Release Tour - Review & Giveaway: Fire Falling (Air Awakens #2) by Elise Kova

*Review is spoiler-free but may contain spoilers from the previous book in the series.

Fire Falling

(Air Awakens #2)

by Elise Kova

November 19, 2015
378 pages

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Synopsis:

Soldier… Sorcerer… Savior… Who is Vhalla Yarl?

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?

Review

I pretty much dove straight into this book when I had the chance. Air Awakens was amazing but Fire Falling went beyond my expectation. Elise Kova has slain me with the best and worst feelings. I had to take a moment to collect my emotions off the floor after turning that last page. Every minute in this book was glorious.

Where do I even start. The feels, yes! Reading Fire Falling was no joke. More often than not I found myself having to stop because I was too consumed by emotions. The happiness, excitement, outrage, despair, jealousy- every feeling the characters experienced, I felt them too. How can you not when the stakes are so high? Things were happening. There's not one moment where my heart wasn't in my throat. Even during the more cheery moments, I was nervous for the characters. You never know when things would go down (sorry that sounds so vague but I'm trying very hard not to spoil anything) and trust me when I say, my feelings got ripped apart. That sounds bad but really it's actually a very good thing.

I have no idea how a book on going to war can be so fascinating. We haven't even actually gone to war yet but there was no lack of action (romantic action included *wink wink*) and no small number of casualties. I both hated it and loved it. The relationships were somewhat of a tangle but in a clear way. I could tell who and who and who and who were being set up but I didn't know what the possibilities of these pairings meant. I refused to give them more credibility than needed. Well-done Elise, you got me nervous as hell. Let me just say this made me swoon hard: "Because I promise, this will never be easy- for either of us- and I refuse to love you halfway." (eARC, 69%). This was pretty much a love declaration and I feel like it's a bit spoilery so I hid half of it. I just couldn't not mention it. There were butterflies in my stomach and they were on a rampage doing all sorts of flips and cartwheels refusing to stop.

I've loved Vhalla since Air Awakens and Fire Falling has not diminished my girl crush at all. Vhalla's quickly morphing from a timid library apprentice into a hard soldier. "Even something very small can cast a large shadow when it is close to the sun." (eARC, 38%). Heck yes, that's Vhalla! She's starting to unleash her potential. All the trauma and heartache cannot break her because she's Vhalla. I really enjoyed the part where she goes through stages to convince herself that certain feelings she has doesn't mean anything. Vhalla just feels so levelheaded. So honest. So real. She's irreplaceable. Vhalla is Vhalla. I keep saying her name for a reason and you'll understand once you've read this book.

Aldrik, Aldrik, Aldrik. If I say it enough times, can he magically appear in front of me? XD Aldrik's still frustrating and cryptic but there's no denying he takes care of Vhalla. He does it in his own way and no one can fault him for that. Aldrik is the sun. He goes to immeasurable lengths to keep Vhalla safe even if it meant voicing some difficult and horrible ideas. I love that he had more emotional and physical responses in this book ;)

I loved all the secondary characters. They're an absolute delight. Fritz, Larel, Daniel and Craig were a constant for Vhalla. She would not be the same without them. Even the annoying Elecia I hope to see more of in the future. I do have to say though, in this book she felt like a plot device used to stir up confusion. Once she served her purpose, she sort of faded into the background. However, I not so secretly hope that Elecia will be there for Vhalla after that ending. Vhalla will need a friend more than ever. Baldair was very Baldair. He doesn't fail with the warnings but he also doesn't overstep his boundaries. He's on my good side and I hope he remains there until the end of the series lol.

So I fell in love with Air Awakens. I'm even more madly in love with Fire Falling. I can't even imagine what Earth's End will do to me. Elise, keep doing what you're doing because it is special. Just phenomenal!

*I received an eARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinion are my own and not affected in any way. All quotes were taken from the eARC I received.

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