Review: Not What I Was Hoping For
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 08 3, 2012
Maybe my first problem was that I couldn't remember who Hunter was. It's been a couple months since I read the last Elemental book, so give me a break. So for the first quarter of it I was thinking, "Who is this kid? What happened to the brothers?" I also wasn't sure when the time period was. I admit that I hadn't even glanced at the back of the cover synopsis, but that was simply because I was so excited in reading it. I knew the author and was chewing at the bit for anything new in the series, even a novella.*Some Spoilers*Well once I realized everything, my next issue was Clara and her obsession with the guns. When she first entered Hunter's life all I could think of was how she was such a weirdo for being so freaked out yet interested in guns. I couldn't figure out her deal. And I know that Hunter hadn't had much experience with girls, but come on, who follows you home, has a discussion only about guns, and practically begs to see them at your house? How could he not be suspicious of that? I don't care how pretty she was, he should have been concerned about her obsession.Of course once the end came around her obsession sort of made sense. However, I found the use of that scene to be...I can't put a word to it. I just thought that for such a short story, the drama and fear and intensity was too much. I truly liked learning about Hunter-once I remembered who he was. I liked understanding how he became who he did, and it was nice to form some real sympathy for him. However, a serious gun fight within 44 pages was too surreal for me. It didn't flow and instead of feeling surprised or sympathetic, I was just confused by how fast that had paged out.This novella did not wet my appetite for the next book, which I thought was the point. As I said before, it was great getting some back-story for Hunter, but I could have gone without learning it easily. I mostly found the book boring as the romance was not a good point for me because the beginning had set up Clara to be a gun-freak. I can't say I regret purchasing this novella since I know I would have always wondered what had happened in it, but I wish I had gotten more of a warning of what it was going to be about. Maybe that's my fault for not looking into it first though.