White Hot Kiss(The Dark Elements #1)
By Jennifer L. Armentrout
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Length: 12 hours and 25 minutes
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.
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I've lost count of the number of times I've picked up this book over the years and inevitably put it down because something else caught my attention. Books by this author used to be my jam, but it doesn't seem to be holding up anymore. This novel was very slow paced through the beginning, but when things speed up it was so good.
The heroine (with the exception of the very end) was out of the loop on everything and it wasn't a fun ride. It seemed like the author wanted to make her appear to be this sassy kick-butt heroine (especially when you take into account her being half gargoyle and half demon) but I don't think it was accomplished in the first 90% of this novel.
This book wasn't an exception where my stance on love triangles was concerned. Both love interests were sketchy and were looking out for their own interests by protecting Layla. Though Roth eventually won me over to his side because he presented himself as more competent but mysterious. Zayne, for the most part, was portrayed as a little boy who follows the rules the patriarchy sets for him even if he doesn't necessarily agree with them.
An annoying conclusion I came to throughout this story was that it was only possible because of all the lying that was happening. The gargoyles were the biggest hypocrites of them all and the leader refused to listen to reason even when it was presented in a respectful way. He could never see past Layla's demon half even though he raised her to essentially hate half of herself.
Overall, I disliked how absurdly easy it was for an outside source to figure out the supposedly "complex" riddle that leads to an ancient possession that a lot of creatures were looking for for years and years. I'd also like to mention that most of what happened in this story could be seen coming from miles and miles away. This isn't what I'd call a book of twists and turns. Despite all that I've mentioned in this review I do intend to continue on with this series considering how the book ended. I'm too invested for my own good at this point.
The narration was pleasant and that's about it. The overall tone was relaxing, which is what I usually look for in an audio book but there were a lot of times where there wasn't much of a distinction between male and female voices. That ended up confusing me for a few lines of conversation throughout the story until I figured out who was supposed to be who again.
My Rating:
&½
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