Early Review: Recurve by Shannon Mayer

Recurve

Author: Shannon Mayer

Release Date: March 31, 2015

Publisher: HiJinks Ink Publishing, Ltd.

The Elemental Series Book #1

ISBN13:  9780993910579

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Review Copy Source: Publisher

“My name is Larkspur, and I am an Elemental.”

My people use the power of the earth to sustain life and defy our enemies. I should be at my father's side as a royal princess. But as a half-breed, bastard child, that isn't going to happen.

I've been accused of attacking the queen, my wicked stepmother, and my life is suddenly on the line. I have only two options left to me: banishment, or training to become one of the King's Elite Guards, an Ender.

Option one will kill me.
Option two is meant to break me, but is the only way to survive.

Did I mention I have no power like the rest of the elementals, and my connection to the earth is worth next to nothing?

Could things get any worse? Of course they can. Welcome to being an Elemental.

I was introduced to Shannon Mayer's writing when I started reading her Rylee Adamson series and I was immediately hooked to her writing style, characters and the great world she built. When it was announced that she would be starting a new Urban Fantasy series I knew I wanted it to be on my wishlist and when RECURVE arrived on my kindle I jumped right into the world of The Elemental Series. 

It took me a bit to get into the story, but once I did, I didn't want to pull myself away. Larkspur is a half-breed treated like dirt because she doesn't have any magic, but what no one knows, including her, is that she is more powerful than anyone could ever imagine. We learn who and what Larkspur is right away as RECURVE jumps into the very important events of Larkspur's past. It really helps set up the world and storyline. It's easy to understand Lark's feelings as events happen and she makes it easy to want to root for her. I really liked how Larkspur jumped into training as an Ender. She didn't have much of a choice, but she takes it all in stride and goes full force into being the best she can be to prove she can do it. 
  
There are a lot of big scenes in RECURVE and we are still just learning about Lark and the depths of what she is capable of. There are some great supporting characters introduced that I feel will play a big role in books to come. I felt like RECURVE was a really good start to Shannon's new series.

I gave it 4/5 stars

* I was provided this ARC copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.