It's hard to believe that, after how much I loved the second book and how eager I was for my copy to arrive in the mail, that I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would.
On May the 6th, I finished Storm, the first book in the Elemental Series at school, and, since I'd already downloaded the second book, Spark, I decided to read that too--might as well, right?
Admittedly, Storm was just okay for me, but once I started reading Spark, I didn't stop until I'd finished the whole thing around eight p.m. the same day. Yep, I just finished two books in a single day, and this is where I should probably backtrack:
The whole reason I started reading this series in the first place was because I entered a giveaway on Goodreads for Spirit. That was during a time where I would just enter any old giveaway I saw my friend Amber entering, so it was like, "What the heck?" (Secretly, I didn't like the cover all that much, but a free book is a free book.) I never actually expected to win anything from it, so imagine my surprise when I checked my e-mail one Saturday to find out I'd won a free book!
Me!
Or, more specifically, an advanced reading copy. But still. THIS WAS AWESOME!
It was the third in a series, and it was one of the books I'd entered for where I didn't really care about.
But still. THIS WAS AWESOME!
I procrastinated promptly got the first two books on my Kindle, and started reading a few days later.
Now, by the time I'd finished Spark I had already convinced myself I was in love with Gabriel Merrick, one of the twins that are a part of the Merrick brothers. I also just found out from my cousin that my copy of the third book had arrived and my mom had taken it to work with her. So naturally I was shaking and excited for my mom to get home and when she did, I immediately took the envelope the book had came in and tore the book out from it. I was that excited to read the book.
I sat down and opened the cover.
Immediately from the first page Hunter is in danger.
To be honest? I thought it was boring.
Blah. Who cares? I didn't. Of course the guy lives, because, come on, there are 360+ something pages left in the book.
It went up and down from there for me. But mostly down.
I liked Hunter in the first book, and I liked him even more in the second book. Everyone was always talking about how he couldn't be trusted, how he was so mysterious and how his allegiances were unclear, but honestly? I never saw it. He'd always seemed like a trustworthy guy to me, and nice, so I never got what the big deal was about. It's Hunter, and his goodness just was really apparent for me.
But somehow this all went wrong in Spirit. For whatever reason, instead of liking him more like everyone else probably did, I just started liking him less and less. I don't even clearly remember why, and I couldn't explain it to you, but there you have it. There was just something off about this book that I couldn't really digest.
One of the reasons I didn't really like this book was Kate Sullivan. I tried to like her, I really did, but geez, this girl was like a Mary-Sue right from the start. As soon as you meet her she's described as stunningly gorgeous: short blonde hair down past her chin, luminous green eyes or whatever, perfect skin, and all that other good stuff.
Wow. Another amazingly good-looking person in this series. That makes what, including Hunter and Becca, the Merrick Tribe, Layne, Hannah, ten? (But don't forget her "mentor" Silver, who's hotness personified to the power of infinity with a British accent, too! Never mind, the count goes up to eleven hot main characters. Am I being picky? Maybe. But I'm getting sick of all these "good-looking" people running around all in this one school--where are the average people who are cool too?)
Then of course Hunter is instantly attracted to her the moment he sees her in the counselor's office (which, by the way, he's in because of a certain threat named Calla, who isn't all that threatening). She makes eye contact with him. And she does nothing. Except ask him a question, or say something witty, or I don't know, it's pretty much all a blur whatever she does because it's anything but memorable to me.
Oh, ho ho! This girl is so honest and different, thinks Hunter. She's so blunt and straightforward, of course unlike any other girl he's ever met.
And I know that I am probably a die-hard romantic (I'll like pretty much anything with a romance traipsing in between its pages--give me a break), but honestly? Right now, I am so freaking sick of the "boy-meets-girl" set-up in every. Single. Book. I am so freaking sick of every book being told from the exact same viewpoints every time.
Storm--it barely even seemed like that at first. (It actually took me a while to realize that that one chapter from Chris was actually going to be a recurring thing--whoops. Slow reader alert.) Heck, it took me like 70% of the book to realize it was supposed to be regularly flipping between Chris's and Becca's points of view.
Then of course Hunter is instantly attracted to her the moment he sees her in the counselor's office (which, by the way, he's in because of a certain threat named Calla, who isn't all that threatening). She makes eye contact with him. And she does nothing. Except ask him a question, or say something witty, or I don't know, it's pretty much all a blur whatever she does because it's anything but memorable to me.
Oh, ho ho! This girl is so honest and different, thinks Hunter. She's so blunt and straightforward, of course unlike any other girl he's ever met.
And I know that I am probably a die-hard romantic (I'll like pretty much anything with a romance traipsing in between its pages--give me a break), but honestly? Right now, I am so freaking sick of the "boy-meets-girl" set-up in every. Single. Book. I am so freaking sick of every book being told from the exact same viewpoints every time.
Storm--it barely even seemed like that at first. (It actually took me a while to realize that that one chapter from Chris was actually going to be a recurring thing--whoops. Slow reader alert.) Heck, it took me like 70% of the book to realize it was supposed to be regularly flipping between Chris's and Becca's points of view.
Spark--I didn't even mind because Layne and Gabriel were so likable, to me. Plus, I didn't realize that this would be the entire setup for probably every other single book in the whole entire dang series (gleaning from what I've seen in Spirit, and reviews for the other short novellas in between the main three books).
This especially did not help considering I was tired of Kate. Right from the minute we first meet her, the first impression I got was "typical supposedly badass awesome hunter girl who's hotter than Angelina Jolie and Beyonce combined and more skill than Jackie Chan in all things physical, with a tragic boo-hoo sob story lurking behind her luminous eyes. Oh, yeah, and she doesn't mind sleeping around, either."
She hardly ever broke that cliche for me throughout the entire book, except for the occasional moments where she showed "Oh yeah, I do have a heart!" (Those few moments I could like her, but geez, the rest of the time...Nope, three or four acts of kindness isn't going to cut it.)
Maybe I was prejudiced or biased against her because of her looks (and her Mary-Sue tendencies *rolls eyes*) but geez. I just could not bring myself to like her that much no matter how much I tried.
In terms of plot, Spirit didn't accomplish much in the long-term goal of bringing down Calla and what-have-you (because honestly I have no idea what the point of this entire series is anymore). Oh yeah, wasn't it also about protecting the Merrick brothers from the Guides?
Because that was probably the point of this particular book, considering Kate is a Guide herself, along with Silver (by the way, with already like five people on the "fifth point of the star"--yes I've forgotten what they're called--I'm starting to think it's not really that rare after all). They're supposed to eradicate the Merrick brothers, and to do so they instill Kate inside the brothers' school and have her try to win them over.
Except she ends up involving herself more with Hunter than anything else, and she doesn't even go over to their house except for once or twice.
So where does this leave most of the book then? you ask. If the ultimate goal is to protect the Merrick brothers and stop Calla from starting all these fires, and that hardly ever happens, then how come there are 350+ pages in this book?
Let me tell you, you're not going to get much out of this except weird character development from Hunter (weird as in I somehow started liking him less), finding out more about his home situation, more character "development" from Kate (I still don't like her), and about a billion making out scenes between Hunter and Kate.
And to be honest, those are extremely boring for me. I don't like making out scenes in the first place, but I especially don't like it when the author uses pretty much the same exact wording for everything, for every couple. It just gets tiring and shows that yes, for each book there's going to be cut-out roles for a boy and a girl to fulfill, and yah, every kissing scene is going to end up in more hormonal angst that they can't just sleep together already and a lot of the same recycled adjectives.
I couldn't even count how many times the phrases "suddenly there was just too much clothes, and they were in the way," "fire was scorching," etc. were in this book and the last. I'm starting to think Brigid Kemerrer doesn't really know what she's doing.
Speaking of recycled phrases, when someone said "Michael's going to sh*t a brick if he finds out," I thought it was the funniest thing ever. I loved that phrase. I even made a mental note to remember it and use it for myself one day when I first saw it.
Turns out, I didn't need to, because every single characters uses "Oh noes, [Insert Name] is going to sh*t a brick!" Everyone. EVERYONE. I GOT SO SICK AND TIRED OF THIS PHRASE! It wasn't even funny anymore, and I'd loved it so much when I first saw it! Everyone pretty much talks the same way, uses the same sayings, etc.
Why can't you just use something else to describe someone is going to be really pissed off?! Every time you use a phrase to the point of death it loses its effectiveness!
So please, for the love of all things good and holy, STOP IT!
Everyone also says "God" way too much. Gah, I wish I could shovel a brick someone sh*tted out in the face of the person who next uses this word.
There was a scene where Hunter and Kate slept with each other (AFTER LESS THAN A WEEK OF KNOWING EACH OTHER AND AFTER SHE SUSTAINED A GRIEVOUS INJURY) and I just thought it was stupid considering yes, they hardly even knew each other.
Also, there was a death at the end that was predictable and I really couldn't have cared less about. Boo-hoo.
To summarize, this book was a disappointment. I didn't like it that much. It was okay at best.
This especially did not help considering I was tired of Kate. Right from the minute we first meet her, the first impression I got was "typical supposedly badass awesome hunter girl who's hotter than Angelina Jolie and Beyonce combined and more skill than Jackie Chan in all things physical, with a tragic boo-hoo sob story lurking behind her luminous eyes. Oh, yeah, and she doesn't mind sleeping around, either."
She hardly ever broke that cliche for me throughout the entire book, except for the occasional moments where she showed "Oh yeah, I do have a heart!" (Those few moments I could like her, but geez, the rest of the time...Nope, three or four acts of kindness isn't going to cut it.)
Maybe I was prejudiced or biased against her because of her looks (and her Mary-Sue tendencies *rolls eyes*) but geez. I just could not bring myself to like her that much no matter how much I tried.
In terms of plot, Spirit didn't accomplish much in the long-term goal of bringing down Calla and what-have-you (because honestly I have no idea what the point of this entire series is anymore). Oh yeah, wasn't it also about protecting the Merrick brothers from the Guides?
Because that was probably the point of this particular book, considering Kate is a Guide herself, along with Silver (by the way, with already like five people on the "fifth point of the star"--yes I've forgotten what they're called--I'm starting to think it's not really that rare after all). They're supposed to eradicate the Merrick brothers, and to do so they instill Kate inside the brothers' school and have her try to win them over.
Except she ends up involving herself more with Hunter than anything else, and she doesn't even go over to their house except for once or twice.
So where does this leave most of the book then? you ask. If the ultimate goal is to protect the Merrick brothers and stop Calla from starting all these fires, and that hardly ever happens, then how come there are 350+ pages in this book?
Let me tell you, you're not going to get much out of this except weird character development from Hunter (weird as in I somehow started liking him less), finding out more about his home situation, more character "development" from Kate (I still don't like her), and about a billion making out scenes between Hunter and Kate.
And to be honest, those are extremely boring for me. I don't like making out scenes in the first place, but I especially don't like it when the author uses pretty much the same exact wording for everything, for every couple. It just gets tiring and shows that yes, for each book there's going to be cut-out roles for a boy and a girl to fulfill, and yah, every kissing scene is going to end up in more hormonal angst that they can't just sleep together already and a lot of the same recycled adjectives.
I couldn't even count how many times the phrases "suddenly there was just too much clothes, and they were in the way," "fire was scorching," etc. were in this book and the last. I'm starting to think Brigid Kemerrer doesn't really know what she's doing.
Speaking of recycled phrases, when someone said "Michael's going to sh*t a brick if he finds out," I thought it was the funniest thing ever. I loved that phrase. I even made a mental note to remember it and use it for myself one day when I first saw it.
Turns out, I didn't need to, because every single characters uses "Oh noes, [Insert Name] is going to sh*t a brick!" Everyone. EVERYONE. I GOT SO SICK AND TIRED OF THIS PHRASE! It wasn't even funny anymore, and I'd loved it so much when I first saw it! Everyone pretty much talks the same way, uses the same sayings, etc.
Why can't you just use something else to describe someone is going to be really pissed off?! Every time you use a phrase to the point of death it loses its effectiveness!
So please, for the love of all things good and holy, STOP IT!
Everyone also says "God" way too much. Gah, I wish I could shovel a brick someone sh*tted out in the face of the person who next uses this word.
There was a scene where Hunter and Kate slept with each other (AFTER LESS THAN A WEEK OF KNOWING EACH OTHER AND AFTER SHE SUSTAINED A GRIEVOUS INJURY) and I just thought it was stupid considering yes, they hardly even knew each other.
Also, there was a death at the end that was predictable and I really couldn't have cared less about. Boo-hoo.
To summarize, this book was a disappointment. I didn't like it that much. It was okay at best.
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