Obsidian is pretty standard fare for the PNR/YA supernatural genre. It contains the following:
1] The girl whose not as pretty as their mom but still gorgeous. Short but has super tall legs, doe eyes, great butt, shiny hair, etc. I fail to see how having a prettier mother and bitchy blonde girl makes the supermodel character relatable. Apparently, it is to draw our attention away from this advantage.
2] The total hot guy who insults the heroine at every turn. The stud causes her to sacrifice herself after he maintains that she is somehow putting someone they both care for at risk. Obisidian, at least, did not make the other girl a figure in a love triangle. I loathe guys who are at the beck and call of another girl.
3]The bitchy blonde girl.
4]The absentee parent syndrome is prevalent in YA novels. I blame this on Saved by the Bell. Katy’s mother avoids spending time with her daughter out of grief. Katy’s father is dead, but his advice is more helpful than anything her mother provides. The love interest and her best friend have no parents at all. The only authority figure around is the science teacher, Matthew. Mr. Belding in Saved by the Bell was the only authority figure those kids knew.
5]Heroine keeps needing to be rescued. Points must be given that Katy did rescue him. Daemon likes receiving points for good deeds so here is one.
6]There was a rescue from an oncoming vehicle. Morrissey would not need to sing about being killed by a ten ton truck in a YA romance.
7]Hyperactive sister of love interest who has the dual role of best friend.
8]No love triangle but the synopses for Onyx seems to be pointing that way.
9] Homecoming dance dress shopping where a bad guy shows up. This happened in Twilight I was also a soap opera fan in the days before I learned to read.
My twin sister and I wrote our own soap opera character who was also named Daemon. We named him daemon because it stood for demon. Daemon was to start off the soap as a creepy little kid and then go away to school and come back gay but hot for his sister. Truly award winning material there.
Daemon was a bit too possessive of his sister Dee in the first half of the book. I did wonder if they were twins, but lovers. It is a cultural thing in Greece and Turkey for the family honour to depend on their women. Katy was not freaked out half as much as I would have been in her situation.
There is hopefully something more juicy to happen with why humans and aliens can't mix. What exactly happened to Dawson?
As a twin, I find their seeming acceptance of a triplet dying a bit disconcerting. Katy was still rightfully mourning her dad.
This book was fun but didn't bring anything that different to the table. The characters are what is selling this series rather than the plot. Katy is a book blogger and likes to read the genre Obsidian is. This goes a long way to explaining why she won't back from Daemon. The critics often claim Edward Cullen’s form of love has influenced girls expectations of romance.
I personally would have written Daemon off from the beginning. The scene where Daemon is bribed to taking her out was humiliating. This worked better in Unearthly. Edward's attitude toward Bella was not this bad. He did behave a bit like a witch in Road Dahl's The Witches. Edward, at least did not tell her that she wasn't good enough for him. He thought he wasn't good enough for her.
Points for developing a character who will stick up for herself and be proactive.