Review: Sacrifice by Brigid Kemmerer

Title: Sacrifice (Elemental #5)
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Publisher: Kensington Teen
Release date: September 30th 2014
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

You can read my review of  Elemental - here, Storm - here, Spark - here, Breathless - here, Spirit - here. & Secret - here.

Earth. Fire. Air. Water.

One misstep and they lose it all. For the last time.

Michael Merrick understands pressure. He's the only parent his three brothers have had for years. His power to control Earth could kill someone if he miscalculates. Now an Elemental Guide has it in for his family, and he's all that stands in the way.

His girlfriend, Hannah, understands pressure too. She's got a child of her own, and a job as a firefighter that could put her life in danger at any moment.

But there are people who have had enough of Michael's defiance, his family's 'bad luck'. Before he knows it, Michael's enemies have turned into the Merricks' enemies, and they're armed for war.

They're not interested in surrender. But Michael isn't the white flag type anyway. Everything is set for the final showdown.

Four elements, one family. Will they hold together, or be torn apart?

I started reading this series with the novella Elemental, which is the story of a 17 years old Michael Merrick, now with Sacrifice the series comes to an end with the book of a 22 years old Michael, he´s the older brother and guardian of the Merricks, he´s the head of the household, with a lot of responsibilities and he´s always trying to keep at bay his brothers which is not an easy task. But now things are getting complicated because the Elemental Guides will not leave them alone, through the series they had faced several Guides, because they want to annihilate them just because they´re pure Elemental, which makes them worthy of a death sentence due to their affinity with their element is too strong and sometimes they can control their powers and are feared by how easy they can use their ability to harm others.

But now the new Elemental Guide that arrives to town is willing to do anything to kill the Merricks and that Guide doesn´t care about collateral damage and begins with an attack that leaves them with nothing, and leaving Michael as the main suspect, and he slowly starts to lose everything, that´s why he´s always stressed and feeling lost at times and his main concern is to keep his brothers safe, which is proving increasingly difficult.

About the romance between Hannah and Michael is almost nil, since they has been dating for a while and they´re sort of drifting apart because he wants to keep her safe, but he doesn´t give her explanations.

I have to say that after reading Spirit, I realized that no one has a secure place in the Elemental series, but I still ....didn´t saw coming ......something that happens in this story, it was so unexpected and I'm still in shock.

In Sacrifice, almost all the characters from previous books do a cameo (we get so see some more than others) and although I would have liked to get a bigger dose of Chris, Gabriel, Nick and Hunter; but I understand that this is the story of Michael. The ending was okay, but I don´t like open endings and I felt it a little abrupt, but I accept it, and to some extent it makes sense and is a good ending. But I really hope this isn´t the end and we get at least a novella (because I need some answers) or a spin-off (I can dream).

The Elemental Series is a series that I liked a lot (some books more than others), but after 5 books and 3 novellas...the story of the Merrick brothers and Hunter comes to an end (NO !!!).