I was sent an e-book copy of Elemental Magic by Angela Wallace and I was pretty excited for similar reasons to why I was excited to read Seanan McGuires Discount Armageddon - both authors are taking a slightly different angle to the traditional UF read - McGuire threw in cryptozoology and Wallace threw in elemental manipulation. Most of the other books I've read that use elementals as a theme are more traditional sci-fi/fantasy/historical, so it was interesting to see it from a more 'modern' angle.
I thought the lead character was interesting - Aileen is an insecure, slightly dense romantic, workaholic who was trying to live up to pretty high family responsibilities. Her male counterpart is a Coast Guard (look, it's cliched to be like 'oooo guy in a uniform' but... lets not kid ourselves. oooo. Guy in a uniform).
I would almost argue that Elemental Magic is more of a paranormal romance then straight up Urban Fantasy, but I'm not quite sure, because the line between the two is really more of a scattering of sand, then any sort of real line. I didn't love this book, but I liked it, and am interested in where Wallace is going with the series.
One thing I just noticed (yeah, I'm super perceptive.) (I mean, I always knew this. I'm a librarian, we know everything) is that Angela Wallace self-published this book. Major high-five to her for that. One of the things I will say is that this book didn't have the heavily-edited feel that a lot other books do. There are pros and cons to that, but what ends up coming through is Wallace's voice. I would love to see what Wallace can do with the backing of a publisher behind her, because she's doing pretty damn good without one! It's well worth a read, and I'm glad it's part of a series.
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