Series: (Elemental #4)
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Rating:
Nowhere is safe. Not even home…
Nick Merrick is stretched to the breaking point.
Keep his grades sky-high or he’ll never escape his hometown.
Keep his brother’s business going or the Merricks will be out on the street.
Keep the secret of where he’s going in the evenings from his own twin—-or he’ll lose his family.
Keep his mind off the hot, self-assured dancer who’s supposed to be his “girlfriend’s” partner.
Of course there’s also the homicidal freak Quinn has taken to hanging around, and the Elemental Guide counting the hours until he can try again to kill the Merrick brothers.
There’s a storm coming. From all sides. And then some.
Nick Merrick, can you keep it together?
I'm always a little itchy when preparing to read LGBT stories, especially when its boy/boy and the one writing it is a straight female. I'm afraid that they won't capture the true essence of the relationship and sell the story short, making it cheap, cringe worthy and unreadable. I mean how much can a female know what is going on between two men. She can watch movies (porn counts), talk to couples but she can't really know because she can never experience it. So everything is basically an assumption.
I have gay friends (most of us do) they tend to tell me things (sometimes even the thing i didn't ask to hear), but even with that, my knowledge and understanding of gay relationships is at best scarce. So in my (scarce) knowledge, this is a good representation of the relationship. It felt true, it felt neutral and yet it was in character with our protagonist, i liked it.
Its written in the usual Brigid Kemmerer style, so there is drama, angst, but that's part of the appeal here. I love how I'm able to experience the family relationship through the books, i think that's was the first ting that drew me into this series. I find i miss the other Merrick brothers here since they were not that prominent like in the previous books, but that just leave more of Adam and Nick time so I can't really complain.
The second point of view - Queen was not my favorite from the start. I found her bitchy and self-centered and i was disappointed hoping that we'll have Adam's POV instead of hers. In the end i liked her love interest and i liked her characters impact on the story but I still didn't liked her better.
Anyways. What I'm trying to say here is that the book was good. If you read Brigid Kemmerer before, you know what you'll get, if you haven't, i think you are missing on the fun so you should, read this, soon!
I have not delved into the LGBT genre yet, I am not sure why, I guess it is just hasn't come up in any of my books. I think it will be interesting to get a new perspective.
ReplyDeleteMissie @ A Flurry of Ponderings
I totally agree with all of this--I missed the Merricks, too! The boys' relationships with each other are among my favorite things about the series. I did like Adam and Nick together, though. You're right, it's always chancey reading LGBT books because you never know how it's going to be handled, but I knew Brigid would do it in a way that was both believable and really compelling.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah...Quinn was not my favorite either. I'm so glad you enjoyed it overall, though.
Wendy @ The Midnight Garden
There isn't much difference, its like reading any other romance book but i find this type of stories sweeter because of the angst that is usually involved. :) they are much more tentative and tender. you should try one!
ReplyDeleteI think Quinn is nobody's favorite. It feels like everybody endured her just to get to Nick's POV. Honestly i feel a little irritated about her part in this book. In every other book we have Elemental POV and his love interest, but here we have Elemental and (practically) some random girl. She was given too much importance, whereas she didn't feel that important previously. But I did enjoyed it overall. :)
ReplyDelete