Thursday 20 August 2015

Review : White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Title: White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements #1)

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Release date: February 25th 2014

Summary: 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.

REVIEW

This book is a quick and light read, but I didn't like it very much. I loved the Lux series very much, mostly because contrary to a lot of YA urban fantasy, there wasn't any love triangle, because the books had other things to focus on. Here, I don't know where the plot was going, because there wasn't much that happened. I was curious to read the second book, Stone Cold Touch, but it was even worst (Layla was just wondering Roth or Zayne? All the time) and I ended up not finishing  it because of this.

I couldn't connect with Layla, the main character. She was supposed to be the perfect girl and everything, but guess what, perfection doesn't exist. If you try to do perfection, it's boring. The two love interest were total clichés: the bad boy new in town and the perfect I've-always-been-there-for-you guy. Roth was alright and I think Armentrout did a great job at writing it, but I couldn't stand him for the part of Stone Cold Touch I read. I hated literally EVERYTHING about this love triangle. It seemed like this one was Roth's book, the next one will be Zayne's and in the last she will FINALLY choose.

It was original to choose gargoyles as the paranormal creatures, it really intrigued me from the beginning. But in the end… They are just other nephilims. Nevertheless, it was really unrealistic that the Wardens went public and no one seems to care. Really? Apart for the Children of God church, everyone is okay with it. Moreover, if the Wardens came out of the closet (haha), the demons could to, humans wouldn't be that shocked.

The end was quite unexpected (oh, look, something good), but not enough that I want to finish this trilogy...

For me, this book was mostly a compilation of clichés in YA. I'm starting to see a pattern in Armentrout's books (like these guys who are ALL so hot because… reasons) and I have a love/hate relationship with them. I loved the Lux series but Half-Blood was a retelling of Vampire Academy. I also really liked Don't Look Back. I'm really sad about this because I want so much to love her books. 

Rating: 2.5/5

What do you think of JLA's books? Did you like this one?

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