From the Stacks: An Elemental Tail by Shona Husk

What can I say? I love stories with some of my favorite beings/creatures in them. Basically that amounts to copious numbers of books revolving around mythology of all kinds, also mermaids, the fae, gargoyles, selkies, dragons, and almost any kind of magician/mutant/wizard/etc. Today is a look at a merman in Shona Husk's An Elemental Tail.

Summary:

"Four hundred years ago, Nik was tricked by his lover and left stranded as a powerless, but immortal, human. Now he craves only one thing: to reclaim the book that was once his tail and become a water Elemental again. Unfortunately, he can only locate the book when someone touches the pages. This time he won't be left high and dry.

Isla is left a beautiful leather-bound book in her great-aunt's will, perfect for using during he life drawing classes. However, she can't bring herself to mark the translucent pages until a compelling crimson-haired stranger strips for art.

Nik is torn. Years of enforced humanity have given him a conscience. Despite his best efforts at remaining a heartless water Elemental, he is failing. He is falling for Isla, who has no idea she holds the power of the oceans, and his heart, in her hands."

My Thoughts:

When I got this I originally thought it was a novel, but it is a novella. Nevertheless it was completely worth it and I enjoyed reading it, even if it only took me about a half-hour (I'm a pretty fast reader). This was an interesting story, and yes, the two main characters do seem to fall for each other rather quickly, but again, this was a novella so it wasn't as if they had a couple hundred pages to progress their relationship. An Elemental Tail had 8 chapters and with the settings I prefer on my NOOK there were only 65 pages in total.

Nik is intense, and from the beginning it is obvious that not having the connection to the water that he was used to is torture for him. Isla is troubled; she is a gifted artist but is running into issues with her professor, which could lead to her losing her scholarship, which would mean no longer being able to attend school. Naturally they meet, and through Isla's gentle caresses of the beautiful leather-bound book that is actually Nik's tail, Nik is able to see what she is thinking and feeling, and he has no choice but to help her.

I really could have seen this story becoming a full length novel. I had just become completely immersed in the story when it ended. Still, I enjoyed it and I do recommend it to others. I look forward to reading more of Shona Husk's work in the future. 5/5.

An Elemental Tail at Barnes & Noble ($0.99 NOOK Book): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elemental-tail-shona-husk/1100546511?ean=2940045125833

An Elemental Tail at Amazon ($0.99 Kindle Book): http://www.amazon.com/An-Elemental-Tail-ebook/dp/B00AH2B10O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357833945&sr=8-1&keywords=An+Elemental+Tail

Other Readings:

I'm already making decent progress on the books I've chosen to read for March, and there are a couple of books coming out next month that I'm looking forward to getting and reading, namely With All My Soul, the final book in the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent, and the paperback copy of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (yes, I know, it's crazy that I haven't yet read this).