Marked by Earth, Called by Water

by J.C. Ashren

Genres: Fantasy

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 14, 2026

About the author

J.C. Ashren is the author of The Whispering World, a contemporary eco-fantasy series where elemental magic awakens through a living, responsive natural world. The land remembers, recognises, responds and sometimes refuses, and each place changes what the characters are able to understand about the power they carry.
Her stories keep that magic inside contemporary adult life. The characters still work, negotiate, desire, grieve, make mistakes and fall in love, while their relationships increasingly affect what becomes possible between them and their Elements.
Drawing on folklore, Ashren brings ecological choices, intimacy and elemental power into the same contemporary world, where connection is complicated, nature has agency, place matters, power brings responsibility, and the extraordinary has been here all along.
Ashren grew up with books as different keys to different worlds, first as a reader who dreamed and, eventually, as an author.

Reviews

[Carla]

I didn't expect to get this emotional about trees. The way characters discover their connection to the elements in the Scottish Highlands, it doesn't feel like reading, it feels like dreaming. The writing is almost poetic, and somehow by the end, you start noticing things you never did before. The way the wind moves through leaves. The smell of rain before it comes. You actually feel like nature is alive and breathing right next to you. walking through any park or trail will just feel different now. You feel it. You notice it. It's hard to explain but you won't walk through nature the same way again.

The characters are so diverse and layered that you're constantly wanting more of their stories (so glad it's series). You get attached to all of them and the connections between them feel so real.

What really got me though is how much research and heart is in here. Real folklore, real places, stories I never knew existed that feel like they're slipping away from the world. It makes you want to protect them and value them.

Hard to believe this is a debut. It reads like someone who's been writing mystical tales for decades.

[Reader]

I don’t usually sit down to write reviews, but this book left me no choice.

I honestly didn’t expect a fantasy novel to change the way I look at the outdoors, but here we are. There’s a pulse to the setting that sneaks up on you, not dramatic, not showy, no violence, more like the steady presence of something ancient that’s been waiting for you to pay attention.

What impressed me most is how confidently the author blends the everyday with the mythical. One moment you’re reading about ordinary people with ordinary worries, and the next you’re knee‑deep in folklore. It never feels forced. It never feels like the book is trying to “wow” you. It just unfolds, and you follow, and suddenly you’re completely invested.

The characters are written with this quiet honesty that makes them feel lived‑in. You end up caring about them almost accidentally.

I’m already impatient for the next book in the series.

[Joan Case]

This is a fabulous book. I identified with the original belief that mankind was kin to nature, that they lived in harmony with all living things and had a "contract" with all nature. There were powers bestowed on some individuals making them able to commune, join with and command the elements. But as time went on, that contract was broken and the world became unbalanced. The select individuals who were blessed (or cursed) with being called by the elements, were sent on a quest to mend the contract that was broken. Human failings and desires get in the way, and the group has to fight hard to keep focused on the task at hand, if they are going to heel the land. There are so many truths about the way the earth is being abused today portrayed in this book. And the magical healing of the land is portrayed in the joining of the elements, the coming together of the powers these individuals possess to appease the land and restore the bond between mankind and nature. What a powerful message written between the lines of this book. I want to give 4 1/2 stars. I am looking forward to reading the second book.

[Reader]

I don’t usually sit down to write reviews, but this book left me no choice.

I honestly didn’t expect a fantasy novel to change the way I look at the outdoors, but here we are. There’s a pulse to the setting that sneaks up on you, not dramatic, not showy, no violence, more like the steady presence of something ancient that’s been waiting for you to pay attention.

What impressed me most is how confidently the author blends the everyday with the mythical. One moment you’re reading about ordinary people with ordinary worries, and the next you’re knee‑deep in folklore. It never feels forced. It never feels like the book is trying to “wow” you. It just unfolds, and you follow, and suddenly you’re completely invested.

The characters are written with this quiet honesty that makes them feel lived‑in. You end up caring about them almost accidentally.

I’m already impatient for the next book in the series.