Review: White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

White Hot Kiss

Jennifer L. Armentrout

(The Dark Elements #1)

Publication Date: February 25, 2014

Paperback, 400 pages, Harlequin Teen

Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Amazon | 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.

My Review  

  

Jennifer L. Armentrout is practically a writing goddess! She can write about sexy aliens, angsty college students, Greek mythology and even gargoyles in ways that just have me fangirling for life. 

White Hot Kiss is simply plain old awesome! At first I was a little wigged out because the tone of this book was different from the novella, Bitter Sweet Love. In BSL everything's just kind of romantic and sweet, so when White Hot Kiss took more of a detour into an adventure wonderland with some sprinklings of cookie dough and humor added, I totally wasn't ready for it. That all changed when I met Roth. Yummy. That's all that's needed to describe him. I feel like JLA has never written about a guy who doesn't make my heart stop and my mouth leak copious amounts of drool.

As the story progresses readers are able to see the epic world that JLA's created. It's brimming with unique species and history. The history part is what's especially cool. There's no teenage girl who just found out that she's half demon, half Warden. Instead Layla's like, "I know what I am and you can suck it." Well, not really. Some of the time she was like that, others she was a little more emotional, which I can totally understand. Emotions and random feels can get in the way a bit. 

Zayne is basically Layla's only real friend in the story. And honestly, I didn't like him all that much. Maybe it's just because Roth is oh-so-delicious, or maybe it's because Zayne just kind of acted a little jerkish to a girl who never really got to have her own life. To be completely honest, Zayne wasn't a bad character, he just wasn't for me. Now Roth, Roth's a different story. For one, he's hilarious. And two, he owns kittens. Enough said.

Some of the story did get a little muddled at times. I understood everything perfectly, but at parts I kind of questioned why Layla had to tag demons, or why someone could see something about Layla that she couldn't? There's just some small questions like those that need to be answered, and hopefully they're answered in the sequels. 

All in all, it's another epic start to a fantastic serious by JLA! I swear this woman could write about cockroaches and make it interesting. Needless to say, I will be purchasing this book as soon as possible. And I would appreciate the sequel being in my hands stat.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. This in no way altered my opinion/review.