Review: White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

White Hot Kiss
Jennfier L. Armentrout
Series: The Dark Elements #1
Published February 25, 2014
Rating: ★★★★★

Summary (taken from Goodreads)
One kiss could be the last.

Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal. But with a kiss that kills anything with a soul, she's anything but normal. Half demon, half gargoyle, Layla has abilities no one else possesses.

Raised among the Wardens—a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe—Layla tries to fit in, but that means hiding her own dark side from those she loves the most. Especially Zayne, the swoon-worthy, incredibly gorgeous and completely off-limits Warden she's crushed on since forever.

Then she meets Roth—a tattooed, sinfully hot demon who claims to know all her secrets. Layla knows she should stay away, but she's not sure she wants to—especially when that whole no-kissing thing isn't an issue, considering Roth has no soul.

But when Layla discovers she's the reason for the violent demon uprising, trusting Roth could not only ruin her chances with Zayne…it could brand her a traitor to her family. Worse yet, it could become a one-way ticket to the end of the world.

Links

Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes and Noble

Cover Comments:
I really like the cover. My only problem is it is one of those covers I would be embarrassed to carry around in public. Luckily I have my beautiful nook that allows me to read anything I want in public without wondering if I’m being judged.

My Review:
I’m going to apologize beforehand, this is less of a review and more of a confession of my undying love for Armentrout’s books. Why is that? Well obviously, she can write no wrong.  I have loved every single book that I have read by her, which is everything except for the Covenant series. She is one of those authors that I’m out looking for the day her books come out. So, yeah this is really just an ode to my love for her.

The Darkest Kiss stars demons and gargoyles. How awesome is that? I haven’t seen or read many books about gargoyles. Layla, our wonderful heroine is half and half… not common since demons and wardens (gargoyles) hate each other. It’s very common in paranormal books that I hate the heroines. They tend to be kind of useless. But not Armentrout’s girls, oh no! Layla can suck the soul out of anyone with a single kiss. She tries not to, but it’s a pretty awesome demon power in my opinion.

Layla falls for our hero Roth. Roth Roth Roth. I love Roth. He’s hot, he’s sarcastic, he cares about this tiny soul sucking girl, and he completely goes against his own nature to protect her. Not to mention the tattoos. Bambi made me want a pet snake. And Thumper.. I want to meet Thumper so much.

Layla tries to stay away from Roth because she has been taught that all demons are evil. However, he makes it impossible and they soon team up to try to stop some bad demons from doing some bad things. (I won’t tell you what because you need to read the book).

A character we saw a bit of, but not enough in my opinion is Zayne. He’s Layla’s adoptive older brother/ the guy she thinks she loves. We get to see him here and there, enough to set up our Layla/Roth/Zayne love triangle, but not enough for me to really get a good handle on him. I’m hoping we will see more of him in the second book.

The worst part about the book, is the worst part about all of Armentrout books. She is the queen of cliffhangers. I’m talking major cliffhangers that leave you setting up a countdown on your phone until October 28, 2014 when you can finally read the second book in the series (am I alone there?) This one was a pretty low key cliffhanger, but it was a heart wrenching one none the less.

Anyways, I’m telling you to read this book. Not recommending, that’s too nice. I’m saying drop everything and go find this book. Then read it and come tell me how glad you are that I forced it upon you. If it isn’t your normal style, try it anyways. I was leery the first time I read Armentrout, and now I wax poetics about her. So I say again. Go read and enjoy!