Fearless

Title:  Fearless

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp

Publish Date:  31 July 2012

Pages: 59

ISBN:  9780758285522

Source:  bought

Genre:  YA, paranormal

Series:  Elemental

Other books in series:  Elemental, Storm, Spark, Spirit (2013)

Rating: liked

Being a force of nature doesn’t keep you safe.

Hunter Garrity is used to watching his back. The kids at school sense something different about him. And they’re right.

Hunter has powers that have nothing to do with how hard he can throw a punch.

Maybe that’s what Clare Kasten is picking up. She’s shy, quiet, and intense, but she’s sought him out. There’s no telling what she wants from him.

But Hunter knows enough to sense a secret when it’s close. And getting close to Clare is a danger he’s ready to face…

What is it that makes Hunter who he is?  In this novella, you find out a little bit of Hunter’s history.  It starts out like other books in the Elemental series, with tales of Hunter being bullied.  He is walking home from school, hears someone following him and it reminds him of the other times he was picked on during school.  Only, this time, it isn’t who he thinks it is. 

The person that is following him is Clare Kasten.  She says that she wanted to talk to him about a presentation he made in class about guns.  She continues to ask him about and if he knows how to use them.  She eventually talks Hunter into showing them to her.  That is when Hunter’s uncle walks in.  He isn’t happy is what he sees and reminds Hunter of what their ability is and how it will affect them.  What does Clare really want from Hunter?  Why is it that Hunter’s uncle and father warn him away from Clare? 

After reading Storm, I was very interested to learn more about Hunter Garrity.  You don’t get to learn a lot about him in Storm, just that he is unsual in the world of elementals.  I liked this novella.  It gave you some background into why Hunter says, does and acts the way he does.  Fearless is book 1.5 in the Elemental series and I’m very interested to learn more about the Merricks in Spark.

Storm

Title:  Storm

Author:  Brigid Kemmerer

Publisher:  Kensington Publishing Corp

Publish Date:  24 April 2012

Pages: 353

ISBN:  9780758272812

Source:  bought

Genre:  YA, supernatural, romance

Series:  Elementals

Other books in series:  Elemental, Spark, Fearless, Spirit (2013)

Rating: Liked

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 . . .

What is it about Chris Merrick that would cause Becca to help him?  That is how this story started.  Chris was getting beat up by some guys outside of school and Becca rushes to help him.  She eventually gets him away from them and takes Chris home.  If she thought she was in the clear, she was wrong.  The Merricks include Chris, Michael and twins Nick and Gabriel.  Nick and Gabriel both go to her school and they are “hot” according to Becca.  When she brings Chris home unconscious from the beating, the Merricks instantly think something is wrong with what Becca tells them that happened.  Michael scares her and she leaves. 

There is something different about the Merricks.  They are elementals.  They can control the elements.  Chris’ element is water, so when Becca gave him water during the fight, it revived him.  Becca doesn’t know this when she brings him home.  Michael Merrick thinks that she does and that is why she gave him the water.  It is also suspicious that Becca doesn’t want to tell them who exactly she is.  The reason for that is because her ex-boyfriend spread nasty rumors about her and now everyone wants to “date” her.

There have been threats for a long time that the Guides would be called in on the Merricks.  The guides are the people who monitor elementals.  They are the “judge, jury and executioner.”  There are symbols that are used to indicate they were called.  The problem is that it was painted on Becca’s garage and she isn’t an elemental.

Then, there is this new kid who shows up in school, Hunter.  Becca isn’t sure about him in the beginning.  She kinda wants to see him, but he is snarky.  Who is Hunter and why has he shown up at school?  What is up with his white hair?  What is going to happen between the Merricks and the guides?  Will Becca be involved in that and how?

I was looking forward to this book ever since I read Elemental.  I was instantly fascinated by the Merricks and elementals in general.  I love how each of the Merricks have a different ability.  Something that is not usual.  At first, Becca is afraid of them, not because they are elementals, but because they are big, burly guys who are threatening.  I liked that after she got to know them, they tolerated her a little better.  Michael, the eldest, is always looking out for his brothers, sometimes a little too much.  The younger Merricks needed a brother as much as a parental figure.  After reading Fearless, Spark is next on my list to read about the Merrick brothers.

Author Interview: Brigid Kemmerer

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

Brigid Kemmerer, the author of Elemental and Storm, sat down and answered some questions that YABR had for her.

YABR: What inspires you when you write?

BK: Okay, so I know this is going to sound really weird, but when I'm stuck with a scene or something, I go on YouTube and look for choreographed dances that match my favorite songs. There are a lot of great amateur choreographers out there! I read once that when you have writer's block, you should appreciate an art form that's not your own. Choreography does it for me. Here's an example of what I mean:

YABR: Do you base your characters off of real people?  Do you have a process for coming up with characters?  Who is your favorite character?

BK: All my characters come straight out of my head. The closest to a real person would be Becca's mom, who is a night nurse, just because my mom has been a night nurse almost all my life. When I'm trying to create a new character, I just throw a person into some kind of conflict and see how they respond. They all grow organically from there. I can't pick a favorite!

YABR: In the Elemental Series, the Merricks and other have powers unlike anything that I have read before.  I like how the different powers deal with the different elements.   How did you come up with this concept?

BK: Just lucky, I guess. :-) No, seriously, I'd struck out with two novels: a vampire one, and a Greek mythology one. While the writing wasn't as strong in both those books, I also coincidentally went out with them while Twilight and Percy Jackson were right on the verge of going huge. I sat down and decided to write something that no one was doing, and I knew I had four brothers I wanted to play with. I had a lot of ideas in the running: four horsemen of the apocalypse, four leaf clovers (leprechaun brothers, anyone?), but the elements seemed to stick.

YABR: What do you wish was different about the book(s), if anything?

BK: Nothing! I'm really proud of how Storm came out.

YABR: What is your favorite item on your work space?

BK: Work space? I have two small children. My work space is anywhere I can hide with my laptop.

YABR: What type/genre of books do you like to read?

BK: Everything! I read from Paranormal YA to women's fiction to high fantasy to contemporary romance (YA and adult) to thrillers.

YABR: Favorite color

BK: Green. (Whew. An easy question.)

YABR: Favorite holiday/season

BK: Halloween. I used to love imagining that strange creatures would come out and frolic among the mortals. I still love wondering about it.

YABR: Word that best describes you and why?

BK: Driven.

YABR: Optimist or pessimist?

BK: Optimist.

YABR: Favorite author/book/series

BK: Impossible to answer. Two recent reads that knocked my socks off were Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi and I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella.

YABR: Favorite food/drink

BK: Popcorn and mojitos.

YABR: Favorite place to read/write

BK: For writing, anywhere I can sit down. I wrote an entire chapter of Storm while sitting on the floor of the basement of the RWA hotel in 2010. For reading, anywhere.

There are many books coming out in The Elemental Series.  Elemental and Storm are already out.  

Elemental Series:

0.5: Elemental

1: Storm

1.5: Fearless – August 2012

2: Spark – 28 August 2012

3: Spirit – May 2013

Elemental

Title:  Elemental

Author:  Brigid Kemmerer

Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp

Publish Date:  27 March 2012

Pages:  50

ASIN: B006MLKZAG 

Source:  bought

Genre:  YA, paranormal

Series:  Elemental

Other books in series:  Storm, Spark (28 August 2012), Fearless (September 2012), Spirit(2013)

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.

What happens when your one safe haven isn’t safe anymore?  That is what happens to Michael Merrick. He is an elemental, a strong one known as a pure.  His element is the earth.  He can use the power that he finds in it to make things happen – cracks in the pavement, earthquakes, et cetera.  

Pures are feared because of the power that they hold and because of this, most of them are put to death by the Guides.  It is the law that if you know of a pure, you are to tell the Guides so they can be taken care of.  An agreement was made that would keep Michael safe if he only doesn’t use his power.   This would be easy, if not for people like Seth Drake and Tyler Morgan, who constantly bullied him trying to get him to retaliate.

He goes to the batting cages every Wednesday and Friday to let off some steam and just be in a place where he doesn’t have to worry about people trying to get him to use his element.  This is where he first sees Emily Morgan, Tyler’s sister.  He immediately feels angry because the one place that he could go to for solace was taken over by the people who wanted to turn him over to the Guides.  His parents tell him that he cannot go to those batting cages anymore.

Emily Morgan is scared at the sight of Michael Merrick coming into the place where she works.  She thinks that he did it on purpose to get at her.  When she tells her parents, they think the same thing and worry for her safety.   Emily refuses to quit her job because it took her so long to get a job in the first place and this job is her ticket out of this town after graduation from high school.

What happens when neither Emily nor Michael refuse to do what is asked of them?  Will Tyler and Seth interfere?  Is Emily safe?

I was anxious to read this book because of the hype around Storm.  You get the first glimpse into the Merricks and the problems that being pure elementals cause them.  I really liked this book because it gave you a backstory, and I always like backstories.  It showed you some of Michael that you don’t really see in Storm.  I will be sure to keep this series on my radar and cannot wait until August when Spark is released. 

On the cover is a picture of whom I’m presuming to be Michael.  He is surrounded by branches, which is appropriate, since his element is earth.   I like the green on the cover.  I think this conveys the mystery in Michael Merrick well.  

•Emily Morgan.  She works at a “sports complex,” even though she doesn’t think it is much of one.  She doesn’t get a lot of customers, so when Michael Merrick appears, she is not only surprised to see him, but scared as well.  She doesn’t let other people push her around, including the Merricks.

•Michael Merrick.  How can you not like the guy who constantly gets picked on for things that are not his fault?  He didn’t ask to be a pure elemental.  He is persistent and doesn’t want his life to change for things beyond his control.

 

•Tyler Morgan and Seth Drake.  They are the bullies in this story who try to get Michael to use his power.  If he uses his power, he will be killed by the Guides.

•The Morgans and the Merricks – Emily’s and Michael’s parents.  I put them both in the same group because they both say the same thing, only for different reasons.  The Merricks tell Michael not to go to the batting cages anymore because they want to protect him.  The Morgans freak out when they learn that Michael went to the sports complex where Emily works and told the Merricks about it and that they didn’t want any trouble, meaning they didn’t want him to go there anymore.