Emily Howitt

Okay, so I have a confession to make. Well, it’s not really a big deal, but sometimes I like to yell at myself in the mirror. Not like in an angry way, but in a you need to stop doing the same crap over and over and move on way. Sometimes I feel like I have a disconnect with myself, and it takes me a while to consciously realize that while certain things like procrastination may seem wonderful at the time, they’re actually quite the harmful little killers. This is why yelling (nicely, and not too loud if you have neighbours, you don’t want them to think you’re crazy, although I think we’re all a teensy bit crazy on the inside) at yourself in a mirror can prompt you to realize the thing you’ve been trying to avoid realizing. This normally happens after I’ve been procrastinating or unhappy for a while and trying to, I guess I’m trying to avoid leaving me comfort zone. I think that’s what this post is actually about, leaving the infamous comfort zone, and yelling at yourself in ...

Holy alien babies. There was a lot packed into this final book of the Lux series. As always, if you haven’t read Obsidian yet, go check out my review for it here. . Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the fifth and final book in the Lux series, and is a young adult novel. And I have to say Armentrout does a wonderful job of ending the series. So at the beginning of Opposition, Dee, Dawson, and Daemon have disappeared with the Luxen from outer space, and Katy, Archer, Luc, and Beth are left in a cabin in the woods together. And Katy is basically going stir crazy because she has no idea what Daemon is doing or where he is. But Daemon is determined to be Daemon and do everything he can to protect those he loves. I thought this book was a great way to end the series. A lot of excitement happens in it, and there are also lots of touching scenes, and truly heartbreaking ones. The excitement also keeps going all the way to the end of the book, so it’s not like there’s a climax an...

There is hope in the darkest times. There is hope when there is no light. There is hope, when the blade you have pressed to your throat, is about to slide in and shed red. When you want to give up, when you want to die, when you want to throw in the towel, jump from that bridge, let that coarse rope tighten tighter and tighter, cutting off air, vision cutting out, slipping from this world, there is hope. When there is nothing left to lose. Nothing left tying you to the world. When your life is full of misery and pain. When you think you can no longer endure, there is hope. When you think everyone has left you. When you think you are all alone. When you think you have no friends, no one who cares, no one who loves you, there is hope. There is and always will be hope. Hope will always be there, an in...

You are not your external qualities. This is something we hear a lot, but not in those exact words. Often it goes: it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And it is, isn’t it? But sometimes it is so easy to lose sight of that. Sometimes people are so quick to judge. Sometimes people become all too wrapped up in things that aren’t really important. But at the same time, aren’t these things still a part of us? Don’t they define us to at least some extent? They are not all of us, but they definitely belong to us, don’t they? People say to not judge a book by its cover, but isn’t that exactly what people do? If you want your book to sell, you need to have a stellar cover. Few people are going to pick up that cover that looks like it could win the worst cover of the year, maybe even the worst cover of all time award. Sure, it might be a great book inside, but people are going to judge the outside, and the book is going to be aware of it (and no I don’t think the book is actually sel...

Here’s another book review from the Lux series! I promise you I do read other books. No really, I do. I just figured since these books are a series and I read them all together I would review them in order. Today I am reviewing Origin by Jennifer L. Armentrout, a young adult novel, the fourth in the Lux series. If you have not started this series yet, take a look at my review for Obsidian , the first book in the series. At the beginning of Origin, Katy has been captured by Daedalus, and Daemon is freaking out about that, as expected. You think Dawson went nuts trying to get Beth back? Daemon went nutsier. Suffice it to say, he is going to do anything to get her back, and he never really has a solid plan in place, as per typical Daemon fashion.  Origin is my favourite from the Lux series. Probably because we see more of Luc in this one, and I think Luc is my favourite character. The others are great too, and we all know Daemon could totally pass as a Greek God, but I tend t...

So what an ending that was to Onyx. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then that means you haven’t read Onyx, and maybe not even Obsidian, which means you have to read this review  for Obsidian, or this review  for Onyx, and then read the books, because Opal is the third book in the Lux series which is written by Jennifer L. Armentrout for young adults. It is about hot aliens who have a whole spaceship full of drama in their life, and it doesn’t look like that drama is going to go anywhere soon. It was at about this point that I started to get a little depressed with the series. Or it could have been at the end of Opal, I don’t exactly remember. I still liked reading the books, but things just kept going down the crapshoot for Daemon and Katy. Although they did get Dawson back at the end of Onyx. At the beginning of Opal Dawson is back, Blake is nowhere to be seen, Alex is dead, and Dee basically wants to claw Katy’s eyes out. I think that’s what I missed the...

Sometimes people must wonder why people write. You probably have. I know I have, since, you know, I’m writing this right now (which is bizarre in itself because by the time you read this I’ve already finished writing, but as you read it, it’s as if you’re seeing the thoughts unfold as I think them. I’m also beginning to wonder if I’m using too many brackets. I’ve been doing that a lot lately). Writing is something that is necessary to society. It’s how we communicate. But I’m not really talking about journalism, or writing emails, but creative writing. Writing poems, and novels, and everything in between. I mean, writing has pretty dismal prospects. You go into writing to make money and the odds that you actually do are pretty slim. Even if you are good, it takes a long time to be published, or a long time to become known by people. That’s if you ever do. But that’s the funny thing about writing. We don’t really choose it, but rather it chooses us. That’s how I feel, anyway....

Onyx is the second book in the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. It has aliens in it. If you haven’t read the first book yet you can go read about my review here.  And if you have read it I doubt you need much convincing to read the next one, but here it is anyway. Katy and Daemon are joined through some weird, alien connection thingy, (apparently thingy is a word because spell check didn’t say it was wrong) and neither of them really knows what’s going on. Daemon’s now professing love to Katy (though not in so many words), and Katy thinks he’s gone off the deep end and only wants to get together because of the alien connection thingy. Which, I can’t blame her too much after the way Daemon acted in Obsidian. But Daemon persists, and he persists hard. It is very entertaining to read. We also meet a new character in this book. Blake. And Blake is different. Different how? Is he an alien, does he have a weird connection thingy, or is he a vampire? (Wouldn’t that be awesom...

So this is a piece of flash fiction kind of like part two to the piece I wrote a couple weeks of go, called  An Impossible Future . You can read that first if you want to, or you can just read this piece, but either way, hope you enjoy! I liked to stare out at the ocean. To watch its mesmerizing waves and become lost in them. I wished I could be like those waves sometimes. I wished I could sink into oblivion, spared from the horrors of this world. I came here every day, and every day I felt the same man lurking behind me. I wished he would stay away. I so badly wanted to go to him. I wanted to touch him and feel his skin. I felt something in me calling to him, but I had to pretend he was invisible. If I so much as breathed in the wrong direction toward him, I knew they would take me away. I was on thin ice already. Part of my body was already going under. I used to have a husband. He died. Not by accident either. I pushed him down the stairs. I feigned ignorance, of cour...