Where do I begin... The protagonist's name being two random Norse words? The chapter that is Divine Rivals But Worse? And actual dialogue tag that is "demanded gently"? The love interest asking the protagonist if she's ever fucked a man or masturbated two pages after calling her a child? (She's seventeen by the way.) The way the love interest's entire personality changes chapter to chapter? (And no, the protagonist thinking "the two halves of his personality don't seem to fit" does not fix that.) Why does this love triangle have so many sides when it's crystal clear who she is going to end up with! 

I literally only finished this due to a reading challenge. The back 40% was better than the first 60%, but I cannot get over how bad it was.

The story is gripping and the writing flows pretty well, although definitely not as well as in Ms Kovas newer books. 
It's a bit rough around the edges and it took me a few chapters to really get sucked into the story, but in the end, I couldn't put the book down anymore. 

I really enjoyed this book. There were a few plot points that felt weird or unfinished to me, but overall it was good.  One thing I really didn’t like was that Vhalla almost always skipped meals. It came off like she had an eating disorder but it was never looked at like a bad thing. I would’ve rather meals just not been mentioned in the book instead of her starving herself for no reason. On to the next one!

High fantasy isn’t usually a genre I read, but the promise of a library apprentice and a sorcerer prince was something I couldn’t pass up. 

“Air Awakens” had a lot of great ideas and a great magic system. The characters felt a little bland and the book was very slow, but there was a lot of groundwork that needed to be established for the other books in the series. 

2.3 stars. 

Only 300 pages and it's a better fanfiction-ey read than most of the other fantasy romance books I've read.

Although short (maybe even to it's on undoing) 'Air Awakens' seems to be scratching just the fanfiction-yearning spot I always seem to be awfully pestered by. 

Knowing there were 4 main sequel books in this series, I was content enough with how the protagonist, Vhalla, was introduced. Even though she was quite the quiscent character, what was there, or rather wasn't, left room for development and improvement for future books. 

However, I can't say the same for the other characters, prince Aldrik specifically. Is it just me or is this guy flip-flopping all over the place? One second he's fawning over the MC, the next he's harassing her... I'm quite confused with my stance on this guy. Although I like flawed characters, including flawed main romantic interest, he seemed quite out of place and outright annoying at times. The same could be said for the other characters. Spefically this one guy...

I don't remember his name... was it Cerulean? Cerillian? Anyways, whatever it was, he's just as forgettable as his name. Larel was the only exception but even then, her kindness and approachability towards Vhalla was a bit forced.

This seems to be a big problem with the book and I think it could all boil down to time and pace. 

Generally speaking, we needed more time with the plot progression of the book. Some plot points and storybeats were a tad too fast paced to the point where I had to imagine some scenes here and there in headcannon to be content enough with the pacing. I understand if an author wants to keep her novel within a 300 page margin, but sometimes it's be better to include some additional scenes for some breathing room and to explain a thing or two. For example,

I wanted Vhalla to earn Larel's love and friendship, I wanted to see more of Vhalla and Aldrik's cute lil' garden dates. TW! I wanted the genocide of a whole race of magic weilders to be handled with proper care and seriousness

Stuff like that might seem insignificant for the story as a whole, but it really helps with the character development and world building later on. 

As for the magic system; It was kinda wishy-washy. I love elemental magic, but the laws and functions of this book's magic system was ruining my whole suspension of disbelief. However, again, I really don't expect much from these types of books. I'm perfectly content with an iffy system as long as the story, plot and characters seem fine. 

In conclusion, I'm probably going to re-read this book if I ever were to find myself stuck in an airplane for 5-ish hours. A good, guilty-pleasure read that leaves room for my own imagination to fresh out the little I got.