Summary:
"Just who is Halíka Dacomé?
To Rose Frost, moving house every six months is normal. Another new town here, another new school there, her ability to adapt is as easy as breathing. But everything changes when her parents go overseas and Rose moves in with her grandmother. She enjoys meeting new friends and catching up with old ones from her childhood holidays — except now she must hide a precious secret from everyone, a gift from birth that defies modern day science.
Her dreams become riddled with a warrior woman called Halíka Dacomé, but are they visions or messages from the future? She starts her own investigation but encounters more questions than answers. Living right on the edge of Warminster in Wiltshire doesn’t help with its folklore and myths about strange lights in the sky and ghost stories of the Salisbury Plain
Not only that, her troubles really take hold one night when the mysterious Aiden Deverill with his alluring smile, his gorgeous dark looks and hypnotising blue eyes, saves her from a freak fire. Or did he?
For Rose, her new life is beginning but she soon realises that despite assurances people are not always what they seem. What she always believed to be a happy family and a friendly town soon turns on its head when she discovers that her family secret, Aiden Deverill and the truth behind Halíka Dacomé is at the heart of the whole conspiracy."
To Rose Frost, moving house every six months is normal. Another new town here, another new school there, her ability to adapt is as easy as breathing. But everything changes when her parents go overseas and Rose moves in with her grandmother. She enjoys meeting new friends and catching up with old ones from her childhood holidays — except now she must hide a precious secret from everyone, a gift from birth that defies modern day science.
Her dreams become riddled with a warrior woman called Halíka Dacomé, but are they visions or messages from the future? She starts her own investigation but encounters more questions than answers. Living right on the edge of Warminster in Wiltshire doesn’t help with its folklore and myths about strange lights in the sky and ghost stories of the Salisbury Plain
Not only that, her troubles really take hold one night when the mysterious Aiden Deverill with his alluring smile, his gorgeous dark looks and hypnotising blue eyes, saves her from a freak fire. Or did he?
For Rose, her new life is beginning but she soon realises that despite assurances people are not always what they seem. What she always believed to be a happy family and a friendly town soon turns on its head when she discovers that her family secret, Aiden Deverill and the truth behind Halíka Dacomé is at the heart of the whole conspiracy."
My Thoughts:
When I requested this book from NetGalley I was halfway interested in it, but was a little unsure if I would like it or not. Now that I'm finished, I'm actually still on the fence. I mean, it was a decent story, there was enough description of the setting that I could almost visualize it, and some of the characters were all right...but there were a few things that bugged me about this book.
Namely Rose, the main character. Rose is one of those characters. Everyone else talks about how beautiful she is but she thinks she's kind of plain, maybe pretty on a good day. She's also nice, has loyal friends, is supposed to be smart and athletic...and oh yeah, she also happens to have these special abilities. Come on now...seriously. Where are all of her flaws? Also, for someone who is supposed to be as smart as we are told she is, she really struggles with this mystery, even with all the clues placed in front of her. Just slightly ridiculous.
Again, we have another young adult story with a supernatural love triangle. *sigh* Can we go back to the days when not every YA PNR had to have a love triangle? That would be great. Elemental: the First has the mysterious Aiden, who Rose suspects may have powers and be special like she is. Sorry to spoil this, but yeah, he does. And Rose feels drawn to him despite literally everyone else telling her that is is not a good guy, to be careful around him, and even better, to just stay away from him. But no...not Rose. Even after hearing about all the truly awful things he has done, she still goes off with him.
That brings us to the third point in the triangle: Morgan. He lives in the cottage on Rose's grandmother's property on account of his parents being gone all the time. My favorite part about Morgan: he has a motorcycle. Morgan is somewhat portrayed as the nice, hard-working, sort of guy-next-door...and he clearly has issues with Aiden. Yet he keeps all sorts of secrets from Rose, except when Aiden is involved and then he joins the posse of people telling Rose that Aiden is no good.
Oh yeah...I totally forgot something else...Rose is followed around by spy/military type guys, and she's not supposed to know it, but finds that out fairly quickly so the one spy/military guy gives her his phone number and says that instead of them trying to guess where she's going to go next, she should just text him so they can be ready...and Rose does. Really?
Finally, there is the whole Halika Dacome story line. Despite hearing numerous people mention Halika Dacome, and the fact that she has abilities such as healing that everyone speaks of Halika having, plus all of her strange and vivid dreams leading up to her sixteenth birthday, Rose couldn't put it together that she is basically the vessel or reincarnation (whatever) of Halika Dacome? And yet we were told that Rose was smart.
Obviously, there were some definite flaws in this book. Still, I can say that I actually read the whole thing and it only took me a couple of hours, so it is a pretty quick read. So, it gets a solid 3/5 because even though the above points bothered me, I still kinda liked the story. Did I like it enough to want to read the sequel whenever it is released? I don't know. Maybe.
Elemental: the First at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elemental-alexandra-may/1111137560?ean=2940011454899
Elemental: the First at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Elemental-The-First-Alexandra-May/dp/1463708343/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363444494&sr=8-1&keywords=Elemental+the+First
Other Readings:
Goodness, this week With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent is being released. I am so excited and so saddened by this fact, because I really don't want the series to end. I hope the ending is good, but I'm expecting a few exciting twists and turns in the final book. All I'm saying is that if Kaylee and Tod don't end up still together in the end, I will be very upset.
In other news I'm trying to finish up the eight books I have left to finish up my NetGalley reviews and my regularly scheduled reviews through April. I have to get it all wrapped up before April 1st because then I'll switch from reviewer mode to writer mode and be fully ensconced in the first session of Camp NaNoWriMo.
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