The Burning Sky (Elemental Trilogy, #1)

by Sherry Thomas

[Katie King]

**4 stars**

Wow. That's all I can say about this book! Not really...

The Burning Sky begins with the heroine Iolanthe, a young elemental mage, attempting to create the perfect light elixir for a wedding. Let me just take a step back to say that I wish we could bottle moonlight for weddings, because that would be seriously gorgeous. Okay, so Iolanthe gets into a tussle with her mentor, and he ruins the potion. She discovers that lightning can fix the elixir, tries it out, and launches an epic battle for her powers. You see, being able to call lightning is not exactly common, and a hallmark of a great level IV elemental mage. You know, the type that would be able to overthrow the country currently occupying hers. She therefore presents a small problem for them.

In short, I loved Iolanthe. She was bold, funny, clumsy, skilled, smart, feminine, tough, and most importantly real. She was torn between saving herself and helping Titus, the prince. She was torn between helping Titus and rescuing her mentor. She was torn between her duty and desire for a quiet life and her growing feelings for Titus. She wasn't exceptionally beautiful or ugly. She wasn't exceptionally gifted at everything she did, she still made plenty mistakes and struggled with herself. It was very refreshing not to read about everyone fawning all over the female characters.

This story is not just about Iolanthe, but the prince Titus too. Titus needs the foreseen great elemental mage to liberate his country. Iolanthe wants her mentor back and a peaceful life of scholarship. Drawn to Iolanthe out of necessity to overthrow the occupiers, Titus realizes their destinies have been intertwined since before they were born. They band together to save everyone, but little do they realize how they will change each other's lives.

I thought Titus was very sweet. He plays the pompous, spoiled prince role very well, maybe too well to be entirely fake. But not so deep down, he is very caring and fiercely loyal. He tried to act tough with Iolanthe in the beginning, but I could see the facade faltering. I really love them together and thought that their romance seemed genuine, albeit rushed if you actually examine the timespan of the story.

Something I was less than thrilled with was the time spent at Eton. Iolanthe goes into hiding as a male schoolmate of Titus' at Eton, but there seemed to be too much emphasis on the time spent there. In short, I was bored. I get the necessity of her being there, but a significant chunk was Iolanthe playing cricket or socializing or doing homework assignments for others. This could have easily been left out.

Finally, I thought the world was great with one exception. Between Atlantis, Delmar (?), and England, I thought there was a lot of potential for a variety in the story. Instead, a lot of the story actually takes place in a book. This would be fine except I had a very hard time following the events in the last 100 pages. I understand the concept of the Crucible, but understanding where Iolanthe and Titus were at any given point or why they were in a spot or whether it was the Crucible or the real world or what exactly was going on...I was very lost. I thought this was a cool idea, but it had too little explanation for me to follow it.

All in all, a very enjoyable read! The magic was particularly interesting to me, although the rules about who has the ability to perform magic was a little confusing too. The prince can but somehow his magic is different from Iolanthe's?