Book: Whirl by Emma Raveling

Published by Mandorla Publishing (258 pages)

Purchased for my Nook

Genre: YA: Paranormal/Fantasy

Find Out More: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Emma Raveling

Goodreads Summary: Seventeen-year-old Kendra Irisavie is an ondine, a water elemental caught in the middle of an ancient war with the Aquidae, immortal dark demons who will stop at nothing to destroy the fragile balance of the Elemental world.

Fierce and independent, Kendra has always played by her own rules. Gifted with the powerful magic of Virtue and trained to be a deadly fighter, she has spent her life breaking hearts and getting into trouble.

When her life explodes one violent night in a northern California city, a dark stranger appears, promising answers to her mysterious past.

Alone and with no one to trust, she must now navigate through a dangerous new world, face the temptations of a forbidden romance, and remain true to her duty and destiny.

All while the Aquidae continue to hunt her down, in the hopes of eliminating her forever…

I love the concept of Whirl.  It kind of reminds me of Vampire Academy, in the the society is structured and how the school is set up.  But obviously with water elementals instead of vampires.

Okay, so Kendra falling for a prince and being the chosen one was a little obvious.  But there were a couple other guys I could see her with, and I’m not completely sure who she’ll end up with.  You have Tristan (the prince) and Julian, and I could see her with either one.  There was the possibility of her and a friend, but that’s not going to happen because he (unfortunately) died.  I like that it’s not completely obvious.  It’s a nice change from a lot of other books, where you know right off the bat who the main character will end up with.

I love that the water element is the focus, and that there are elementals who have Virtues (or super-special abilities) and elementals who don’t have any Virtues.  I thought Raveling did a great job with coming up with her own terminology- which is even explained at the end.  I wish I had read it first, but either way, I’m glad she included it.

I haven’t come across anything involving the elements to this degree.  I’m sure they’ve been in the background of something I’ve read, but they’ve never been the focus.  I just love this idea!  I really do.

Kendra was way too independent, and was determined to do things on her own.  I guess part of it is that she grew up “rogue” with her mother.  So while she’s the chosen one who has to defeat the Aquidae, she’ll (hopefully) learn that she can trust others enough to let them help her.

I did find some of the other characters more interesting.  Like Nexa.  I sort of want to know more about a mission she was on.  And I thought Julian and Tristan were interesting characters.  I was hoping for more scenes with both of them, but I’m really hoping we’ll see more of them in the rest of the series.

I think Whirl deserves a 4 out of 5.  It really is an interesting idea, and I love the idea of water elementals.