Secret by Brigid Kemmerer

Elemental #4

Summary:

"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."

This is the fourth book in the series and Nick's story, and I really feel that this book took things too far away from the story line about the guides. Which I also don't think was the best of plans considering how things went in Hunter's book.

Another thing that I personally felt didn't add to the story was making Nick gay, we find this out in Nick's novella. I don't mind there being gay characters in stories, it just felt like it was added for the sake of having a gay character in the series. It didn't tell us anything about Nick's behavior for anything. Sure he was slightly more sensitive than the rest of the Merricks, but being sensitive doesn't make a person gay. I just think the same story about Nick could have been told without making him gay. His worry about feeling selfish because he wants to go out of state for college and still kind of living in the shadow of his twin brother.

Quinn is the other main character in this book, and I never really liked her character anyways but in this book, she is super annoying really selfish. She gets unnecessarily pissed off at Becca for not telling her what the Merricks are when she finds out, and then she outs Nick to some random guy at their school. Nick has a love interest in this book, Adam, Quinn's dance partner, and in a way his personality was a little forgettable, most of this book was pretty forgettable. For me, it was boring compared to the first two. Another love interest for Quinn, Tyler. One of the Merricks "enemies" and one of the people that threatened Becca in book one. Their "relationship" is a strange one. Even if they were actually attracted to each other, I don't know what kind of friend would date, or give any kind of chance to a boy that threatened her supposed best friend.

This book was a little all over the place for me. It focused on Nick and Quinn's fake relationship, Nick and Adam's budding relationship, and Quinn and Tyler's budding relationship. Then there's the story of Quinn's very unstable home life. With the book covering two very heavy topics, I think we could have done without Nick struggling with being gay, the book could have been loads better if it was just about Nick trying to figure out a way to be there for his family, while trying to tell them that he wants to go away for college and being a rock for Quinn, all while they were trying to figure out a way to stay alive from attacks from guides.

I am still looking forward to reading the fifth book, I just really hope that the story goes back on track to the focus of honing their abilities and trying to stay alive. I would still like to read some scenes of Becca learning how to use her abilities of being a fifth.