The Elements of the Crown (The Elements of Kamdaria, Books 1-4)

by Kay L Moody

Talise has a gift that could save her life.

This book is a bundle. It includes novellas 1-4 of The Elements of Kamdaria: Ice Crown, Wind Crown, Dust Crown, and Flame Crown.

In an empire divided into three rings, seventeen-year-old Talise is from the outer ring. This dangerous and crime-laden land has one constant… death.

Her only chance for escape is to become Master Shaper—an honored position in the palace court and military. Each year, the emperor chooses one student to receive the title.

After ten years of training at an elite academy, Talise clearly has a gift for manipulating the elements of water, air, earth, and fire. But Aaden, a handsome student from the privileged inner ring, is poised to steal the title away from her.

When they come before the emperor, he is impressed with the great skill both Talise and Aaden possess. He presents them with a set of trials, and she knows this is the chance she needs to prove herself. As long as Aaden doesn’t ruin everything.

But secrets hide in every corner of the palace, masking a conflict far more dangerous than her previous home in the outer ring. Now, she must play along with the emperor’s lies and games, or else she will lose her life to an enemy she never expected.

This paperback bundle also includes exclusive content not available in the individual novellas:

• Map of Kamdaria
• Character illustrations of Talise and Aaden
• Instructions to the game, Forces of Kamdaria
• Excerpt from the companion short story, Winds of Flame

• ISBN10: 1732458863
• ISBN13: 9781732458864
• Publish Date: 3 December 2019
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Imprint: Marten Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 450
• Language: English

Reviews

[Nessa Luna]

I had read the first novella in this series already and found it was way too short and had been hoping for more. So I was happy to get accepted for the bind-up of the first four novellas of this series.

Book two continues almost right after the first one ended, and it goes on for the rest of the books as well. That is something I like because I do think these books should have just been written as one long novel, instead of four (or even seven, I believe will be the full number) separate novellas.

As for the characters, Talise kind of grew on me after she realised she was not being very nice to everyone, though I still had my *deep sigh* moments after that. Her constant 'do I trust him, do I not trust him' towards Aedan made me want to bash my head (or hers) against a wall. Also her being the princess? Totally saw it coming. Hadn't expected her to *know* it though, so points for that.

The magic in this world was pretty cool and reminded me a lot of Avatar the Last Airbender. I loved the different parts of the body the elemental magic were supposed to come from and I do hope we'll see more magic in the future novellas.

The third story was the most exciting for me, as we started to see some action, but that one ended way too soon and then we got one more novella which left me unsatisfied.

All in all, I do think I'll be continuing with this series, but I do think I'll wait until the last novella has been released.