White Hot Kiss - Jennifer L. Armentrout

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

 

 

I've been on a Jennifer L. Armentrout binge read because I've come to the conclusion that she's one of my favorite authors despite only reading one of her series. That series was enough to sell me on all of works and now I want to read them all. It will happen...eventually. Everything she writes just sounds so good. 

 

I've wanted to read this particular book for quite a long time actually, ever since I heard a few booktubers rave about it yet the bookstore didn't want to ship it to me so I ended up waiting almost a year to read it. I don't know why, but that made me a bit put off towards reading it even though I was still excited to read it...it made sense to me. 

 

I also went into this kind of being team Roth because of everyone else and I knew i shouldn't have. I really should not have. Why do I let people influence me before I even read the book? The same thing happened with Throne of Glass and we all know how that turned out. 

 

It's the damn love "triangle". I, like many people, CANNOT STAND love triangles (even though triangle isn't the correct word, but I won't get into that) because they're unnecessary. Why must there be more than one love interest? Why can't people just be satisfied with one love interest? (And why must authors mess with my emotions?) I say that because I get way too invested in things, especially books. This book is a perfect example of that.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the actual plot to this. I don't typically read angel/demon books because to me they all sound the same. This was very different and I've never read a book about gargoyles. It was almost like a breath of fresh air. I say almost because eventually the plot was backseated to the romance. Even though a big part of the book was the romance, I felt as though the plot just fell as the romance was thrown in my face.

 

That's another thing, I wasn't the hugest fan of the romance. I mean, it was okay and it wasn't really instalove but it came out of nowhere and it wasn't that I was confused..I was like "When did that happen?" I kept trying to justify it too because things were explained (kind of) so it made some sense but even then it didn't sit right with me.

 

Seriously though. Roth how can you like her when you literally stalked her? Layla was okay with it though apparently and barely questioned anything. Just went along with whatever Roth wanted and what not. Roth is literally everywhere Layla goes and she was like "what is with this extremely hot guy...and what feelings for zayne? there's only Roth" and that continues onto the next book.
Layla was such a frustrating character.


Even though Roth being a stalker is literally mentioned, she trusts him anyway. She believes everything he says and everything she was raised to believe is thrown out of the window. But that's okay though...because Roth is hot. That's all that matters.


Also, she was literally so useless despite being what she is. She was constantly being rescued by mainly Roth but that was a thing. The only thing she could do was tag demons and that's about it. No super awesome fighting skills or anything. She gets into a lot of crappy situations in which she becomes a damsel in distress


Back to the romance though, for what is was, it was okay. I liked the scenes in which stuff happened. I prefer the second book when it comes to the romance though...eheheh.


Another thing I liked about the book was the writing. Jennifer L. Armentrout has this why or writing a first person narrative in a way that really captures me. It was the same with The Coventant series by her. I really felt as if I was in the story.

 

So in all, if you're not extremely picky like me and can get over love triangles, and like to read guilty pleasures, then I reccommend this. However if you want something with better plot development and better characters, then I'd say skip it.