{Elementals Read Along} Review: Spirit by Brigid Kemmerer

Title: Spirit
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Series: Elementals, book #3
Publisher: Kensington/KTeen
Publication Date: May 28, 2013
Source: ARC received from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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…

Yep, that about sums it up.  After reading the rest of this series the last couple of months, I was not expecting the turn Spirit took.  And I liked it!  It's rare that a book can truly surprise me these days, and I am impressed.

But, oh, my poor, misunderstood Hunter.  He's had a rough go of it lately.  Losing the only two people who really know you is difficult enough.  But then he trekked to Annapolis to avenge their deaths, and it was like Daniel walking into the lions' den.  Except that it didn't have to be.

Hunter's trust issues plagued him (and me!) for the majority of this book, and I'll freely admit that I was more than a little exasperated with his inability to trust anyone.  His Guide training has taught him never to trust anyone and to use everyone.  That first bit isn't hard for him at all, but he does have some trouble with the latter.  And then he meets Kate, his perfect counterpart.  This girl is even less likely to trust people, though she's not above doing what she has to in order to get what she needs or wants.

I like that despite everything that's happened, Hunter remains in the forefront.  I knew he was getting his own book when I started the series, but I thought that after this, he'd fade into the background.  But none of these Elementals are bit players, and I should have realized that Hunter's role as a Fifth would always be important.  What's even more interesting, though, is that the Merricks won't let Hunter fade away either, even if he's hell-bent on not trusting them.

Sure, the bromance between Gabriel and Hunter has fizzled after the realizations we were left with at the end of Spark.  But the awesome, sometimes over-bearing Michael really steps into his role as guardian in this book, and when everyone else is ready to write Hunter off, he takes the poor guy under his wing.  I know this is Hunter's book, but man, Michael really shined in it.  I sometimes forget how young he really is, that he's only five or six years older than the twins.  But in Spirit, he reminded me of why I liked his character so much in Elemental and why I was willing to give this series a chance in the first place.

I feel like this is the PNR series I've been waiting my whole life for.  It's not perfect, but it's so much freakin' fun that I don't care about those slight issues.  I just know that I can't get enough of these boys, er, books...I only wish that I didn't have to wait so long for Nicky and Michael's books!

Rating:  

***Stop by tomorrow for my stop on the Spirit Blog Tour hosted by The Midnight Garden!  I'm interviewing Gabriel!!!  This should be interesting!  =)***

Don't forget we're discussing this book over on Steph's GR review on Sunday as part of the Elementals Read Along.  It's not to late to join!!!

Elementals series

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 Kemmerer finds the time to write somewhere between caring for her family and working at her day job, but sometimes she ends up mothering her coworkers and managing her family. Storm: The Elemental Series was her first novel.

Find Brigid:

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