SPIRIT

The third in the Elemental series largely turns from the charismatic Merricks to the problems of Hunter, a spirit elemental who was introduced in the first title, Storm (2012).

Hunter is now being booted from his home by an angry grandfather who seems to be protecting his passive mother, lost in grief at the death of her husband, Hunter’s father. At school, Hunter develops an attraction to newcomer Kate, another spirit elemental (Kemmerer’s mythos includes an extra element), which leads to many descriptions of kissing. And tension: Kate is apprenticed to yet another spirit elemental, who is out to kill the Merrick brothers. While it’s refreshing to have the paranormal action mostly taking a back seat to more human teen concerns, genre readers will be disappointed at the flat denouement. Unless, of course, they are attached enough to the elemental Merrick boys from the first two books to want to just hang out in their parallel universe. It’s rather odd that Hunter never seems to use his powers and equally odd that Kemmerer appends a short, “bonus” novella to the end of the book that is all about Nick, an air elemental who recognizes that he is actually gay and not ever going to grow into an attraction to girls.

For dedicated series fans only.  (Paranormal romance. 12-18)