Spark by Brigid Kemmerer...

Series: Elementals (Book #2)
Published: August 28th 2012 by Kensington
Pages: 345
Date Finished: May 12th, 2013
Rating: 5 stars
Age Recommendation: -

Synopsis:

Gabriel Merrick plays with fire. Literally. Sometimes he can even control it. And sometimes he can't. Gabriel has always had his brothers to rely on, especially his twin, Nick. But when an arsonist starts wreaking havoc on their town, all the signs point to Gabriel. Only he's not doing it. And no one seems to believe him. Except a shy sophomore named Layne, a brainiac who dresses in turtlenecks and jeans and keeps him totally off balance. Because Layne has a few secrets of her own...

Synopsis:

I had very high expectations going into this book after reading and falling in love with the first book in the series "Storm" and hearing from my friends that the second in the series was so much better than the first and I have to say I completely agree with them. The plot. I really loved the plot of this book. I felt that this book had so much more emotion in it and that is something that I loved about this book. In "Storm" I saw Gabriel as a someone who was really stand-offish but in "Spark" I...more I had very high expectations going into this book after reading and falling in love with the first book in the series "Storm" and hearing from my friends that the second in the series was so much better than the first and I have to say I completely agree with them. The plot. I really loved the plot of this book. I felt that this book had so much more emotion in it and that is something that I loved about this book. In "Storm" I saw Gabriel as a someone who was really stand-offish but in "Spark" I got to see the reason behind that, his struggle with not being able to be close to his element, trying to protect the people that he cares about and how he struggles with the feelings he has about himself. I also loved being able to see into Layne's life and seeing all the struggles she went through to do with her home life, people at school and also how she saw herself. I loved how as their relationship grew throughout the book they bought out the best in each other. Gabriel managed to bring Layne out of her shell and Layne helped Gabriel start to be more trusting. I thought that this book was very fast paced and one that I found I couldn't put down. The characters. I thought that all of the characters were written amazingly well, they still felt like they all were individual from each other and I felt myself becoming more invested in the characters with each page that I read. Gabriel. I really enjoyed his character in this book. I loved seeing how he grew throughout the book and seeing just how much he cared for Layne and how far he would go to protect her and the people she cared about. I also really liked seeing how he started to grow into a better person and started to take responsibility for his actions and I think that has a lot to do with Layne and their relationship. Layne. I really enjoyed her character in this book also. I thought that she was very relatable and I really felt for her with her home situation, though I thought that she dealt with it very well and I thought that she was a very strong character throughout the book. She didn't let people's opinions of her influence her decisions and I loved seeing how she bought the best out in Gabriel. Overall I really enjoyed this book and I thought that it was a great second book and the best book in the series so far. This is a series that I would recommend to anyone and I cannot wait to pick up the third in the series ASAP.