One week on and I’m still not up to doing anything creative myself yet, so today I’m sharing my review of a box set – you can see my review of Book 1 here, and you can clearly see I enjoyed it enough to go on and buy the set!

Elementals: The Threats of Sky and Sea Trilogy by Jennifer Ellision
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I began this journey hesitantly, not being a fan of books in present tense, but found after a little perseverance that the story and characters in book 1 dragged me in so deep I almost forgot my prejudice. The world building, and the breathless twists and turns, particularly the big reveal at the end, had me gripped, and I went on immediately to buy the box set of all three.
I found it intriguing also, that although my preference is for simple, invisible prose, where this author never uses a simple word where a more complex one fits the bill, I rather enjoyed the style. Kudos to the author for achieving this.
Book 2 was pretty standard construction for the middle section of a trilogy – a journey with many trials and losses, plus some discoveries and compromises bringing our heroes by the end to the place they need to be to launch the finale.
Book 3. Now, this was enjoyable and exciting as a wrap up, although for me, a couple of issues arose that I found a touch hard to swallow. (Spoilers ahead) Bree has been unmasked as the real queen by birth of the island kingdom of Nereid, and yet, having only just begun to settle into her role, no one questions her waltzing off again, to face a powerful mad king on his home turf. I really felt someone might at least have tried to stop her, for her own safety if nothing else. And during her confrontation with an earth shaker, her powers somehow seemed to be markedly less than they had been before, which seemed to me to be a plot device to get certain characters captured and placed in mortal danger. Perhaps I missed something here, but that’s how it read to me.
So, with those bits in book 3 just taking the edge off for me, this box set makes a 4-star read. I’d still recommend it to fantasy lovers looking for unique world building and strong characters, provided you are happy with reading in the present tense.

View all my reviews

Find the box set on Amazon.com here