Review: "Secret" by Brigid Kemmerer

EARTH. FIRE. AIR. WATER. Nick Merrick is stretched to breaking point. He's trying to keep his grades sky-high or he won't get in to college. He's trying to keep his brother's business afloat or the Merricks will be out on the street. He's trying to keep the secret of where he's going in the evenings from his twin brother Gabriel - or he fears he'll lose his family. And he's trying to keep his mind off the hot, self-assured dancer who is his 'girlfriend's' partner. And then Quinn takes to hanging around his sworn enemy, and an Elemental Guide is counting the hours until he can try again to kill the Merrick brothers. Storms are brewing. On all sides. SECRETS IN THE WIND. DANGER IN THE AIR.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an ARC of this book.

This whole series is really fantastic!  Don't be fooled by the cover (sorry, but I really don't like it!) - this is the best paranormal YA series I've ever read.  I don't know if this was my favourite book of the bunch, I'd have to go back and read the others to compare, but it might be.  Nick's just such a great character, and I actually really enjoyed Quinn's side of things, too, (although I'm not sure if I like Quinn or not) - the development of Tyler's character was not something I expected.

This next bit could be considered spoiler-ish, so if you haven't read "Secret", you might want to scroll down.

A couple of things I thought could have been done better:

• the element of danger from the Guide was pretty much absent throughout the book.  There was still tension between Tyler and the Merricks to some degree, but it just wasn't quite enough, and wasn't to the same level as in the previous books.  
• to me, it seemed like Quinn was a bit quick to believe the whole elemental powers thing.  Then again, by the time Nick told her about it, she'd already had some first hand demonstrations of his power, so maybe it was realistic.  Possibly I just wanted Quinn to be more excited or blown away by the whole thing.  I know I would be!

Other than those two minor issues, everything else was great.  I had a really hard time putting this book aside once I'd started it, and I devoured it in about two days!

My rating: