Review – Earth’s End (Air Awakens, Book 3) by Elise Kova (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 348 pages
Publisher: Silver Wing Press
Release Date: October 27, 2016
ASIN: B01M69O6GV
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Air Awakens series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

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

Vhalla Yarl has made it to the warfront 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 is the third book in the Air Awakens series. There are five books in this series and the third book picks up a very short time after the second book leaves off. This review will contain spoilers for those who haven’t read book 2 yet. I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the first two; it was a bit slow and I got sick of all the back and forth moodiness of our two main characters.

Vhalla awakes from her fall after Crown Prince Aldrik only to find that, while Aldrik survived, he is in very bad shape. Now Vhalla must defy both the Emperor and time to rush to the nearest city to get Aldrik help. Vhalla hopes her wind magic is strong enough to get help fast enough for Aldrik. While at the Crossroads awaiting news of Aldrik, Vhalla seeks comfort with the soldier Daniel (who has always been kind to her).

This book was much slower than the first two. I enjoyed Vhalla’s race across the country but once she gets to the city things slow down a lot. There’s a semi-love triangle going on (which I am not a fan of) and both Vhalla and Aldrik are pretty immature about their relationship. I got very sick of the push and pull back and forth between them, events at the end of the book we were weird. Aldrik caves to his father very easily which wasn’t in keeping with his character and I found this very frustrating.

There is some interesting discussion about the Crystals which are supposed to be able to enhance magic and I hope the next book focuses more on this and less on the I love you, I hate you thing Vhalla and Aldrik have going on.

Overall this was a good installment in this series. I am still enjoying the world, the magic, and the characters. I wish there was a bit more adventure and story progress and thought this book was a bit slow. I also was frustrated by how immature Vhalla and Aldrik act towards each other sometimes. I plan on continuing the series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge