Eight Days on Planet Earth, Cat Jordan

Eight Days on Planet Earth by Cat Jordan

Imagine that you go out of your house once and you find a very skinny and pale-looking girl, she is beautiful , but she just doesn't look normal. Once you approach her, she starts telling you that she is an alien and that she is collecting data to send it back to her planet. This sounds extremely unrealistic, but that is exactly what happened to Matthew Matty Jones.
Matthew is a very average teenager, he has a close friend, Brian, who is always smoking weed and getting high, and he usually hangs out with Brian's older sister, Sam, whom Matty really likes; he lives in a very small town, where there is not much to see and he lives an ordinary life with his parents. Well, that is until Matthew's life changes completely.
DJ, Matthew's father has always loved stars and consequently, Matty used to love them too, but he simply grew out of it. But once his father leaves him and his mother, Matthew is in charge of taking care of her mother, who was left heartbroken after her husband left. While he is trying to make sure her mother is okay, he sees something new near his house.
There's a girl. Very skinny. Very pale. With very white hair. And very beautiful.
Matthew gets closer to her and realizes that she is different, and well, she says that she is different too. Priya, the girl, says that she comes from another planet and that she has come to the Earth to collect data to send back to her planet, where everyone is just like us but with different ways of doing things. For example, they can all share information through their heads. Priya says that her spaceship is coming to get her and that she is going home soon, she says she is sure that the spaceship is coming for her because that's what her calculations showed her. Yet, the days keep passing and Priya continues to be there, exactly where Matty says goodbye to her. 
After a couple of days, Matthew decides to show her around and help her with her investigation. That´s why he ends up showing her his extremely boring town. Later, he decides to go to the lake with Brian, where Priya is in an accident because she doesn't remember how to swim, that´s where Sam tells Matty that there seems to be something wrong with her and that he should be careful with her. This only makes Matty realize that there are many things wrong with Priya and that he should be more careful. This makes him start feeling uneasy with her. Is Sam correct? Is there really something wrong with Priya? Is she even from another planet? If so, why did her ride put her exactly in his yard? 
When I first read that a normal teenager met an alien outside of his house, I thought this was going to be really great story. I mean, I thought that this was probably going to be a little but like Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout, which I REALLY enjoyed reading and made me fall in love with aliens, so I thought I would really enjoy this novel. But honestly, this is just completely different from Daemon. 
I really tried to like this novel a lot, but I found it to be too peculiar for my taste. I mean, I am always open to different plots because after reading the same type of stories, as a reader, I get tired of some plots, and yes, Eight Days on Planet Earth by Cat Jordan is definitely something new and refreshing, but I found out too weird for me. 
I did like the pace of the novel, it was slow, but at the same time quick. By this mean that although there are only eight days (which is the number of chapters), the days pass fairly quickly because so many things happen in such a short time for both characters that sometimes, it is even hard to remember that all of that happened in a single day. But the novel is a fairly quick reading because it only focuses on two things in Matty´s life: Priya and his father. So, overall, it is a reading that you will be able to finish in a sitting.
On the other hand, I did enjoy Matthew´s character a lot because he was a funny narrator and seeing the story from his perspective was very interesting, but I didn't like Priya. I found her a little annoying and the ending just really frustrated me. I just didn't like her attitude at all and at times, I found myself cringing. 
Sam is a character that I was hoping to get to know better because I was expecting to get some drama from her relationship with Matthew, but there wasn't´ anything that kept me going because she only appears in like two chapters, which is exactly what happened with Brian, her brother, too. Although I didn't really like Brian, I was expecting to get to know him better because Priya was just too boring for me, but he just disappears on the second chapter with his family. 
I really wanted to read some character development from everyone, but I didn't really notice any changes from Matthew or Priya, and like I mentioned, Sam and Brian weren't even part of the story. 
In addition, I didn´t really like the story itself because I found it to be too boring because nothing really happened, the whole story just revolved around Priya and although I really like novels focused on the romantic relationship, I found it annoying to notice that Matthew was not caring enough for his mothers although he actually took the time to talk about her. Similarly, I found the story to be weird, as mentioned before. I just didn't really feel the whole dating an alien and eating pizza with a random girl that just didn't look normal and the whole idea of knowing someone that considers herself to be an alien and actually having someone, like Matthew, believing in that without any real proof. For example, Daemon actually shows Kat his powers and how she shines like a Christmas tree, but Matthew was just a naive teenager that believed everything that the beautiful girl told him. 
As much as I disliked this novel, there were some things that I liked as well, such as the way the chapters were organized, which is by days. It was a simple, but at the same time, really effective because it was creative and really enjoyed reading it like that. 
On the other hand, I really liked the writing, in fact, I found it beautiful because Jordan was able to write a story that was fun, romantic and at the same time, realistic in the sense of Matty´s point of view. 
In addition, I really enjoyed the ending because it was realistic and very touching. I think I enjoyed it because it was very different from the whole story since the story was very optimistic while the ending was sad and realistic. 
Overall, Eight Days on Planet Earth is a quick sci-fi book with a funny narrator and the main character that you won´t forget. You will also get to know Earth like never before. 
I would like to thank Edelweiss and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to review this novel.

3 1/2 out of 5 stars 

Love, Sua

Obsidian, Jennifer L. Armentrout

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This is the second time that I´ve read this series and I honestly can´t get enough of these aliens!
I read the Lux series in Spanish since I bought them while I was still living there, which was only like two years ago, so I am not sure how if the story has any changes that were made when they were translating them.
On the other hand, I would like to mention how frustrating it can be trying to get a whole series in Mexico because most books in Spanish are first translated in Spain, where they have a different vocabulary, therefore, once the book is published in Spain, they bring the books to Mexico and translate them or just sell them, but it still takes like six months since most book publishers decide to print their books in Mexico. Also, it is sometimes unknown how long it might take the books to get translated. So, I believe collecting my Lux series actually took me like a year.
Well, after finally collecting my series, I immediately began to read about this big and messy universe about aliens and special powers, but mostly about the hot alien neighbor that I still love.
In the story, we meet Katy, a typical teenager that moves to West Virginia with her mother after a family problem, but the first thing that her mother mentions to her is that there are two teenagers that could help her during her senior year at her new high school. So, Katy, following her mother´s advice, decides to go next door and ask for directions to the closest store, yet when the door opens and a tall guy with breathtaking green eyes greets her, Katy is left speechless.
Although Daemon sounds extremely hot and swoony, all fantasies that could be ever made are shattered once he opens his mouth. He´s a complete jerk. And soon, Katy is having discussions with her hot neighbor, which will soon lead to a roller coaster of emotions.
First of all, I would like to take the time to talk about how amazing Katy seemed like the main character. I could really see myself in her, not only because we shared an unconditional love for books, swoony characters, completely crazy plots and Daemon, but her character seemed logical and absolutely brave in a more real way, where every move she made seemed very natural. Also, I believe that the way Katy was shaped helped a lot the way the story was seen, not only because we were seeing the story from her eyes, but because the whole topic of aliens and weird connections between a mundane and an alien were taken to the level where it could be seen and fantasized as real and something that could be closer to us than we expected.
Daemon was a great character as well; he has amazing alien powers to move things and fight against the evil, he´s something incredible, has great looks and has a dirty mouth, which basically creates the perfect man that every reader loves. But the characteristic that makes him the most special is the way he tries controlling his world while trying to protect other people like Katy and Dee from the world that could break them, even though that means that he will have to fight against things that could hurt him anyways. Also, the way he can control his doubts and fears makes him one of the strongest male characters that I have encountered.
Dee is another character that I would love to add throughout this review because she is basically the description of a muffin because she´s soft and super sweet, she is the best friend that everyone would want to have next to them 24/7. But my favorite part of her is that although she is nice and sweet, she is still sensitive, which makes her very real because we can actually see her ups and downs.
Other characters, such as Andrew, Adam, and Ash are all characters that really balanced the story because some of them are harsher than others and some of them are more human-like. This really created a story where we could see that aliens have different personalities and thoughts like a complex human society.
On the other hand, I would like to mention the plot and the writing of the story (although I read it in Spanish and that could change my PoV). The plot may seem very simple and maybe a little vague considering only the synopsis, but I can guarantee that it is in fact, a very complex story, where we can notice different emotions along the way. Also, I loved the way the author mixed hot aliens, chaotic senior year and a fresh start because it was amazing!
The Lux series is a perfect series to read during summer break with its five books and fun plot twists with hot aliens. 
*I can't wait to read the Covenant series by the same author, which are the books that I will be reading next month during a Pre-College program at Harvard.*

5 out of 5 stars

Love, Sua.