FOF Book Club: Air Awakens

For our last quarter's book club, we read Air Awakens by Elise Kova. Here's what I thought!

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pub 8/27/15 by Silver Wing Press
Young Adult - Fantasy

With all the books on my TBR and given number of the series I'm currently in the middle of (aka not-so-patiently waiting for the next book), it's hard to find a new series that I'm willing to drop everything for and binge-read through to the end. But that's exactly happened with Air Awakens. I'm only going to talk about the first book but I will say that once I read it, I felt compelled to get the next installment. And the next. And the next and before I knew it, I had read all five books in a single week. (They are extremely fast reads.)

Air Awakens introduces us to seventeen-year old Vhalla Yarl, an intelligent and shy library apprentice with a passion for books and knowledge. When she saves the life of Crown Prince Aldrik of the Solaris Empire, two things happen. She discovers that she's a sorcerer when all her life she's been taught to fear them and the Tower, a safe haven for this magical society. And she gets sucked in Prince Aldrik's world, who just happens to be one of the most powerful sorcerers of them all. In the wake of this discovery, she has to choose between the life she's always known and thereby eradicating her magic or embrace her abilities and open herself to adventures and danger. Given there are five books in this series, it's pretty clear which option she's going to take.

Vhalla is an interesting heroine because she's just a normal girl who loves books and has a crush on a prince (not Aldrik; at least not at first!). Then to find out the enormous power she holds? Her reaction is surprisingly real. I tend to want my heroines to dive into the fray and immediately kick ass but instead, she took a step back and wanted to make a deliberate choice about her future. Even though her timidness and occasional damsel-in-distress moments did grate on my nerves, I appreciated her quiet strength which only continued to grow throughout the book (and especially as the series progressed). She is so brave and has such a big heart. Her character truly goes on a journey and evolved every step of the way. But I also fell in love with the characters around her and the relationships that form between them all. There's an undeniable chemistry between her and Aldrik which I had a lot of feels about. She becomes friends with fellow sorcerers and other people in Aldrik's circle. And most of all, the magic in this world is intriguing and well-written. It's a book that certainly leaves the reader clamoring for more.

Book Club Questions

For every series we read, we'll be answering the same questions at the end of our mini-reviews.

Favorite character | I don't think I can choose one! Vhalla is probably the most obvious but I also love Aldrik, Baldair and Laurel. 

Would you read more from this author? | Given that I ended up reading the whole series, the answer is yes!

For those of you who read the series with us, 

what did you think?

Also, make sure to check out Alexa's thoughts on the series!