Review: Bitter Sweet Love (#1, The Dark Elements) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

My Thoughts

I love it! I love it! I love it!
Another exciting series from Jennifer L. Armentrout as she
captivates us once again with her masterful storytelling, incomparable
wit and instantly alluring characters. Pure gold.

• Related Posts: 2013 Favorites, Epic Paranormals, Jennifer L. Armentrout PNR Reading Orders
• Purchase Bitter Sweet Love: Amazon | Amazon UK | B&N
• Pre-order White Hot Kiss: Amazon | Amazon UK | B&N

Synopsis

In a sizzling prequel novella to her new series THE DARK ELEMENTS, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout draws readers into the extraordinary, irresistible world of Wardens and demons.

Dez wasn’t just Jasmine’s crush. A gargoyle Warden like Jas, he helped her come to terms with her destiny—fending off demons and maintaining balance between good and evil. He was her everything…right until the moment he disappeared without a trace. It didn’t help that Jas’s father had just announced that she and Dez would one day be mated. Hard not to take that personally.

And now he’s back, three years older, ten times hotter, ready to pick up exactly where they left off. But Jas isn’t taking that risk again. Dez has seven days to meet all her conditions and earn back her trust. Seven days filled with terrifying danger and sweet temptation. Seven days to win her heart—or shatter it all over again…

My Review

Thank the gods, as Alex Andros may have said!!! After the bittersweet conclusion of the Covenant series, I wasn’t sure if I could hold out until August when Opposition, the final book in the Lux series would release. Thankfully, Jennifer L. Armentrout has delivered the first addictive taste of another series which instantly became an obsession for me. How is she able to make gargoyles cool? I mean, really… gargoyles? Yes, gargoyles. And they are super cool… and sexy! 🙂

Bitter Sweet Love is the first novella in The Dark Elements series which introduces us to the world of Gargoyles, specifically Wardens – a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons. The characters of the first novella are not the main protagonists of White Hot Kiss, but we do get to meet them in this book! In this installment, however, it’s Jasmine and Dez we get to know.

“Dez was back after leaving for three years, without so much as saying a “Hey, I’m skipping out and leaving you,” or a goodbye or anything?… He’d vanished, his sudden departure as horrifyingly abrupt as the death of my mother. There one second and gone the next. Home hadn’t been home since he left.”

Jas and Dez became inseparable friends as kids, and as they became older, feelings deepened and their lives were so inextricably entwined that it was hard to imagine life without the other. In their community and as a responsibility to keep their race in existence, the women are chosen to be mated with a male Warden. So when Jasmine’s father announces that she and Dez would be mated in the future, Jas was thrilled. Unfortunately her happiness was abruptly cut short when Dez shockingly vanishes the very next day without a  single word.

“When my father had announced on Dez’s eighteenth birthday that he supported a match between us, I’d never been happier than I was in that moment. I was young. I was stupid. When Dez had disappeared the very next day, I experienced a heartache that I thought would swallow me whole and never spit me out. He’d been more than a crush. He had been my best friend, my confidant and my world.”

Jas was shattered and for three years, shock and sadness turned into anger. So when Dez suddenly returns looking oh so very grow n up and gorgeous, and then has the audacity to claim her… well, her whole world is turned upside down. And when she sees him for the first time in years, a mixture of shock, anger, excitement and attraction floods her body, heart and mind. (You can read the excerpt of the scene here!) She’s ready to push him away, but a deal is stricken when Jas gives him seven days to meet some conditions while Dez uses that time to win her over once again.

“And while I knew that one day I could forgive him for leaving, I also knew I wouldn’t forget and I wasn’t certain that was something either of us could truly get past. For that reason, I couldn’t accept his claim. If I did, our relationship would become a bitter, sad thing.”

Sparks fly, trouble ensues and truths are revealed as we wait with bated breath to see what Jasmine will do in the end. The story is thoroughly consuming with characters you can’t help but like so very much. It’s witty with that trademark Jennifer L. Armentrout humor laced with a little bit of snark that has you grinning throughout. And it has that intangible magic the author seems to embed to make her books so darn good. I can’t wait to read White Hot Kiss and get to better know Zhane (a Warden), Layla (half Gargoyle, half Demon) and Roth (all Demon… all hunky bad boy)!!! So pick this book up asap and join me as I stare at the calendar and anxiously wait for February 25th to come around so I can get lost in this alluring world once again.

“Nothing in this world is stronger than love. It should always be enough, no matter what.”

About Jennifer

# 1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki. Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV. She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

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