Title:
Fire Falling
(Air Awakens #2)
Fire Falling
(Air Awakens #2)
Author:
Elise Kova
Elise Kova
★★★★☆
4 out of 5 stars
Vhalla Yarl marches to war as property of the Solaris Empire. The Emperor counts on her to bring victory, the Senate counts on her death, and the only thing Vhalla can count on is the fight of her life. As she grapples with the ghosts of her past, new challenges in the present threaten to shatter the remnants of her fragile sanity. Will she maintain her humanity? Or will she truly become the Empire’s monster?
This review may contain minor spoilers regarding the first book of the Air Awakens series. Continue at your own risk.
This series has positioned itself as my favorite series of the moment, it has elemental magic, romance and several kick-ass moments that make it simply irresistible. Fire Falling continues the story of our favorite -and so far only- Windwalker, Vhalla Yarl, after losing her freedom to the empire; she is now considered a weapon and not a person, she marches to war in order to win her freedom back by winning the emperor's long lasting war.
Now, things get a little complicated here, Vhalla being a Windwalker is considered a threat to all, people judge her by the events transcurred at the end of Air Awakens and even though she wasn't the one to blame no one seems to believe her, they all despise and fear her. Vhalla really grows as a character, she has to be trained to be able to survive, to become a warrior and with it, the monster they all think she is. I am amazed, Vhalla is all I want my main characters to be, she does get affected by the circumstances surrounding her and is obligated to change, for better or worse.
The elemental magic is my favorite part of this series, the way it works and how elements differ from each other not only because their essence but what it allows others to do with it: creating illusions, healing, among others. We get to know more about it by meeting new characters or reading about them training, though not as much as I would have liked to, I feel most parts in this book were oriented to develop relationships between characters and we got not much world building. Also, even though Vhalla's quest to finding the Axe didn't go anywhere there was a lot of action, gory action, which I honestly liked, Fire Falling makes Vhalla badass.
The relationship between Aldrik and Vhalla is, of course, an important plot line in the story and all I can say about it is that what was cemented on book 1 gets to grow in book 2, things between them get a little complicated and some new characters may shake things a little; not to mention the Emperor's despise for Vhalla forces Aldrik to consider every move he makes in order to protect her from his father. Guys, they have become my OTP, their relationship is beautiful.
One of the best parts of this book has to be the ending, it got me like "what?!" but in a good way; it was unexpected and I had to lay in bed for a couple of minutes in order to able to process it. And here I am now, wondering where is the author going to take us next, what will happen to Aldrik and Vhalla, if their relationship will become serious or if there is going to be a relationship at all. But more importantly: will Vhalla complete her secret quest? And if she does, how is this going to affect the war?
Have you guys started this series yet? If you could be a bearer of elemental magic, which element would you choose? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy reading,
2 comments
Fabulous review, I am so glad you are loving this series too! I adore Vhalla- she is one of the best main characters I have ever read, no question. And she and Aldrik are absolutely OTP. No question! If I had any power, I assume I would be a Waterrunner. Just because I have always been a water person? And a quiz that Elise made told me so too ;) Have you read Earth's End yet?? Can't wait for your thoughts on it!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Oh my, I love how Vhalla has evolved from a little library mouse to this amazing strong woman, the badassery is strong with this one. I finished Earth's End last month, will be reviewing it soon, all I can say for the time being is: I can't stop fangirling all over this series.
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