Air Awakens (Air Awakens Series Book 1) Paperback – August 26, 2015

I bought this in November last year and didn't pick it up until now because I got the oddest feeling that I was going to love this series and with a little research, I discovered that the author was planning on publishing the next four books in February, April, and July of 2016 (which I thought was crazy because most authors release a new book in a series every one-three years, not in rapid succession with only a few months in between!) so I decided to wait to start reading until the whole series was released and I could read all the books in rapid succession, avoiding those dreaded periods of anticipation and waiting to find out what happens next.And god, am I glad I did! This was an excellent set up book! The world building is amazing and I loved the characters; I'm personally pretty picky about the way magic is presented in a story, but I liked this execution pretty well and was engrossed in the overall universe. Now, since this is the first of five books in a fantasy and only goes a bit over 300 pages, of course it suffers from that "build up, set up" syndrome where a lot of the novel has to be dedicated to creating the scenes necessary to allow understanding to occur within the reader at the expense of the story moving along from major plot point to plot point at a quick pace. We're given a lot of scenes where we get to see who Vhalla and Aldrick are, have them interact, see their relationship develop and change, get a feel for what's happening, and I think all this stuff is very important in a fantasy series because if a reader isn't given substance in a book, just the exoskeleton of events like an outline for a history class, they aren't going to want to read the rest because they can't connect with the characters or find reason to care about them and what's happening to them and around them. I hate it when books gloss over the important aspects of story telling (like character development and scene-setting and telling the history) just to get around to specific plot points and scenes that are generally considering the most appealing/engaging. Not every story is just non-stop action and war and bloodshed, so stories that skim everything else just to have as much focus on these things as possible can get so boring. The author certainly could have cut this book down and gotten us straight into the war by the end, but doing so would have cost the reader a lot of worthwhile character development and backstory and set up for what's to come. I'm really glad she didn't though! This book had all the necessary storytelling elements and the author made good decisions at every turn, deciding that readers deserved to get a fully immersive story and not one that was gutted to the bare minimum. The stuff covered in this book enriches the read with details and conversations and inner thoughts and conflicts and developments, which I liked. I feel primed to get into the next part of the story, the next arc.Which brings me to another quality thing I want to point out: this book doesn't cut itself off in such a way that you feel like book #1 and #2 could be bound together in one book and no one would ever know they were two separate books because they're formulated more like sections of the same continuing book and not individual installations of a longer, larger story. While the transition into book #2 seems like it'll be clean and straightforward, the way book #1 wraps up gives you the sense that this part of the story, this arc, has now concluded and that we're moving on to another arc, another section with new goals and obstacles to address. This book covers Vhalla leaving behind her identity as a normal girl and library apprentice to embrace her identity as a sorceress, which is wrapped up with a scene that showcases her accepting what she is and looking towards what's to come, so I imagine the next book will be about her coming into the role of solider now that she's (metaphorically) killed the girl who worked in a library in order to let the woman who's a sorceress be born. I quite like this format of book writing; it follows that more traditional, satisfying model of writing that has one major conflict resolved, leaving one or more other conflicts to be resolved in the following books in a continuing pattern until the large, final goal is achieved, which is much more fulfilling than reading a volumes/sections format.What other things were good? Well, outside of the character all being complex and interesting, I found the author to write beautifully and appropriately for a fantasy setting that's far removed from our modern world. The editing job was excellent, my physical copy was error free as far as my scrupulous eye could tell, which definitely makes the $14 price tag easier to swallow. There was nothing problematic about the content (like no blatant shows of sexism or racism or other such things that are normalized/romanticized/deemed okay), which was wonderful because I've read far too many books with problematic content that just repulsed and disgusted me so much because of the way it was used and regarded. This gets a thumbs up from this 21-year old social activist. And we get left with enough stuff unanswered or not closed up that there's a lot to wonder about while continuing along the story. It doesn't come across as a wholly predictable story; I got some feelings about a few things and am churning around some theories and predictions, which is always nice because while a predictable novel can be nice, it can also take away the fun of getting hit with a twist or the unexpected.Overall, I loved this book and I'm excited to see what happens next! I'm happy I picked up this book. Was finished in about five hours of reading and in a single sitting.

It is hard to find words to describe how this book made me feel. Well, not that hard. Breathtaking, enthralling, magical, mesmerizing, dazzling. There are not enough descriptions to give it justice. This is the way you write a debut novel. I was swept up into this world from page one. I couldn’t put it down. I tried, I really did. I just took it everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I cooked dinner while reading it, walked around reading it, showered while reading it. It was the type of book that had you wanting to know what was next at the end of every scene. I read this in about 24 hours. I was mad I had to go to work because I just wanted to finish the dang thing!Elise Kova threaded together a powerful world. Her ability to entrap you in her writing is extraordinary. She sucks you in from the very beginning and makes sure you never look back. The way the magic in her world works is simple yet complex. She is able to not overload the reader with too much information and slowly build up a stronger and stronger world. Her writing is beautiful and makes you see everything that is happening, every exquisite detail, in your mind. She was able to develop two very strong character’s, as well. Aldrik, the crown prince, is a dark, brooding character filled with secrets. As you read through the novel you find out more and more about the real prince and not the silver-tongued dark soul everyone believes him to be. Vhalla is a quiet, timid girl in the first half of the book. She does grow slightly throughout it, especially her mouth, where she tends to speak her mind a little to clearly. However, I didn’t see that much growth in her. I feel like she is still pretty weak up until about the last few pages and it annoyed me slightly. I do look forward to seeing more growth from her in the upcoming novels.The love story that develops throughout the book is magical. It is realistic and inspiring. It teaches you to overlook reputation and find truth behind every facade. The way Kova built it slowly made you want more and more, which is probably why I couldn’t put the book down.I highly recommend this book to every fantasy lover. It will definitely appeal to fans of Rae Carson’s Fire and Thorns Trilogy and Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy. It has everything you could ask for in a fantasy novel but holds back enough to make you beg for more.