Tag Archives: Jennifer Armentrout

Jennifer Armentrout-Interview with the Author

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Jennifer Armentrout-Interview with the Author

FROM the Website: USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russel Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She also writes adult romance under the name J. Lynn.

TRC: Hi Jennifer and welcome to The Reading Café. We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Jennifer: I currently live in West Virginia and like most authors, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I’m a big fan of scary movies and zombies, which is strange because zombies scared the crap out of me as a kid. I write adult and YA in pretty much every genre. I have a hard time parting with books, that’s why I have duplicate copies of some signed and way too many.

TRC: Many authors develop their interest in writing at an early age. Do you remember what was the catalyst that sparked your interest in writing? Who or what do you credit with your desire to write?

Jennifer: I’m not sure what the catalyst was, but I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I think it had to do with the fact that I read so much growing up–the old school YA and historical romance novels.

TRC: What difficulties or challenges have you faced as a writer?

Jennifer: The biggest challenge is focusing. When you have multiple books out or multiple books coming out, it can become very difficult to keep focus on writing, because there’s a lot of other stuff that needs to be done. Hours are spent catching up with emails or on the phone with editors/agent/publicists/crit partners and before you know it, you’re too tired to write. So focusing and making time can be a big challenge.

TRC: The LUX series focuses on a town of aliens trying to blend into regular life. Where did you come up with the idea of aliens posing as humans? What triggered your imagination as it pertains to alien life forms in a Young Adult storyline?

READING ORDER:  Obsidian/Shadows/Onyx

Jennifer: My adult editor at Entangled had asked me if I’d be interested in writing about aliens in high school. Initially, I laughed and was like no. Who wants to read about aliens? But the more I thought about it, the story started to take place in my head. Having the aliens try to blend in adds conflict and coming up with the type of alien was the most difficult part. For half the book, I kept picturing giant insects eating brains. Seriously.  Finally, the idea of them being made of light just popped into my head. The rest was history. =)

TRC: Occasionally you take the LUX series cover models with you on your promotional tours. Who are the models and why the decision to tour with the actors and models?

Jennifer: The models are Pepe Toth and Sztella Tziotziosz. The decision kind of came from the publisher’s wanting to get new pictures of them for the book covers, and we thought we might as well do some book trailers while they were over here…. and that spun into going on tour with them. Both of the were great and we hope to have them back for another tour.

TRC: ONYX is your August release in the LUX series. Would you please tell us about the premise of the storyline?

LINKS TO ORDER:
Amazon Paper Books
Amazon Kindle
The Book Depository
B&N Nook and Paper Books

Jennifer: Onyx is the sequel to Obsidian, so I don’t want to say too much for those who haven’t read Obsidian, but it deals with the consequences of what happened at the end of Obsidian, delves more deeply into the world of the Luxens and their interactions with the DOD. There’s romance, action, a bit of heart break, and a lot of secrets revealed.

Click HERE for our review of OBSIDIAN.

TRC: With the popularity of the characters, have you considered continuing the series? Any spin-offs?

Jennifer: There has been some talk about a companion novel. It’s almost completely written, but there isn’t much I can really share about that right now.

TRC: DEITY is the next instalment in the Covenant series. Would you please tell us about the premise?

LINKS TO PREORDER:
Amazon Paper books
The Book Depository
B&N Paper Books

Jennifer: Like Onyx and Opal, the premise is really spoilery. But It picks up where Pure left off. Seth and Alex return to Deity Island. A lot of things happen in Deity and Alex faces a lot, but you do find out who Alex wants to be with in Deity and a lot of the gods start popping up.

TRC: The covers for the Covenant Series are beautiful. Who designed the covers? Where you involved in the cover selection for this particular series?

READING ORDER:  Daimon/Half Blood/Pure/Deity/Elixir

Click HERE for our review of DAIMON- the prequel novella in the Covenant series.

Jennifer: The publisher had the covers designed and I did have a say in them, but they get all the credit for those beauties.

TRC: CURSED is your September new release. Would you please tell us something about the series?

LINKS TO ORDER:
Amazon Paper Books
B&N Paper Books
The Book Depository

Jennifer: Cursed is currently a standalone and deals with a girl who was brought back to life by her little sister. I kind of think that if someone  dies and comes back to life, they aren’t going to be right, you know? And Ember isn’t. Everything she touches dies. The book has a big mystery element to it, and instead of really focusing on the different gifts, it’s about Ember finding out who was responsible for the accident that took her life and that of her father’s.

TRC: The premise is similar yet different to the X-men comics. How many books do you have planned for the series? Will Hayden and Ember be the primary characters for each novel?

Jennifer: Right now there is only one book. I think whenever you have a group of kids that have abilities, you cannot escape the comparison to X-Men. If you have a bunch of adults with super powers, you’ll hear the same comparison. It just comes down to if the premise goes it a different direction, which Cursed isn’t about saving the world or doing heroic acts. It’s about a girl who’s trying to accept the life she’s been dealt with.

TRC: DON’T LOOK BACK is your new series schedule for release in the fall of 2013. Would you please tell us something about the new series?

Jennifer: Don’t Look Back is scheduled for March 2014, and there isn’t much I’m allowed to really share about that book yet. What I can say it’s a mystery/thriller that deals with less of memory and murder. And the book has successfully creeped out my crit partners if that tells you anything =)

TRC: What have been some of the challenges you have faced with regards to research, logistics and publication?

Jennifer: The biggest challenge is waiting for a book to come out when it has a far out release date. You kind of forget about the book until it gets closer to that date.

TRC: You have a very prolific series of storylines and books. Writer’s Block is a very real phenomenon that many authors face from time to time. How do you handle the stress of Writer’s Block?

Jennifer: I try to work through writer’s block when I get it. Luckily that hasn’t really happen. What I get is the case of inability to focus. And once again, I try to power through it. That doesn’t always work and when it’s really bad, I take a day off from writing.

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas between other authors, or family and friends. With whom do you bounce ideas?

Jennifer: With my friends. I’d be lost without them.

TRC: What is happening in the next six months?

Jennifer: Well, the next six months are going to be super busy for me. I have a book coming out every month:

August- Onyx

September- Cursed

October- Unchained (adult/ under pen name J. Lynn)

November- Deity and Elixir

December- Opal

January- Tempting the Player (adult/ under pen name J. Lynn)

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food
Anything red meat

Favorite Dessert
Chocolate!

Favorite TV Show
Supernatural

Favorite Movie
Don’t really have one

Last Move you Saw
The Darkest Hour

Dark or Milk Chocolate
Milk

Last Vacation Destination
Florida I guess

Do you have any pets?
I have a Jack Russell named Loki!

TRC: Thank you Jennifer for taking the time to answer our questions. We are looking forward to all of your new releases in the coming months. Congratulations on all of your success.

Jennifer: Thank you for having me!

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CURSED by Jennifer Armentrout -a review

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CURSED by Jennifer Armentrout-a review

CURSED by Jennifer L Armentrout

LINK TO Jennifer’s WEBSITE

CURSED is the new Young Adult release (September 2012) by Jennifer Armentrout.  Focusing on 17year old Ember McWilliams, CURSED follows the young woman as she makes her way through a world where everything she touches will die.  After the accident, 2 years prior, that claimed her father’s life, Ember awakens to the knowledge that she has been ‘gifted’ with a curse.

 

Ember’s mother remained catatonic.  With her mother “refusing” to acknowledge her children, Ember became the parent to her younger sister Olivia.  But within a short period of time, Ember realized that her touch could kill.  The kids at school called her a freak. But when a beautiful stranger was able to ‘touch’ Ember, she knew her world was about to change once again.

Hayden Cromwell had been watching Ember since the accident. Something about Ember drew him to her. It was only when he realized that everything was falling apart, that he knew he and the others would have to intervene. Taking her back to his father was his only option.  But the others did not agree.

Like something from X-Men and Professor Xavier, Ember and Olivia will find themselves in a home for gifted teens, only Ember is not nearly so well received-Olivia becomes the child prodigy but Ember is feared by the others.  And school is not much better.  But Ember will find support with the assistance of one of her teachers who appears to sympathize with Ember about the daily attacks.

The relationship between Hayden and Ember grows as Hayden tries to help Ember with her gift.  After experiencing a horrific childhood himself Hayden knows only too well the repercussions of a powerful gift left out of control. And he fears The Facility as much as Ember.  Ember is continuously threatened with The Facility if she is unable to control her temper.

There are several household members that both fear and loathe Ember’s ‘curse’.  With their eclectic family of gifts, each will find their way into Ember’s life, whether she wants them to or not.  But following a series of threats and near-fatal accidents, Ember is sure that one of the household members is willing to take the next step to ensure that she stays dead this time. Only it is not just one of the family members hoping to end her life-there are others who are willing to see her die as well.

CURSED is a fantastic new storyline from the mind of Jennifer Armentrout.  The similarities between X-men cannot be denied, but Jennifer does address the issue in the novel when Ember researchers the household specialties and Googles the likes of the comic book heroes. A group of gifted children, whose parents were unable to handle their situations or refused, and their father-figure who took them in and raised the children as his own.  Along the way, Ember must earn the trust of the others, but it is difficult when she believes she is betrayed every day by the people with whom she now lives.  A wonderful start to a new series, I congratulate Jennifer on another wonderful novel.

LINKS TO ORDER:
Amazon Paper Books
B&N Paper Books
The Book Depository

Copy supplied by publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

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DAIMON (Covenant) by Jennifer Armentrout-a review

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DAIMON (Covenant) by Jennifer Armentrout

DAIMON A Prequel to Half-Blood (Covenant) by Jennifer Armentrout

LINK TO Jennifer’s WEBSITE

DAIMON is a prequel novella to Jennifer Armentrout’s Young Adult Covenant series. A daimon is a pure-blood who developed a taste for aether, and is no longer part of the Covenant. Aether is a component in the blood of this supernatural race and like a drug it is something the daimons crave. DAIMON is a short story that reveals the back-story to Alexandria’s return to the Covenant and the half-blood life she thought she knew.

Alexandria (Alex) is a 17year old high school student trying to fit into a world where she doesn’t belong. As part of a race made up of pure-bloods and the descendants of the gods, Alex is a half-blood. Unwelcome and escaping the daimons in her mother’s world, they left and tried to integrate into the human world, but Alex never quite fit in. Too intelligent, too strong and too freaky for the other teens, it didn’t take Alex long to become restless and withdrawn.

Half-bloods were trained to hunt and destroy the daimons feeding off the pure-bloods. Throughout her time with the Covenant Alex had been trained as a fighter and warrior, but living among humans, her power and ability was too strong, until the morning she awoke to find a daimon draining her mother and all training disappeared. They had been found. On the run for days, Alex will find herself surrounded by daimons, facing her own mortality-only something about her blood was different and the daimons wanted to know.

DAIMON is a short story that introduces the premise of Jennifer’s Covenant series. Check it out today.

READING ORDER
1. Daimon
2. Half-Blood
3. Pure
4. Deity (November 2012)
5. Apollyon (Spring 2013)

LINKS TO ORDER:
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paper books
B&N Nook and Paper books
The Book Depository

Reviewed by Sandy

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Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout – a Review

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Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout – a Review

Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the second book in her  Lux series.  Upfront I have to say as much as I enjoyed Obsidian, Onyx is better.  I loved this book.  Of course, getting to spend more time with Daemon, Katy, Dee and their friends, is fun and Jennifer Armentrout outdoes herself.

Onyx picks up not long after Obsidian ended.  Katy Swarz still has the hots for Daemon Black, but as Onyx begins,  Daemon wants Katy just as much.  Instead of being the rude and nasty boy, who constantly pushed her away in Obsidian, Daemon has changed his tactics.  He is attentive to her, acts in front of everyone like she is his girl, sweet talks to her, and totally throws Katy for a loop.  She doesn’t know how to react to this new Daemon, and it confuses her even more.  Katy wants a normal life, with a normal boy, and a relationship just like her mother and father had.   In Obsidian, Katy was healed by Daemon, and a connection was born between them.  This will play a major part in Onyx, but early on, Katy brushes off the change in Daemon due to that connection.

Katy meets a new boy in school, Blake Saunders, who seems like a nice guy, and it doesn’t hurt that he looks like a gorgeous blond California surfer. Blake likes Katy, and a friendship begins.  This of course doesn’t sit well with Daemon.  It’s fun to watch Daemon spend all his time with Katy, even if she wants to go out to dinner with Blake, whom she still considers a friend.  Daemon is unresistable, his green eyes, his mischievous grin, and Katy just cannot resist him, as much as she tries.  Their is sexual tension between them, but it was fun to watch their steamy kissing sessions, which Daemon says is needed to remove her trace.  Yeah sure…:)  Did I mention how swoonworthy, Daemon is?

But the change in Daemon is real, we the reader know he loves Katy, and of course Katy loves him, but it wouldn’t be fun, if this relationship was fast and easy.   But it is enjoyable and Armentrout has a lot of humor in this tense story.

Onyx is not just about the romance of Daemon & Katy.  This is such an exciting and tense story.  Filled with lots of action, and danger throughout the whole book.  Early on Katy begins to discover that she has inherited some strange abilities, and realizes that this is from the connection she has with Daemon.  At first, Katy tries to keep it a secret, but both Daemon and Blake accidently see Katy’s new abilities.  During an attack, out on a date with Blake, she discovers that Blake also has some powers.  We learn a lot more about the humans who gain powers from connections given to them due to a Luxen healing them.  We also learn more about the DOD, & other factions who may be interested in Katy, and because of this, Blake starts to train Katy how to control her new abilities, much to Daemon’s chagrin.   Daemon and Blake do not hit it off, as Daemon is jealous at first.  But during some training sessions, Daemon tries to tell Katy he doesn’t trust Blake.  Katy ignores that as jealousy and continues to train, as she wants to learn how to defend herself and help her friends (Luxens), against the Arum and others who keep coming after them.

Katy soon begins to realize that her love for Daemon is so strong, she will do anything to save him and his friends.  Along the way, she makes some decisions she feels she must do, and there will be consequences.  This book is so much more exciting, with a lot of action and danger then Obsidian was.  There are a number twists, betrayals, and surprises as we race to the climatic finish.  So much so that lives will be lost, all will be effected, and changes will be made. The ending was not a cliffhanger, but wow.  This is a book you can’t put down, as it is so exciting.  If you loved Daemon, Katy and Dee in Obsidian, you will love them even more in this book. Kudos to Jennifer Armentrout for this sensational continuation of this series, and I for one cannot wait for the next book.

READING ORDER
1. Obsidian
2. Shadows (prequel)
3. Onyx

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

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Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout – a Review

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Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout – a Review

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the first book in her Lux series.  This is another YA series, and it is a very good one. No vampires, no werewolves, no ghosts, no angels….this one is about aliens who pose as humans, and wow they are all gorgeous. 

Aside from that, this is an excellent start of this series. 

Katy is our heroine in this story, and when you finish this book, you will love her.  She is such a normal 17 year old girl, a book lover & blogger lol, and she has the misfortune to have to leave her life in Florida to move with her mother to a small town in West Virginia, where some people are strange, or perhaps they think she is the strange one.  Almost from the start we get to meet Katy’s next door neighbors, .Daemon and his twin sister Dee.

When Katy knocks on her neighbor’s door, it is Daemon who opens the door…and Katy openly stares at the gorgeous hot young man, who is standing there half naked. But the beautiful Daemon immediately turns off Katy, with his sarcastic rudeness.  She meets Dee later, and they become fast friends.  But Katy and Daemon have a tense early relationship, though there is an attraction on her part; but he is nasty, mean and rude to her all the time; a complete opposite from Dee, who is sweet and ultra friendly with Katy.  

Katy manages to match Daemon with rebuttals to his sarcasm, much to his humor.  I loved that Katy stood up to him, and didn’t take his arrogant infuriating crap.  But Daemon did have charm, when he wanted to show it, and it totally confused Katy.  She never knew which Daemon she was going to face.  At times he was such a jerk, as she loved calling him, and other times, he showed a gentler nicer side.  He was hotness personified, and Katy had a hard time keeping her composure. Daemon does push her buttons, and it was a funny scene at the school lunchroom, when in front of everyone, she dumps a plate of spaghetti over Daemon and the girl with him, after a nasty comment.   Very funny and you find yourself cheering her on.    

Daemon, Dee and many in the town are not human.  They are aliens (Luxen), who are made of light, and take a normal human pose.  They always keep that look, but can shift to the light only in true form. Their planet was destroyed many years ago, and those that came to earth, learned to survive and keep their secret from other humans.  They for the most part are the good guys, as there are bad aliens (Arum), who want to kill the Lux, to steal their essence. 

Daemon does save Katy twice from danger, and as she becomes closer to Daemon, she begins to see things, like the light, speed, and other signs.  The last was the way he saved her life, and she forces him to tell her the truth.  To know about them is dangerous for Katy, as the Arum will find her by her trace of being with them, and torture her to tell them where they are, or from the government, who want to keep the Lux aliens a secret.  The bottom line was a relationship between a human and Lux is taboo.

The end was exciting, as Katy, Daemon and Dee are in a fight for their lives.  This story was a great read.  It had a super romance between the two leads, despite Daemon’s early rudeness, as their chemistry was hot.  The alien storyline was different then the norm we are used to, and it worked so well.  Jennifer Armentrout did a great job putting the pieces together to create this story, and showed a wonderful sense of humor.  She also brought in some good characters, and I loved Dee’s friendship with Katy. I must say that early on, when reading this story, which part is in the high school, made me think of Twilight.  The ending is open ended, as we must wait for the next book to continue the saga of Daemon and Katy and the rest of the Luxens. i personally cannot wait to continue this series.

READING ORDER
1. Obsidian
2. Shadows (prequel)
3. Onyx

Reviewed by Barb

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