Review: Every Last Breath (The Dark Elements #3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Series Ender Challenge #6)

This book I had to buy as soon as it came out, even though I just now got around to reading it!  I finally went ahead and picked it up over some other books I was thinking about reading, so that I could go ahead and add another book to my series ender challenge total.  As always, I just loved the book, and loved getting more time with my one of my favorite book boyfriends, Roth.  If you haven't read the first two, White Hot Kiss and Stone Cold Touch, then you should probably click on the titles in this sentence and read those reviews first, because this will have spoilers for the first books.

Well, as we left off in the last one, we found out who the Lilin was.  And it had taken over the body of someone so close to Layla, Sam.  They were able to get away from it in the meetup at the beginning, partly because they found out that hurting the Lilin also hurt Layla.  Layla learns that the souls that the Lilin takes don't just go where they should, like Sam's should go to heaven, they go to hell.  Layla's new mission, until she can figure out a way to fight the Lilin, is to save Sam's soul from hell.  To do that, she finds out she needs to talk to Death.  Roth's friend/co-hort Cayman, helps her figure out how to do it.  At the same time, Cayman tells Layla that she needs to hurry up and decide who she wants to be with, who she truly loves, Roth, or Zayne.  If you know me, I've been team Roth the whole time.  And I was not disappointed.  Sorry, a bit of a spoiler, but it happens early on in the story, so even as I read, I was always wondering if something would happen to take Roth away, he is on the in trouble list with his boss, you know who.  And in that case, would she be able to return to Zayne? 

Layla also decides to get her first tattooed familiar, and it is a fox.  Her plan to go to see Death is one that she knows she has to keep a secret from Roth, because there is no way he would let her go.  And she doesn't want him going to hell because of the whole being in trouble thing.  So she and Cayman devise a plan for her to get there.  Now, in the meetup with the Lilin, Layla finds that she has wings with feathers.  She soon learns there is more to the story of her mother, Lillith.  While Zayne is not happy with Layla's decision, he knows that she is still not evil, like the rest of the Wardens may think. And so he does his best to try to keep the "good" guys fighting with her.  Of course those that she knew and was friends with before have never doubted her.  And Zayne's father, who was like a father to Layla himself, also will see the error in his judgement from before. 

There will be more good guys lost, but in the end, Layla and Roth, and Zayne and the others will get to what needs to be done in order to save the human race from an apocalypse and hell on earth. 

A wonderful, fitting end to this story.  So many sexy scenes with Roth and Layla.  I love seeing just what Roth's familiars are like when they're in hell, and what they can change into, especially the kittens!  As always, I'm just led to want to read more of Armentrout's stories, and I will be certain to continue stocking up on them as I can!

Review: Cipher by Cindi Madsen

Thanks to The Book Machine and the author for letting me read an e-copy of this title.  I am very glad that I got a copy of it.  The blurb sounded pretty interesting, and once I started reading it, I loved it! 

The title refers to a job that the main character finds out she has been selected to perform. The main character, Summer, can often tell how and when someone is going to die when she touches them.  Unfortunately she doesn't get a lot of warning. When she sees the vision, it means it is going to happen sometime within the day.  So she isn't given the vision to save them.  One day this really beautiful, but strange woman shows up in Summer's room and tells her that she is a Cipher, and that her job is to help people settle their affairs before they die.  This beautiful woman is an angel of death named Gabriella.  And she tells Summer that she's been assigned to help a girl at her school, a girl in the "reject" group, fix her relationship with her mother.  Summer isn't sure how to do this. First off, Summer's best friend is another cheerleader, and her boyfriend is the quarterback.  So the reject group isn't really on her list of friends.  When Summer first moved to this town though, her first friend was Troy, who seems to be friends with everyone in the school.  So she asks him to help her meet Ashlyn.  When she sits with the group at lunch, Ashlyn isn't very friendly.  She knows the type of girls that Summer hangs out with, and so doesn't trust her.

But Summer gets to know the "reject" group, who prefer to be called the misfits, and really gets to like them.  A lot more than the girls on the dance team with her and her former best friend Kendall.  And her boyfriend Cody is the kind of jerk guy that a lot of girls know.  He says he loves her, but pressures her to have sex, and even gives Summer an ultimatum. So now she has no boyfriend, and must try to help this girl she is just now getting to know repair a relationship with her mother.  A mother who you can tell cares about Ashlyn, she just shows it more by telling her to exercise and lose weight.  Never really giving any compliments to her other than for her grades and when she eats what she considers a healthy meal.  And Troy is confusing, she thinks she's interested, but can't tell if he is interested in her.  And the more she gets to know Ashlyn, the more she likes her, and knowing that she is going to die, well that sucks.  Summer's last real best friend, her mother, died, and she doesn't want to lose her new one. 

While there is a lot going on in this story, and some of it may be kind of familiar, I think the idea behind it was pretty original.  And can I tell you how much I loved Ashlyn and Summer as friends?  I want to be friends with those two!  The silly sense of humor, all of it.  I have to say that I have no idea how in the world Summer stayed friends with Kendall, the popular cheerleader girl.  She had NO sense of humor!  At all!  I could not be around someone like that for very long.  I could be friends with them, but in no way best friends.  The boy that is the good one, Troy, well he was written very well.  The back and forth, does he or doesn't he bit worked well, in that it wasn't done in such an unbelievable way like is often done in these kinds of stories.  And when I finished and found out there was going to be a sequel?  I'm very glad about that, because I love the characters! 

Go out and get ahold of this book as soon as you can, it was a great read!  Here is a link to Amazon where it is only 99 cents!