Review: More than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer

More than We Can Tell

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Pages: 304

Release date: 8^th March 2018

Genre: Young adult Contemporary
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Synopsis (Goodreads) *While this book exists in the same universe as Letters to the Lost, it is a standalone title.*

Rev Fletcher is battling the demons of his past. But with loving adoptive parents by his side, he’s managed to keep them at bay...until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back.

Emma Blue spends her time perfecting the computer game she built from scratch, rather than facing her parents’ crumbling marriage. She can solve any problem with the right code, but when an online troll’s harassment escalates, she’s truly afraid.

When Rev and Emma meet, they both long to lift the burden of their secrets and bond instantly over their shared turmoil. But when their situations turn dangerous, their trust in each other will be tested in ways they never expected. This must-read story will once again have readers falling for Brigid Kemmerer’s emotional storytelling. 

Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars

More Than We Can Tell follows the story of Rev and Emma, We first met Rev in ‘Letters to the Lost’ but this can be read as a stand-alone.

Rev and Emma both have personal struggles; Rev is a foster child who was taken in and adopted by amazing parents and continue to help him to move forward after surviving an abusive childhood; when he is contacted by his birth father it triggers past feelings and hurt as well as confusion, his parents have also taken on a new foster child so there are a few changes in his life. On a night out he comes across Emma who is a game designer with a father who is quite absent and a mother who doesn’t understand her passion; they connected despite their differences.

Honestly, I was intrigued by both of these characters and their back stories but I didn’t find any chemistry between them and their dialogue felt stilted, I also felt they were quite reliant on one another despite barely knowing each other; they also spent a majority of the book apart so there wasn’t a lot of face to face interactions.

Brigid Kemmerer covered a lot of subjects in this book such as cyber bullying, physical, sexual and mental abuse, relationship breakdowns and friendship drama but I would have liked more of a resolution to these problems rather than a mention.

What I did enjoy was the mystery of Emma’s troll, I had an inkling of who it was from the onset and I was right! I was also quite intrigued about Matthew, the new foster child and my heart truly broke for him. I thought Rev’s foster parents were wonderful.

Overall, I didn’t love this book; it had its positives but for me there was more negatives and the biggest of all was the morose feel that it had. I couldn’t fault Brigid Kemmerer’s writing but I will have to pass on any more books in this series.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing via Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

About the author: BRIGID KEMMERER is author of LETTERS TO THE LOST (Bloomsbury; April 4, 2017), a dark, contemporary Young Adult romance; THICKER THAN WATER (Kensington, December 29, 2015), a New Adult paranormal mystery with elements of romance; and the YALSA-nominated Elemental series of five Young Adult novels and three e-novellas which Kirkus Reviews calls “refreshingly human paranormal romance” and School Library Journal describes as “a new take on the supernatural genre.” She lives in the Baltimore area with her husband and four sons.

Review: Spirit (Elemental #3) by Brigid Kemmerer

Spirit

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Series: Elemental

Pages: 301

Publisher: Kensington

Amazon – TBD

Synopsis (Goodreads)

With power comes enemies. Lots of them.

Hunter Garrity just wants to be left alone. He’s learned the hard way that his unusual abilities come at a price. And he can’t seem to afford any allies.

He’s up to his neck in hostiles. His grandfather, spoiling for a fight. The Merrick brothers, who think he ratted them out. Calla, the scheming psycho who wants to use him as bait.

Then there’s Kate Sullivan, the new girl at school. She’s not hostile. She’s bold. Funny. Hot. But she’s got an agenda, too.

With supposedly secret powers rippling to the surface everywhere around him, Hunter knows something ugly is about to go down. But finding out what means he’ll have to find someone he can trust…

Review: 4 ½ out of 5 stars

Spirit is the third book in the Elementals series by Brigid Kemmerer and was provided to me by Kensington books/Netgalley.

Spirit is sixteen year-old Hunter Garrity’s story; in Spark he fell out with the Merrick’s after he was accused of being a traitor and life is really throwing him a curveball – in the initial stages I really felt sorry for him, he was treated terribly by his grand-father, Calla was his biggest headache and causing him a lot of grief and nothing seemed to be going his way.

I liked tattooed, pierced bad-boy Hunter from the very beginning of the series, he’s misunderstood, stand-offish and prefers to keep to himself; in this book I wish he could have relied on his friends more rather than taken on too much himself but it was nice to see him slowly start to trust. Being a Fifth gave him the ability to manipulate all of the elements but being a guide gave him the responsibility to dispose of pure elementals which put him in a difficult place, he needed to work out which side he belonged on which wasn’t always an easy decision.

The love interest in this book is Kate Sullivan who was in town for a purpose, I didn’t trust her whatsoever initially and didn’t know where her loyalties lay, but I came to love her interactions with Hunter and how she questioned what she had been taught about the Elementals her whole life, she was a level-headed, confident and strong character; the text messages and banter between her and Hunter were sweet and believable.

I loved the roles each of the characters played in this book, especially Michael who is an absolute sweetheart! The Merrick brothers and their respective partners are each amazing and the villains are written to perfection, Calla is crazy and Silver was despicable!

The plot was fast-paced, emotionally intense and action packed and Ms. Kemmerer threw in a shockingly brutal twist I never saw coming; it definitely wasn’t expected and left me quite saddened.

Overall, Spirit is a great addition to this wonderful series, Brigid Kemmerer’s writing is gripping and her story-telling keeps me riveted. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Elemental world-building and the parts each of the characters play in the overall story.

Thank-you to Kensington Books for the opportunity to read and review Spirit.

About the author: Brigid Kemmerer was born in Omaha, Nebraska, though her parents quickly moved her all over the United States, from the desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the lakeside in Cleveland, Ohio, and several stops in between, eventually settling near Annapolis, Maryland. Brigid started writing in high school, and her first real “novel” was about four vampire brothers causing a ruckus in the suburbs. Those four brothers are the same boys living in the pages of The Elemental Series, so Brigid likes to say she’s had four teenage boys taking up space in her head for the last seventeen years. (Though sometimes that just makes her sound nuts.)

Brigid writes anywhere she can find a place to sit down (and she’s embarrassed to say a great many pages of The Elemental Series were written while sitting on the floor in the basement of a hotel while she was attending a writers’ conference). Most writers enjoy peace and quiet while writing, but Brigid prefers pandemonium. A good thing, considering she has three boys in the house, ranging in age from an infant to a teenager.

While writing STORM, it’s ironic to note that Brigid’s personal life was plagued by water problems: her basement flooded three times, her roof leaked, her kitchen faucet broke, causing the cabinet underneath to be destroyed by water, the wall in her son’s room had to be torn down because water had crept into the wall, and her bedroom wall recently developed a minor leak. Considering SPARK, book 2 in the series, is about the brother who controls fire, Brigid is currently making sure all the smoke detectors in her house have batteries.

Brigid loves hearing from people, and she probably won’t refer to herself in the third person like this if you actually correspond with her. She has a smartphone surgically attached to her person nearby at all times, and email is the best way to reach her. Her email address is brigidmary@gmail.com.

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ARC REVIEW: Spark (Elemental #2) by Brigid Kemmerer

 

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Series: Elemental

Genre: Young Adult – Paranormal

Publisher: K-Teen

Amazon pre-order: Spark

Release Date: 28^th August 2012

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Gabriel Merrick plays with fire. Literally.

Sometimes he can even control it. And sometimes he can’t. Like the fire that killed his parents.

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.

More than Gabriel’s pride is at stake -- this could cost him his family, maybe his life. And no one seems to hear him. Except a shy sophomore named Layne, a brainiac who dresses in turtlenecks and jeans and keeps him totally off balance. Layne understands family problems, and she understands secrets. She has a few of her own.

Gabriel can’t let her guess about his brothers, about his abilities, about the danger that’s right at his heels. But there are some risks he can’t help taking.

The fuse is lit…

REVIEW: 5 out of 5 stars

Spark was kindly provided to me by Netgalley for K-Teen and follows on right where Storm left off.

I absolutely loved Storm, book one in the Elemental series which followed Chris and Becca’s story but I wasn’t a huge fan of Gabriel, he held so much angst and anger which seemed to flow over into this book.

Gabriel Merrick has had a difficult time adapting to his ability which is controlling fire, harnessing it hasn’t proved easy since he first came into his element as a teen and is also what caused the death of his parents leaving him with a lot of guilt, he acts out a lot and is often in trouble with either his poorly thought out actions or with what he says; he could be quite the jerk at times.

I enjoyed Spark’s plot, when an arsonist starts lighting fires in town, all the signs point to Gabriel and being the stubborn being he is he doesn’t refute the claims he just continues to assist when needed, with the help of his new found friend, Hunter. The Elementals have also called a truce with Becca’s father, the guide who caused them all the grief in Storm – Gabriel wasn’t too keen on agreeing to this so acts out.

Gabriel was such a tortured, lonely soul who I truly felt sorry for; his behavior left a lot to be desired but he had so much anger and sorrow that it just caused him to be somber, argumentative and at times plain cruel. He ran from any drama rather than confronted it full-on.

The love interest is Layne, who I thought was amazing! She stood up to Gabriel and let him know exactly how she felt about his behavior. She wasn’t the popular cool girl, she was the type who blended in, she was extremely smart and helped Gabriel in a way that noone had done before – besides his brothers, they complimented each other really well. Layne also had a big secret of her own which completely shocked me!

Each of the characters is developed to perfection, secondary included. You can’t help but feel for Michael and the task he has taken on in raising his wayward brothers. I adore Gabriel’s twin Nick but I was saddened by how their relationship had changed in this book and seeing Chris and Becca together and happy was wonderful. Simon was also pretty sweet as was the enigmatic, mysterious Hunter. We also have the bad guys who were written really well.

Brigid Kemmerer has written a real page turner with amazing characterizations in Spark; the pacing flowed beautifully, the writing was detailed and perfect and the plot gripping.

Overall, Spark was highly entertaining with wonderful characters, heartbreak, a sweet romance, and action and intrigue that kept the story flowing perfectly. Ms Kemmerer is certainly going on to my auto-buy list; both books in this series have been amazing! My only gripe is I now have a whole 10 months to wait for the next book in the series, Spirit which is told from Hunter’s POV.

REVIEW: Storm (Elemental #1) by Brigid Kemmerer

 

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Series: Elemental

Pages: 353

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Kensington

Amazon: Storm

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

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.

REVIEW: 5 out of 5 stars

Storm by Brigid Kemmerer is the first book in the Elemental series by Brigid Kemmerer and was a wonderful, engaging read that had me completely engrossed from the very first page.

Becca Chandler’s reputation isn’t all that stellar since her ex-boyfriend and his friends spread nasty rumors about her. She has distanced herself from everyone and remains close to her best-friend only in order to avoid the constant flow of remarks from her peers.

Things change when she saves fellow junior, Chris Merrick from a beating in the school parking lot and she becomes entwined in an ongoing feud in a world she can barely believe and ultimately put herself in danger.

Chris and his brothers, Michael, Nick and Gabriel are what are known as Elementals – they are able to control the elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire and have been watched their whole lives because of the powers they yield. The brother’s story is certainly intriguing as is their individual powers which they are still learning to control. The banter between them was so realistic and had me giggling on a few occasions, they were each so different but all enjoyable to read about (although Gabriel could have done with a few more Becca punches).

I loved Chris as a love interest for Becca, I just wish he would have acted on his feelings before newcomer Hunter got a chance; although I liked Hunter as a character, I questioned his intentions and those mysterious bracelets from the onset. I am not a love triangle fan at all but this one was written really well.

Becca as a main heroine was wonderful! The way she suffered through the bullying was terrible; I despised her ex Drew for what he did but she kept her head high and held on to her dignity. She was strong, independent and cared deeply for those close to her.

Storm was such a wonderful debut for Ms Kemmerer filled with mystery, drama, romance and action as well as a few twists along the way just to keep us guessing. Her writing was brilliant and the characters although flawed were written to perfection, I loved each of them. The world building and the solid plot is what kept me riveted so I am eagerly anticipating the release of the next book in the series, Spark which will be released on the 28^th August 2012.