The Dark Elements Re-read: White Hot Kiss Q&A!

The Dark Elements Re-Read: White Hot Kiss

For those of you who don’t know yet, this reread is being done in anticipation of the release of Every Last Breath on July 28th, the final book in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s The Dark Elements series! This past week, the two of us have been reading the first book, White Hot Kiss. In celebration for finishing the first book, we’re having a fun Q&A and discussion together!

For those of you who haven’t finished White Hot Kiss, not to fear! Questions #1-13 are SPOILER-FREE!

It’s not too late to join us if you haven’t yet! We will be reading Stone Cold Touch this week, so there’s ample time to catch up. Be sure to check back for our discussions and Q&As on July 27th, and feel free to post your own answers to our questions. We’d love to read them! :D

Anyways, I’d like to introduce to you all Cody, from Literary-ly Obsessed! This has to be the best idea we’ve ever had, no doubt more to come! Serious, you are fantastic. Our love for this series is astROTHnomical (whoops, bad pun, but I couldn’t help myself ;)) But still. THIS SERIES.

Welcome to our White Hot Kiss Q&A! Without further ado, let’s get started :)

1. Who’s your favourite character? Least favourite?

Cody: Roth is clearly my favourite and super high in my Book Boyfriend list!! My least favourite are Petr and Elijah for obvious reasons, I hate them.

Erika: Roth is my all-time favourite. I’m a sucker for hot guys with bad attitudes, haha. Least favourite would be Petr. Or Paimon. There seems to be a “P” trend going on here, haha.

2. What’s your favourite moment? Why?

Erika: My favourite would have to be when Roth and Layla go to find the a specific item (the LKoS we’ll say for the sake of being spoiler-free). Particularly the part where Roth shields Layla from the bats ;)

Cody: All of the scenes with Roth & Layla, especially those apartment moments *swoons*. This book is all about the romance!

3. Top three favourite lines/quotes?

“I lost myself the moment I found you.”  (We both love this one!)

Cody’s:

“At some point, Roth had gotten hold of my cell and replaced Zayne's name with Stony and listed his own number under Sexy Beast. What a tool. I grinned.”

"I think you like me," Roth said suddenly. I stopped pacing and my heart did a funny little jump.

"What? No." He tilted his head to the side, his lips spreading into a teasing grin.

"The way you lie to yourself is sort of cute."

"I'm not lying."

"Hmm..." He sat up, eyes glimmering with mirth.

"You wanted me to kiss you earlier."

Heat flooded my cheeks. "No. I did not."

"You're right. You wanted me to do much, much more."

“He leaned down, placing his palms on my desk, smelling of something sweet and musky. “I’ve been thinking about you all night.” Stacey sounded like she’d choked.”

Erika’s:

“What are you doing?” I darted to the side as it reached for me. “Don’t you have any evil powers of darkness or something?”

“See,” he murmured in a thick voice, and he let go, his fingers trailing over my cheeks. “Your life isn’t about all you can’t do. It’s about what you can do.”

“Did you know that was the first time you’ve used my name? I’ve decided I quite like hearing you say it.”

4. What would you have liked to see more of in this book?

Cody: Definitely more Stacey, her mind is never far from the gutter, she gives your enemy the *evil-eyes* and she’s more than willing to cover for you when you sneak out with a hot guy? I need to get myself a Stacey, she was soo funny, I loved her.

Erika: More Roth! Haha, but apart from that, I think more of Roth’s kittens would have been nice. Seeing as Fury, Nitro, and Thor are quite dangerous, I was hoping that they would have played a bigger part or something. And I really would have loved some one-on-one time between Layla and Bambi! That would have been cute.

5. Do you prefer Bambi or Roth’s three kittens (Fury, Nitro and Thor)?

Cody: Bambi <3

Erika: Bambi :)

6. What do you think about Layla’s friends, Stacey and Sam? Do you think they are an asset or hindrance?

Cody: As I’ve said I loved Stacey so I feel she is an asset for sure, whether your a Warden/Demon/Zombie or anything you always need a friend to make you feel grounded and I think she does this perfectly for Layla. Sam provides a little dose of reality with his random facts which serves as some much needed distraction.

Erika: Hmm, good question. There’s a line somewhere near the end, where Layla says that hanging around Stacey and Sam have helped her develop and cherish her humanity. They definitely helped her out identifying as a human, but they’re also a weakness for Layla...it’s easy to target them, since they’re only human!

7. What did you think of Bambi at first?

Erika: I’m going to be honest here, I don’t like snakes. At all. So when Layla gave us the description of a ten feet long snake as wide as her with fangs as big as her hand, I might have felt a little uneasy at first. But then we got to know Bambi, and all was well.

Cody: Terrifying, like Erika, I’m not the biggest fan of snakes so when there’s one on a much larger scale, with fangs you can count me out BUT she did turn out to be a little babe :’)

8. If given the chance, would you want to be able to see souls like Layla, and have the ability to tag demons?

Erika: That would be cool. But I feel like tagging would put me in a ton of danger, so I’m not overly sure. I’d be like, “Look! A demon! I’m just going to casually touch you, and run away now, BYE!”

Cody: I’m not sure about tagging but I would like to be able to see people’s souls, appearances are deceiving so I would love to know who has sinned.

9. If Wardens came out public, how would you react?

Cody: Freaked out for sure, people who look like stone just isn’t the norm haha, also after reading this book I’m Anti-Warden, oops!

Erika: I’d probably be a little creeped out, but then it would smooth over. I always figured there were supernatural forces among us, so I guess wouldn’t be too surprised...or so I say now.

10. What are your thoughts on Roth and his hobby of gardening?

Erika: ADORABLE.

Cody: TOO CUTE FOR WORDS.

11. Free will is a recurring theme. Roth claims at the beginning that there’s no such thing as free will, but Layla argues against it. What are your thoughts on it?

Cody: I suppose for Roth there is no such thing as free will, let’s not forget ‘who exactly Roth is’ and the reasons behind his actions. It’s funny that Layla argues against it because in her position she seems to have even less free will. BUT I do think we all have free will just sometimes we don’t necessarily use it. I’ve answered this like a politician hahaha, completely on the fence.. ah well!

Erika: I think Roth is right on some aspects… We do what we’re generally told to do, but how we choose to do it is up to us. Roth is right in the sense that we don’t have complete free will, but if we all actually did, there wouldn’t really be order in the world, would there? But Roth’s example is that he was born a demon, thus he “must” do demonic things, as it’s in his nature. Layla, on the other hand, is trying to defy her demon nature, and she has free reign to choose which side she acts upon.

12. Is the concept of ‘Gargoyles’ new to you? Are they a Hit or Miss?

Erika: This is the first book I’ve read on gargoyles. I don’t know, they’re kind of both a hit and miss for me. The concept of gargoyles is a bit of a miss, as I don’t find them overly amazing in comparison to other supernatural creatures. It’s also a little hard to picture them, if you get what I mean. However, this is Jennifer L. Armentrout, and her works are amazing, which makes it also an instant hit.

Cody: I’m completely new to gargoyles and I really wasn’t expecting much but this exceeded my expectations. I’m not going to actively seek out gargoyle stories but if I ever come across them again they will have to live up to this standard as it’s the first I’ve ever read. So I suppose in a way this was a hit. I’m the same with faeries, I always go back to The Iron Fey Series.

If you haven’t read The Iron Fey Series, do it now, you won’t regret it!!!

13. At the end of White Hot Kiss, are you Team Roth or Team Zayne?

Erika: TEAM ROTH. (Though we can still be friends even if some of you are on Team Zayne)

Cody: TEAM ROTH <3

14. Lastly, overall thought/comments/rating?

Cody: 5 Amazing Stars! Check out my review Here .x

Erika: Easy answer! 5 Stars! You can check out my review here :)

Don’t forget: We will be reading Stone Cold Touch this week, so be sure to check back for our discussions and Q&As on July 27th!

The rest of the questions contain spoilers!

15. If you were in Layla’s shoes, would you have gone to check out the zombie, even without Roth?

Cody: Oh hell no, I don’t think I could have coped with the smell and the message in every single horror movie is you NEVER check things out ALONE!

Erika: I’d like to say yes, but unless I had a sword with me or something, probably no.

16. What did you think of Petr when he was trying to kill Layla?

Cody: Major Scumbag! It was a little easier to read the second time as I knew what was going to happen. The first time was scary because Petr is more than a little unhinged and I had no idea what he was actually going to do to Layla, safe to say he deserved what happened to him.

Erika: One word: CREEP. But I’m not sure whether he deserved having his soul taken away. Then again, he had some major issues going on, and what he did to Layla was unacceptable…

17. What were your thoughts on when Zayne found Layla after Petr had attacked her, on the bench near the Smithsonian?

Erika: There was a part where Layla said she saw Roth walking away, and she felt like she wanted to go after him. I totally would have said, “Forget Zayne. I’m going after Roth now.” But I’m but a biased soul.

Cody: Worried! I knew the love triangle was coming but I didn’t know when or how so when Layla was hurt, you just knew Zayne was going to try to be the protector. I was practically screaming ‘ROTH SAVED YOU’ but then Layla got the ‘urge’ to go after Roth yay! All is right again <3

18. Do you think Abbott was right in keeping Layla in the dark?

Cody: Nope! Layla deserved to know the truth and once everything was revealed about Layla’s past and parentage it came across like Abbott kept secrets from Layla for his sake and not hers. Boooo!

Erika: I understand his logic, but at the same time, I disagree with him. Ignorance isn’t always bliss in some cases, and knowing that Layla could very well bring the Lilin back would have helped her be more cautious...

19. What do you think of Roth being merely a replacement? Do you think Roth deserves to be his own person?

Cody: He could never just be a replacement, although when I think about him being an exact replica it’s kinda freaky! He definitely deserves to be his own person.

Erika: Agreed. Exact replicas, like multiple clones of Roth? I would understand why he feels the way he does. But Roth is his own person, with his own heart and interests. Sure, all the ones before him had similar tastes, but Roth himself is irreplaceable. Gardening alone speaks of his individuality!

20. What are your thoughts on the ending of WHK? Like/Dislike? Cliffhanger? (or just a comment on it)

Cody: Amazing and devastating, it’s the type of cliffhanger that you love and hate, leaving you with a little mystery to make sure you stick with the series, he is The Boss’ favourite after all… Clearly me and Erika have it quite bad as we still can’t get over it ;)

Erika: I liked it. There was hope that Roth was still around, but at the same time, we were left with the feeling that the next book would definitely have more Zayne rather than Roth…

See you all next week! :)