Air Awakens

Because, Vhalla, you think and you watch, but you never do. 

I'm honestly not quite sure what made me finish the book. The writing was pleasant enough, I guess? Also, I kept waiting for the story to pick up or for the main character to finally start making decisions, and by the time I gave up on that hope, the book was so close to the end, anyway. 
It's really one of those rare cases where I have next to nothing good to say about the plot or the character. It's a collection of cliches. I have nothing against tried and true tropes; I love them! But I feel like they exist to be explored, or twisted, or put together in ways that at least feel fresh. Here, everything is just played too straight. We have a reluctant protagonist who is oh so special because she's the last of her kind (but she thinks herself plain, and she's permanently stuck in the Refusal of the Call stage of her hero's journey). We have a love triangle layered on top of another love triangle, and the relationship we're (probably) supposed to root for is frankly toxic. We have lots of informed attributes—the main character is supposed to be this smart bookworm, but I'm not sure she's made a single smart decision, and while she reads a lot, it doesn't feel like she thinks that much about what she reads or interacts with the information in ways that aren't simply absorbing facts. 

The worldbuilding held promise, although it was clearly heavily inspired by Avatar the Last Airbender. Even so, I felt like there were potentially exciting twists here and I was excited to learn more. Unfortunately, the characters didn't really interact with the world in a meaningful way most of the time. They simply spoke and read about it a lot. The world barely ever expanded beyond a "generic castle with a generic wizard tower."  Most of the story also felt pretty juvenile. I know it's YA, but there were times when I thought maybe I was reading an MG book, until a character randomly said something that seemed like a heavy-handed reminder: "Look! They're not that young! They mention sex! It's YA, after all!" 
Perhaps this simply wasn't a book for me. 

A good friend of mine binged the entire Air Awakens series in a weekend, and then proceeded to buy me a copy of the first book as a gift--I don't think recommendations get much higher than that.

The book was really good & a good intro to what looks like a bigger world and series. This first portion is definitely set-up and introduction, and it feels like it, so I'll probably be checking out the other books at some point.

Vhalla is our heroine, who goes from regular girl who loves her job in the library and books, who gets swept up into a fantastical world of sorcery and royalty as she discovers she's the last of the Windwalkers, and gets noticed by the Prince Aldrik (which of course gets her noticed by his brother, Baldair).

A lot of the book is pretty predictable, and a few familiar beats of the genre show up, but it's always in ways that feel good to read. The sorts of things you love seeing pop up over and over again in a fantasy romance (The childhood friend with a crush on her? Or the Prince she'd come to know?; Choose a life of magic? Life as a normal girl?; Everything comes crashing down just at the high point and things are getting good - of course.). Vhalla's relatable, and knows what she wants, even though sometimes she has a hard time saying "No" while trying to be considerate of feelings.

Her budding and building relationship and romance with Aldrik was great to read, and I grew quite fond of the Dark and "Evil" prince. They have good chemistry, and I do look forward to seeing their relationship grow over their future conflicts.

Though it's not all romance. There's quite a bit of world building with the Four Kingdoms, and the four major types of magic. I got some Last Airbender vibes from the series, but again, in the way of "I could read a hundred 'met in a coffee shop and fell in love' romances" and not the "Not this again" rolling of the eyes. The book puts its own spin on the world in a way that's a familiar set up, but also it's own.

I rather enjoyed it, and I look forward to the series getting a chance to dive into the War and greater world in the future.

I received Air Awakens from my OTSP Secret Sister.  I had heard that it was good but didn't know much about it.  I figured this was a good time to start reading the series because I thought the last book was just released.  Turns out that book 4 was just released and there is a book 5 that is coming out in July.I ended up binging on the first three books over the course of 2 days.  I finally made myself stop before reading book 4.  I loved this world and this story.  I was totally immersed in it.  You know how when you are deep in a story and you start thinking in the author's style of writing.  That was me.  I had to force myself to come back to the real world for a while.The books all end with cliff hangers too.  Actually in one case it is falling off of a cliff.  I knew that if I read book four and there was no option to find out what happened, I wasn't going to be happy.  I had to make the decision to stop instead of it being made for me.In the first book, Air Awakens, Vhalla is a library apprentice who more comfortable with books than people.  When she is called upon to help research a cure for a curse put on a prince it is discovered that she possesses magic.  Magic users are powerful but are shunned by most of society so she doesn't want to be magical.  But now that her magic is starting to manifest itself she doesn't have a choice.  She is trained by the Prince himself because he realizes that she has an affinity for working with Air.  There hasn't been a sorcerer with that affinity since they were all slaughtered in a war one hundred years ago.  They were considered too dangerous and even now some powerful people aren't sure that Vhalla should be allowed to live.

A photo posted by @dvmheather on May 1, 2016 at 3:05pm PDT

Fire Falling by Elise Kova



Ok, so I'm moving to the next book so this might get a little spoilery. You've been warned.

To contain Vhalla's power she has been made property of the crown and is being sent into the war as a weapon of mass destruction. She doesn't want to go to war. In her mind she's still a librarian. But she needs to learn to use her power to survive and to protect her friends who are marching with her.

A photo posted by @dvmheather on May 6, 2016 at 11:21am PDT

Usually I hate, hate, hate romances in books. That goes double for romances in YA books. I think they are awful. This is one of the few romances that I actually love. The chemistry between the characters is incredible.Earth's End by Elise KovaThe Prince is greviously injured and Vhalla is the only one who will be able to save him. The lengths she goes too illustrates for everyone how much she loves him. His father is not having this so he tightens his control over Vhalla. Now she realizes that she will never be able to earn her freedom from him.OMG, the ending! Nope. Nope. Nope. This is why I had to make a conscious decision to walk away after 2 days of nonstop reading. I needed to know what happened but if there is an ending like that in book 4 with no way to read book 5 yet, I would not be happy. Right now I'm telling myself that I used my will power to walk away.

A photo posted by @dvmheather on May 7, 2016 at 2:34pm PDT

Seriously, if you are at all into fantasy, go read this series.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story