Review & Giveaway – Sacrifice by Brigid Kemmerer

Sacrifice by Brigid Kemmerer
Series: Elemental #5
Also in this series: Storm, Elemental, Fearless
Published by Kensington Books on 9/30/14
Genres: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Source: The Publisher
My rating:

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?

***While this review is for book #5 in the series, there are no major spoilers for any of the books in this review.  Check out my reviews for the other books: Storm, Spark, Spirit, Breathless, Secret***

Sacrifice is the final (maybe?) installment in the Elemental series by Brigid Kemmerer. This is one of my favorite YA series, so the ending is sort of bittersweet for me. While I was really looking forward to seeing how Kemmerer wrapped it all up, I was also very sad to see the series go.

This book follows Michael as he struggles to keep his family safe from the Guides. When things start going up in flames, Michael and his brothers are once again under scrutiny. But what Michael doesn’t want to admit – to anyone – is that someone is threatening him and the people he loves. Is it the Guides or someone else trying to take the Merricks down? Suddenly, Michael finds himself facing the enemy down alone – and he doesn’t know if he can save everyone.

What I LOVED:

• Michael. As always Michael puts his family above all else. When everything is falling down around him, Michael puts forth herculean effort to hold it all together, against insurmountable odds. Michael has always been a favorite character of mine, and he did not disappoint in this book. I SO felt for him when he felt like he was failing his family – especially since he had given up nearly everything to protect them all his adult life. Michael’s story was heartbreaking.
• Surprises. I never quite knew what was going to happen next or how everything was going to be resolved. Kemmerer kept me in constant suspense, wondering who was really after the Merricks and what the next catastrophe was going to be. I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of this book (at least Michael’s chapters).
• The sacrifice. The book doesn’t get its name from nowhere. Someone does make a sacrifice of some kind. Obviously I’m being purposely cryptic here. You’ll have to read to find out!

The negatives:

• Hannah. I always liked Hannah in the past books, but I just wasn’t that crazy about her in this one. She just seemed a bit immature in this book, which I wasn’t expecting. There’s a slight hint of a love triangle thrown in, and we barely got to see Hannah and Michael together at all. So, by the end, I almost wasn’t even rooting for them as a couple. I was really disappointed by this aspect of the book.
• Brothers separated.  The brothers are separated for most of the book, so we see Michael go it alone. While I did think that this was important for Michael’s journey, I missed seeing he brothers together.

So, while this wasn’t my favorite book in the series, I still felt like I got a satisfying end to the Merrick brothers story. And I highly recommend the series as a whole!! I give this installment 4/5 stars.

***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

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 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.

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