Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Storm - The Elemental Series by Brigid Kemmerer

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Source: Purchased eBook 

From Goodreads:

Earth, Fire, Air, Water – they are more than you dream.

As an air Elemental, 17-year-old Emily Morgan doesn’t have much power. That’s okay—she knows what happens to kids who do.

Like Michael Merrick. He’s an earth Elemental, one with enough power to level cities. Which makes him sexy. Dangerous. And completely off limits. At least according to Emily’s family.

But her summer job puts her in close contact with Michael, and neither of them can help the attraction they feel. When forces of nature like theirs collide, one misstep could get someone killed. Because Emily’s family doesn’t just want her to stay away from him.

They want him dead.

So I need to start with the novella prequel of Storm before I get to the review.  I was lucky enough to get approved for Spark on Netgalley and decided to start at the beginning.  So I bought and devoured Elemental.

Elemental gives a little bit of Micheal's story. I was quickly excited with the world that is introduced and for the obvious pain that Micheal is forced to suffer.  He is hated for being born and he does what he can to minimize it but they won't stop bringing it.  It ends with a cliffhanger - one that is not answered very quickly by reading Storm.  Since Storm is Chris' story, I had to wait to get the background about what happened to Micheal.  And I cried.  I will admit that though I was frustrated to have to find out that way, I ended up loving how the author fits the pieces together in these books.  Needless to say, I wanted Storm like 2 seconds after I finished Elemental.

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Source: Purchased paperback

My Summary:

Becca Chandler doesn't think things can get much worse for her at school. The soccer player she thought was her boyfriend has half the school believing terrible lies about her. Taunted by the boys that want some action, she just wants them to leave her alone. Then things change but not for the better. She saves Chris Merrick from two guys beating him to death. There's something different about Chris. He has a way with water. It calls to him, helps him. Not bad really, except that he's a pure elemental and that makes people scared of him. They want him gone...dead along with his brothers. Now those same people think she's one of them adding her to the list of deaths that need to happen. The new kid would be a much better choice for her to date, right? But after Hunter bates Chris, maybe Becca should just go back to being taunted by the boys because this drama is getting too out of control, like a tornado. Who's gonna weather this coming storm?

My Thoughts:



5 stars - A powerful storm of passion, action, and strength that you will fly through!

No I wasn't supposed to be reading this book.  I kinda slipped in it my reading.  I can be a moody reader and some books just call to me.  How am I supposed to read something else when a book is calling from the shelf?  That's what this book did.  I bought it and had to sit it aside because I had review books that needed to get done first.  But....um...after Elemental, I could only ignore this one so long.  And really I only meant to read a chapter or two then get back to what I was supposed to be doing. <-----Like that ever happens - right??  This is so not a "read a couple chapters" kind of book.  No I read half of it in a few hours and finished it the next day.

I LOVE this elemental world.  While it seems that elements have been around forever, this one has a new take making it fresh and unique.  I loved the idea that different elementals had different amounts of power - thinking of it as the points of a star.  Landing on the point made you too powerful, forbidden, hunted, a target for death - just for being born.  I really liked that social aspect of the story.  A lot of different people could relate to that persecution on a lot of different levels.  I thought it was brilliant.

Strong characters make this read emotional charged.  At one point, I was on twitter looking for a support group.  Two of my boys were in some serious trouble and I wasn't handling it very well.  That tells me that the characters are fabulous because I cared what happened to them.  I quickly had half dozen supporters who had read the book, understood my pain and encouraged me to read on.  Of course, I was done in no time and I loved the ending.  I had figured out some of it but there were some twists that had me surprised.

It's a good thing that I already have Spark.  I've decided to try and ignore it till the novella, Fearless, comes out at the end of the month.  I want to read them in order.  Now, I'm not sure I can ignore Spark that long, but I'm gonna try.

If uou read YA, then you NEED to read Storm! Dang, if you read then you NEED to read Storm.  It's that good. 



11 comments:

  1. I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book and am currently featuring it on my blog....I can't believe such few people have heard of it :) My favorite guy in Storm was Nick (I have no idea why) Chris was my fav in Spark though ...


    Krazyyme @ Young Readers

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  2. OMG I think I absolutely need to get this now. I have totally overloaded myself lately, but this sounds like a book I need to read for sure!

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  3. I read Elemental, but I haven't started Storm yet, now I want to. I have Spark from Netgalley to, but wanted to read Storm first. Thanks for inspiring me to get busy. :)

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  4. I'm not familiar with series but would love to read it! Thanks for the awesome review. :)

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  5. I really liked Storm too! I've got Spark pre-ordered! I'm really looking forward to it. Great review Valerie! :-)

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  6. I might read this one next. I've had it for a while on my shelf and haven't picked it up. Wasn't sure if I would like it since one of my reviewers wasn't big on it. After your review I think I will give it a go next. Thank you!

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  7. I LOVED Storm!!! I can't wait for Spark. The Merrick brothers are so swoon-worthy. :)

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  8. I would have to agree with you on all but two things. One, I could not wait until the end of the month to read Spark. Two, no where is there a mention of Nick. He is the cutest brother you know.

    http://readingcave.blogspot.com/

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  9. Ahh, I LOVE it when an author can get you invested in characters like that, and make you care. I've heard a lot of good things about this one and it is very definitely on my soon-TBR! Great review, Val!

    Molli | Once Upon a Prologue

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  10. I've heard of this series! These boys sound like my kind of guys! Nice reviews!

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  11. O_______O
    You cried????????
    T_T
    ~adds them all to goodreads~
    Thanks, that really was all I needed to read in order to add them to my wishlist >.<

    #1Latina-CRY-Baby-Stalker

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