What an incredibly power fantasy world! There are kingdoms and queendoms! This story follows our FMC, an air mage named Alisio Skylor. She's on the run after being wrongly accused for crimes she didn't commit after the murder of her parents. And then there's our MMC, Prince Esko who is from the Earth queendom.
This story was so good, you should honestly just read it for yourself!!

As a big avatar fan, I had to try this book and it pleasantly surprised me!
Where at first I was still looking for many clues to Avatar, the story increasingly took on a world of its own the further I got into the book.
The powers are different and mainly the politics in the world created by Zoiy I found positively surprising.
Even the names of various characters that I found quite cringe at first, were explained.

You follow the story from two POVs. This book is really written for YA, so I recommend it to the younger audience.

I am looking forward to book two!

The book had, what felt for a minute a slow start. But that lasted for about a minute. Then things got interesting. Very interesting. And I could not put the book down. This is everything you ever want in a book and so much more. It's intriguing, enigmatic, exciting, emotional, romantic, perplexing and so so much more. I don't even know where to start. Wow. Just wow. This book isn't even published yet and I already want the next one. This one left thing with a whole lot more questions than I'd prefer

3.5 stars, rounding up to 4

This book follows Alisio, an air mage, as she attempts to protect Prince Esko, an earth mage, who is being targeted by a secret idealistic society. The book goes much deeper than just the one sentence summary, but you understand the gist of it. Strong FMC’s for the win!

I have a lot of different thoughts, so I am breaking down my review into multiple sections / ratings.

Worldbuilding: 5/5
This story has been compared to Avatar the Last Airbender, and I 100% agree. The world building is rich, and the history of the world has clearly been thought out. In the story, you learn so much about the different types of mages (besides Aether), and each type of mage has their own personality and governing style. I think the politics really drive the plot, but also add so much to the world. There were multiple hard themes throughout this book that were very hard hitting despite being YA (corruption in power and in media, death, etc).

Although I didn’t really understand the naming scheme or the different subtypes (air-hopping and wind-whispering air mages for example), I was still able to keep up with the majority of the story.

Characters: 3/5
My favorite character by far was Esko. I majored in Political Science in college, and I love the way he approached different political topics throughout this story. He didn’t want to align himself with one particular party, but rather sided with whatever party’s politics he liked on a policy by policy basis. We love an intelligent king - er, prince.

Alisio seemed a little too YA for me. I will admit, I don’t read a lot of YA anymore, but she just seemed really immature for an 18 year old? Rain and Aspen kind of confused me as characters however. They just kind of existed to exist rather than to do something. Pyro straight up reminded me of Magna from the anime/manga Black Clover. I pictured Pyro as Magna throughout the story, which may be why I loved his character so much, but he was like a breath of fresh air. He has a carefree demeanor that worked so well with Esko’s somewhat uptight nature.

Pacing: 2.5/5
The entire story takes place over the course of 2-3 weeks max. The plot required it to be fast moving, but it just felt too quick for everything that occurred (especially the romance IMO). There were random flashbacks sprinkled throughout the story, and they felt very jarring. Overall, the book did not flow as well as I think it could have.

Romance: 3/5
YA, very little spice.
I thought it was cute, and I felt invested in their romance towards the end of the book. There wasn’t a ton of romance in this book, but I have a feeling we will see more of their relationship as the series continues on.

If you are looking for a book with similar vibes as Avatar the Last Airbender with a strong FMC, then I think you will enjoy this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.