I got an advanced reading copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This is the first book in the Elemental Trilogy. It was an absolutely fantastic young adult fantasy read. I enjoyed the characters, the world, and the magic.

Iolanthe Seabourne is supposedly the greatest Elemental Mage of the realm and she has been told that it is her destiny to save the realm from the leader of Atlantis, the Bane. Prince Titus of Elberon has prepared his whole life to meet the next great Elemental Mage in hopes of using this mage to overthrow Atlantis in an effort to claim his power and revenge his family. Except, Titus wasnt expecting the Elemental Mage to be a girl and Iolanthe wasnt expecting to be a savior of the realm. When Iolanthe is forced to flee Atlantiss agents, Titus comes to her aid. Iolanthe ends up hiding in an all boys school outside the magic realm.which is no small feat when you are a girl and you have never been in the non-magical world.

This was a fantastic read, it is a really interesting world with lots of awesome magic. The book is fast-paced and the characters were very engaging.

Iolanthe is a very reluctant heroine. She doesnt believe that she has the Elemental strength to do what Titus wants, she wants to live her own life and not be coerced into helping Titus save the realm. However, Iolanthe continually surprises those around her with her humor, resourcefulness, and strength.

Titus has been driven by one purpose and one purpose only his whole life.to defeat the Bane and overthrow Atlantiss rule. He is a puppet on his own throne and sees Iolanthe as the ticket to freedom for his realm.

Neither of them expected to fall in love with the other. Neither of them expected the visions and prophecies surrounding them to turn out so very different than they were supposed to. The romance is very well done; our character fall in love gradually over shared experiences and beliefs. There are a lot of obstacles for them to overcome in their relationship and they do so admirably.

The Inquisitor is an excellent villain as well. She uses mind magic and is truly terrifying for such a beautifully petite woman. There are some other interesting side characters as well, but the story is very focused on Iolanthe and Titus.

The time spent at the all boys school is incredibly amusing. Many times Iolanthe fits in better with the other boys than Titus, this makes for a number of funny scenes and the humor adds a lot to the story.

This is a fascinating world full of complicated magic and politics. However, it never gets too complicated. There is a lot of terminology thrown around; such as vaulting and you are quickly introduced to Elemental magic and small magics too. While not everything is explicitly explained, the context makes it fairly easy to figure out what is what.

There is some very neat magic in here. The vaulting (ability to travel quickly through long distances) is very cool. As are some of the little magics like portals and the ability to travel through a magic book. There are also some awesome magics; like the ability to call tornados, firestorms, and hurricanes.

The plot is well done and has a couple good twists and turns. The book is well written and easy to read. I enjoyed how the story wrapped up very nicely and then threw in a little surprise that will carry on to future books.

Overall an absolutely wonderful fantasy read. This book has it all; a complex world, interesting magic, an excellent plot, and characters that are likable and engaging. There is action, adventure, danger, and romance as well. Everything is very well balanced and the book was incredibly hard to put down...I really enjoyed reading it. I will definitely be reading future installments in this series and cant wait to see what the next book holds for our magical characters.

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Summary:
Iolanthe is an elemental mage. She is able to control three elements, with fire being the strongest. Unfortunately, she makes a bigger show at a wedding than she intended and she is whisked away to become a boy at Eton College, an all boys school. Iolanthe has to trick all of the males at her new school that she is Archer Fairfax, a boy that has just recovered from a broken bone that kept him out of school for the past three months. Oddly enough, Iolanthe (Archer) fits right in and no one is the wiser. That is until Prince Titus finds her and explains that she is the most powerful mage, he's been waiting for her, and they are destined to save the world. It takes a good amount of convincing, but Iolanthe and Prince Titus go into battle together. They fight dragons as well as slay on the cricket field at school. All kidding aside, the two must train to defeat the dreaded Atlantis from ending the world as they know it.

My thoughts:
This is a fun fantasy read. The reading is simple and there is nothing in it to keep from younger readers, probably as young as 11. Iolanthe is a great character. She is sassy, but has an ease about her when dealing with people. She accidentally does things from time to time that get her into trouble. I like how she slides from good school boy to all powerful mage without the bat of an eyelash. The world building is subtle. I didn't realize that I fully understood the world I was in until about halfway through the book. It was a good thing because the world building just seemed to go right along with the plot. There were no real breaks for a lengthy description, although sometimes I like those. There is a little bit of romance within the story, just enough to make you wonder if they will end up together, but not enough that you want to scream at the book about love never actually being like that. Plus, the training and fighting are way more important that gathering attraction. Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this book and have set my reminders for book 2.

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