White Hot Kiss (The Dark Elements #1)

Layla is seventeen and never been kissed. She’s half-gargoyle, half-demon so her kiss will kill anyone with a soul. She lives among a group called The Wardens, gargoyles who protect the world from demons, and she does her best not to call attention to her dark half. But then Roth comes into her life, a hot demon who knows her in ways no one else will, and who claims to want to help her. Trusting Roth means turning her back on her family, including her best friend Zayne, but not working with Roth could mean a violent demon uprising.

I really love the world that was created in this book. Gargoyles vs demons, different Gargoyle clans, demon hierarchy. All of it was interesting to read as it developed.

I enjoyed how much I could relate to Layla. For the most part she was pretty quiet, loved to read, and really just wanted to do whatever she could to help her family in their battle against the demons. She worried about them when they were out and she couldn’t be. We got to see her become more confident in who she is as a person throughout the book.

I was a little nervous about the obvious love triangle that the description mentions but I didn’t hate it. It didn’t overtake the book and it’ll be interesting to see how it develops. The two guys both have qualities that make them a good match for Layla. Zayne is so protective and caring and sweet to her. Roth gets her in ways no one else can and opens her mind to new views.

The plot had a lot of action and mythology about demons, which was nice. As hot as the kissing scenes were, some of them felt a little out of place, or at least hard for me to get into, since they were about to do something dangerous and I was focused on the potential drama instead of the kissing. It was fast paced, which made for a quick read because I kept saying ‘one more chapter’ until the end. There did seem to be more focus on the demon side of things with Layla and Roth so hopefully in the next book we get to see more gargoyles.