A heroine whose talents everyone wants to possess find safe harbor in the arms of a dangerous, mysterious hero in Air Bound. Christine Feehan’s third Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart book features Airiana Ridell, the air element with a kind heart and a spine of steel and Maxim Prakenskii, a deadly Russian agent with a target on his back.

I enjoy characters who are a mix of strength and vulnerability and Airiana fits the bill perfectly. She’s brilliant – a child prodigy governments would kill to possess. She’s also a powerful air element which makes her a force to be reckoned with. This is balanced by her tender, empathetic heart. Airiana would do anything for those she loves and she loves quickly and easily. Maxim is an air element as well and he and his brothers were taken as children and raised to be weapons. He’s rough, hardened, and completely in over his head with Airiana. He thinks he’s cold as ice but she barrels through all his walls immediately, making him want things like a home and family he wouldn’t let himself dream of. Airiana may be softhearted but she’s no pushover. Their romance is a total whirlwind (pun intended) but it worked for me because of the Prakenskii fated mates bond.

Intertwined with the love story is a whole lot of action as Airiana and Maxim are forced to escape multiple kidnapping attempts and death threats. Air Bound is fairly heavy on the fighting and danger which normally wouldn’t hold my interest but Feehan keeps the pace moving at a quick clip. There’s a lot of ugliness and evil Maxim and Airiana see but it reinforces how urgent it is they fight for good. I won’t spoil anything but there are some supporting characters they pick up along the way who broke my heart and whose interactions with Maxim and Airiana put it back together.

Air Bound can easily be read as a standalone; Feehan gives you enough of a sense of Airiana’s relationship with the women who have become their sisters in order to slide right into the series if you choose to start here. Admittedly my favorite parts of the book were seeing Airiana with her sisters. These six unique, powerful women brought together by loss are what makes this series shine and by the time I finished Air Bound I could not wait to dive into Lexi’s book, Earth Bound.