Every Last Breath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

August 25, 2015     booklovi     Book review

 

Every Last Breath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Harlequin Teen
July 28th, 2015
400 pages
Purchased for Kindle

Rating:

Description:

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 Review:

Ok, first we’re going to talk about the one thing that affected everyone’s reviews of this book. I am a huge Jennifer L. Armentrout fan. She writes compelling characters and fun romances. So at the end of the second book in this series, the publisher decided that a fun marketing tactic would be to have the fans vote to choose which guy should end up with Layla. And then all hell broke loose. People fell into one of two camps. Those who loved the idea were thrilled that they could have a hand in deciding the fate of their favorite character and have her end up with their idea of the perfect guy. The other camp, which I am a part of, was more of the idea that the author should be the one with the vision and plan for how a story should end.
It felt wrong to me. For me, there’s a way that a story should end. The previous books should have been full of foreshadowing that led us to the conclusion. The author should be firmly of the idea that this is the way that the book ended because that’s the only way it could have ended. Not, well that’s what everyone wants so I’ll write that!
Now, did this stop me from reading the book? No. Did it lure more readers to become engaged with the series? Possibly. So from a marketing standpoint, it might have been a good idea. But for those of us in this camp, it was a little disappointing from an artistic standpoint.
Now that that’s out of the way, onward! This book picks up right where book two ends. We’re thrown right into the middle of the ongoing battle with the Lilin. From the get-go we get thrown some cool twists. Layla’s wings now have black feathers and she doesn’t look all mottled anymore. Which, to me, awesome! I really liked the mental image of that, much more than the part gargoyle look she was rocking before.
There’s a lot of action right away, and I was immediately engrossed in the story. Jennifer Armentrout writes really engaging characters and I adore Roth, he’s my favorite. A plus as well is that for all the lead up to which guy she would end up with, it’s resolved fairly early on in the story which leaves the rest of the book to develop that relationship. And can I say, for all my complaining that the readers got to choose. . . they chose right by me! It was the one that I hoped would happen. Le swoon. This book definitely rides the line between YA and NA, with some scenes being pretty clear about what was happening between the sheets. But for the most part, they ended up being fade to black situations and it didn’t end up crossing that line completely.
I really enjoyed the plot and adored the fact that Layla stood up for herself and turned into even more of a badass than she was before. She really came into her own throughout the book and was thrown into some pretty extreme situations.
For a 400 page book, I read it really quickly. I couldn’t put it down, and it had that characteristic that I enjoy with all of her books, they have really relatable, fun characters with tons of sass. I will say that there was a point where it got a little slow, but it wasn’t that distracting from the story.  And the romance in it was A+ !!
I love this world that she created and I really hope she writes some more stories that are set here. I’ve really enjoyed this series, but I hope this was a one time marketing technique and that this won’t be repeated in the future.
Have you guys read this? I’d love to hear what you thought!

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