Air Awakens (Air Awakens Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

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.

4,5 stars.Air Awakens kept popping up in my recommendations at Goodreads, and although I had initially DNF’ed my Kindle-sample, the growing hype caught my interest, and I ended up enjoying the story immensely.Our protagonist, 17-year-old Vhalla Yarl, is an apprentice at the imperial library. The story takes its beginning with Vhalla being summoned late one night, in order to scour the library for information on certain magic and poisons along with her fellow apprentices. One of the princes has been severely wounded in combat, and Vhalla, believing that the prince in question is Baldair, whom she has a small crush on, gives everything she has in order to help save him.It turns out, however, that the person in question is the crown prince, Aldrik. In contrast to his younger brother’s easygoing, charming nature, Aldrik is reputedly snobbish, manipulative and ruthless, and people tend to fear him due to his magical powers. While struggling to save the prince, Vhalla was inadvertently drawing upon magical abilities she didn’t know she had, unaware that she has created a bond between Aldrik and herself. From this point on, the two characters are inescapably linked.Having all sorts of prejudices against magic and sorcerers, Vhalla struggles to accept the fact that she’s a sorcerer herself. She’s torn between the need to stay in her comfort zone, and the need to satisfy her curiosity. As scary as the prospect is of leaving her library apprenticeship for a life working, living and training as a sorcerer, Vhalla can’t help being drawn into this new and intriguing world, when the crown prince takes it upon himself to become her mentor. As it turns out, it’s a path fraught with difficulties and Vhalla soon discovers that she, being the first Windwalker in a very long time, attracts the attention of people, who see her as a nothing other than a potential danger or a tool to be used in the service of the Empire Solaris.My thoughts:In Air Awakens, magical powers are aligned with the elements of earth (Groundbreakers), fire (Firebearers), water (Waterrunners) and air (Windwalkers). Vhalla is the first known Airwalker to have her powers awaken in almost 150 years. Aldrik is a Firebearer. He’s powerful, skilled and has an extensive knowledge of magic. It is through his teaching that Vhalla begins to understand her magic.The magical system is not particularly innovative - the idea of the elemental alignment is quite common, as is the concept of the unbreakable bond (magical or otherwise). However, it doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of the story, as the system functions in an elegant, seamless way, and although the characters do talk about magical theory from time to time, it isn’t the prime focus of the story.The social perception of magic does, however, play a significant role in the development of the plot. In the south, where the capital (and the castle) is located, people tend to view sorcery with wariness and in some cases even fear and contempt. In other parts of the realm (most prominently in the West), sorcerers are in held much higher regard. Bearing in mind that all Windwalkers (at least the ones who were known to be such) were imprisoned and executed 150 years prior to Vhalla’s awakening, and that she’s the first one to emerge since then, she’s even more likely than any other type of sorcerer to become the target of prejudice and distrust. The latent threat becomes more pronounced as the story progresses, although Vhalla has the firm support of the other sorcerers of the Tower.The “magic is outlawed” or “magic is viewed as suspect” trope is quite common in fantasy literature these days, Throne of Glass and The Orphan Queen being examples. That's not a problem, though - I rather like the dynamic it creates in this particular story: as Vhalla begins to reconsider her own opinion of sorcery, while becoming even more of an outsider in her own circle of friends and co-apprentices (and later on in society at large), her character develops and becomes much more complex and interesting. By being forced to adapt and recreate her sense of self, Vhalla becomes very relatable and appealing.The relationship between Aldrik and Vhalla is one of the things I like the best about this story. The romance is nice and slow-burning. Aldrik has the “bad boy vibe”, but Kova lets him grow into a much more vulnerable, caring and empathic character, as he becomes enthralled with Vhalla and her openminded, trusting way of being. Due to the fact that the story is told with Vhalla as viewpoint character, much of Aldrik’s plotting and reasoning is hidden from her (and us), which makes for some interesting revelations along the way!There’s very little I didn’t like about this book. There is, however, the matter of Sareem - Vhalla’s colleague at the imperial library. He seems like a nice guy, although he gives Vhalla a bit of a hard time when she reveals her magical abilities to him, but she ends up treating him really poorly, and I actually liked her less because of that. I understand that a character needs to be flawed in some way for them to be able to grow, but some of Vhalla’s choices in regard to Sareem just made her seem indecisive in a very juvenile, spineless manner. She does improve, though, so it’s a somewhat minor matter.Also, I had some troubles with the pacing, which was somewhat inconsistent. It became apparent when I read the sequel, Fire Falling, that much more time had passed during AA than I'd expected. It made for some confusion, but it's not something which ruins my grasp of the plot.All in all: Air Awakens is a finely crafted, emotionally engaging (even for an old fart like me) fantasy novel, which had me flipping pages frantically. Kudos to Elise Kova for such a kick-ass debut! :)

Air Awakens starts strong! The characters and storyline are very original and captivate you early. First four books were great! Book 5 fell flat IMO. But overall would recommend

When you see a cover this pretty there's always a lingering fear in the back of your mind that the book itself is going to disappoint you.I can, rather ecstatically, say that this one did not.The book opens with the main character Vhalla, an apprentice librarian, accidentally finding that she is a rather powerful sorcerer, which, in itself, is not particularly a groundbreaking premise. However, I immediately empathised with Vhalla, a stubborn bolshy young woman, seeing way too much of myself in her. I also miiiight have fallen head over heels for the love interest...but, of course that had nothing to do with the 5 stars, of course not...I felt whilst reading this, that I'd actually been looking for a book like this for a while. I think that it's the book that I wanted, but didn't get, when I read 'Red Queen'. Vhalla and Aldrik are flawed characters and I love that about them. I don't necessarily want lovely selfless protagonists or perfect healthy relationships. Maybe it's a fault with me but I tend to fall for something a little more dysfunctional, a character who can be loyal and stalwart at their best, and sarcastic, bitter and cruel at their worst. Angst and clashes of personality as two bullish characters collide. Maybe even a character who can be described as an anti-hero.I read this book in about half a day, refused to sleep until I had finished it and had to resist the urge to go out and binge buy all the others in the series. I am utterly sold and can't wait to read the others.

Wow, what a book.This book had been popping up on my Amazon recommendations for a while and I finally decided to buy it and add to my ever increasing and growing pile of books to be read, thinking that it would probably sit there for a while. However after I'd seen it mentioned on Facebook several times with people saying how good it was, I decided to move it up my list and give it a try. I'm so glad that I did.I really enjoyed the story and the theme. I think that Elise Kova is quite a fast paced writer, in that her book jumps right into the action and carries on that way through the whole book. I enjoy that style of writing and actually found it really hard to put the book down as I felt like I didn't want to miss out on anything!I loved the characters and the main lead, Vhalla (great name by the way) has grown through the first book from a hesitant girl to a female who is discovering things about herself and taking the plunge. After the events at the end of the book, I can't wait to see where she is going next and how she will be. I think she will develop a lot more and hopefully believe that she can be great.I'm now off to read the second book in the series, Fire Falling, as I really can't wait to see what happens next. This book gets the full five stars from me.

A defo young adult fiction. The proof reader missed a few bits but otger than that utterly hooked! Started this book and finished it, ordered the next one, nearly finished that one and just bought the 3rd one! Addictive storyline!

Amazing book - author herself says in acknowledgments that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but without a doubt I can say this was just as awesome as the artwork. Powerful characters and great story.

I love these types of stories but after awhile they become a bit tiresome and same old same old. Air Awakens is not same old, it was refreshing to gave twists and will they won't they hangers, if you enjoy Sarah J Mass or Adrianna Woods then you will enjoy this series. I read thus us 2 days as couldn't out it down and can't wait for the next instalment. Enjoy!