Air Awakens (Air Awakens, #1)

by Elise Kova

A library apprentice, a sorcerer prince, and an unbreakable magic bond…

The Solaris Empire is one conquest away from uniting the continent, and the rare elemental magic sleeping in seventeen-year-old library apprentice Vhalla Yarl could shift the tides of war.

Vhalla has always been taught to fear the Tower of Sorcerers, a mysterious magic society, and has been happy in her quiet world of books. But after she unknowingly saves the life of one of the most powerful sorcerers of them all–the Crown Prince Aldrik–she finds herself enticed into his world. Now she must decide her future: Embrace her sorcery and leave the life she’s known, or eradicate her magic and remain as she’s always been. And with powerful forces lurking in the shadows, Vhalla’s indecision could cost her more than she ever imagined.

• ISBN10: 1619849542
• ISBN13: 9781619849549
• Publish Date: 27 August 2015
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Silver Wing Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 402
• Language: English

Reviews

[Brittany]

This book has its faults, writing is a bit dodgy sometimes and it’s pretty predictable overall, but man is it addicting.

The characters, the story, the world - all of it. I KNOW the writing isn’t exceptional or new but I don’t want to put it down?

This is the type of book I’d call a guilty pleasure. It’s a fast easy read that keeps you captivated and doesn’t make you think very hard about anything.

[Vicki]

Loved this! I was hooked from the beginning. The story reminds me of Avatar, The Last Airbender but with older characters and a dreamier prince. I really enjoyed Vhalla and watching her learn and open up to her magic. Aldrik was yummy and difficult to get a sense of at first which made him all the more interesting. This seems to be more character driven than plot driven, but definitely picks up towards the end. I am already addicted and am starting the next one...

[Leigha]

A young woman transforms from a library apprentice to a sorcerer in this awesome new adult romance-fantasy series.

I devoured the Air Awakens series over a week. Five books in one week! I’ve owned the first one for ages, finally sitting down to read it this past July. While the beginning is BEYOND slow, the rest of the series more than makes up for the start. Vhalla and Aldrick are – how should we put it? – not terribly interesting in the start of the series. Vhalla is your typical “good girl” and Aldrick your typical “bad boy” archetypes. It’s not until they begin growing, both as individuals and as a couple, I found myself invested in their story. Their transformation during the series is dramatic and earned.

Secondary characters are well-developed, particularly those characters involved in multiple novels. I’d be cautious at giving my heart to any of the characters. All of them – including our leads – are placed in perilous situations throughout the series. Sometimes characters survive with emotional and physical scars, while others meet a grisly fate. *tears* Creating a series with life or death stakes requires, well, life and death stakes. I appreciate the authenticity Ms. Kova cultivates by creating a series where beloved character can, and do, die.

The world building is top notch. The magic system is comprised of elemental magic – air, water, fire, and earth (very similar to The Last Airbender anime). Each region of the continent maintains its own nuances as do the people from those regions. Events in the books build until the dramatic conclusion. While I bought each book separately, I highly recommend purchasing the complete series on Amazon. Trust me – you will want to read them all!

tl;dr Fantastic world building, epic romance, and earned character development makes this life-and-death series a must read.

[layawaydragon]

Received a free e-copy to review from the author.

Air Awakens follows Vhalla, a reluctant sorceress and library nerd. She’s the standard average woman with frizzy hair that thinks nothing of herself but cleans up nice. More importantly, a library mouse with a penchant of slacking off at work to read. So far, a woman after my own heart.

If this character is for you or you like elemental high fantasy, I’d definitely recommend it. There’s only one small caveat and a minor choppy spot: worldbuilding that needs to be fleshed out/revealed and a romance overload about 100 pages before the end that’s resolved shortly after.

It starts off engaging but I thought it really picked up around page 23. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a note on exactly why that is. In any event, it was entertaining and kept me reading even with the minor marks mentioned above. It’d be easily 4 stars, but my incomplete mental image is holding it back and that’d be the result for any fantasy book without it.

I’m really excited to read Fire Falling for a number of reasons: following the plot, learning more about magic and the world, but most importantly, I need to see Vhalla now that she’s resolved. Her and Mr. Prince will never be un-complicated, but I don’t think I have to worry about more partners springing up. I REALLY want those two to get it together and be a couple.

I liked the character progression. There was this moment where Mr. Heartbreaker’s like “You’re not like the rest of them” and she would have been before her awakening. Such a wonderful illustration that while you can get lost in events and tumbled around, things are still moving. There is a point to it all.

Mr. Prince gets the same treatment and it’s why I’m so amped for their romance. However, background characters don’t. They’re lucky to have some new facts revealed and those that do are stronger for it.

Romance:

It’s not a love-angle but a webby mess. The main split attractions of life before and after is understandable and I’m glad Vhalla progressed through it. It’s a solid example of using the trope right and I enjoyed it. It felt natural, like it had to happen.

But there’s another girl for the good common guy and a heartbreaker in on the play. It was frustrating with so much more to discover and explore the romance crescendoed instead. Even though (or maybe because) I understood Vhalla’s bumbling, wavering, people-pleasing ways on a personal level, I wanted to smack her at one point. She kept saying “I don’t get him.” But it’s obvious to me and he’s not the one she should be worried about…Mr. Heartbreaker is far sketchier and seemingly out of character often.

Thankfully, it was resolved like 2 pages later and the political and magical plot came back into focus with one interest and one suspect. I’m ecstatic to seeing their relationship develop and the plot unfurl.

The Worldbuilding:

The world is separated into East, South, West, and North. I have no idea what countries actually constitute each or where this stakes place besides the Solaris Empire’s palace. I know that they’re fighting a war with dark-skinned Northerners supposedly to spread their religion. Given where Vhalla’s headed next, we’ll learn more about the latter sooner rather than later.

The story still works of course, but fantasy is defined by magic, and this magic is divided geographically, so having a piss-poor understanding of geography hurts. Okay, even it magic wasn’t compass related, I’d still hate not having a map in a fantasy book. It’s part of the reason my mental image of The Hunger Games was just a straight line of numbered districts until the internet corrected me. This is my WORST subject, throw me a bone.

There’s no doubt the elemental powers and nations sounds like Avatar: The Last Air Bender and so far, Avatar’s is more interesting with spirits and reincarnation. With a noob protagonist, genocide, and a propaganda cover-up, the magic is shrouded and I NEED more from the Air Awakens series. I do like the secondary personal affinities and am glad they’ll be explored more.

Plot:
Seems typical so far but it’s solid and I want to follow it. I knew certain things were going to happen because it’s a fantasy book but I didn’t know how most of the time. Leaving it a mix of surprising and standard and not much to say without spoilers. Don’t let this discourage you though. If you like royal courts, politics, and war Air Awakens has plenty to dig into.

[Heather]

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 Kova

The 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

[Chelsea]

What I Loved:

I had 0 expectations going in to this book. It’s a lesser known book for sure so there wasn’t any hype surrounding it, which I was glad for. It was actually really nice going into a book not having any expectations or knowing anything at all. It only made the book more exciting for me.

I loved how intense every single character in this book was. All the main characters were so different from each other, even the brothers! I love the relationships that Vhalla was starting to form with all these new people and I can’t wait to see what becomes of them. It’s kind of nice getting to know these characters at the same time Vhalla does because it means we have to figure out who to trust along with Vhalla. It gives the book a little extra mystery. Plus all these characters seem very realistic because there’s no “perfect” character at all. Even the love interest isn’t described as perfect which I know I hate. Most of the characters have pretty obvious flaws and that’s what I like about them.

I also really enjoyed the pacing of the plot. It went by quickly enough so that I wasn’t bored and even during the slow parts I was entertained. I found that everything flowed together really well and every part was important to the bigger story. It didn’t feel like a typical fantasy plot to me, there was a lot more going on that was a little different and interesting. I read this whole book in one day because it sucked me in so deeply and I had this physical need to keep reading. It was one of those times where I was so into it that I turned the page and was shocked that it had just ended. “I could have sworn there was more pages than that!” I’m sure you all know those moments well. Another thing to note is that this book wasn’t predicable at all. Sure I could have guessed a few things but the major plot points came out of nowhere!

Huge reason to read this book: no insta-love! The romance is a little slow burning in this book but I think it works and I find myself really enjoying it. My favourite part is that the romance feels very passionate and hopefully a little steamy in books to come. Those are my favourite kinds of romance and so far is hasn’t disappointed in that department.

What I Didn't Like:

My only complaint was that I could have used just a little bit more information about this world they’re living in, though I can tell we will get a lot more next book. I just had so many questions about so many things that I would have liked an answer to but they were teeny tiny questions compared to how much I loved this book.

Who I'd Recommend To:

I’d recommend this to any YA fantasy lover. If you don’t like fantasy, you probably won’t like this book. While there are still a couple book tropes in here, the plot and characters are so well done that you won’t even notice them. It’s also a great book for you if you like some romance with your fantasy.

These are just some of the highlights of my review. To see the full review click here.

[tweetybugshouse]

I totally loved this book i tweeted a ton to the author as i came across some great one liners. The dynamic between Aldrick and Vhalla made me smile, laugh, hurt and i loved every moment of it. The quote that stood out to me the most and identified most is "The execution of magic is not something that can be neatly summed up with words. I know you think, and wish, the whole world could be placed down on parchment in-between a strip of leather. But I regret it has fallen to me to inform you that such is simply not true.” I live in books and am known by some to be the google detective to finding answers. Just like Vhalla i do have to learn that i may have the knowledge in my head i have to physically experience things as well to really have full knowledge.

I really identified with Vhalla so much saw a lot of me in her and i think i see a bit of my husband in the teasing way Aldrick acts with Vhalla. It a great story i loved every minutue and will be finishing the series as soon as i possibly can. Thanks for the laughs.

[Sam@WLABB]

Air Awakens is Vhalla's story of discovering her powers, and in turn, discovering herself.

I found myself invested in Vhalla's story from page 1. I was drawn in by the characters, the writing style, and the story in general. The friendship that develops between Vhalla and Aldric, and the progression into more (?) was a big selling point for me. Hey, I am a romance junky, and this romance was all about the building. Their interactions are laced with tension and longing, but there are so many factors not working in their favor. I know Aldrik is supposed to be the big baddie (according to his subjects), but he said some really swoon worthy things. This quote more or less sums up how hot it could be if they get together:

“Fire needs sure to live. Sure field fire, strikes it, and makes it burn brighter and hotter than it are could alone. But too much air will sniff it completely, just as too many flames will consume all the air.They are far greater that the Sun of their parts together, but are equally as dangerous to each other's existence.”

I think the mark of a good YA story, is the growth of the MC. Vhalla begins are a fairly naive girl, who had little life experience outside of the library. During the book, her magic awakens, her world and circle of friends grows, she becomes more aware of herself as a woman. You know she is on the road to becoming kick-ass, when she avers, "They wanted to kill her, so this Vhalla would die, she resolved, and a new Vhalla would be born from her ashes."

I am excited to read more of this series.

[shannonmiz]

I will post a review on my blog soon, and it will likely contain gifs and/or something else I deem fun, so stay tuned. For now, I wanted to get my thoughts typed out lest I forget something!

I stayed up reading this book all night. That isn't an exaggeration- I clocked in at 6:30 am. The reason? I absolutely could not put this book down, nor could I sleep without knowing how it would end.

From the start, Vhalla sucked me in. She just was so realistic, relatable, believable. Some of her thought processes reminded me of my own, which I basically never see in fantasy and I found so refreshing. Vhalla didn't feel stereotypical- that is, she was neither the "badass heroine", nor was she the shy, breakable wallflower. She was just... a young woman, who was scared and confused, but also willing to be strong when she needed to be. Her character growth and development throughout the book was also fabulous. She didn't suddenly become one of those stereotypes either. In some ways she grew, and she even grew into new flaws while shedding old ones. She didn't become perfect, she just began to grow.

Also, she loves books. So there's a huge win right of the bat, really. I mean, homegirl works in a library, what more can a booknerd even ask for?

And then there is romance. It's slow, but my goodness, the chemistry! There are a few young men who could be Vhalla's love interest, so I won't tell you which one she has the chemistry with, but WOW. It was super slow burning, but that doesn't mean that the chemistry was lacking, because it was NOT. I think that is what I am most excited about for the next book, really!

The other characters were really great too. Again, realistic- no one was perfect, everyone had their own issues, agendas, secrets, and good qualities. There was just enough doubt in each character that I always wondered if they could be trusted, but plenty of lovely moments between characters to remind us of the good in the world.

The plot was really fun, I loved the idea of Vhalla's magic, and that there were different kinds of magic! Magic is hit or miss with me, so I was a tad apprehensive, but luckily, this worked for me completely. I liked that Vhalla didn't wake up one day been some fabulous magical being. It took time, and she didn't know what was even happening to her half the time, and the other half, she was in denial. Which again, was awesome, because isn't that how you or I would react?

The world is split into territories, and while I would like to know more about the world, I think there will be much more to come, and it did not detract from the story- especially since Vhalla wouldn't have been likely to know a lot about the world around her from her sheltered existence.

And the twists-especially the final one- were just mind blowing! I admit that I never saw it coming, and I am so glad I didn't! I was on the edge of my seat (bed?) holding my breath, because I seriously didn't know how it would play out. And the ending set up the next book perfectly. It ended at a point where I wouldn't have to scream in frustration, but left me wanting more, needing to know what was going to happen next, because things just escalated VERY quickly, and opened up a ton of possibilities for where the story could go!

Bottom Line: Basically, I adored this book, if you couldn't tell. Vhalla is definitely my new favorite heroine, and I cannot wait for the next installment of this series!

OH- and how gorgeous is this cover? I may be drooling.

*Copy provided for review