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White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements, #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout | Review

9:59:00 PM

Pages: 400 pages

Publication Date: February 25th 2014 by Harlequin Teen

ISBN: 0373211104 (ISBN13: 9780373211104)

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.

Now, What I Thought:

This was such a cool concept. I'v always had a burning interest in angel/demon books and just adding gargoyles made it even better! I was pretty into this book, I couldn't put it down and had finished it in one go. Poor Layla, can't be kissed because she literally has the kiss of death. It's pretty obvious the desire Zayne holds for her, which just made it 10x more frustrating at how blind Layla was. You know, I'll admit, I think I'm team Zayne, something about him just makes me love him better than Roth! I mean, don't get me wrong, Roth is hella sexy and so raw in power, it's exhilarating to read, but.... Zayne is also powerful and smart and just.. angel like? Definitely more my type -insert heart eyes-!

I liked that Armentrout wasn't afraid to bring in mythology to the story and plot. We heavily get into some hell-related mythology which was great. While, this story was romance-based, I did like the other stuff too. Her friends, the inside Warden drama, and Layla's dilemma. Layla wasn't the typical strong, fearless and ruthless character that I usually prefer but I did like that her ultimate priority and nature was saving the people she cared about and just good-heartedly trying to help everyone and anyone.

Some of the characters weren't my favourite like, Stacey, who was way too portrayed as the 'slut' and the 'wild' one of the friendship between her and Layla. Also, Danika. I mean, Layla doesn't act too nice to her but come on.. being a Zayne lover myself, lets not have Danika in the picture please. I found it weird how I kind of ?liked? Petr and that unnecessary drama. Obviously we find out why he's needed in the series but for spoilers sake, I won't say. Petr was a good distraction from the whole Zayne/Roth love drama. One thing I didn't really understand about the plot was that humans very well knew gargoyles existed but.. how and why? It's almost as if everyone in the world has this, 'so what?' kind of attitude towards it, which I don't get considering usually people would be making it national news and freaking the hell out.

The book was enjoyable but only for a light reading. If you were wanting to read this for an in-depth plot masterpiece, unfortunately you won't find it here. It was still good, and I did read the next one :)