Review: Sacrifice by Brigid Kemmerer

Title: Sacrifice
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Series: Elemental #5
Publication: September 30th 2014 by Kensington Teen
Genre: Young Adult ~ Paranormal
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo
Rating: 5/5

Review copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

Earth. Fire. Air. Water.

One misstep and they lose it all. For the last time.

Michael Merrick understands pressure. He's the only parent his three brothers have had for years. His power to control Earth could kill someone if he miscalculates. Now an Elemental Guide has it in for his family, and he's all that stands in the way.

His girlfriend, Hannah, understands pressure too. She's got a child of her own, and a job as a firefighter that could put her life in danger at any moment.

But there are people who have had enough of Michael's defiance, his family's 'bad luck'. Before he knows it, Michael's enemies have turned into the Merricks' enemies, and they're armed for war.

They're not interested in surrender. But Michael isn't the white flag type anyway. Everything is set for the final showdown.

Four elements, one family. Will they hold together, or be torn apart?

They always thought he had the answers. He almost never did, but he was pretty good at faking it.

Sacrifice is the very last Elemental book and it finally features Michael otherwise known as my favorite Merrick boy. I'm so glad that I was right to have high expectations for this book (and Michael) because this book rocked. It's my favorite out of all five.

So Michael is amazing, okay? He really is. I love his brothers but I've always had a thing for Michael from the start. He's a fantastic character to read about and I admire his love and responsibility for his family, which not only includes his brothers but also Hunter, Hannah and James, in my opinion. I just love the guy.

This book was high on the action factor. There was a lot of action (something I really missed in the previous book) so of course I loved. Together with awesome writing, funny and sometimes heartbreaking scenes it made for one hell of a book.

Michael's brothers weren't in it a whole lot due to certain circumstances but I think Hunter (and maybe Tyler) too made up for that. Hunter really became part of the family and Michael did see him as a brother.

We also got Hannah's point of view. I was never a fan of her ever since she entered the books but I started loving her now. She's so feisty! I really hadn't expected to like her this much but there you go. Her relationship with Michael might only just be beginning but oh how I love them together. Yeah, Hannah totally won me over.

The only slightly minor point was that I wished Becca would've made an appearance. But I guess her father was keeping her safe with everything going on so I get it. Still... I kind of missed her.

Overall, Sacrifice by Brigid Kemmerer was the best Elemental book I've read. It had everything I want in a great book; romance, action, great writing and emotional scenes. Oh and FYI: your heart will be broken.

Quotes

But every time he talked to her, his voice had been rough and quiet, as if every word were a secret just for her. It had made her shiver in a good way.

She loved the way he kissed: slow and strong and sure, nothing hurried, as if he needed to memorize each moment.

"Well, that's bullshit. I'm an adult. I'm raising a child. I'm a goddamned firefighter, Michael. You don't know what I've seen. You don't know what I've dealt with. And if you think I'm the type of girl to sit in a corner and paint my nails while the big, strong men do their thing, then you're a jackass, and I don't know why we're wasting our time."

About the Author:

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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.