A review by losquish
Air Awakens by Elise Kova

adventurous challenging funny inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The book was fine! It has been very hyped in the book review space in social media, as being a very underhyped book, but I think if it were a brand new series I would still feel the same. 

It was entertaining, the plot seems interesting but feels formulaic to fantasy series out today: average girl uncovers that she actually has the most powerful of the gifts and has to decide if she’s going to use it or not and also there’s so many romance options how will she ever choose?

Was it enjoyable? Yes
Was it frustrating? Also yes. 

I have things I like and dislike about the main characters which is good because it means they aren’t overly perfect, but everyone (especially the secondary characters) seem very flat and lack much nuance. 

Also the main villain literally doesn’t have a reason to act the way he does other than “villain”. Maybe in future installments we’ll learn more but by the end of this book it was just so cringy how hard the dude was trying and yet never had a real reason for his hatred? Like at least the world building enemy had some reasons we haven’t dove into much but this story’s bad guy isn’t even in the first like 75% of the book! 

I will give points for the FMC having some spine (saying no to things, talking back, holding grudges), but she also falls into the “telling not showing” trap of a main character who is supposed to be so smart yet can’t figure out obvious things happening around her because it needs to be spoon fed to the reader… 

I will continue the series (I’ve already started book two) and see if it picks up, but this may be a soft DNF for me in the end.