{Review} Spark (Elemental #2) by Brigid Kemmerer

Posted by Donna
Release Date: August 28th, 2012
Finished Date: March 20th, 2017

Publishers: Kensington
Genre: YA, Paranormal
Source: Bought
Format: eBook

Pages: 345
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo 

 

Gabriel Merrick plays with fire. Literally. Sometimes he can even control it. And sometimes he can't. 

Gabriel has always had his brothers to rely on, especially his twin, Nick. 

But when an arsonist starts wreaking havoc on their town, all the signs point to Gabriel. Only he's not doing it. And no one seems to believe him. 

Except a shy sophomore named Layne, a brainiac who dresses in turtlenecks and jeans and keeps him totally off balance. Because Layne has a few secrets of her own... 

The Review: Spark is the second book in Brigid Kemmerer’s Elemental series and I’m so glad I decided to carry out with this series. It’s been too long since I have been able to dive into a series and not want to put it down.

Each book features a different character and this time it’s another Merrick brother – Gabriel. Gabriel has an affinity to Fire, he can start them but learning control is hard for him. Sometimes his element likes to play but other times it likes to take over and as everyone knows fire is catching so it’s a very dangerous thing to play with.

I really liked getting to know Gabriel more. In Storm he was very much the fun brother who doesn’t hold back what he wants to say, however as you read Spark you start to see that under his tough guy exterior he’s actually struggling with a lot issues – the loss of his parents and the guilt he feels over it, he feels stupid for not being able to pass math without the help of his twin brother Nick and also he actually feels pretty alone. He hasn’t got a lot of close friends nor has he got a girlfriend so when his brother’s start pairing off, he struggles with his loneliness and his guilt for his issues causes him to argue with everyone close to him. Then there is also the fact that someone is starting fires in the neighbourhood and Gabriel is suspect number one. Gabriel’s story is a sad one just because he’s dealing with so much but I still enjoyed every minute of his journey.

The bright spot in this story is Layne who does become Gabriel’s love interest. She is a great character to get to know but she is also dealing with her own issues which vary from parental problems, to having a deaf brother who is being bullied at school and then finally to Lanie being hurt from a young age and dealing with the after effects of that. The author tackles all of these issues very well and as a reader you can see why there are so many obstacles in the characters life – it’s for them to grow and to become stronger characters but it’s also eye opening to readers to some of the real day to day issues some people deal with and as I said, the author tackles this well and it honestly made for great reading.

I love the whole element aspect of the story. Being able to control either fire, water, air or earth has always been interesting to me and I’m enjoying exploring it with this story. I’m honestly not sure which brother or which element I like more! Hopefully I’ll be able to answer that by the end of the series.

As the series progresses you can see trouble brewing for the Merrick brothers and the people attached to them. The story is around someone starting local fires but there is a lot more to it. The Merrick brothers have to keep a low profile to not draw attention to themselves or they could be killed – so yeah, this is definitely one read you’ll burn straight through.
Now the big question for you readers – what element would you like to control?