Alycia Linwood

*Received e-book through Read It and Reap program from the Shut Up and Read! Goodreads group from author for an honest review
**also posted on Amazon.com under Leanne

Dangerous is told by the point-of-view of Ria Milanez, a privileged university student, who holds the element of fire. In this alternate world, magic has always been present, with people being gifted by the God of Magic with one element. The only caveat for this gift was that the elements remain “pure” and unmixed by not show more breeding with different elementals. As people broke this rule, magic disease carriers (those with no element) emerged, and they had the ability to infect others through sexual contact and kill others in order to steal their elements for themselves. Although the stolen element would fade with time, magic disease carriers could and most likely would continue killing to replenish their magic and this made them feared by the uninfected. Ria has grown up in an upper class family, one with a very pure elemental line, and with the belief that magic disease carriers should be feared and isolated from the general magic population. As she attends school, her beliefs are questioned and contested as she develops feelings for a water elemental, Michael, and when she encounters a famous magic disease carrier, Adrian.

I thought Linwood was quite successful in creating an intriguing world with a distinctive concept. It was clever of her to use a prologue-type introduction to explain the details of it as it greatly helped set up my understanding of Ria’s reactions since the plot starts quickly with the introductions of Michael and Adrian. Without that, I believe Ria would have been less likeable as she did have rather prejudicial dialogue. In addition, Linwood did a commendable job in character development. For example, she slowly flushed out the character of Adrian, whom I detested in the first half of the book, and revealed enough of his history and circumstances such that I eventually ended up sympathizing with him. Furthermore, I loved the complexities that arise as Ria’s best friend, Paula, falls for the dangerous Adrian, while his interest lay with Ria. I enjoyed Ria’s struggle to protect her friend, while resisting Adrian’s advances. This becomes truly difficult as she begins to see Adrian in a different light versus that of just a magic disease carrier, and with the shocking twist that Linwood introduces in the middle of the book.

Overall, Dangerous was an entertaining, fast read with an interesting concept with the magic disease carriers. I did become engrossed in this book (finished in two sittings) and felt that it had dynamic characters and a titillating cliffhanger ending to warrant reading the sequel, despite the grammatical errors. I would recommend this to young adult readers, who are fans of paranormal romances, such as the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent. show less

My opinion of the book changed frequently, but if you need to know only one thing, I'll definitely be buying the sequel, and I'm also looking into the prequels. The idea is good, tho I would like more explained at the beginning (the prequels maybe). I also thought the transitions through the story could have been smoother. Very adventure packed, fast paced, kept me interested. I recommend for fans of magic stories.

In this book, their god has given everyone an elemental power of earth, air, fire or water. The only requirement is that they choose a mate with the same elemental power and do not mix powers. Of course, there are always people who follow their own rules and powers were mixed.

Of course, the people in charge have to spin this to keep control of things and claim that some people have caught a disease. They claim that the disease is spread thru sex and that they lose their elemental powers. show more Effective way to spread fear, correct?

Ria, Adrian, Paula and Michael are learning that some things they think they know are not as they appear.

There is just something about this story line that really caught my attention. I couldn't put it down. Of course, the cliffhanger has left me wanting to go out and find book 2 right now. There are some grammatical errors with were a tad bit annoying but once you get past those, the book is really good. show less

Goodreads Synopsis: Eighteen-year-old Moira, an air elemental, never thought that waking up with an unusual blue fire on her arm would turn her life upside down. Determined to figure out why she has an element she shouldn’t have, her parents take her to a secluded island to keep her safe from anyone who might want to experiment on her. There she meets Noah, a boy who seems to know a lot about her elements. As he introduces her to a group of a new kind of elementals who are more powerful show more than anyone could have imagined, she doesn’t know if she can trust them, especially because the group’s leader, Jaiden, has an extremely dangerous ability. But when her parents get kidnapped by a mysterious man, she has no choice but to turn to Noah and Jaiden for help.

My Review: Moira lives in a world where everyone has either magic powers called elements, or they have magic disease where they steal others powers like vampires. It seemed interesting from the description and I liked the cover so I thought I would give it a shot next when it popped up on my kindle app. Usually I'm not big fans of books about magic because they're kind of cheesey, but I liked this one. Magic disease isn't really something I've read about before, so that was cool to learn about. I liked the main character, she seemed to act her age, and I also liked the other characters in the story, and their kind of little teenage runaway gang thing they had going. It was an exciting book and I couldn't predict the ending, so I wasn't really sure where this book as going. I didn't want to put it down and although it's not my new favourite boo, I will eventually read the next book in the series. Check it out if you haven't already! I got it from amazon and it took about three or four hours to finish. Thanks for reading!

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