Kemmerer has created an interesting world with people who can control the elements and the rivalries among them. Becca gets involved in it when she rescues Chris Merrick from some attackers when she is going home from her first self-defense class. Becca has just started her junior year with a bad reputation. Her ex-boyfriend is spreading lies and rumors about her. Since he is a star on the soccer team, Becca doesn't have support for her side of the story except for her best friend Quinn who has major issues of her own. Becca is an angry person. Not only is she rightfully angry and Drew and the other guys who are slandering her, she is angry at her father for abandoning her when she was eleven. She lives with her mother who is a nurse in the Emergency Room and works lots of nights. Her father has had the habit of phoning every six months but Becca is responsive to his feeble at communication.By rescuing Chris, Becca gets involved in a world she didn't know existed. Chris is his three older brothers are Elementals. Chris has an affinity for water, Nick for air, Gabriel for fire, and Michael for earth. They have such strong affinities that the other Elementals in town want them dead. Pure Elementals like Chris and his brothers are supposed to be killed by the Guides. Before they died, Chris's parents made a deal with the other Elementals in town to not turn in the boys. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the Elemental contemporaries of the boys can't harass them though to try to force them to use their gifts in such a way that the Guides will be called in.Chris and Becca are forming a tentative friendship when a new guy comes to town. Hunter has lost his father and uncle in an accident and his living with his mother at his grandparents. This guy has lots of secrets but he also befriends Becca. The plot is complex; the action is non-stop; and there are lots of surprises in this one. Readers who want to read about high school life, romance triangles and a unique paranormal setting will enjoy this one.
