Yzabel / July 28, 2013

Broken Elements by Mia Marshall

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

“It’s happening again, Aidan. We didn’t stop it, after all.”

As an elemental, Aidan Brook holds the power of water at her fingertips. A descendant of the earth’s oldest magic, she can cause tides to ebb and flow, put out house fires without calling 911, and give anyone who’s annoying her an impromptu shower.

But even her magic has its limits. After it fails her one terrible night, she hides from the world and everyone she once loved, trying to escape the memories that haunt her. Ten years later, her exile is brought to an abrupt end when her former best friend appears on her front porch. An elemental killer is once again murdering her friends, and she must return to the scene of her own crimes.

Lake Tahoe proves more than she bargained for. Between a sadistic killer, some clever FBI agents, an annoyingly attractive landlord, and way too many new roommates, she has a pretty full plate. Add in a past she’s desperate to escape and her own uncontrollable powers, and Aidan Brook is having a very, very bad month.

Review:

3.5 stars. “Broken Elements” reads fast and with ease. While elemental powers are nothing new in itself, they were woven into the story in a seamless way that made sense.

I really liked the relationship between Aidan and Sera, and their interactions that were sometimes bumpy, but always speaking of their underlying affection for each other. The downside was maybe that compared to these two, the other characters seemed a little flat, less defined—albeit still enjoyable (I quite liked Simon’ behaviour). I also appreciated that the romantic interest was woven in gradually, and didn’t end up in full-blown eternal-love-at-first-sight: there’s still room for evolution in it, that will hopefully span over the next book(s), and this seems more natural to me than the contrary.

The author took care of avoiding info-dumps as much as possible; however, there still was a big one in the first chapters, which seemed a bit forced. I was also left dubious about the involvement of some of the human characters (no names here, to avoid spoiler), who I expected would have been more suspicious after the revelation of elemental powers: after all, it was the girls’ word against their meager knowledge, so how would they be sure said girls told the whole truth? Finally, I thought that sometimes, the characters reacted a little too much like “young” people: they have lived for several decades, so I’d expect more wisdom from them. (But this is something that I always find tricky in books dealing with older-than-they-seem and/or immortal characters; it’s clearly not an easy job to do.)

All in all, though, I still enjoyed this story, and will very likely pick the next volume to learn more about the world and characters presented in the first one.