Fire Falling by Elise Kova

Title: Fire Falling

Author: Elise Kova

Series: Air Awakens #2

Genre: Fantasy, YA, Elemental, Magic, Romance, Swords, Medieval

Source: Kindle

Pages: 378

Rating: 4.5 stars

Available at:

Amazon (CA) • Goodreads • Amazon (US)

Blurb:

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?

Fire Falling is the second book in the Air Awakens Series.

Review:

Oh god. Prepare for an ending that will make your heart stop.

Elise Kova continues to amaze me. In the sequel to her debut novel Air Awakens (you can read my review HERE), Elise continues to demonstrate her sheer mastery of the written language. Within a few pages she can make you laugh, cheer, panic, and cry. The power she has over her readers is amazing, and I simply could not put this book down for a second. I’m pretty sure that Elise might be a sorceress, because not only are her books about magic, but they are magic in themselves. It’s art, plain and simple.

The plot has definitely deepened in Fire Falling. Vhalla is a servent to the crown, being forced to fight in the Emperor’s war to capture the North. Not only does she have to figure out her magic, but she has to learn to defend herself by more physical means, all while trying to figure out what is going on between her and a certain dark prince. I loved this book because not only does the plot deepen and continue from where we left off in the first book of the series, but the characters do to. We meet some new people who seem as though they might be becoming some lead roles on the stage that is the Solaris universe, and we also get to see TONS of character development not just from Vhalla and Aldrik (which they do, in abundance!) but from some of the more minor characters in the first book that will play more important roles as the series continues. To name just a few we see Baldir and Larel become closer to Vhalla, which I loved.

I had a hard time with Vhalla during this book. I found that she was a little ‘poor-me’ during this book while pining for Aldrik. I mean, I understood it was kind of necessary for the character, and she did grow to be a bit stronger as the novel went on, but I do hope that we get to see Vhalla become more sure of herself as the series goes on. She has so much potential to be badass, and I truly believe that we will get to see that eventually. Saying that, this was pretty much the only reason I gave the book 4.5 stars instead of five. But considering Amazon doesn’t let you post half stars, I’m going to give Elise Kova the benefit of the doubt here and round it up.

We get to see so much more action in this book, and it was powerful. I was constantly at the edge of me seat desperate to read was happened next. What I love about this series (so far anyways) is that it really has the power to completely draw you into the book until it feels like you are right alongside Vhalla experiencing everything she does as if it were you. That is just another testament to Elise’s writing which, in case you didn’t get the memo, is bloody fantastic! Also, I just want to quickly mention the fabulous cover art once again. The cover art is something that initially drew me into Air Awakens, and here there was no exception!

Overall, I think that this was a great sequel to the series and I absolutely cannot wait to see where Elise takes us in Earth’s End, the third instalment of the series. If you haven’t started the series yet, get on it! This is a definite must read for all those YA fantasy lovers out there!