Kindle Edition Download to your Nook (eBook) Download from Apple iTunes (eBook) Amazon Deborah Jay Author Deborah Jay Books Category:  Fantasy ISBN-10:  1494404869 Type: Fiction Pages: 318 Copyright: Dec 15, 2013 ISBN-13: 9781494404864 Price: $2.99 (eBook) Scottish water sprite, Cassie, lives a quiet life, until a magician tries to force her to power his crazy dangerous experiment. Struggling to stay one step ahead of him, her life spirals dangerously out of control. Can she survive and avert an ecological catastrophe? On the surface she's a cute and feisty blonde; a slender pocket rocket fitness coach. But Cassiopeia Lake has a secret; she's really a force of nature – an elemental. Water sprite, Cassie, has lived undisturbed in her native Scottish loch for eons. Now, one encounter too many with modern plumbing has driven her to live in human guise along with her selkie boyfriend. It’s all going fine - until a nerdy magician captures Cassie to be an unwilling component in his crazy dangerous experiment. Escape is only Cassie’s first challenge. She’s smitten by her fellow prisoner, the scorching hot fire elemental, Gloria. But how do you love someone you can never touch? And what do you do when your boyfriend starts to hero-worship your persecutor? Not to mention that tricky situation of being the prize in a power contest between two rival covens of witches. So when Gloria’s temper erupts and she sets out to murder the magician, can Cassie keep her loved ones safe from the cross-fire, or will she be sucked into the maelstrom of deadly desires and sink without trace? Excerpt It’s just as well I’m not claustrophobic. Even so, being held captive in a bottle was not how I’d planned to spend my weekend. It was also one of the most undignified positions I’ve ever been in; a water sprite can be squished down pretty small, but it doesn’t mean we enjoy the process. Rainbows played across the clear glass walls of my prison, refracting through the swirling liquid of my elemental form. Taking a deep breath, metaphorically speaking, I tried to slow my agitated motion, in danger of over-heating. If only someone would uncap my bottle, I’d be able to let off steam. I prowled the confined space. It stood around ten inches tall, or should that be twenty-five centimetres? I can’t keep up with the speed humans alter things. My existence had flowed serenely through the millennia without need for change—until the human race invented plumbing. I’d known there might be drawbacks to living in human form but, after one too many close encounters with the local sewage farm, I’d taken the risk. It had its upsides. Elementals are solitary by nature, but I’d found I liked having friends—not to mention the thrill of experiencing human emotions. I don’t understand them all yet, but I’m learning. Perhaps I should also have considered potential pit-falls, but I was still quite new to all this, and when Alison had come to me for support, I’d wanted to help. Replaying the fateful conversation in my mind, I realised I should’ve smelled something fishy from the outset. “I know it’s not your kind of thing, but will you come with me, Cassie? Please say you will,” Alison pleaded. I considered my flame haired friend for a millisecond before committing. “Aye, of course I will, as long as you’re certain it’s what you want.” She frowned. “What, to become a witch, or go to this meeting?” “The meeting, dear heart. I have no problem with you trying out witchcraft; all that communing with nature is so you. I’m just none too sure about this group.” We both studied the website on Alison’s laptop. “Look at this list of events.” I pointed to one corner of the screen. “Like this one: ‘Self-development through equine partnership’. What’s that all about?” “But that’s only one thing,” Alison protested. “Look at the rest. Crystal dowsing, aura reading, herbalism, etcetera, etcetera.” “Okay, okay! Of course I’ll come with you. It can’t hurt to go to one meeting, can it?” How wrong could I have been? I know that at the first whiff of strong magic I should have run in the opposite direction. But no, that whiff had been so enticing: aromas of strawberries and cream and chocolate all rolled into one. Someone had studied the Facebook group I’d set up for my gym clients, and discovered exactly what would make me hesitate just that fraction of a second too long.

An urban fantasy with all the right bells and whistles
I picked this book up as a bit of light reading and was not disappointed. Cassie, the main character is not a human, but rather she is a water-elemental, a sprite. (Hence the title.) The author does a great job of conveying Cassie’s alien-ness, and her lack of human understanding.

While I normally don’t really enjoy first-person point-of-view, I think in this case it is well done, although graphic sex from a first-person pov puts me a little off, but there is not too much of that, and what there is does seem to advance the plot. Though this is a rather graphic romance, there is a lot of other action, and all the characters are well fleshed out. Unlike most romance novels, the plot moves quite quickly and does not rely on the sex to keep the readers attention.

The plot encompasses a great deal of urban mythology regarding vampires and the fae, modern witchcraft and the old-time selkie legends. The author blends them well and pits them against modern ecological issues, such as sustainable power. There is also the age old conflict of truth and trust, and how sins of omission can mess up a life, which makes for great drama. The magic is quite believable, as are the magical beings.

Liam, the evil magician, is your usual self-centered, amoral, malevolent bad dude, and his machinations drive the action in this tale. Cassie is not the only person who is not what they portray themselves as, and that leaves the door open for a sequel.
The ending, while not exactly happy, is satisfactory. It does leave the door open to a sequel, which I will buy.

What lies beneath this light Caledonian tale...
Desprite Measures by Deborah Jay is, on the surface, page-turning, light-hearted urban fantasy set in and around Inverness, in Scotland. But like nearby Loch Ness, which looms in the shadowy corners of the tale, the surface of the lake doesn't always show the depths. In this, the story has the feel of a certain kind of fairy tale or myth.

Cassie Lake is an immortal elemental, a water sprite. She is capable of holding a human appearance, and lives a dual life, human by day and water elemental by night. She has a selkie (Were-seal) lover, friends and a job. A comfortable life, that only exists before page 1 of the book, where we find her trapped by a human magician in a bubble that he is squeezing smaller and smaller. Unfortunately, also trapped in the same bubble is another elemental, the equal and opposite fire sprite. If they touch, 'bye-bye Scotland'. A grand wee setup. :-)

We go on from there, stirring a couple of covens, a druid and some familiars into a tale that reveals the magician's purpose and greed. We get a cameo performance by a vampire, a couple of scenes with what might be a fairy or an elf, and one with what might be a devil, or an angel. Good is sort of triumphant and some massive hooks are left in for the next of what's apparently planned to be a five part series.

It's well done, with a light touch, appealing characters, and scenes that made me yell 'Noooo!!! Cassie, don't do that' without making me think she was a twit / TSTL. The world building is light but well constructed and consistent. The villain has an ambiguity during the story, which Jay disassembles at the end. I'm not sure about that, but I certainly didn't expect it, and I can understand it in light of the moral quandary of the denouement and Cassie's internal journey.

All of which just makes it another good book. It's the subtexts that raise it above that.

Appropriately enough for an elemental, a concern with the environment is woven through the book, and provides the structural support for the strong main plot line, but the real twister is Cassie's journey. Acting human has started to develop Cassie's soul. As an elemental, she doesn't expect to have one. Others certainly don't. And with the soul, of course, comes pain and grief as well as love.

To reveal more would be to give spoilers, and I won't do that.

In my scoring, it's normally difficult for book 1 of a series to get a five until I've seen book 2. I want to know that the mythic quality blossoms in this series, I want to see that dark underlying fairy tale, even if it means that the series is not a Disney HEA. Fairy tales have a taste of blood and iron, which are lurking beneath the surface in Desprite Measures. I'm looking forward to book 2.

Excellent read
This is a fabulous journey.
Much like a taster menu, delicious and tantalising with increasing subtlety and spice leaving me breathless to get to the next experience.
As with all excellent 'meals' I am both satisfied and wanting more.
I read this on Kindle but will now buy the actual book as I shall also do with 'The Prince's Man'.
Then I can indulge whenever I want.