Dark Elements (1) - White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout
And now to part one of the Dark Elements series by Jennifer L. Armentrout: White Hot Kiss (in German Steinerne Schwingen). I read it in English where it contained 384 pages. Originally published 2014, Girls 16+.
Layla Shaw has the most abnormal life possible. That's mostly due to the fact that she isn't normal, even in a world where gargoyles – Wardens – walk openly under humans and kill demons. Her father was a Warden. Her mother a demon. Layla is all kinds of unique and special, not half as strong, fast and tough as both Wardens and demons, but always craving souls. And all it takes for her to take them is one little kiss. Which basically makes dating impossible. Taught to hate herself and an outside at the Wardens, Zayne is her only confidant… But her world falls upside down when an upper level demon with a moving snake tattoo saves her life and dumps her phone into the school toilet. Because Roth is not only as annoying as Hell itself, he also knows things – about Layla. And he makes her doubt everything she thought was true… When Layla discovers a plot to raise her mother again – through erasing half of mankind, everyone she loves included, the fact that she can kiss him seems really unimportant.
I love this series! It's a typical J.L. Armentrout: Tense as hell, with fascinating, round characters, sizzling love stories and a gorgeous humour that lightens the deepness of the emotions and philosophical questions in it. Not to mention a world so credible you half expect to stumble across the races on your way to school. Which I wouldn't mind, by the way, especially if it were a boy...
Back to topic. What I liked most in this series is actually how she manages to make demons the good ones. I thought that this was impossible! I mean, seriously! Roth is a demon AND the good guy! And it's absolutely credible! How is she doing that???
Roth is THE crown prince of Hell and he's gorgeously funny. He made me laugh so hard I nearly bit into a table – several times. Additionally, he accepts Layla as she is. I love Zayne, he's in many ways my kind of guy, but I hate that he tries to make her deny her demon side. Which makes sense in a way – he is raised to hate all demons to the core and her sucking souls is not a good idea, but he puts her so much under pressure! Layla idolizes him and does nearly everything for him, she tries so hard to be how he wants her to be. Which is absolutely understandable, but not healthy. It hurts her. And she hates it when Zayne doesn't let her help. Roth's behaviour is the opposite of that. He accepts her, puts her into dangerous places on purpose and makes her feel good about herself; because he trusts her enough to protect herself and he knows that she's a good person already and doesn't have to restrain her demon side. And I also like it how he changes her whole view of the world. The necessary evil. Nice.
So, two male yummtasticness Nr. 2, to speak in Armentrout-ish. Zayne! He's the boy-next-door-type, if your boy next door was out in the night fighting demons and sleeps in the day in his stone-skin. He's protective, and loves Layla as a sister – and he's not happy about her and Roth.
Layla herself is full of self-loathing. But it's not done in a way you read it like “Good God, girl! Get a grip, we've had that a thousand times!”. It's just between the lines. And it's realistic, if you consider how she grew up.
Her Warden family sucks. Apart from Zayne, they are all so mistrusting of her, so against her demon side... but the twins are cute. I'm kinda sorry for Jasmine. The society of the Wardens is nicely done, by the way.
As for Layla's two human friends, Sam and Stacy, they're cool. I like Sam, he's a good person. A total nerd, but funny. And Stacy really chills Layla – which she needs.
But the coolest characters in the entire book are the oracle – a pre-pubescent boy; the giant anaconda that eats Wardens for breakfast – literally -, Bambi; the dragon Thumper and the three kittens: Thor, Nitro and Fury. So. Cool!
Now to the content: Like I said, to get Layla's change of worldview and to let Roth be the good guy? Gorgeous. But unfortunately, there's a mistake: How can Layla never have seen Zayne in his true (= stony) form, if he flew her around? But that's not that grave, so I won't delete a star.
The ideas were original, the style as always – means great – and I think I've covered everything for now...
In brief:
All in all, I give stars for characters, style, ideas, content and the absolutely GOREGOUS(!!!!!) twist to get a demon right while letting him be one of the good boys. And SoGH, of course.
Prequel:
Sequel: