Water's Blood
The Elemental Clan Series
Book 1
Elaine Calloway
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Fantasy
Publisher: The Writers Canvac, LLC
Date of Publication: February 1, 2013
ISBN: 9781301515226
ASIN: B00B7NQLIE
Number of pages: 511
Word Count: 95572
Cover Artist: Taryn Knight, Leafbreeze Creations
Available at the following retailers:
Amazon BN Sony Smashwords
Amazon BN Sony Smashwords
Nature’s Elementals—Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water—have lived for countless millennia. Disguised as humans, they are charged with one mission: protect the innocent from fallen angel clans, who reap human souls and force them to do their bidding.
Brooke, a Water Elemental stationed in New Orleans, broke the rules once—she mated with a human. For her indiscretion, she is forbidden to share a life with her loved ones: NOPD officer Alex and their half-breed daughter, Ella.
Now Ella is about to turn sixteen, and the local clan of fallen angels is determined to snare her soul by Halloween.
Brooke broke the rules once by allowing love to interfere with her mission. Now she and Alex must put consequences aside to break the rules again—if they wish to save their daughter’s soul.
Excerpt:
“Hell is empty; all the devils are here.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest
CHAPTER ONE
Brooke gripped the bar’s wooden edge until her knuckles turned white. Nausea and trepidation washed through her human form. Not now. Please. Not when her New Orleans pub, Armand’s, was filled with Friday night locals. She couldn’t keep walking away from her cover job. And she definitely couldn’t tell her customers the truth.
Her mission was critical: protect innocent humans from the Minare, a local clan of Fallen Angels Who knew dealing with a teenager would be the more difficult job?
The nausea grew stronger, churning in the depths of her stomach. For one hopeful moment, she wondered if the Shrimp Creole she’d eaten for lunch could be the culprit. A sense of uneasiness snaked through her veins. No such luck. All signs pointed to the distress call.
Images in her line of vision began to spin. Gold, purple, and green Fleur de Lis emblems on the bar walls blurred into a kaleidoscope haze. Oh, yes. She recognized this feeling—the ole Tilt-O-Whirl-from-Hell. She shut her eyes, wanting her equilibrium to stabilize, but the famed Mardi Gras colors danced behind her eyelids.
Breathe. She inhaled deep. Beer, tobacco smoke, and lemon polish overpowered her nostrils.
The impending doom intensified. Your daughter is in danger. You have to go.
Panic churned inside her like a tornado. She’d been afraid this would happen.
What was she supposed to do? Family and her mission were mutually exclusive in her world. She couldn’t kick her customers out. Her only option was to leave someone in charge. Someone trustworthy.
Quinn, one of her favorite regulars and a self-professed hippie, approached and plunked his shot glass down. “Refill when you get a chance. Life treating you okay?”
Perfect. Quinn and his wife had helped her rebuild the pub after Hurricane Katrina. They were good folks, the kind of humans Brooke could trust her customers with.
She tilted the amber whiskey bottle and poured. “I’ll make you a deal. Watch the place for thirty minutes, and you can have all the refills you want.”
“Works for me. What happened to John?”
Brooke grabbed her keys and jacket. She didn’t have time to get into the particulars. “Quit on me yesterday, said he’s moving back home to care for his parents. I haven’t had the chance to place a want-ad for someone new.”
“I’ll hold down the fort. Go do what you need to do.” Quinn strolled behind the bar, his body moving in tune to the Zydeco music coming from the speakers. On any other day, she liked the New Orleans locals and their leisurely way of life. Just not now. She needed to go.
She sprinted for the back exit. “Thanks. I’ll be back soon.”
“Is everything okay?” he called after her.
Not really. She didn’t turn around, only said, “I won’t be gone long, thanks,” and ducked out the back door to avoid further questions.
Brooke ran down the crooked sidewalk. Live oaks draped with Spanish moss lined the narrow street filled with shotgun houses. Fortunately, Alex only lived two blocks away. The short walk made it easy to keep watch over him and Ella.
Darkness covered the sage-colored home with black shutters, but the full moon’s beams slanted through a rear side window. Brooke crept alongside the long narrow house, which extended back for almost a city block. These old Mid-City homes had more rooms than she could keep up with. Over the years, she’d learned which ones she could easily peer through.
Peeking inside, Brooke saw Ella tiptoeing across the study, headed straight for the cabinet.
Brooke’s neck went tight. Holy hell, this was no false alarm. Ella was a mere twenty steps away from the cabinet. Or rather, from disaster.
Review:
This is the first book in the Elemental Clan Series and focuses on the water elemental Brooke. Brooke has the job of watching over humans and keeping the city of New Orleans from falling into the hands of the Fallen Angels or Minare. That is her job as an Elemental. There are rules that both the Elementals and Minare are supposed to follow to keep humans relatively unaware of the war being waged all around them for their very souls.
But Brooke has a hard time concentrating on her job because she had broken the rules and fallen in love with Alex, a Lieutenant for the New Orleans Police Department. Not only did they fall in love, but together they had a child. Unfortunately, their love had to be kept hidden and Brooke was not allowed to be part of Ella's life. In fact, Ella doesn't even know who her mother is. Now Ella is just days away from her 16th birthday, when she will finally be told all about her absentee mother and her heritage and be able to choose what she wants to do with the rest of her life - be a human or elemental. However Soren, one of Minare Leaders, returns to New Orleans and he is there to turn Ella, thereby seeking revenge and retribution on Brooke. Brooke and Alex end up battling for not just their daughter and their lives, but their right to live as a family.
I will admit that this book was a little slow getting going. Of course, we are getting a lot of information and background on both the Elementals and Minare to get us up to speed. Once it got going though, I really got into the story. This was a very unique idea, one I have not heard before. I really enjoyed it when the POV switched to Soren. He was just this side of a caricature of the evil villain. I know it will sound naughty, but I loved reading his version of things. He was the character you love to hate.
I believe that Fire's story will be next and I can't wait to see another side to the hot tempered, hot headed elemental that showed up in this book. I am giving this book 3 stars on Goodreads. It was a nice start to what could be an awesome series.
Giveaway:
Book Tour Info:
Don't forget to check out the other stops on the Book Tour:
April 29 - fuonlyknew - Review
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April 30 - Urban Fantasy Investigations - Guest Blog and Review
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May 1 - Unputdownable Books
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May 2 - Moonlight Gleam's Bookshelf - Guest Blog
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2 Bibliophiles Guide to Seriously Awesome Books
May 3 - So Much To Write So Little Time - Guest Blog
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May 6 - Book Liaison
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Author Bio:
Elaine Calloway is originally from New Orleans and can still do a decent Cajun accent upon request. She is currently writing the Elemental Clan Series, a series of paranormal tales set in iconic cities such as New Orleans. Book One, WATER’S BLOOD, is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
Book Two, RAGING FIRE, will be released summer 2013.
For more information or to connect with Elaine online at:
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