Tuesday, February 25, 2014

ARC Review + Giveaway: White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements #1)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication date: February 25th 2014
Source: Received from publisher (Thank you so much, Tashya! <3)
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble



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.

(Image and summary taken from Goodreads.)

Review:

Holy mother crunching zombie gargoyles. I honestly don't even know where to begin, except to say that this is JLA's best series yet. About half-way throughout the book I was just like: This is officially my favorite of JLA's books, now definitely going need to pee on Roth just to ward (pun pun) any unwanted attention. *looks at DJ* But joking aside, JLA was able to create such an intricate and complex world that could easily suck any reader in because of how well developed it was. The world of the Wardens (guardian gargoyles) and the demons is a tricky and intoxicating place and once you get lost in there, you won't want to get out.

I have to admit that I was pretty iffy about Layla about the beginning because she was kind of a whiny and whole lot of attached to Zayne and eventually, things got pretty ugly. But I think that those scenes were a learning process for Layla, they toughened her up and actually let her reflect on the important things. As the book went on, I learned to appreciate and love Layla and her personality because underneath the insecure hybrid that she is, was a strong and take-no one's-shit type of girl and once she found herself, that was when I started to truly admire her. My feelings toward her started with pity and annoyance and progressed to pride and jealously (hello, she got to do stuff with Roth, who wouldn't be jealous?). Honestly, I still feel pretty bad for Layla because holy crap, all the things she did not know about herself were actually the important bits in her life that really needed to know. There was a lot of confusion of Layla's part as well because when Roth pops up and shows her that demons were not what she thought they were, which meant about 99.9% of what she knew was a lie and her life pretty much skewed to the other side. I loved the way JLA describe and created Layla as a teenaged girl and even as a Warden/demon hybrid because while she may be all magic and cool powers, she was also  a girl who experienced girl feelings and that made her all the more real and relatable.

Now, let's get down to business. I'm sure that you've all heard about the infamous and mysterious Roth and his amazingly badass snake, Bambi. I won't lay everything about him out for you because I want you to be able to go through the whole Roth experience yourself so let me just give you the skinny on our sexy demon. I'm not going to sugar-coat it by telling you that Roth is completely nice because he's not, he's a demon so it's pretty obvious that he's supposed to be sly, cunning and a complete smartass too. His intentions towards Layla are definitely not innocent (yes, please!) but the reason behind why he's trying to convince her to listen to him is pretty selfless too. I absolutely just love the scenes between Layla and Roth, they're comical, fun and hot as Hell but there's also a level of hesitation on both parts because they obviously don't understand what they're feeling for each other, other than the obvious attraction and chemistry between them. It was very entertaining seeing Roth take the reins on their budding relationship because Layla was still pretty hung up on Zayne (don't worry, that didn't last too long). I just love Roth and Layla's dynamic together, they could be sweet and funny but also hot and heavy the next moment. But more than the romance aspect, they were great "friends" (if that's what they were) and their bond was great, they were comfortable with each other and trusted the other enough. Here's how I feel about Roth:

I love Roth, not because he's hot and my ovaries tingle but because he's real. Even though he's this all powerful demon, he has his own fears and indecisions and that makes him all the more appealing to me (and it doesn't hurt that he has a soft side too). But don't get me wrong, he's far from being the perfect guy, he's actually pretty troubled but heck, that only adds to his bad boy-ness. All in all, he's just my favorite JLA guy and that's the truth of it.

Whoo, that was intense... but it's Zayne's turn now. Zayne, Zayne, Zayne. I understand his protectiveness of Layla but there were just some parts when it seeemed like he was just belittling her and not really taking her choices and opinions into consideration. Now, he's a real sweetheart but compared to Roth, he's really... tame and slightly boring. While there may have been a part when Layla thought that she loved him, she also realized it was more brotherly than anything but I think that was also when Zayne realized he loved her more than as a brother... So confusing and too much drama to get into but just know that I'm Team Roth. Ha.

To say that I loved White Hot Kiss would be an understatement, I love unicorns, I love JLA's books and I love Jamie Dornan but what I feel for WHK transcends all that. JLA really set the bar high with her new series and I don't even know how she'll be able to beat this one because WHK is pretty darn close to perfect, for me. If Stone Cold Touch turns out to be better than White Hot Kiss (which is likely because Jennifer L. Armentrout is a genius and can out-write even herself) I'll probably have to add another star to make it a 7-star rating. I'd do it.

White Hot Kiss is the perfect blend of romance, really badass action scenes and classic JLA humor that will leave you wanting more. And while you're all distracted by the awesome dialogue, JLA will swoop in and stun you with super crazy revelations and an even more jaw-dropping ending. You will not see it coming, I mean it. You need to read this book. NEED. Let JLA's magic writing turn you into a JLA fan.

Rating:



5 comments:

  1. Oooh nice review! Love JLA's books and cannot wait to read this one!

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  2. Woah 6 stars. I want to start reading this right away! This review makes me so excited!

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  3. 6 STARS?! Wow! That book really caught my attention because of this review. :) Can't wait to read it!

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  4. wOH. I need thissssssss!! -chrln

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  5. I've been convinced. I need to read this!!!

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