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The Elements
Spoiled, beautiful and rich, seventeen-year-old Kayleigh Woodcomb has everything going for her. Or has she? Alienated from her powerful parents, as well as from her friends at school, her life starts to spiral out of control, and when she disgraces herself and her parents at a sophisticated party, she knows she must do something to escape them and get out from under.
After a little research, the name Draker, an exclusive and secluded boarding school, keeps appearing on her screen. It seems just the sort of boring place where her parents wouldn’t think of looking for her, and Kayleigh enrolls.
But Draker is no ordinary school and is far from boring. Kayleigh soon settles in and makes new friends with whom she feels oddly at home. But while almost everyone is friendly and welcoming, Kayleigh is aware that secrets are being kept from her—secrets that appear to be related to the elements, particularly fire and water—secrets that in some way concern her, but what are they?
Her friends are protective of her, but Kayleigh also feels she’s being watched, or tested in some way. They seem to expect something from her but what? There is also something a little eerie about them. Who really is the handsome, enigmatic Reid? And why does Spencer, to whom Kayleigh is deeply attracted, act so strangely—rescuing her from terrifying situations one minute, and then ignoring her the next?
Kayleigh may never find out as her parents discover where she is and force her to return home and to a life that is now alien to her. Her parents’ behavior becomes more and more eccentric, and then, as one secret after another are revealed to her, Kayleigh’s life once again, goes into free fall.
No one seems to be who they are, least of all Kayleigh. Totally out of her depth and with no one to turn to, Kayleigh, who has discovered what the magnetic attraction of opposites really means and struggles to keep her own identity. But can the elements join forces in time to rescue her from an impossible future?
Zhu Hsia is published by KONG Publishing House. She is a prolific writer of paranormal romances, and this latest story is a must if you want to discover the secrets behind the elements and the attraction of opposites and the horrible events that take place in the woods surrounding the Draker School castle.
After a little research, the name Draker, an exclusive and secluded boarding school, keeps appearing on her screen. It seems just the sort of boring place where her parents wouldn’t think of looking for her, and Kayleigh enrolls.
But Draker is no ordinary school and is far from boring. Kayleigh soon settles in and makes new friends with whom she feels oddly at home. But while almost everyone is friendly and welcoming, Kayleigh is aware that secrets are being kept from her—secrets that appear to be related to the elements, particularly fire and water—secrets that in some way concern her, but what are they?
Her friends are protective of her, but Kayleigh also feels she’s being watched, or tested in some way. They seem to expect something from her but what? There is also something a little eerie about them. Who really is the handsome, enigmatic Reid? And why does Spencer, to whom Kayleigh is deeply attracted, act so strangely—rescuing her from terrifying situations one minute, and then ignoring her the next?
Kayleigh may never find out as her parents discover where she is and force her to return home and to a life that is now alien to her. Her parents’ behavior becomes more and more eccentric, and then, as one secret after another are revealed to her, Kayleigh’s life once again, goes into free fall.
No one seems to be who they are, least of all Kayleigh. Totally out of her depth and with no one to turn to, Kayleigh, who has discovered what the magnetic attraction of opposites really means and struggles to keep her own identity. But can the elements join forces in time to rescue her from an impossible future?
Zhu Hsia is published by KONG Publishing House. She is a prolific writer of paranormal romances, and this latest story is a must if you want to discover the secrets behind the elements and the attraction of opposites and the horrible events that take place in the woods surrounding the Draker School castle.
219 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 24, 2014
About the author
Zhu Hsia
5 books8 followersZhu Hsia was born in China, Shanghai. After staying there for more than a decade, she decided to move to Hong Kong. Ms Zhu likes to spend her time sending her kids to school and thinking of creating simple stories to hoax her kids to sleep.
One day, her husband asked her since she has some creative juice. Why not create Asian culture stories for more people to enjoy and get entertain? She heeded his advice and started spin paranormal romance & fantasy stories.
So far, she has written 1 novel and 2 novellas. She is not done yet. She is in the progress of writing more Asian-based paranormal romance stories for all to enjoy. Stay tuned!
One day, her husband asked her since she has some creative juice. Why not create Asian culture stories for more people to enjoy and get entertain? She heeded his advice and started spin paranormal romance & fantasy stories.
So far, she has written 1 novel and 2 novellas. She is not done yet. She is in the progress of writing more Asian-based paranormal romance stories for all to enjoy. Stay tuned!
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 11, 2014
Kayleigh, spoiled teenager to extremely rich parents, seeks to get away from it all, to start afresh. She finds Draker, an isolated private school and perfect for a fresh start – but the school harbours many secrets she never expected
Well, that was… pretty damn dreadful, I’m afraid. So much so that I just couldn’t finish it, I got to half way and I put it down, refusing to go further. The whole book made so little sense to me – no, the people made so little sense to me. Especially the protagonist
Our protagonist is Kayleigh and we’re introduced to her by her getting out of her ever loving mind drunk and vomiting on people in a swanky party her so-very-important-parents forced her to attend. Her parents are evil, by the way. Except we don’t actually see them do anything evil (though they do object to public vomiting on expensive suits from their school-aged daughter which is just so unfair) and, coupled with Kayleigh’s POV make this seem a lot like an extremely spoiled rich child having temper tantrums. This is not endearing.
Because she is flouncing with her parents she decides to go to a private school. No, really. She looks up a school online based on the fact it’s secluded and doesn’t allow mobile phones. That is her criteria for which school she will attend. No, really.
Having found said school she manages to enrol, pay the fees and attend not only without her parents’ knowledge or consent – but also managing to get out of the house and to the school before her parents even come home from work. This secluded private school has… astonishingly lax admission standards.
It’s also in a castle. Her parents dream of her going to Harvard, so, along with general word use, I’m assuming she’s American. I have no idea why the school is a castle (with four poster beds as well). It has very few rules though, the chief among them being “don’t go in the forest”. Kayleigh resolves to follow these rules since she’s in a new place.
Which means trying to explore said forbidden forest she is repeatedly told is dangerous twice in her first week. Especially when she hears mysterious and creepy howling coming from it. One of these attempts is in the middle of the night, by moonlight with no torch or other source of artificial lighting. Had she run into a werewolf and it had eaten her, the werewolf would have then howled “DARWIN AWARD!” to the moon.
But most of the first week was spent going to one single class (the one with Love Interest in it) and being massively over dramatic about said love interest. His name is Spencer and over that first week I think she has monumental tantrums at least 3 times (and the angsty monologues, oh gods the angsty monologues!) over whether he likes her or not. Most of her deciding he hates her so much and it’s all terribad and awful stem from the fact Spencer occasionally spends time with another girl, Alice (WHO WE HATES! WE HATES HER!) who Kayleigh hated from day one when Alice decided to stick her hand inside the very uninterested Spencer’s clothes in the middle of the Physic’s class room and Kayleigh let fly the following stunning wit:
“Do continue to mke a fool of yourself, will you? It’s quite entertaining.”
This was hailed as such a scintillatingly cutting put down that Oscar Wilde came back from the dead to applaud by all of her many friends (who became extremely good friends in the first week on first meeting because REASONS).
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Well, that was… pretty damn dreadful, I’m afraid. So much so that I just couldn’t finish it, I got to half way and I put it down, refusing to go further. The whole book made so little sense to me – no, the people made so little sense to me. Especially the protagonist
Our protagonist is Kayleigh and we’re introduced to her by her getting out of her ever loving mind drunk and vomiting on people in a swanky party her so-very-important-parents forced her to attend. Her parents are evil, by the way. Except we don’t actually see them do anything evil (though they do object to public vomiting on expensive suits from their school-aged daughter which is just so unfair) and, coupled with Kayleigh’s POV make this seem a lot like an extremely spoiled rich child having temper tantrums. This is not endearing.
Because she is flouncing with her parents she decides to go to a private school. No, really. She looks up a school online based on the fact it’s secluded and doesn’t allow mobile phones. That is her criteria for which school she will attend. No, really.
Having found said school she manages to enrol, pay the fees and attend not only without her parents’ knowledge or consent – but also managing to get out of the house and to the school before her parents even come home from work. This secluded private school has… astonishingly lax admission standards.
It’s also in a castle. Her parents dream of her going to Harvard, so, along with general word use, I’m assuming she’s American. I have no idea why the school is a castle (with four poster beds as well). It has very few rules though, the chief among them being “don’t go in the forest”. Kayleigh resolves to follow these rules since she’s in a new place.
Which means trying to explore said forbidden forest she is repeatedly told is dangerous twice in her first week. Especially when she hears mysterious and creepy howling coming from it. One of these attempts is in the middle of the night, by moonlight with no torch or other source of artificial lighting. Had she run into a werewolf and it had eaten her, the werewolf would have then howled “DARWIN AWARD!” to the moon.
But most of the first week was spent going to one single class (the one with Love Interest in it) and being massively over dramatic about said love interest. His name is Spencer and over that first week I think she has monumental tantrums at least 3 times (and the angsty monologues, oh gods the angsty monologues!) over whether he likes her or not. Most of her deciding he hates her so much and it’s all terribad and awful stem from the fact Spencer occasionally spends time with another girl, Alice (WHO WE HATES! WE HATES HER!) who Kayleigh hated from day one when Alice decided to stick her hand inside the very uninterested Spencer’s clothes in the middle of the Physic’s class room and Kayleigh let fly the following stunning wit:
“Do continue to mke a fool of yourself, will you? It’s quite entertaining.”
This was hailed as such a scintillatingly cutting put down that Oscar Wilde came back from the dead to applaud by all of her many friends (who became extremely good friends in the first week on first meeting because REASONS).
Read More
May 14, 2015
You can read my full/honest review here: http://wp.me/p37Zro-1i6
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews