About.com Rating

Breathless is a story --maybe a bit long for a short story, but not quite novella-length -- in Brigid Kemmerer's Elementals series. It's not a series I had read before, but after reading Breathless I added it to the top of my to-read list.

Publication Information

• Full Title:Breathless
• Author: Brigid Kemmerer
• Publisher: Kensington Books/K Teen
• Publication Date: April 2013
• ISBN: 9780758285539 (ebook), B00B1UVSAY (Kindle ASIN)

Short of Breath

The main purpose for shorter pieces related to novel series these days seems to be as advertising. They're a good way to introduce readers to an author they may not have read, and since they're usually inexpensive or even free in ebook format, readers are willing to give them a try. Some of these shorts, while a treat for a reader who's already a fan, leave new readers with a feeling that they're missing something. Sometimes I've found that such stories feel incomplete, like there's simply too much left out that I can't know unless I've already read a bunch of novels. Sometimes that works to draw me in and gets me to go out and buy those other books, but the writing has to be really, really good or else I just end up feeling cheated.

With Breathless though, even though I got the sense that there was a lot more going on with these characters than was apparent from this one story -- especially as the supernatural (or elemental) aspects didn't really come into play much -- I never felt that the story was incomplete.

The elemental aspects were worked in naturally, in a way that they felt more like part of the setting (sort of), which meant they were intriguing, but didn't frustrate me that they weren't really used.

Twin Elemental

The story is about Nick, one of a pair of twins and member of a family of several siblings, all with elemental abilities. During the course of the story, Nick is gradually forced to admit to himself that even though he's really good with girls, he's not actually interested in them except as friends. He can't admit to his brothers that he might be gay -- he's not really even ready to admit it to himself -- but he's learning to accept his feelings as part of who he is. At the same time, he's trying to help his sort-of girlfriend Quinn accept her own unique abilities.

While Breathless is overall a positive tale about self-identity and acceptance, it doesn't have a perfect, happy ending. Like real life, Nick is still unsure about his feelings and what he wants to do about them. But he's made enough progress that the ending feels right. I highly recommend this story, even if you've never read any of Kemmerer's work before -- though after this, you may be adding her to your authors-to-read list, like I did.