A rich high fantasy that made me discover my new OTP | Air Awakens

Title: Air Awakens (Air Awakens #1)

Author: Elise Kova

Published: August 27th 2015 by Silver Wing Press

Goodreads summary: 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 had been happy in her quiet world of books. But after she unknowingly saves the life 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 mafic and remain as she's always been. And with powerful forces lurking in the shadows, Vhalla's indecision could cost her more that she ever imagined.

REVIEW

This book was a complete surprise to me, because honestly, I don't know a lot of people who read it. I just checked, no one among my Goodreads friends has read it yet (maybe one?). But I’m throwing this book in everyone face, because it’s easily one of my favourite reads of the year.

I was hooked from the beginning of this book, because it started when library apprentices had to look for a cure to save the crown prince’s life. It threw me into the world right away and I got used to the characters’ names really fast, even though it felt foreign to me. Vhalla, our main character, works in a library and loves to be surrounded by books, like many of us dream of, so it was easy to relate to her.

Soon enough, she discovers she has magic within her, but doesn’t want to join the sorcerers, because she doesn’t trust them, like most people in this world. I found her reaction to be totally realistic, because it was a foreign world to her. However, she starts to learn about magic through books (of course) and a mysterious correspondence. The Tower – where the sorcerers live – was a compelling place and I loved discovering all about it, even if it wasn’t an easy part for Vhalla, considering her Awakening (ha-ha). I loved that we got a lot of the world building through the studies of books, because it had been the main character’s whole life, it didn’t feel like info dump. I think one of my favourite ways to learn about a world is through books, classes, etc. in the characters life (I felt that way too toward The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent), even if it felt a little info-dump.

I really enjoyed Vhalla’s relationship with prince Aldrik, I’m pretty sure it was my favourite aspect of the book. Vhalla has a hard time trusting him because she pushed her too far at the beginning of the book, and I could totally understand her. As he said to her many times, he is not a good man, and it’s so true. He’s a sarcastic character who tries to push everyone away, because he wants to be safe. Their romance is a slow-burn and it’s been a long time since I shipped characters this hard. I hoped many times something would happen but, but… I need to read Fire Falling because I want them together so badly. I think Vhalla and Aldrik are my new OTP, I have no regrets.

But I just wanted prince Baldair to go away because seriously, Vhalla and Aldrik belong together.

Vhalla’s friends reacted really realistically when they learned about her powers. They weren’t like “OMG Vhalla you’re amazing let’s do magic together”. NO. They were afraid of her and wanted her to go back to normal, so they could go back to their lives. This magic was a hard thing to accept; because they had no idea Vhalla was a sorcerer. But really, it was the Master of the Library who was really interesting. He had a full backstory I didn’t expect and so I’m sure Vhalla will need him at some point.

This book focused a lot on Vhalla learning about magic, it’s something I really enjoyed and it could be done because it’s a five books series. It also focused on court politics, nobility, parties, well everything that makes a good fantasy book. Some characters were so evil, I loathed them so much, but I don’t think they will be seen in the next book?

But the romance wasn’t the most important part of the book. This is a high fantasy where the emperor wants to control the whole continent, and he’s one step away from doing it. Even if we didn’t see it that much in this first book, it is a world at war, but we couldn’t really understand the stakes of it until the last part of the book and really I hadn’t see that coming. To be honest, I was in class when I got to the most action-picked and revelations-driven part of the book and I couldn’t stop reading. The book made me turn pages until the very end, because it was full of suspense, and Vhalla was an unreliable narrator so I wanted to know what had happened. The last pages of this book put me to the edge of my seat and I was so surprised with what happened!

I can’t wait to read the next one, because it will be pretty different of this first instalment, it will probably be more brutal but I don’t care. Why did I make a TBR for this month? Fire Falling isn’t part of my TBR but I want to read it now, but if I do… I’ll have to wait until February to know what happened in the third book.

Final Thoughts:

This is apparently a debut but it didn't feel like it at all. Elise Kova definitely knows how to write. She created a rich world full of magic, with a lot of history and culture, I'm looking forward to see more of it in the next book. Even if the book focused more on Vhalla's development and her learning to do magic, and lot happened in this book. It ended on quite a cliffhanger that makes be eager to pick the sequel, but I think I should wait a little... Or the wait will be too long for the next three books.