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.