lux Universe. Luc and Evie have great chemistry:)

Somehow, before I started reading this I completely missed that this novel takes place in the Lux universe, which I have not read yet. But despite this, I really loved the book and only felt lost a few times,. If I had the chance to go back and read the novels in order I absolutely would, but it stands well on its own.

I absolutely loved the cover design! The characters were not as vibrant as Jennifer Armentrout’s characters usually are but I still enjoyed the book!

The Darkest Star is the first book in the young adult Origin series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. The Origin series is a young adult paranormal/sci fi romance featuring aliens. It is a spin off of her Lux series, which I have been meaning to read but I have still not read. But I decided that since they are just set in the same world but don't necessarily have to be read in order, I decided there was no time like the present to binge read the Origin series because book three released this month. And I am so so glad that I decided to pick these books up now. I am loving them! The Darkest Star is hands down my favorite alien book I have ever read. If you have followed my reviews for a while now, you may have noticed that I don't typically read many sci fi books and I read even fewer books featuring aliens, but after reading The Darkest Star, I might have to rethink my position on aliens. I loved this book and all of the characters in it!

In The Darkest Star we meet our main characters Evie and Luc. Evie lives in a world that has already been invaded by aliens called Luxen. The invasion war is now over, and Luxen now live among humans. They wear disablers to disable their powers. Our book starts out with Evie and her friend going to a nightclub that is known to be a Luxen club. There Evie sees Luc for the first time, and her whole world changes. Not right away, because he is a total jerk, but it puts events in motion that Thrust Evie further into the world of the Luxen than she ever imagined. It called all kinds of her beliefs into question, and without giving too much away, there are plenty of secrets in this book (and the next one!)

Evie and Luc crackle off the page! I just love the two of them. They are great characters on their own but they are magic together, and they are not even together in a relationship for much of the book, but still I love them. Evie is so inquisitive and kind, and Luc is so protective and fierce, but with Evie he just a big ole marshmallow teddy bear. It's beyond adorable. This book was the perfect foundation for the series. It sets up the worlds, lets us really get to know the characters and the motivations of everyone and it also has plenty of plot twists and turns to keep the readers guessing. Even though some of the twists were pretty easy to see coming, there were many that truly surprised me. This is a fantastic first installment that has left me super ready and excited to dive into the second book! The origin series is perfect for fans of paranormal romance and science fiction alike.

I recently bought a new kindle after my old one broke.  For some reason I was unable to download this title from the cloud onto my kindle, therefore I will be unable to review this title.  I am sorry for any inconvenience caused

Here is my opinion on The Darkest Star: I read it in one day and cried, screamed, became angry, was hurting, and it was all thanks to our lovely Jennifer L Armentrout. 

So here is a quick little synopsis of what you’re diving into: we see the world after the Lux War and meet Evie—the daughter of Sgt Dasher. If you’re like me, you had to go back and re read the books BEFORE reading TDS in order to get your characters straight. Heidi, her friend, and Evie are at a club, Foretoken, so that Heidi can try “accidentally” run into a girl she has feels for. Fast forward a bit and Evie gets called over to take to this mysterious lovely man, named Luc. Hot. Sexy. Sarcastic. Straight forward. Has an obsession with peaches. 

Evie’s initial conversation with Luc is...hostile, mostly because she loses patience with Luc’s evasiveness and telling her how she feels. He tells her she can’t be there and is super vague as to why she can’t. But then the JLA action kicks in. The club gets raided and Luc takes her back to a giddy hole, where you are on top of each other, in hopes to wait out the raid. When she escapes, she accidentally leaves her phone in that tiny space without grabbing it before she farts under Luc’s command. 

A few more interesting scenes throw us quickly into the world in which the Luxen hide, unless they want their powers to be controlled at all times by a bracelet so to say. 

But it gets super interesting when Luc decides to show up at Evie’s house and after giving her mom, Sylvia, the run down of where Evie was spending her time. 

But these words haunted me the entire book: all bets are off. You feel me? 

I was sucked so far into the land of Lux and Origin that I was craving an answer. I needed to know why Luc was so fascinated with her. I won’t spoil it but I want to reiterate something:

RE-READ THE LUX SERIES. YOU WILL THANK ME. 

What I continue to love about JLA is that her characters are all awesome and so unique in their own way. One would think that after writing for so long that her characters would start to sound the same, have the same traits, or look alike. But it’s so wrong it’s not even funny. 

Her characters have depth. You feel what they feel. You’re in their world and experience what they experience. It’s exhilarating and adrenaline pumping. 

I’m not going to spoil the ending for you because that is terrible but let me say: YOU WILL NOT SEE IT COMING. HOLY ALIEN BABIES, JLA!!!! 

For those of you that are like eh I don’t know if I want to read it because it’s not the original Lux series (if there are any of you out there) don’t hesitate. One click that on Amazon. You won’t regret it!!

There are no words to explain just how excited I was to finally have this book in my hands. I am such an enormous fan of Jennifer L Armentrout. I have read and adored every single book she has wrote but my anticipation for The Darkest Star was very different than for her other upcoming books. Back in 2011 when I had just started this blog I was offered the chance to review a book by an author I'd never heard of. That book was Obsidian by Jennifer L Armentrout. I accepted but wasn't sure what my thoughts would be as I didn't like 'alien' books. 4 hours later I had read the entire book and was dying for more. I was lucky enough to recieve ARCs of the entire Lux series and it still to this day remains one of my favourite series of all time. So when I heard that there was a spin-off, I could not cope with my excitement. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it but I was also a little nervous... I had such high expectations for this book and was worried it wouldn't live up to them. It did! It surpassed each and every expectation I had and just completely blew me away.

The Darkest Star follows the story of Evie, a human living in a world where the Luxen are out and living among them. When Evie meets Luc she has a strange sence of deja vu. She feels like she knows him but she has never seen him before. As Evie spends more and more time with Luc, her world starts unravelling. She learns of the secrets and lies and has to discover just who she really is.

The Darkest Star is without a doubt the best book I have read so far this year. It was absolutely perfect! I had missed being in the world of the Luxen. I have read the Lux series about 10+ times, and although I will always love re-reading it there is nothing like the feeling of having a new book set in that world and experiencing it all for the first time. I could not read The Darkest Star fast enough. I originally sat down to read a chapter or two and the next thing I knew 4 hours had past and I was 70% of the way through. It was gripping and unputdownable.

Evie is such a fantastic character. I immediately loved her and loved experiencing everything through her eyes. She goes through such an important journey of self-discovery throughout this book and that journey was something she didn't even know that she needed to go through. The more I read, the more I loved her. One thing I always love about JLA's characters is that when something impossible happens to them they don't just immediately accept it... they actually have a reaction that any sane, normal person would have if this had happened to them. That reaction doesn't happen enough in the majority of YA books. Although I adored Evie, I would have loved to see events from Luc's point of view as well as he is just fantastic.

I wasn't sure how I was going to take to Luc being the main character in this book. In the Lux series, he was just this insanely creepy little boy but I absolutely loved him in The Darkest Star. Luc is most definitely the comic relief in this book. He is snarky and sarcastic and I loved that. He was the perfect mix of the sarcastic bad-boy and the super sweet, loving guy. I loved that there were two sides to his personality.

The Darkest Star was everything I could have wished for and more. It was utter perfection and my favourite read of the year. I am a little sad that I finished it so damn quickly because the wait for book 2 of this series is going to kill me. I loved everything about this book. It filled my heart to the brim and I just couldn't read it fast enough. Jennifer has done it again. Every time I think she can't write something better than what I've already read from her she proves me wrong with her next release. The Darkest Star will stay with me for a long time and I can't wait to read more of Luc and Evie. I couldn't recommend it more.

This was my favorite JLA book that I’ve read in a while. I really love JLA, but I was starting to worry that I might have been getting the teensiest bit bored with her formula—a girl starts to fall for a somewhat gruff, pompous alien (or Origin, or demon, or gargoyle or… ) and chaos ensues. The latest books have the added benefit of a secret that the girl doesn’t know about herself but the guy does.

Well, I don’t know if something (besides the formula) was different in this book or if this was just the exact sort of distraction I needed right now, but this book definitely worked for me. I started listening on an extra-long trip to the grocery store (due to the lines out the door from COVID) and didn’t want to stop listening when I got home. So I didn’t!

I did guess the mystery surrounding Evie pretty early on, but I still found the process of her discovering the truth interesting. And her reaction when she found out brought up a lot of questions about what makes us who we are. I also appreciated the parallels JLA drew between today’s circumstances with immigrants (and certain minority groups) and the plight of the Luxen. Those parallels were especially notable when Evie’s friend starts protesting the Luxen’s right to attend her school based on the acts of one deranged individual. I also found that Luc walked the fine line of being aloof and mysterious (and a teensy bit unlikable, at least as far as Evie is concerned) without jumping into jerk territory. To me, this is the only kind of hate to love relationship that works well.

So I really enjoyed this one, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next book soon!

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes (but ended up listening to the audiobook from my library). No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

This narrator is a little too bratty Valley Girl for my liking. This novel starts with the protagonist applying lipstick, which is like, totally what I've seen in several other novels written this year already, which tells me it doesn't have much new to tell me...

The Darkest Star by Jennifer L. Armentrout is book one in a new YA fantasy series.  A spin-off book from the Lux series, The Darkest Star does not disappoint.  Well-written and fast paced.  A great read and would recommend.

Armentrout’s latest is a bit melodramatic. Fans of her Lux series may relish the return to the fantastical world but the plot needed more depth.

I'm a sucker for series and spin-offs of series... When I get invested in a world an author has created, I never want it to end.  Thankfully Armentrout delivers yet again with a book and series that is sure to have tens and adult readers alike anxiously awaiting the next installment with its non-stop drama, action, and swoony romance!

I'm giving this one a three star review as I don't think it was poorly written but it ultimately just wasn't my thing. This was a little heavy on the romance for my sci fi and it was also following on from another series which i haven't read so there was a bit of confusion to wade through at first in terms of the context. 

If you're a fan of the Lux series I'm guessing you would enjoy this one more!

Absolutely LOVED this book! I was first introduced to Ms. Armentrout’s work through the Origin series, so it has always had a special place in my heart. This book takes place about 5 years after the Origin series. And it quickly fills you in on the war and what’s happened since Origins. Loved meeting Luc and Evie together and seeing their growth and overal just loved being in the Luxen world again. Definitely recommend!

Again Armentrout delivers exactly what I was hoping for. An entertaining, interesting, and engaging book that doesn't make me think too much. I enjoyed her original Lux series, and thought this was a good spinoff.

I was gifted an ebook via Netgalley. I voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts are my own.

I recently (like last month) finished the Lux series. I had started this book prior to that, not realizing it was a continuation/spinoff of the Lux series. So I ended up putting it down until I finished it so I didn't get spoiled for events that happened in those last two books. These books are crack. Plain and simple. JLA has always been an author that is like crack to me. I don't always like every single aspect of the book and there may be some early 2010s cringey YA moments in the books, but I cannot stop reading them and loving them.  I don't want to leave too much information in here if you haven't read the Lux series as not to get spoiled, but I love Luc and I'm so glad he gets a spinoff. I hope to get a little of his perspective in future books. Lots of twists and turns and unexpected events in this story. The drama, MAWMA.

****4.5****

Even though you don't need to, if you haven't read the LUX series, I highly recommend reading it first. Or at least be aware that there will be spoilers for that series in the book since this takes place after the ending.

Jen has done it again! I am so happy about this book!! I missed this world, I missed these characters SO SO much.

The pacing of the book felt great, the writing was amazing as always, and the characters unbelievably realistic, dimensional, well-developed and simply wonderful. I was for some reason expecting a dual pov and in reality, it's only Evie who tells the story, which I'll admit was a bit sad for me at first, but I totally understand, after reading it, why it must be only Evie's voice in this book.

This a very particular book for me because it has a huge plot twist, a big secret of something I never thought possible and wanted REALLY BAD. It's amazing and I don't think it deserves to be spoiled, but I'll say this: if you are a huge fan of LUX, you will love it and do the biggest dance party as soon as you reach that part.

While at the end of the Lux series we got to see the end of the war, the resolution of how everything got better after all that destruction, in TDS we get to see the aftermath, the world after the invasion... and we realize things are more complicated than what we got in Opposition seemed to indicate. This was so incredibly interesting to read, especially because it was super realistic, it puts this huge invasion into the real world and it gave us such a realistic picture of what would really happen after the world went through something like that, we see the reality politically and socially, and it was quite scary and interesting.

Finally, I just want to mention real quick how GENUINELY AMAZING was Luc in this book. I won't lie and say it wasn't a bit weird for me at a couple of moments to read him and not picture him like a kid, but it was easier than I thought and I 100% loved him. Like, he definitely can give Daemon a run for his money, you guys.

This book made me so nostalgic but it also brought something so unique to the table and I CAN NOT WAIT to read the next one.

It's fast paced,funny,sweet and there is a little bit mystery.I was intrigued from the beginning.I like the interactions between Evie and Luc, I just wanted more.

I don't know what kind of novels I thought this author wrote, but I was definitely surprised by this one.