Reviewed by chymerra on
This book starts off right where Into Aether (review here) leaves off….Valera being shoved off the airship platform after being kidnapped by Julia. Julia kidnapped Valera because she believes that Valera can help her merge the rest of the Trinity Key. After saving Valera, they head straight away to Subterria where Julia believes that her father had kept her part of the Trinity Key. Unfortunately, Subterria is in the middle of a civil war (caused when Lazarus, Julia’s father, attacked Harmony’s Circus and Harem of the Horrific.While they are there, they meet up with Marcus Corvus, Valera’s step uncle, who was even more evil than I remembered in the first book. It is in Subterria that Valera starts harnessing aether and discovers that she can use/control heat (like shooting fireballs out of her hand or making herself so hot that no one can touch her).
Then the book shifts to Theo, who is still in Aetherland with her mother, father (yes father!!!), Victor, Vivi, Nessie and Victoria. Theo had discovered that she can cause storms and control lighting. She can also speak to Valera in her mind but that link has been muted for some reason. The only reason that she knows Valera is alive is that she can still draw on aether. If Valera was dead, then she wouldn’t be able to draw on it. She makes the decision, with Victor and Nessie, that she is going back to Subterria to get Valera back. They get to Subterria very shortly after Julia, Gideon and Valera but get held up after Theo is attacked by Rufus Corvus (Marcus’s brother and part of the triplet set). She is saved from him (and well, he was pushed to his death) by Victor and Benji, the strong man of Harmony’s circus. His death was awful. I had dreams of being crushed beneath gears for a few nights after I finished the book.
While they are there, they find out that Valera is willingly with Julia and that upsets both Theo and Victor. Valera does apologize to Theo, kinda gives an explanation and she wants Theo to tell her family that she loves them.
I’m sorry Theo. This is something I have to do. Tell my family that I love them.
They also find Titus, Victor and Valera’s stepfather, in the dungeon and decide to take him home to Victoria. When they arrive home, they are met by members of the Elder’s guard, which Theo takes out with aether. After she is taken into custody, she is charged, by the Elders of Aether, with heresy and treason. All because her and Valera combined their two keys.
On the Julia and Valera front, things aren’t going as well. After finding out that her father didn’t have the key in Subterria, Julia decides to head to Boulder, Colorado (where she pretended to be human to get to Theo) to look for a town called Goldsville to look for her father’s vault. She decides to take Valera out in the human world and it backfired on her. A trio of boys from the first book find them in a coffee shop and they, well, they piss her off and she firebombs the main boy’s car….lol. Whoops. While they were out on their adventure, Marcus find Goldsville and where he thinks the vault might be…Azure Springs. So they head off to there.
Not going to go much into the book after this point but I will say there is so much packed into the last half of the book, that it was hard for me to put down. Also, to see Julia and Valera’s personal transformations during the book was awesome.
I really had started off the book not liking Julia but as the book went on and you read more and more about her life, I started to feel bad for her. Let’s just say that she had it rough.
Valera had been hidden from the world by an overprotective mother and it showed in the beginning of the book. But, by the time Marcus came into the story, she was starting to develop a backbone and her interactions with Marcus just made her stronger.
The ending was not what I expected but it was very good. Not everything gets resolved and, actually, there are even more problems. I can’t wait to read the next book and see how the trilogy ends!!
How many stars will I give Escape Aether? 4
Why? A well written steam punk/dystopia/fantasy. Very vividly written with great world building, this is a series that stays with you even after you are done reading it.
Will I reread? Yes
Will I recommend to family and friends? Yes
Age range: Teen
Why: Very clean. No sex (just a few kissing scenes with Theo and Victor). Mild violence and no language.
**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 24 October, 2016: Finished reading
- 24 October, 2016: Reviewed