This book had an interesting concept but it felt like not much was happening until the last third of the book. I'm still going to continue reading the series, but the start of it was really slow.

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.

MC was a bit annoying at the start but she got less annoying quickly. I absolutely did not see the ending coming at all, otherwise a great read and I really like the world 

I have to start this review with: I knew that the book is YA and I like to read YA from time to time because it can relatively relaxing compared to adult novels where the stakes tend to be higher and everything is a bit grittier. Unfortunately, Air Awakens is one of those YA books that fall into the category of "What did I just read? I want my time back" because it's so bad.

The Plot
I'm sorry but what plot? Nothing really happened.

The story can be summarised in: Vhalla is a Mary Sue who finds out that she's the last airbender Windwalker, falls in love with the (crown) prince whom she had saved with her magic, becomes the victim of the evil politician and has to become a soldier to fight in the latest war (the last part is the cliffhanger at the end to set the scene for the next book).

The Writing
Atrocious.

Yeah, it's bad. The book needs another round of editing because the amount of grammar mistakes is exhausting. There were times where I had to read sentences three times before I understood them. I don't want to imagine how exhausting it must be if the reader is a teenager and doesn't speak English as first language.

The Worldbuilding
Ancient Rome meets Avatar: the Last Airbender.

The magic system is based on Avatar as it includes the four elements (with air being erased until Vhalla's magic makes an appearence) and is also based on geography. Each part of the continent relates to one element. The Empire is a mixture of Ancient Rome and the Fire Nation from Avatar. They are always at war and the reader doesn't learn the reasons behind it. Might be unification as it's mentioned very early in the book but that's just my guess. The religion system is barely explained but there are two deities ("The Mother" aka the sun and "The Father" aka the moon).

Concerning the magic system: sorcerers are feared and we never learn why. The author had the chance of explaining the entire world by giving Vhalla lessons on history, on magic, ... -- but Vhalla does research (that never goes much beyond the "and she read book xxx" and a short period of letter exchanges with an unknown character who turns out to be the LI) at the begin of the book but the reader never learns anything through it. Instead we learn that the sorcerers are educated in a tower on the palace grounds and after their training is done, they can leave and make their fortune in the world that fears them because it's expected that they support the tower with money/food/... for the next generation of sorcerers. Also, the LI aka the crown prince is also a mage and utterly feared. I still don't understand why he's still the crown prince because no one in this Empire would follow him/respect him as he's so feared.

The Characters
Vhalla is a Mary Sue. She is boring, she always complains, she is the last Windwalker (the first of her kind in centuries), she considers herself as ugly and plain ("fizzy, untameable hair, skinny, nothing special") while having three (!) attractive men being smitten with her / telling her that she is beautiful. She has no backbone in one chapter before telling herself that she needs to stand her ground in the next chapter. She's also supposed to be so clever but has zero common sense. I'm pretty sure that her brain is decorative. Of course, she gets a make over and goes to a ball where everyone fawns over her. Of course, she cuts off her hair at the end of the book to mark the change as she's a "different character" now.

The male love interest, the crown prince, is part abuser, part creep and part sensitive guy who is unconvential attractive but still falls into the typical description of every male LI in a YA novel. Tall, dark hair, dark eyes, mysterious, muscular but not too muscular. I believe that the author wanted to use the "bad boy" trope with him but gosh ... he abuses Vhalla physical (throws her off the highest tower, grabs her face until it hurts, ...) but also verbal ("You are like a pathetic little worm who only wants to sit in the dirt when I was prepared to give you a chance to grow wings and fly."). Of course, Vhalla forgives him because he shows her his sensitive side two chapters afterwards. Of course, they have a magical bond with each other because she saved his life, so they are drawn to each other. Lovely.

The other love interest is Vhalla's male best friend who is bland porridge. Of course, he's considered as attractive and slightly "exotic". Though I believe that he is described as dark-haired with pale skin. They have one awkward date during a major festival where he acts like he planned out the entire date but he never pays much attention to her. He hates/fears magic and looks up a way to remove Vhalla's magic. Such a great character. Afterwards, he just vanishes as character and dies rather quickly too.

The other best friend is her female best friend who becomes an one-dimensional, jealous "I'm in love with him but I let you have him!" girl. That's it. She's alive but I doubt that we will ever see her again unless she turn 100% evil as she lost the love of her life.

The crown prince's younger brother is the heartbreaker. Golden hair, light coloured eyes. Always flirting. A womanizer who talks everyone into his bed (Vhalla is the first who does not jump into it). Feels like the comic relief character. He has a difficult relationship with his brother but never dives into any explanation why their relationship is strained.

The Romance
A love square thingy between Vhalla, crown prince, male best friend and female best friend. Vhalla wants the crown prince, the crown prince wants her. The male best friend wants Vhalla, Vhalla doesn't want him. The female best friend wants the male best friend, status unclear if male best friend who have wanted her too. Thankfully the love square thing is rather short-lived and lasts for max. two chapters (if all scenes are combined).

The romance between Vhalla and the crown prince is ... exhausting. Starting, she fears him because he is a sorcerer and she fears all sorcerers. Do we ever learn why sorcerers are considered as evil? No, of course not. He wanted to have her for her magic and as an object of power (since she's the first Windwalker) before realising that he wants her for her characer because she makes him laugh. Major issue: she's 17, turning 18, and I believe that he's in his mid/late 20s. Yikes. Of course, she's considered as an adult once she turned 18 (how convinent) but she's still a teenager and he's an adult.

The Names
Vhalla Yara sounds like the author removed some letters from "Valhalla" and read/saw Game of Thrones. The names are all over the place in general with Aldrick (or Aldrik, idc), Baldair, Roan, Sareem, Fritznangle, Craig, Daniel, Egmun, Larel, ... -- W H Y. Set a theme for names if you have different cultures in their novel and stick to it. Do not use the fantasy generator and pick the names as they appear because they never fit your theme.

The Cover
Why is the girl white and blonde? By the description of Vhalla, I got the feeling that she was considered as POV. She is described as yellow-skinned with brown, gold-flecked eyes and "frizzy, untameable" hair. The hair as well as the yellow skin description give me racism vibes because a) Vhalla is from the East where people are yellow skinned (We used to call Asians "yellow skinned" not too long ago as well ...) and b) the hair reminds me of the phase where black girls with natural hair had always been described with "frizzy, untameable" hair.



TL;DR:
Bad plot. Bad writing. Bland characters. Mary Sue. Bad LI. Love square. Cliches upon cliches.

(I don't understand all the 5 star reviews. Did the author threaten you?)

Add-on:
The author starts the book with a reminder that piracy is illegal and a crime. She hopes that the copy that the reader has is legally acquired. Does she really believe that people pirate books for fun? I hate to break it to her but people pirate books because they cannot pay for them. Depending on the country, books cost between €10 - €50 (just for novels, we do not speak about academic literature) and libraries are not always an option (not one close-by, too expensive, ...). I do not want to encourage readers to acquire books via a torrent but the letter from the author is so unneccessary.
If you are still interested in this book after reading this review: the entire series is available on Kindle Unlimited. Amazon offers a 30 days test period for free and has regular offers where three months cost €0.99.

This book is like eating a cold slice of pizza at 3 AM after a hard night of drinking. So satisfying in the moment but in the end, you are still waking up from a wicked hangover. Also if SOMEONE could please explain what a gummy throat feels like, I would greatly appreciate it 💕

I have never seen a book squander SO MUCH potential until now! It's all there! It basically oozes off the page begging, pleading, and screaming at the sky to be used - but it's flatly ignored to give us boring inconsistent one-dimensional characters, teenage angst, and unnecessary drama llama all wrapped up in mediocre writing.

This book follows Vhalla, a shy boring nobody commoner who works in a library as an apprentice. One day, low and behold, after saving the broody and mysterious crown prince's life with magic, our boring chosen one is thrust into the world of magic she has been taught to fear.

I had a few problems with this book, so let me try work through them as best I can...

1. The book has a premise that instantly hooks you in and I wanted to love it as it fell into my niche of fantasy romance perfectly but I went in apprehensive based on the vastly juxtaposing reviews out there ranging from 2 - 5 Stars, all from people and friends who's reviews I NORMALLY trust as gospel! As said I absolutely LOVE fantasy romance; however, those that think this is a "Fantasy Romance" are deluded as this is actually a "Romance Fantasy". Let me explain... "Fantasy Romance" is a book where the fantasy is the main plot and the romance is the subplot. These are set in fantastical, magical worlds with an overarching FANTASY plot. This book, romance is the main plot with a slight sprinkling of fantasy. It is almost like the fantasy elements are just used to put our main characters into situations that would cause drama and angst for the ROMANCE. So if you do not like your fantasy books filled with MOSTLY romance, this is not for you.

2. I appreciate a good book just like fine dining and a good bottle of wine, they have class and an air of sophistication. This book is NOT that! This is basically trash TV on the CW or Netflix. The type of show you'll binge-watch for an entire weekend until your brain turns to mush and your eyeballs are rectangles; but still, you can't turn away from the screen because of the teenage angst and drama. It's not only that the book feels like a TV show, but the writing style mirrors this. Its inconsistent plot feels like jump cuts and scene changes. There are a lot of scenes that happen with no clear transision of how the character got there. It's just meant to be accepted that this happened. A LOT of the dialog is quite far-fetched and seems unnatural as it's very witty, quips, and often feels like it skips natural progression in a conversation.

3. Vhalla as a character is shit! She is difficult to describe because I've just read a whole book about her and I STILL DON'T KNOW WHO THE FUCK SHE IS... One second she is innocent as a rose and timid, and shy and scared of you "the prince" and things beyond her ken... (if you got the reference to this I LOVE YOU). She spends almost the whole book feeling sorry for herself, sulking, soapy, crying, and starving herself whilst living the most boring life on the planet...THEN the NEXT second she changes her mind 16 times a minute over the whole "should she/shouldn't she" become a sorcerer. It's frankly EXHAUSTING!!!

4. The writing in general gave me a headache. It was so choppy. It would be 5-word sentences. Every one of them just stops. It was so unnatural. There were pauses when we didn't need them. Breaks that could have been avoided. It was like Elise Kova was so badly scarred from being reprimanded for run-on sentences and comma splicing that she completely avoided making sentences longer than 2 lines and so made it very difficult to get into the writing itself.
An example of this:

“You are fine. See how quickly you are healing now? You will be better than fine soon. I will even teach you myself.” He outright smiled, as though he was bestowing some great honor upon her. But Vhalla did not smile. She took another step away and swayed as the world was suddenly unstable. She had been on her feet for too long. Prince Aldrik was there in a moment, his hands on her upper arms for support. “Stop this foolishness,” he said, his deep voice gentle. “You know you should not be standing. Let me help you back to bed.” His sudden kindness made her want to scream.

I did like the cocky bastard prince, even if he pushed her off a building. He has smirks for days, gushed sex appeal, and created a whole lot of sexual tension you could cut with a knife.

Overall if you take this book too seriously, you are going to have a bad time. It's trashy, over-the-top, extravagant, cheesy and extremely unrealistic. But I had an OK time reading it because it got reactions out of me... Some might have been eye rolls and huffs of anger, but I did appreciate the drama. If you like teenage drama and shows like Reign, Riverdale, and Charmed appeal to you, you might actually like this! 

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!

 This book quickly found a way into my heart!

"The girl in her who had never amounted to anything other than an avid reader, now had something that kings killed for."
--Air Awakens

Vhalla Yarl was living her ideal life: apprenticing at the library, surrounded by her beloved books. Those employed at the library are charged with researching potential cures for a poisoned prince. Vhalla works longer and harder than anyone else, and her efforts help spare the prince from certain death. Only, she didn't save the flirtatious, charming prince she imagined she was helping, rather, it was his dark, brooding brother. And now he knows something dangerous about her that she could never be prepared to hear.

Air Awakens is the first book I've read by Elise Kova, and I must say that I am thoroughly hooked! This book kept me up reading late into the night on several occasions. The writing is so easy to read, and whenever I wasn't reading, I was longing to go back into the magic of Vhalla's world. I found Vhalla to be a highly relatable character, and I adored her dynamic with prince Aldric. There are so many lovable (and loathe-able) characters!

The only thing that bothered me was that there were several times that I found the wording a little awkward, but I was so enthralled by the story that it wasn't a huge concern for me. If this book is any indication, Kova is quickly joining my list of favorite authors! I can't wait to read the rest of the series! The best part? They are all free on Kindle Unlimited!