Review: Recurve (The Elemental Series #1) by Shannon Mayer
A good start by Ms Mayer to another new series.
What I liked: I enjoy story lines based on the Fae. While this is not exactly a Fae book, it is very similar. Basically, Elementals are just as heartless and conniving as the Fae. As a half-bastard, Larkspur was once loved but is now basically excluded from all things royal. The overriding reason for this is her lack of any real power. To survive in her world, you need power.
Unknown to Larkspur, she has plenty of power but for some reason she just can't use it without excruciating pain. Thank goodness, Ms Mayer explains the reasons for this in the beginning of Recurve, or else it would have driven me crazy. Lark is a sympathetic character and I thought at first she came across as almost too weak but she hardens up as the story progresses. I enjoyed how Ms Mayer plotted the story and worked the personal relationships into the whole of the book.
This is more Urban Fantasy than anything but the Elemental politics and deviousness of the bad guys is fantastic. Everything isn't instantly solved for Lark, she still has a long road to follow and I have a feeling it going to long and fraught with any number of problems.
The writing is very good and the story and the characters are moving forward and growing. They are also not all that they seem. Some of the bad guys took me very much by surprise, which I enjoy in the books I read.
What I didn't like: Recurve has the dreaded cliff hanger ending. I really see no other way Ms Mayer could have found a good stopping point.
Overall, I would recommend Recurve to UF fans. I highly enjoyed it!!
