Reviewed by Nicole Lynn on
Becca Chandler is trying to keep her head down after her ex-boyfriend spread some nasty rumors. Now all the wrong type of guys are pursuing her. All the unwanted attention leads her to stay late after school one day for a defense class. When she finally heads to car to head home she hears a fight in the parking lot. Not sure what drives her decision, Becca goes after the two dudes beating up a kid on the ground with her car. They’re gone for a few minutes, enough for her to realize the kid on the ground is Chris Merrick–the youngest of the Merrick brothers. But then the attackers are back and Becca begins putting her newly learned defense mechanisms into use and Chris randomly threatens them with a water bottle. What’s up with that? Turns out Chris and his brothers can control the elements–Fire, Air, Earth and Water. Now Becca’s being threatened by those same attackers, she’s trying to figure out Chris’ secrets and weird behavior, and she’s starting to hang out with the new kid Hunter. But Becca doesn’t know who to trust and who’s the real dangerous person in her life. What’s even more surprising is what Becca finds out about herself.
Although my summary is mainly about Becca, the story has a lot of focus on the Merrick brothers themselves. The reader gets inside looks into Chris’ family and the life as an elemental. The Merrick brothers consist of Micheal (the eldest), Gabriel & Nick (the twins), and Chris (the youngest). The brothers are left on their own under Micheal’s care when their parents died in a house fire. Kemmerer does a great job writing in a male voice/point of view. Capturing the dialogue of the opposite gender is sometimes hard as a writer. This particular characteristic of Kemmerer’s writing is something she excels at. Each of the Merrick brother’s personalities are different and clearly written. I could tell the differences of each of them very well by the end of the novel. It made continuing on into each of the other brother’s stories much easier. Their voice and character were already set from this first novel. It also helped for me as a reader to connect with the characters. I connected with different aspects of all their personalities–including Becca’s.
Becca is a pretty okay heroine as well. She does need to be saved more than once in the story, but she fights back as well. She stands up to Chris and to Micheal (who can be pretty intimidating). She tries not to let things like those nasty rumors get to her and she does her best to figure things out. She doesn’t run scared. I like the tougher girl image that Kemmerer portrays Becca as. She’s not the perfect no-fear kick-ass heroine, but she’s no damsel in distress either. I think Becca is a happy medium with just a pinch more kick-ass in her as she grows stronger throughout the novel. She realizes she’s a lot tougher than she thought.
Another thing Kemmerer excels at is her ability to create action and suspense. To say I was glued to the pages was an understatement. Storm was one of those stories where I was up to the early mornings of the evening trying to read as much as I could before I had to actually force myself to put the book down and go to bed. I was captured in the storyline–wanting to know how they’d survive the next obstacle, would Becca end up with Hunter or Chris, who was the real one after them? Kemmerer did a great job creating a fast-paced novel.
The world she created was believable and enthralling as well. I loved the way she wrote the element scenes–when one or all the brothers were using their elements. One of my favorite scenes was the one on the bridge. I won’t spoil it here, but I’ll just say it was extremely vivid and I literally thought I was there. These kinds of moments when I’m reading really show me when a writer is not just good, but great. Plus the whole idea of the elements is something I’m drawn to. The elements storyline has been done before, but I think Kemmerer presents a refreshing and unique twist to it–especially writing from five hot guys’ points of view.
The only negative thing that I would have to say about Storm was not seeing more development of Chris and Becca’s relationship once they actually do get together. As a reader you know that they’re going to end up together, but it doesn’t really happen for a while and once it does the story is practically over. Their chemistry and interactions throughout the novel is good, but I’d just like to have seen more post-getting together. The other books do show glimpses of their relationship, but they focus on a different brother’s story and point of view. I haven’t read any of the novellas, so I’m not sure if they’re relationship is expanded in any of these. I just really would love to see more Becca/Chris.
Overall, this novel was a great start to the Elemental series. Storm introduces the readers to the Merrick family perfectly through Becca and Chris’ story. I’m surprised that there isn’t as much buzz about this series as I would have assumed. The series is very addicting and definitely well-written. Kemmerer has readers falling in love with all the Merrick brothers–Hunter as well. By the end of the series it’s going to be hard to pick which elemental you’d fall for; although it seems some are starting to make their choices already. I’m just going to have to wait to the end of the series to see which one I love the most–it’s definitely going to be a hard decision ;) I hope you pick up this series and give it a try!
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 11 January, 2014: Finished reading
- 11 January, 2014: Reviewed