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The Storm: The most gripping and chilling psychological suspense novel of 2020, exploring coercive control, lost love, and buried secrets

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Storm doesn’t end with a cliffhanger, but it has a pretty open ending. So many things are unresolved and I can’t wait for Gabriel’s book to be out. This is the type of not-quite-cliffhanger I can live with: everyone is safe, but there are a lot of questions that need answers. You can't take the title any more literally, since the main character of this novel is an actual storm. It sounds like a neat idea and works well for a while, but in the end the very theme is its undoing. There is an almost rape scene between Becca, Drew and a group of other boys (and it was more graphic that what I thought it'd be). To me, it felt conveniently placed just so Chris and Becca would end up on the field during that lightning storm. One of my pet peeves is when a heroine's gender is used to further the plot. It's like, she's a girl and so the worst possible thing that will happen to her is rape, so let's throw in a rape scene. But more than that, this one didn't seem authentic to me because Drew essentially says, "Everyone thinks I raped you. So even though I didn't and could possibly plead my case, I'm going to commit the crime everyone thought I did... just because." Really, Drew? And is it a rule that every teenage protagonist have an annoying, overbearing best friend? I just wanted to strangle Quinn for most of the scenes in which she makes an appearance.

There’s a surprising complexity to Storm. It’s a story with many dimensions, and one that truly deserves to be singled out amongst an abundance of young adult Paranormals. It’s not one aspect of the story that shines, but a cohesive mix of all its parts, combined to make something layered, something truly unique and special. Storm isn’t about a group of brothers with unbelievable supernatural powers. It’s not about boy meets girl. It’s not about one of the first love triangles I’ve ever read and genuinely enjoyed, nor is it bullying, discrimination, grief or friendship. It’s more. It’s the way in which Kemmerer blends them all together, into a mix of colours more vivid and alluring then any one part could be on its own. I was an only child for much of my life, then, by an unfortunate twist of fate, when I was almost 10 years old, my sister came along. For much of my life after that, the sister and I fought like cats and dogs, mainly because I was a controlling little teenager who viewed my toddler sister as a slave/dog that I could send to fetch whatever I needed. As much as we fought, there was never any sort of conflict on the grand scale of that within this book. Holy crap, this book was filled with massive amounts of adrenaline and testosterone. Ok, so the boys are hot, I don't care. It only works in my sexual fantasies if they actually get along.

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This book hung over me like a cloud; a grey and hostile menace looming above with thunderful threats of 'READ ME BITCH!'. Suffice to say, didn't really want to abide this odious overlord, so am skipping away leaving it behind with two stars for company. What pissed me off the most was the slut shaming that went on in this book. Yes, I'm aware that slut shaming does happen in real life but the extent of slut shaming that certain characters experienced was beyond ridiculous..it felt like I was reading the attitudes and actions of people from the early 1900's. I was really disappointed and angry with one of the brothers attitude, Gabriel, who is a future love interest. He brags about what a player he is and then when he hears that Becca's slept around he talks down to her and acts like she's not worthy to date his brother..so it's ok for him to sleep around but if a girl does it must mean she's evil, dirty, lowlife scum. He only gives his approval to Becca when he finds out that Becca hasn't actually slept around and that it was all just vicious lies. I anticipate that Gabriel will meet some shy, virginal, wide eyed girl that he falls for (because, of course sexually experienced girls aren't good enough for him), he'll stop his playboy ways and live HEA. Stewart was a founding member of the American Name Society in 1956-57, and he once served as an expert witness in a murder trial as a specialist in family names. His best-known academic work is Names on the Land A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (1945; reprinted, New York Review Books, 2008). He wrote three other books on place-names, A Concise Dictionary of American Place-Names (1970), Names on the Globe (1975), and American Given Names (1979). His scholarly works on the poetic meter of ballads (published under the name George R. Stewart, Jr.), beginning with his 1922 Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia, remain important in their field. And could Kemmerer be any more awkward in telegraphing Becca's dad's involvement? This is speculation on my part, so this may or may not pan out and be spoilery, but come on. Dear old dad hasn't been in touch for idunnamany years and suddenly he's trying to get in touch right when the community is set to blow? Becca is just learning about the supernatural, with hints of having her own possible "intuitions" and that's when dear old dad tries to get in touch? Nothing suspicious there... I'm thinking either he or Hunter are the "guide" that's been called in, with the other being there for supernatural reasons of their own—long-lost family or revenge, maybe. Or both. I found the plot to be fairly predictable in some parts. I had seen the mystery surrounding Hunter and Becca a mile away. The good thing is that it didn't bother me in the slightest. The story is way to engaging for that.

Without Fidelis, I simply wouldn’t have had the patience or know-how. I felt like a detective trawling through huge books of public records in Nice, but it was two years before we finally came across Navratil’s name. When I saw it in the census, I shouted out ‘Bingo!’ in the library. New boy in town who immediately falls in with Becca. That's not at all suspicious. Not to mention a completely contrived third leg of a stupid love triangle. And then he shows some kind of power on his own, though Becca is conveniently distracted from it because, uh, story.I'll begin from Becca, because she is what made this book insufferable for me. Becca has the personality of a kitchen cloth, which is my witty way of saying she has none. Nothing makes her special or stand out from every other girl. Is she exceptionally smart? Hahahhaha, no. Is she stunningly beautiful? Meh. Is she in any other way interesting, maybe cunning or charismatic, strong, brave, daring, anything, just to prove she's a worthy heroine? Nope.

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