Format: e-ARC from
Netgalley
Expected
Publication: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Kensington
From
Amazon:
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. Layne
understands family problems, and she understands secrets. She has a few of her own.
Gabriel
can’t let her guess about his brothers, about his abilities, about the danger
that’s right at his heels. But there are
some risks he can’t help taking.
The fuse is
lit…
My Thoughts:
First, let
me say that I love reading about the Merrick brothers, and in Spark we get to follow
Gabriel and if you thought you loved him in the first book, just wait until you
read this one.
Spark starts
off a few days after Storm leaves off, only this time it’s not the guides that
the Merrick brothers have to worry about…it’s an arsonist that’s getting fire
happy all over town and since Gabriel can control fire…all of the signs point
to him.
We learn a
lot about Gabriel in this book. He’s not
just the fun, carefree, trouble making brother that I thought he was, he’s a
whole lot deeper than that and in this installment we get to go inside his head
and get a better understanding of why he is the way he is. Another one of my favorite characters in this
book is Layne; she is exactly what Gabriel needs. She’s the unpopular shy, smart girl but she’s
also tough and not afraid to put Gabriel in his place. I love the growth of Gabriel and Layne’s
relationship. It’s not the instantaneous
love at first sight that we find in a lot of books and that makes this
relationship so much more amazing. Layne
seems to understand him even when no one does.
Both Gabriel and Layne have deep emotional issues and they both have
secrets and insecurities, but they get one another.
I could keep
going but I don’t want to give anything away so let me just say that Brigid
Kemmerer just keeps getting better. Spark
grabbed me from the first page and didn’t let me go; this is an incredibly
emotional book and I will be counting down the days until I can read Spirit!