Chapter by Chapter

Let me just say that I was in love with the first novel in the Elemental Series. It’s unique, original and has a plot stuffed with twists and turns—or at least, that’s what I learned from the first novel Storm. So, considering that I loved the first novel to insane extents, I was overly pumped to begin reading Spark. However, I was really shocked to see that the novel is no longer seen through the POV of the last main character Becca or Chris Merrick. Instead we get to see everything through the eyes of Chris’s older brother Gabriel Merrick.Was I overly excited then? Erm, YES! From what I gathered in Storm Gabriel is this total jerk who is brooding on the inside over the fire that took his parents’ lives. Not to mention that in Spark Gabriel goes through a rebellious phase. However, when we start reading Spark we get to delve right into Gabriel’s mind where we see that he is a jerk, but that he also has major problems with controlling his element. Throughout the novel we get to see that Gabriel has minimal control over his element, which is dangerous and gives a “playing with fire” feeling.What made the novel take my heart and never let go was the new romance introduced in the novel. We see that Gabriel has all these slutty popular girls draped over him, but how for some reason he can’t stop paying attention to a quiet nerdy girl named Layne. I have to admit that at first, I was annoyed with Gabriel and the way he treated Layne, but found it nice that he begins to take an interest in her when he sees that Layne can see through his façade.As you know (and I’m assuming you read the first novel) in Storm, Becca was being harassed and that the harassers ended up getting theirs. Yeah I found that sad, the attempted rape was horrible—but Spark has an entirely different use of bullying. People bully Layne because of the way she dresses, constantly covered up so that barely any flesh is exposed and they bully her because of her brother Simon who is deaf. Why would people bully a deaf kid? I have no clue, but they end up calling him “retard” and fight him and— ugh! It was so horrible and took a major hold over my emotions.Luckily, we do get Gabriel as our superhero. And I do mean that literally. Gabriel begins to play the role of a vigilante when it comes to saving people from his element and for saving Layne and her brother… Awesome-sauce.I think I should alert readers of the previous novel that Spark is nothing like Storm. There are new characters, a new element and less worry about the Guides (or so we think). I would recommend this to fans of the previous novel, readers who want to begin reading a unique series with killer romance and of course to fans of YA supernatural romance. Love this series and I cannot wait for the next novel.