The Brightest Night by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Rating: 4.5/5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟✨

Blurb:

He is the darkest star.

She is the burning shadow.

And together, they will bring about the brightest night.

Less than a year ago, Evelyn Dasher was a normal girl, living a safe, rather unremarkable life—a life that was a total lie. Now she’s learned the truth about who she was and what she is.

Hidden within Zone 3, she knows that if she loses control of her dangerous abilities again, she not only puts everyone in the secret community at risk, but also the beautiful, deadly inhuman Luc. He will do anything to keep her safe. Lie. Barter. Beg. Kill.

But there are truths that not even Luc can prepare for, and as Evie’s abilities evolve, the consequences of everything he’s done turn devastating.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Review & Reaction:

* No Major Spoilers below*

“You’re a gift. You’ve always been the most precious gift life has ever handed me. Can I ever truly be worthy of that?” he whispered. “Of you?”.

Holy alien babies and herd of llamas everywhere. I absolutely LOVED this installment of the Origin series and have OFFICIALLY fallen in love with Luc 😩💜.

First, I’d like to say that Jennifer never fails to amaze me with her effortless ability to subtly recap the previous book. I didn’t get a chance to reread The Burning Shadow but thankfully did not feel lost at all. The Brightest Night picks up right where The Burning Shadow left off with Luc and Evie in Zone 3 reunited with the Lux series gang and dealing with the aftermath of learning about Evie’s true identity and the fact that her “maker” who is supposed to be dead is in fact not.

As Evie struggles to control and harness her powers, the community full of humans, Luxen, Hybrid, Origin and Arum alike are learning to coexist & prepare for the inevitable war looming as the invading Luxen continue their efforts towards world domination.

Evie’s character growth in this book was 👏🏼 👏🏼👏🏼 . She handled every hurdle and insult that was thrown at her with such maturity even when it hurt her heart (and mine) to hear it. I was SO PROUD of her.

Luc & Evie’s relationship development pulled at my heartstrings SO MUCH 💔. They had the absolute sweetest moments. I couldn’t get enough and thank goodness Jen included so many 😍. They went from 😇☺️😘💕 to 😳👅🔥😏 real quick.

I was like

We also meet a much more vulnerable Luc in TBN and I teared up a few times. I'm an emotional person, so it really wasn't a surprise but it usually takes a lot for a book to make me cry. And seeing the strongest character break down Tore. My. Heart. Into. Pieces. 😢

The love that these two have for each other can be catastrophic (literally) but I can’t imagine it being anything less considering everything they have been through. As intense as the book was sometimes, I’m grateful that Jen included so many of Luc’s hilarious banter, constant reference of his love for llamas and cheesy pick up lines :

“Tell me, Peaches, are you a parking ticket?”

“How are you going to turn that into a cheesy pickup line?”

“Because you have fine written all over you.”

Also, I LOVED seeing the Lux series gang back together. My heart was so happy to see as much of Daemon, Katy, Dawson, Beth, little Ashley, Dee, Archer and even Hunter & Serena as we did. Oh! And turns out Jason Dasher isn’t the only one that seemingly rises from the dead 🙃🙃🙃

The ending destroyed me 💔 💔. I thought I knew what was coming but I was so wrong 😣😓

I really enjoyed that The Brightest Night was very character driven & despite this not being as action-packed as the previous ones, this has been my favorite book in the Origin series by far. I cannot wait for the next and final installment. I know it’s going to be EPIC 💫.

“I love you.” I closed my eyes, losing a breath and then two. “And every part of my heart belongs to you, Luc. You are a gift”.

🔹Would I recommend it? HELL YES!!!

🔹Re-read it?: Absolutely!

🔹Scene Shout-Out: Katy setting everyone straight at the council meeting & Daemon, Dawson, Beth, Hunter & Serena showing support for Evie

If you’ve already read “The Brightest Night”check out my list of Shocking/WTF & Swoon-Worthy Moments below!

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD !!

🔹Blake. Biff. Bart. Bilbo is ALIVE

WTF. Seriously WTF. Still not sure how I feel about this. Blake makes me incredibly anxious. He is bad news period.

🔹The birth & introduction of Daemon & Katy’s baby, Adam.

Guys I melted. Especially when Luc carried him for the first time and Katy thanked him for saving his life:

" Before Luc could do or say anything, Kat was tucking the baby into Luc’s arms. “Just make sure you support his head like this.” Kat made it so that Luc’s arm and then his hand formed a cradle. “There you go. You’re a pro.” Luc looked like he’d been handed a bomb.

😂😂😂

ALSO WATCHING BABY DADDY DAEMON WITH HIS BABY ughh *deceased*

🔹Hunter and Serena showing up and announcing that Lore was killed by one of the Trojans

I LOVED him in Opposition!! So sad 😓

🔹 Luc & Evie having sex for the first time

And every time after that:

Hot. Hot. So incredibly hot. Only Jennifer can make a YA novel sex scene feel so HOT.

🔹The ending didn’t see coming:

Evie transferring her power to Luc to avoid activation but really being tricked into creating the monster that Luc becomes with her and his powers combined and then leaving her

And his final words:

“Never come for me.” He slowly slid his hand out from under my head as his lips brushed the corner of mine. “Never look for me. If you do, I will take everything from you.”