Storm

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Series: Elementals # 1

Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Kensington

Released: 24 April 2012

Summary: Earth, Fire, Air, Water – they have more power than you dream.

Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her, Becca Chandler is suddenly getting all the guys—all the ones she doesn't want. Then she saves Chris Merrick from a beating in the school parking lot. Chris is different. Way different: he can control water—just like his brothers can control fire, wind, and earth. They’re powerful. Dangerous. Marked for death.

And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca.

Secrets are hard to keep when your life’s at stake. When Hunter, the mysterious new kid around school, turns up with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, Becca thinks she can trust him. But then Hunter goes head-to-head with Chris, and Becca wonders who’s hiding the most dangerous truth of all.

The storm is coming . . .

For Fans Of: Immortal City, Storm Dancer, Wrecked, and Unraveling

My Review: Maybe it’s just been the last little while, and it’s more of a personal thing, but this book kind of bothered me.  Don’t get me wrong, the author is incredibly talented, and the story is really fantastic.  I love the idea of a family that can control the elements, especially when that family is four fantastic looking brothers.  The villains were also quite…villainous.  As in: I got angry at them in my head villainous.  If they actually lived in my real life I would have wanted to run them over with a truck.  Or a steam train 1850’s Western style.  Not kidding.   

But...that was also my problem with it.  Becca has to go through a lot of crap in this book. Seriously.  I felt SO bad for her throughout most of the book.  And some of the things that happen to her seriously made me cringe and my stomach turn over.  They were NOT the kind of things that I wanted to read happening to the heroine.  I feel like it’s okay to send your heroine through some bad crap, but the way that this was illustrated in Storm made me want to rip my hair out or barf or something (not in a good way).  I understand that life is not rose pedals and rainbows, but a little bit of happiness never hurt anyone did it?

I loved the family in this book, and the villains were a particularly evil brand, but I just wonder if there could have been a little bit more of a balance between good and evil?  I wanted Becca to be happy more often, when really she spends the bulk of the novel sad, confused, and scared of what's happening.  Becca is a smart heroine, but I almost felt like that Kremmerer was focusing so much on how the two main lovebirds weren't right for each other that by the end I didn't really care either way.  Like I said: maybe it's me, but I really had kind of a hard time with this one.