White Hot Kiss by Jennifer Armentrout

White Hot Kiss by Jennifer Armentrout  
Release Date - February 25, 2014
Publisher Website - Harlequin Teen
Publisher Social Media - Twitter
Pages - 400 pages
My Rating - 4/5
**received in exchange for an honest review from the publisher**

Here is the Goodreads 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.

White Hot Kiss mixes romance with a twist on the classic 'where do I belong/who am I story'. The very readable writing style of Jennifer Armentrout, and some fun mythology make this one fast paced, page turning read that I couldn't put down.

Layla grew on me immediately. Torn between two different sides of herself, she is a very sympathetic character. Warden or demon. She is both, and yet neither. She flits between the two while fully belonging to neither. This ties in nicely with the overall theme of the novel. You quickly see that good and bad are relative terms. Things are not always how you see them, and you can't generalize a whole group of people (or in this case demons/wardens). It just doesn't work that way, and the grey area is what begins to weigh on Layla as she's pulled deeper into her demon world, and learns secrets she never expected were being kept from her.

The mythology is the driving force of the novel. It's well done, and offers a few twists and turns. The secrets Layla uncovers, and as she begins to learn her ancestry, and what it means for herself, her place, and the world in general, was gripping. It provides a balance to the romance so that the plot is moving forward , and compelling you to keep reading. I can not wait to unravel the rest of the secrets, and find out if all the required elements to bring out the apocalypse will ever be completed.

The sexy Warden she excruciatingly can't kiss, and the irresistible demon who makes her want to be oh so bad. Layla certainly find herself in some deliciously sexy situations. The romance is steamy, and a huge focus of the novel. However, it's smartly tied directly into the plot. What better way to test someone who sucks souls than put two very different guys in front of her and make it so she can touch one but not the other? It instant tension and it works.

Roth is exactly the type of bad boy I've been missing in YA novels. He's the kind of bad boy that makes me nostalgic for a time when the bad boy equaled smoking a cigarette while wearing a leather jacket. In other words, he's more of a rebel than truly bad. We see that Roth has many different sides to him, and while he is a demon, he's also quite caring towards Layla. He proves himself loyal, and more than once puts Layla's safety before his own. Zayne is the obviously choice for Layla (minus that whole 'kiss and she'd take his soul' thing). He's loyal, kind, and all around perfect. This results in a pretty evenly matched triangle with each side on pretty equal footing.

Another sexy page turner from Jennifer Armentrout. Fans of her addictive writing will devour this, and immediately want the sequel. It's fun, breezy, and entertaining. The only question left is Team Roth or Team Zane, and luckily we have two other books to make that decision.