Synopsis:

Every choice has consequences—but seventeen-year-old Layla faces tougher choices than most. Light or darkness. Wickedly sexy demon prince Roth, or Zayne, the gorgeous, protective Warden she never thought could be hers. Hardest of all, Layla has to decide which side of herself to trust.

Layla has a new problem, too. A Lilin—the deadliest of demons—has been unleashed, wreaking havoc on those around her…including her best friend. To keep Sam from a fate much, much worse than death, Layla must strike a deal with the enemy while saving her city—and her race—from destruction.

Torn between two worlds and two different boys, Layla has no certainties, least of all survival, especially when an old bargain comes back to haunt them all. But sometimes, when secrets are everywhere and the truth seems unknowable, you have to listen to your heart, pick a side—and then fight like hell…

My thoughts:

 I should not be surprised anymore by the awesomeness that JLA writes. This finally book in the series is not any different. It was stuffed full with emotions, action, some major twists’ all topped off without sweet swoon worthy romance.

To not to spoil it for those who have not read it yet, I will not discuss Roth and or Zayne much or Layla’s relationship to them in this book.

We get to find out pretty early in the book, who she chose. I loved that, because we get to see them as couple throughout the book and how they handle certain things together. I also loved that Layla didn’t make a huge deal out of it and makes it clear that it always has been him and explains why.

She gets her very own familiar I this book. I absolutely loved these I twist with the familiar, how much more there is to them.

You can find my full review here

    Okay so I am a pretty big JLA fan, and while I mostly enjoyed this series....it wasn't really my favorite. I think my biggest issue with this series as a whole was, quite frankly, Layla. I liked the idea of her more than I actually liked her. The idea of this person who quite literally was both sides of the token, both "good" and "evil" sounded great to me! But I think where it fell short with me is that, with the exception of a few badass comments here and there in this last addition, Layla really only embraced the "good" side of herself. And to be honest, it was a little disappointing. Now I was glad to see her finally accept herself in this book, but I really would have liked to see more of that throughout the series, and turned up a few notches too boot. I mean look at Roth, he's a demon who, besides having Layla's back, was pretty much up to no good on a regular, and you know what, I loved it! I get that a huge point of this story was that no one is really all good or bad, I get that. I guess I would have liked to see Layla not only accept that, but to blatantly OWN it.

    I have to say I really enjoyed the side characters more so than the main character. Well, with the exception of Roth, he was pretty awesome, and always entertaining.

Seriously though can we get like a Cayman novella or something out of this?! I honestly loved the demons so much better than the Wardens! Each demon we came across was interesting to me! I would have loved to see a story more focused on them! The whole Warden holier than thou attitude was off putting to me. Yet another area where I thought they were better in theory, at least for me. One of my absolute favorite things in this story were the familiars! Omg can that please be in real life one day?! These magical animals that bonded with their hosts were all kinds of amazing. And Bambi the Warden eating monster snake was at the very tip top of my favorite list! At one point in this story I actually teared up at a scene with Bambi. I felt immediately transported back to my childhood years where I pretty much felt more for animals than I did other humans lol.

    Ultimately if you've already read the other two you don't want to miss this one, lots of stuff goes down....Layla finally chooses between Roth and Stoney, which was a huge thing with the fans in war over which one she should be with! Things wrap up rather nicely. It was a fitting conclusion. And you even get a brief encounter with the Boss at one point, which was way cool! I really liked the world JLA created here, and I think it would be sweet if we got to explore the darker side of it more in a future book. Who knows, maybe one day!

   That's right....I'm feeling cold....stone cold crazy after reading this book. So for funsies I shall use the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin gifs to explain all my feels about this, because, why not?!

   Stone Cold Touch picks up right where White Hot Kiss left off, which with the loss of my FAVORITE character, it felt something akin to this....

   Yeah Armentrout....I'm talking to you, how dare you metaphorically stone cold stunner my freaking joy!!

  But, but then something magical happens. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes my favorite anti-hero returns!!!

  I'm going to call this stone cold redemption.

  Yes. This is what I was waiting for, and luckily did not have to wait long. Although Armentrout being the evil genius she is just had to throw some curve balls in there. It suddenly became clear that nothing was going to just pick up where it left off romantically.

    Which totally made sense considering I already knew there was going to be an epic love triangle in this series, and this was going to be the book for all you pro Stoney fans out there (BOO!). Although I love the idea of a best friend romance blossoming between Layla and Zayne (aka Stoney), I can't say that's the route I want to see Layla go. I will say that their developing relationship throughout this story was sweet enough, but I'm still team Roth all the way (sorry folks, demon for the win in this case!). It was painful watching Layla struggle so much with uncertainty, especially where Roth's feelings were concerned. I absolutely LOVED the twist at the very end, I was in no way prepared for the reason behind Roth's romantic distance in this book!!

  Nothing like a surprise finger from a new found foe.

     It was nice seeing more new fantastical creatures come out to play. Succubus/Incubus, wraiths, nightcrawlers, harpies, and such were all pleasant additions to this story. And the hysterical pop-culture references to such are always on point in a JLA book.

   "Welcome back," Sam said. He was still missing his glasses. "I bet you missed school."

"I missed it a little." I opened the locker door and pulled out my bio text. That was true. School was kind of like a sanctuary...when there weren't zombies, Nightcrawlers and wraiths crawling out of the wood-work.

   My high school was turning into the Hellmouth.

   I giggled.

  Stacy arched a brow. "What?"

  "Nothing. I was just thinking of Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

 or

"He likes to change up his coloring. The facial features are always the same, and so are the peircings, but the hair is different. Now that he's rocking the dark-and-brooding look, I guess he isn't all about the 'White Wedding' or 'Cradle of Love'."

"Huh?"

Cayman rolled his eyes. "You younglings wouldn't know good music if it hit you upside the head."

trust me, the list of my favorite quotes could go on and on.

  Even SCSA is amused.

       I felt like this was a solid follow up to White Hot Kiss. There was some character growth, solid world building, major plot progression, a few HUGE twists, fabulous one-liners and the romance element was definitely built to levels of insanity. I am now desperately awaiting my copy of Every Last Breath to come in a few weeks. I never really followed it much when the hype was big, but I thought it was super cool that JLA set up a fan poll and let the readers determine who Layla ends up with! I guess we'll see what the people have spoken soon enough!

 Stone Cold out.

   You know, I think my favorite thing about this book was Roth. He was funny, naughty, and at the same time always seemed to be there and come through for Layla. Ironic that he was literally the demon of the story. Also pretty awesome that his bad ass snake's name was Bambi.

   I really liked that this story was about Gargoyles. I have never read anything involving them before, so that was definitely unique. It was neat that they were basically the defenders of humanity against the demons. I liked that they were already out in the open amongst the humans, but the demons were still operating under the radar. It made it interesting to see how they worked at eradicating the demon problem while still keeping humans unaware of the demonic presence.

   I'm still kind of on the fence about Layla, to be honest. She's a little more meek than I expected, but I think there is going to be some character growth there in the coming books, so I can get on board with her if that is the case. And I have to say it, Zayne wasn't all that for me either. I felt like there was more tell and less show when it came to him being so close to Layla. He seemed pretty busy doing his own thing in a lot of this book. There is a definite huge set up for a love triangle, which I usually don't mind so much, but I typically prefer to actually struggle myself with which one I think the heroine should go for, and in this book there wasn't even a question, it was Roth hands down.

    I have pretty high hopes that the next book, Stone Cold Touch, will be even better. I am a huge JLA fan so I have faith that the next installment will deliver her usually touch of awesome.