Storm by Brigid Kemmerer

Rating: Wide Eyed - 4/5

Release Date: April 24th, 2012

Publishers: Kensington

Pages: 353

Source: Bought

Series: Elemental #1

First, a quick summary from Goodreads:

"Becca Chandler is suddenly getting all the guys - all the ones she doesn't want. Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her. 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."

One day, Becca stays late after school and on her way to her car she witnesses the youngest of the Merrick brothers getting a pretty nasty beating. Unable to ignore the situation, Becca makes some bad-ass decisions and decides to help out Chris. After chasing the bullies away, Becca sees Chris' state and gives him some water... Little did she know that this act of kindness would completely turn her life around.

Right from there, the plot takes off and never slows down. Often I felt like I barely had any room to breathe the pacing was so fast in this book. But that was something that I didn't mind and really enjoyed about this it. For me, it's the plot that kept me reading, not the characters.

While the characters were admirable, I found that they were a little bit too teen-angsty for my taste and made some pretty stupid choices. Hunter would have probably been the most level-headed and the only character that I continued to root for throughout the book.

If you don't mind a good scrap (because quite a few punches were thrown in this book due to the high levels of testosterone), and fast-paced action with epic elemental powers thrown into the book, I would definitely recommend this book to you. I really liked this book and I can't wait to read the second book in the series, Spark!