book review

Review: Earth's End

4/01/2016

Title:
Earth's End
(Air Awakens #3)

Author:
Elise Kova

★★★★☆

4 out of 5

A woman awoken in air, a soldier forged by fire, a weapon risen from blood.

Vhalla Yarl has made it to the war front in the North. Forged by blood and fire, she has steeled her heart for the final battle of the Solaris Empire’s conquest. The choices before Vhalla are no longer servitude or freedom, they are servitude or death. The stakes have never been higher as the Emperor maintains his iron grip on her fate, holding everything Vhalla still has left to lose in the balance.

**This review contains MINOR spoilers concerning the second book of the Air Awakens series, continue at your own risk.**

Earth's End is the third book in the Air Awakens series, a series that caught me off guard and has me eagerly anticipating its next installment while producing fan art like crazy. So if you haven't started on this series yet, I recommend you do. So, let's begin!

Earth's End starts with Vhalla desperately trying to save Aldrik's life after they both fall off a cliff while trying to make it to the north, now she is determined to save the life of the man she loves no matter the consequences, so she runs, she runs faster and harder than ever before. As I have mentioned in my previous reviews, I like how strong and smart Vhalla is, her love for Aldrik is always pushing her forward, making her better while kicking a**. In this book our heroine has to deal with different emotions and the moral complexity a war implies, as a reader I couldn't but fall more for her character, she has to fight, to kill, in order to get the peace she wants the most and when she is face to face with the enemy she realizes none of them deserve what was brought upon them, they might the enemies and yet they seek for the same, that being freedom; Vhalla now plans for the future, and not only hers but others. I liked how the author decided to portray the northerners by highlighting their humanity because now they are not people lusting for blood, they are humans trying to survive, at some point I almost felt like switching sides, I felt sorry for them and my despise for the emperor grew exponentially.

Romance is in the air -get it?- and things between our two main characters get steamy and hot, pretty hot; one of the things I like the most is that Vhalla isn't a pure innocent girl waiting to be rescued, she has flaws and a past she isn't ashamed to admit, in fact, she owns to it and her prince respects that, for he himself has a past too. Aldrik and Vhalla are a great team and they fight as one, it is almost as if they were one being with 8 limbs, they complete each other so well that I wish we could get more scenes like this because they are simply amazing making the battle scenes fast paced and gory.

After taking a step forward, The Dark Prince tries to be as close to the Windwalker as he possibly can, they are practically inseparable and people start to notice and to talk about it, making the emperor's dislike for Vhalla grow larger than ever making him the real villain of the story again by not wanting them to be together. I am not quite sure how I feel about this, as much as I liked their romance at first, towards the end I felt it was too codependent and the book was too focused on it when I was expecting there to be more action once they made it to the front. Also, the whole plotline with the axe gets a little left behind making it feel little to non-important at all when it was an important quest given to Vhalla at the end of book one, it obviously hasn't been a priority so I am wondering the role it is going to play.

Have you guys started on this series yet? Which book has been your favorite so far? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy reading,