Metamorphicbooks: Review of Air Awakens (1st book in the Air Awakens series) by Elise Kova

Hello all!! I hope everyone is going great! I'm here to talk to you about Elise Kova's first book in the Air Awakens series. I finished it this month and it was so amazing! One of the best books I've read this year! And I already know that the four other novels are going to get better!

Brief Synopsis of Air Awakens

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.

Review of Air Awakens

So here is my review of "Air Awakens" 1st book in the Air Awakens series. I hope you all enjoy it!

Let's just start off by saying that Air Awakens is by far the best novel I've read in an extremely long time. Even though I've already finished Air Awakens, I still find myself immersed into the wonderful world that Elise Kova created.

Vhalla Yarl is content in her quiet world, buried, and surrounded by books as a library apprentice.
When all of a sudden she is thrust into a world that involves politics, war, and most of all, magic.
This all started when she saved the prince whom she thought was Baldair, but instead was his older brother Aldrik.
In Vhalla's world, sorcerers are frowned upon and are not a subject to be talked about. Once Vhalla finds out she's a rare sorcerer, it becomes a lot for her to process. Especially since she spent the majority of her life, living it as a library apprentice. At first she denies what she really is. But when curiosity gets the best of her , she soon caves in and seeks for information from Prince Aldrik. Helping Vhalla learn how powerful she really is, Aldrik becomes more acquainted and comfortable with being around her. This soon creates a beautiful and unique relationship between both of them.

Vhalla Yarl is such an amazing female character. I just love how strong Elise created Vhalla to be. Her strength alone is truly inspiring. At times Vhalla may have even been slightly vulnerable from all of the chaos that was happening in her life, but it just made her stronger. Her knowledge and passion for books is extremely addicting, and her desire to feel whole and powerful in her magic is beautiful. I'm excited to see how much more in tune and stronger Vhalla will get in the second book Fire Falling.

As a prince, Aldrik has quite a lot of weight on his shoulders from all of the responsibility he has. Being a sorcerer Aldrik was also somewhat casted out. It was a series of events and things that made Aldrik closed off and bitter. So at times it's kind of hard to love Aldrik when he's being completely rude. But I have to say that his knowledge and unknown compassion to selected people is truly sweet. I also totally love the relationship between him and Vhalla. It's completely amazing with how he his around her. Vhalla coaxes him out of his hard shell, and makes him his true self.

If you've read The Lunar Chronicles series, then you may think the same way when I say that Baldair reminds me a lot of Captain Thorne in the TLC series. I honestly don't know why I feel this way, but both Baldair and Thorne have this amazing sense of humor and sweet ego that you cannot ignore. Even though Baldair is somewhat of a "player", he actually seems like a really sweet, and compassionate one.

I really was in awe when I found out that Elise Kova put elemental aspects in her novel. ( It's like Avatar the Last Airbender) but way better. Each sorcerer has a calling and chooses one of the following four. Firebearer, Waterrunner,Groundbreaker,and Windwalker.

The world building in Air Awakens clearly has had a lot of time and effort that was poured into it. There was quite a lot of thrilling and important things happening to Vhalla in the story. But Elise did a phenomenal job by making Vhalla's world understandable. There was never a time where I questioned or got confused while reading Air Awakens.

One other thing I'd like to point out, is that Air Awakens almost feels like an older YA novel. And what I mean by that is that it feels like it's targeted towards more of the older teens, and early twenties group. It's like it's teetering between YA and New Adult. Which I really like because it goes to show you that Elise doesn't color inside of those standard lines that most YA authors do. She ends up creating her own lines, using her own colors and hues, that end up creating an exquisite masterpiece,

I'm so excited that I have my copy of Fire Falling (2nd book in the Air Awakens seres) because now I can continue delve into the beautiful and yet thrilling story that Elise created.

I hope you all enjoyed my review of Air Awakens! I loved reading and writing my review and I cannot wait to read Fire Falling and Earth's End!