The WATER: Elemental Series Tour: giveaway and review

We are one of the blogs particiapting in The WATER: Elemental Series Tour this week. We have a review for Book Two of the Elemental Series, Air, and there is a giveaway listed below.

Water by Shauna Granger
Book Three in The Elemental Series

Shayna's first surfing session of the summer is interrupted by the screams of a mother who has lost her little boy in the water. Without regard to her own safety, Shayna swims out, rescues the boy, but must escape the clutches of something far worse than she could have ever imagined – mermaids.

Compelled to answer the sirens' call, the boys of Shayna's town are drawn to the sea, but when they return are afflicted by an unknown illness, a sickness which is draining them of their life force. Unable to tell anyone about the mermaids, Shayna and her friends are forced to solve the mystery before it's too late, and in doing so, Shayna will finally have to face the full force of her powers. Whether she’s ready or not, she will have to face her true nature.

Air by Shauna Granger
Book Two in The Elemental Series


It was a rough start to the school year for Shayna and her friends, Jodi and Steven, but thankfully summer break is near. Trying to sort out her feelings for the new guy in town, Shayna agrees to let Jensen join her on a group date with her friends. While out they end up at a local coffee house where their classmate, social outcast Jeremy McCormick, is humiliated by his baseball star brother. When Jeremy runs away from the jeering crowd, Shayna and Jodi hear the unmistakable sound of a thousand wings chasing after him, but no one else seems to hear them. These are not like any air elementals that Shayna or Jodi have ever encountered before and they fear Jeremy has gotten himself tangled up in something too dangerous for him to handle. But when Shayna tries to help Jeremy control his magical abilities she realizes it might be the biggest mistake of her life.

Review:
This is my first time reading a book by Shauna Granger and it won't be my last. Despite Air being the second book in the Elemental series, since the author gave a brief enough history of what happened in the first book, I was able to figure out what's going on with the trio of friends. Shayna, our narrator, is part of a coven of witches--elementals of which each has a particular affiliation--besides being best friends with Jodi (air) and Steven (fire). Shayna's affiliation is the earth and to read about her powers, her close ties to the earth, to flowers and trees, was very cool. She is a down to earth teen, keeps her powers secret, and has a distant relationship with Jensen (I totally understood what happened between Shayna, Jensen and his twin from Book One thanks to the author filling in throughout the story).

There's a student named Jeremy who seems to be the black sheep of his family and scorned by others his age. When Shayna and her friends encounter him, she spots the tell tale sign of 'something else' going on with him--something paranormal--at his disastrous reading at a local coffee shop. From then on, Shayna is determined to find out exactly what is up with Jeremy and the strange buzzing of wings whenever he is around. When she meets with a Queen fairy and is warned to be careful about Jeremy, Shayna knows she has work to do and though it may be dangerous--as evidenced with her encounter with the angry Jeremy in a bookstore--only she can help him, even as she herself is learning to control her own increasing powers.

Air is a fun and entertaining fantasy, filled with many lovely images. When Shayna meets the fairy Tristan and follows him to the woods behind her house, I loved this scene as she realizes she hasn't 'seen' a fairy in over a year. There is something pure with the way Shayna views this magical events which I rather enjoyed. When Tristan tells her he can help clean up the store Deb works in after a hold-up goes awry, just imaging fairies and brownies marching inside to pick up gemstones and broken slivers of glass off the floor was magical enough. For a book on magic and magic users, I did expect some more action and less dialogue and thoughts which did slow down the pacing. Still, Granger's rich imagery and and mix of interesting characters and storylines kept me reading. Fans of the fey will want to read this series. Recommended.

Rating: 3.5 fun and unique

Cover comment: Nice.

Book source: I received a promotional ebook copy of this book for my honest review during a book tour.

Giveaways: 

The author is offering a huge giveaway during this tour. Enter below to win:
7 ebook copies of EARTH
3 ebook copies of all three books
2 sets of print copies of all three books
3 swag packs that include bookmarks and magnets from all three titles and a small WATER poster

a Rafflecopter giveaway