Saturday 23 August 2014

Review: White Hot Kiss by Jennifer Armentrout

A while back I received a review copy of White Hot Kiss from Harlequin Teen and Netgalley, however at the time I was in France, then California and finally in Turkey. I've spent the past few months travelling and whilst I have had my kindle, my internet connection has been pretty sparse, thus I have been unable to really commit to posting my reviews until this week. 
I have so many books that I want to talk about, and so many books that I want you to talk about! 

Today I'm going to post my review of White Hot Kiss.
I feel as this is a Jennifer Armentrout book, multiple GIFs of Supernatural are appropriate throughout the entirety of my post. If you are a fan of hers, you will understand why. 



Dean's winking at you, Jen.

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Synopsis:

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: 

So first and foremost, I want to start off by saying Oh My Gods, Holy Alien Babies, Son of a Sinner, this book was incredible.
I'm giving this book a 1,000,000 out of 5 star rating for how unbelievable AWESOME this story is.
I am one of the people that run the Jennifer Armentrout approved official Luxen Army fan page, and I am totally in love with the Lux series and Jen herself. Daemon Black? He is the definition of sexy, however I have to admit I have been swayed to the Sins of Roth in White Hot Kiss. This book surpassed all my expectations, and overtook Obsidian for the number one spot of my books of all time (except for the Bible).
Bravo Jen.
The first installment of The Dark Elements series introduces us to some amazingly lovable, and pretty damn sexy characters. Layla, the offspring of a demon and a warden, is introduced on the first page, and the story is written from her point of view. Now, with the likes of Katy and Alex being penned by Armentrout, I was expecting yet another kick-ass sassy character, and I wasn't disappointed. Infact, I was shocked at how incredible Layla is. She comes off as humble, yet confident. Beautiful, yet modest. Sarcastic, sassy and down-right awesome. Her character is shown to evolve throughout the first book, which is something I find a lot of authors actually miss out when they write their characters. They introduce a great character, however they aren't really that flawed or they have no room to grow throughout the series as the storyline progresses further. Layla starts off being pretty shut off and small minded about Demons. 
It is explained very early on that Layla was raised by Wardens. What are wardens, you ask? Well they're these guardian stone angel like creatures that are kind of like ninjas crossed with police men that have super powers, and they're on Earth because of the increasing demon population that is walking among humans, and whilst the humans have no idea that demons are actually real and on earth, they are fully aware of the wardens. What people don't know, including Layla's best friends, is that Layla is in fact half warden herself.


Yep, somehow, even though the human race know there are actual Angel creatures on earth, they still haven't connected that Demons exist. It's not really that far of a stretch, so this kind of confused me, however Jennifer managed to incorporate this piece of information so it didn't actually matter that much that humans have yet to connect Demons with Angels. To be honest, I think it's actually something that could happen, as the human race is pretty unaccepting of anything that different from us. We kill our own kind in really unnecessary wars all the time, so overlooking Demons is probably something we would do, as we wouldn't  be able to really accept the concept very easily or happily at all. 
I do however find it ridiculous that people haven't realised Layla isn't human - she's the only "human" to have ever, in the history of ever, lived with the Wardens. Come on. That's really not that difficult to connect the dots with. Ah well. 
In the next book, I would really, really love to see more interaction with Layla and her human best friends. There was a bit in this book, but I'd love to see more. I really enjoyed reading Katy's relationship with her mum and all of her human friends at school within the Lux series, so that's something I'm hoping Jen will expand on throughout the series.

Within White Hot Kiss, there are two, unbelievably wonderful smokin' hot men. Zayne - a warden, and brother like figure to Layla that she has been crushing on since forever, is tall and blonde and what I would expect an All-American boy to look like, or maybe one of those Abercrombie and Fitch models with rock hard abs (he is made of stone). On top of that, he's sweet and funny and kind and smart and just beautiful.

Enter Roth.
Phwoaaaar. 


Roth is possibly the hottest, sexiest, most delicious book character I have ever had the fortune of meeting in my dreams. Despite the fact that he's a Demon, he's pretty perfect. Except, the fact that he's a Demon really doesn't phase me, because honestly? He's also sweet and he very clearly cares about Layla.
I wish I was Layla.

The story, as it evolves, shows us deeper levels of the characters, making them realistic and very likable, which is something that I need to make me fall in love with a book series. You can connected with these characters, and Jennifer Armentrout makes the reader feel as though they are there, living the life of Layla and experiencing everything she goes through. All the ups, the downs, the pain and the gain. Her first kiss, and slightly more. The hurt and joy she feels. All of her emotions are twisted in a powerful literary whirlwind and thrown right in your face. And I loved it.


Within the book, there are some beautiful quotes, that make you want to re-evaluate your relationships, and basically your entire life up until that point. White Hot Kiss is a work of incredible genius, and I would expect nothing less from an author such as Jennifer Armentrout.

I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say this.
You need to read this book. It's not a suggestion, it's an order.
If you are female, male, transexual, transgender, white, black, green, yellow, a glowy alien, old, young, a time lord, or anything in between, you need to read this book.
White Hot Kiss is a must-read for fans of books in general. Books of any age, type or genre. Forget To Kill A Mockingbird, or Jane Austen and read White Hot Kiss, a work of literature so great, it's in need of its own class.  

The only downside is, once you've read it, you have to wait until October for the next installment, Stone Cold Touch, to be released.



I am certainly counting down the days on my calendar until Stone Cold Touch.
Are you?

3 comments:

  1. I got the second book in this series from BEA, so I really need to read this one. I can't wait to read it now! It sounds like it really made you think if it's got you re-evaluating your life. :-)

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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  2. A very good article. Thank you!

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  3. A very good article. Thank you!

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