Let the Sky Fall

xxpish - Vane Weston is lucky to be alive. He survived a category 5 tornado that was his parents’ fate, and was named in the local newspaper as “Miracle Boy”. Ten years after the storm he is still dreaming about a girl that he feels had something to do with the storm and his survival even though he doesn’t remember anything from his past. He wants to find her really badly; she could tell Vane about his past, and she is hot. One night while he is on a date with someone, he sees “dream girl” and knows she is real. But that is not it; the next night she comes into his bedroom while he is sleeping and wakes him up. Still dazed by the fact that his dream girl is in his room, she tells him something beyond crazy; he is a Sylph, just like her. An air elemental. He can speak to the winds and control them. But all of the Sylphs are in trouble; Raiden and his Stormers are coming and he is their only hope to defeat them. In an epic love story and battle, Messenger earns fans who will stay with her until the very end of this enthralling trilogy. My thoughts: Let The Sky Fall was an epic book. This is the first love story I have read, and it was amazing. Lets just say that the cover and the blurb knocked the wind out of me (wind pun:-) and so did the author with Keeper Of The Lost Cities that I just had to read it. Shannon Messenger is so awesome; her writing blows me away (hahaha, another wind pun)and she stuns me with each of her works. The emotions and feelings the characters have for each other in this book are very strong, with love and sadness and so many other strong feelings and I think that is part of the book that makes it so good. This is the first time I have heard of Sylphs, and I think they are really cool! They basically control the wind, and that is the Gale Force’s job. Audra is a guardian, only few elite people in the Gales are, and she protects Vane all the time. There are also so many problems that Vane and Audra have to face; Vane is already betrothed to a princess, Audra knows it is wrong to love Vane because her job is to only protect him but she still loves him, Audra needs to train Vane before the Stormers arrive, Audra has a memory that is a burden on her back and does not want Vane to see, and Vane needs to have all four breakthroughs to be strong enough to fight Raiden. So, lots of problems; but will they be solved? read Let The Sky Fall and find out!

February 11, 2013
Seventeen-year-old Vane Weston lost his parents in a freak tornado when he was seven. While he loves his adopted parents, who live in California’s scorching Coachella Valley, he can’t shake the feeling that something about that accident doesn’t add up. Enter Audra, the gorgeous and disciplined “sylph” who saved his life and has been haunting his dreams. Audra reveals that Vane is also a sylph, a mystical creature who can control the wind, and that he’s being hunted by Raiden, a ruthless and powerful sylph. Readers learn the secrets of the sylphs, as Vane and Audra experiment with Vane’s emerging abilities and she struggles with her role as his guardian. As Messenger (Keeper of the Lost Cities) alternates between Vane and Audra’s perspectives, the story bogs down in detailed explanations about the sylph world, Vane’s training proceeds with excruciating slowness, and the romance between Vane and Audra is lackluster and predictable. The novel works best when Messenger’s characters are left to explore her vividly imagined world of wind, rather than just talk about it. Ages 13–up. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

February 15, 2013
A teenage boy discovers his magical heritage and falls in love with his protector. Vane Weston has no memories of his life before a tornado killed his parents, only dreams haunted by a beautiful girl. Audra's been following Vane as his assigned protector from the Gale Force. Although Vane has no memory of it, he is an air elemental, or sylph, just like Audra--in fact, he is the key piece in a war against the stock villain, a power-hungry sylph tyrant who murdered Vane's parents. Doing her duties, Audra accidentally reveals their location--in much the same way that, years ago, she unintentionally alerted enemy soldiers, called Stormers, to Audra's parents' location as they served as guardians for Vane's family. This prior accident ended in numerous casualties. Vane must awaken to his heritage and powers, mastering the languages of the four winds (one for each direction), if they are to stand a chance when the Stormers come for them. Audra has only days to train him, adding temporal tension. Chapters alternate first-person narration between Vane and Audra, with Audra's redemptive arc adding meat to the orphan-hero-discovering-his-magical-heritage storyline. While some early exposition is clunky, once the story settles into a character-driven rhythm, the prose smooths out considerably. The twists at the end are refreshing rather than cheap. Characterization elevates this romance over similar offerings in a crowded genre. (Paranormal romance. 12-17)

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June 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-Vane, 17, is haunted by the memory of a beautiful dark-haired girl who appeared during the tornado that killed his parents 10 years earlier. He doesn't realize he's not human until Audra appears and tells him of their shared heritage as Windwalkers, or sylphs, air elementals who can command the wind. Her father died protecting Vane from enemies called Stormers, and she blames herself for calling their attention to his family. She has taken up her father's duties and been specially selected by the Gale Force as Vane's protector. With danger imminent from Stormer warlord Raiden, she has to train Vane to harness his powers as the last of the Westerlies and master the languages of all four winds. And she must also fight her forbidden attraction to Vane, who is betrothed to the sylph princess. Told in the alternating voices of Vane and Audra and set in California's Coachella Valley, this is an interesting reversal of the usual magical girl who doesn't know she's special paranormal trope, and sylphs are a nice change from vampires, werewolves, and fairies. The story is a little slow at first, possibly because of the world-building in the beginning, and only really picks up when the pair battle the Stormers near the end. This first of a series ends with a cliff-hanger. Recommend it to Twilight fans.-Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ

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