Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Book review - Shannon Messenger's Let the Storms Break


This review is based upon a free ARC copy, which in no way affected my opinion.

Let the Storms Break is the second book of Shannon Messenger’s Sky Fall series. The first book is Let the Sky Fall.

I’m a big fan of “elemental” type stories, although these are a bit different. In fact, I’ve never read anything that handles sylphs (air spirits) in anything but a passing manner. Not only are these beings able to manipulate how the wind blows, but each is part of one of four families representing Easterly, Northerly, Southerly, and Westerly winds. They are able to call the winds and weave them into shields and weapons as well as facilitate flight.

In the first book, Vane Weston discovers he’s a sylph and has been protected by Audra from those that seek to capture Vane since he’s the last Westerly and has been protected as the sylph king because of this. His enemies want the power of all four winds. Vane might be in love with Audra, but he has very little interest in being king or learning to fight.

Book two continues after Audra’s mother betrays all the good winds and the battle nears with the evil Raiden and his follower. Vane learns more of his strength while fighting to stay true to himself and save his adopted family and friends. This book is non-stop action and Messenger does an awesome job weaving sylph powers to unique weapons, both offensive and defensive. We meet new sylphs and learn more about the enemy Raiden who wants not only the power of the four winds, but to control and break all others through pain.

One thing I particularly enjoyed in this book was Vane’s voice. Perfect teenager being pushed to do something he doesn’t agree with. But he still managed to learn and grow and make good decisions. I look forward to his continued development in the next book.

Let the Storms Break ends with the ultimate battle still waging and the reader wanting more of Vane and Audra’s story, so you’ll have to wait for book three. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books and recommend readers to read the Let the Sky Fall first. You will love both and be eagerly waiting for the next as I was. You’ll never think about a wind storm the same way!
 
Four stars from me - recommended read with solid writing and a great story concept.

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