Air Awakens (Air Awakens, #1)
by
by
Elise Kova (Goodreads Author)
Received as a free book via an Amazon Prime offer.
This is a 2-star review. My experience was closer to 2.5 stars.
The book summary was incredibly deceptive. It presents a young woman who is faced with the choice between her developing magical skills and continuing to work in a library. Instead of a story about magic with some other features tossed in, we end up getting a romance novel that is sprinkled with a bit of magic here and there.
The early bits of the book are terribly dry with drawn-out sections of exposition that lay the groundwork for the magic system. That information does very little to move the narrative along.
The characters are mostly cardboard cut-outs early in the book with some modest development later on.
All of the men in the story are taken with our protagonist. She unknowingly (andaccountable unaccountably) attracts the attention of every eligible bachelor that comes across her path. (a modest exaggeration, but not far off the mark)
At one point, she can only evaluate her own self-worth based on the opinion of one of the princes. Hardly a story of individual worth and empowerment.
There is a trial sequence that is laughable. The "prosecutor" is allowed to voice accusatory flights of fancy that are ephemerally connected to the brief testimony provided by the witnesses.
Our protagonist is presented as possessing the many habits of the elite members of society. In particular, she is presented as being "common", but she speaks like an elite. We get to hear/read a real commoner speak during the trial. The dissonance between the two despite both coming from the same common pool is large.
This is a great book for a pre-teen interested in a "she's so pretty, Cinderella-esque" story. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
This is a 2-star review. My experience was closer to 2.5 stars.
The book summary was incredibly deceptive. It presents a young woman who is faced with the choice between her developing magical skills and continuing to work in a library. Instead of a story about magic with some other features tossed in, we end up getting a romance novel that is sprinkled with a bit of magic here and there.
The early bits of the book are terribly dry with drawn-out sections of exposition that lay the groundwork for the magic system. That information does very little to move the narrative along.
The characters are mostly cardboard cut-outs early in the book with some modest development later on.
All of the men in the story are taken with our protagonist. She unknowingly (and
At one point, she can only evaluate her own self-worth based on the opinion of one of the princes. Hardly a story of individual worth and empowerment.
There is a trial sequence that is laughable. The "prosecutor" is allowed to voice accusatory flights of fancy that are ephemerally connected to the brief testimony provided by the witnesses.
Our protagonist is presented as possessing the many habits of the elite members of society. In particular, she is presented as being "common", but she speaks like an elite. We get to hear/read a real commoner speak during the trial. The dissonance between the two despite both coming from the same common pool is large.
This is a great book for a pre-teen interested in a "she's so pretty, Cinderella-esque" story. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
