By Zakiya Jamal
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The release of The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L. Armentrout is less than a week away, which means it’s almost time to head back to the world of the Luxen! We couldn’t be more excited to catch back up with Luc and Evie, but it has been a while. In case you’ve forgotten where the story left off, here’s a refresher!
When the Lux series began, the existence of Luxen, one of the alien races living on Earth, was a secret that only a select few humans knew about, including Katy Swartz. Katy fell in love with Daemon Black, a Luxen, and when he used his alien powers of healing to save her life she became a Luxen hybrid giving her abilities like the Luxen, including being able to move things with her mind and running incredibly fast. These abilities made Katy and Daemon interesting to the Department of Defense.
As it turned out, the American government wanted female Luxen hybrids and male Luxen to produce children called Origins. These children were incredibly intelligent and had all the abilities of their Luxen fathers but were also stronger and could read minds.
Understandably, Katy and Daemon didn’t want to be forced to make babies for the government so they were determined to do whatever it took to stay out of the government’s clutches, including revealing their abilities to the whole world in a fight on the Las Vegas strip. Not only did this fight show humans that there were aliens living among them, but it also gave other Luxen, who hoped to take over the planet, the opportunity for an all out alien invasion. This invasion led to the deaths of thousands of humans and the destructions of many cities. It was only with the help of the Arum, the other alien race living on Earth who were the Luxen’s lifelong enemies, that the Luxen were finally defeated.
Still, after the fight devastated most of the U.S. and many humans had family and friends who were killed in the attack, many feared or hated the Luxen. Though the Luxen were allowed to live amongst the humans it came with limitations and restrictions, including the prohibition of any aliens being romantically involved with a human.
Enter Evie Dasher, the daughter of Sylvia and Jason Dasher. Her father Jason was killed during the alien invasion and as such her mother kept her as far away from the Luxen as possible. But one night Evie went with her friend to Foretoken, the Luxen friendly club, and ran into Luc, an Origin who also happened to own the whole building. It was through Luc that Evie learned there was more to the Luxen than she first realized. However, it was her mom who eventually told her the truth about who she really was.
It turned out Sylvia and Jason weren’t actually her parents. Instead, Evie was really Luc’s best friend from childhood, Nadia Holliday. Nadia had lost her memories after receiving a Luxen based serum that saved her life. When Jason died, Sylvia adopted her, changed her identity, and kept her from Luc. Oh, and Sylvia wasn’t human, she was a Luxen. Surprise! To make matters worse, Michah, an Origin Luc thought he’d gotten rid of years ago, was back with a vengeance, and attacked Evie. Thankfully, he was able to save her but he had to kill Micah to do so. Now, Evie is trying to reconcile who she is—Nadia or Evie—and if she and Luc are attracted to each other because of their connection from her past life or because they really like each other now. While she figures that out, a mysterious illness has begun to kill people and the government says the Luxen are at fault. With fear of the Luxen spreading, Evie finds herself in the middle of conflict and distrust amongst her family and friends.
To find out what happens next make sure to pick up your copy of The Burning Shadow when it goes on sale on October 8!
