Vane Weston should have died in the category-five tornado that killed his parents. Instead, he woke up in a pile of rubble with no memories of his past - except one: a beautiful, dark-haired girl standing in the winds. She swept through his dreams ever since, and he clings to the hope that she's real.
    Audra is real, but she isn't human. She's a sylph, an air elemental who can walk on the wind, translate its alluring songs, even twist it into a weapon. She's also a guardian - Vane's guardian - and has sworn an oath to protect him at all costs.
    When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both their families, Audra has just days to help Vane unlock his memories. And as the storm winds gather, Audra and Vane start to realize that the greatest danger might not be the warriors coming to destroy them, but the forbidden romance growing between them.

I bought LET THE SKY FALL because I had heard some really good things about it and honestly, I loved the idea of air elementals (sylphs) and a whole book about a different kind of supernatural ability. I had really high hopes for this book and I really wanted to fall in love with it! I picked it up recently because I was really, really in the mood for a good paranormal romance and I was hoping this would be the best place to go! LET THE SKY FALL was a good read, but it just didn’t knock it out the park like I hoped it would.

Vane Weston (LOLing by the way… LOVE how the name ties back into the winds — that was pretty genius on Shannon Messenger’s part!) has dreamed of a mystery girl for years so our story begins when he finally meets that mystery girl… Who turns out to be a real person: Audra. There’s a reason as to why he’s been dreaming about her, but you know I’m not one to spoil so I’ll skip that part for now! Audra is a sylph — an air elemental — and she needs to teach Vane the language of the winds in order to protect not only himself but basically the entire race of air elementals. Heavy stuff! One thing I loved about this book was that it was the female who was the one with the existing knowledge and had to teach the male how to come into this new power and how to wield it. I loved that role reversal because I feel like it’s almost ALWAYS the other way around with the guy teaching the girl. It was really interesting, BUT that also led to a few issues for me while reading…

Because Audra is a guardian — Vane’s guardian to be precise — she’s always restricted, and well… no pun intended but she’s guarded. It was really hard for me to connect with her character because she (God, I really can’t help but do this — I swear, I’m not trying to) never let her guard down and I never really got to see many of her emotions until the very end of the book. It was really hard for me to like her as a character when she had SUCH a big wall up, even when we get to the chapters from her own POV. She didn’t allow herself to feel all the feelings and that restraint really prevented me from feeling for her.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed Vane’s chapters and his voice in this book. His chapters were all boy, frequently obsessing with how hot Audra is, but where that might bother some people, it really didn’t bother me at all. It wasn’t like he was ogling her or that it was creepy — He already has this tie to her, some sort of spark, so you know there are already feelings attached and his physical attraction just intensifies those feelings. I think Shannon Messenger did a great job of making his male voice sincere, fun, and interesting all at the same time.

Because I felt so closed off to Audra, I really didn’t get that romantic connection between the two characters like I wanted to. She was very closed off to the romance throughout the story as well so I just didn’t get that really good paranormal romance that I was looking for when reading this book. I had hoped the two characters would be a bit closer to getting their feelings out there in the beginning/middle of the book, but for me, the romance didn’t really happen until closer to the end.

I really loved how Shannon Messenger put together this whole story of air elementals which are also called Windwalkers in the book. There’s quite a backstory, social statuses, villains, rules, and everything is really well explained throughout LET THE SKY FALL. There are a lot of clues about Vane’s past — and Audra’s as well — that we only get to find out bit by bit as the characters do. I really liked that there were a few more things hidden beneath the surface that anyone knew and I found a couple really good surprises!
I think the explanation of the powers of Windwalkers and the training sequences that Vane went through were really interesting. I loved seeing the details of how the Windwalkers control and work with the wind and how the wind is almost a being in itself, assisting the Windwalkers and not simply being a “thing” that is controlled by them. It’s like a partnership and the wind at times can have a mind of its own so the air elemental that’s working with it really has to know what they’re doing. I was really fascinated by the whole concept and really liked how that was done!

Overall, LET THE SKY FALL kind of fell in the middle for me. Only connecting with one of two of the main characters really held me back from falling in love with the romance and the story overall. I may have set my hopes a little too high so I sort of set myself up for a little bit of disappointment on this one, but there were also lots of things that I did enjoy as well. I think there were elements of the story that could have flowed better… Maybe even losing Audra’s POV entirely would have been better for me personally. I really enjoyed Vane’s POV and sometimes alternating back and forth each chapter between characters sort of chops up that emotional tie that’s carrying me through a novel. I can definitely see where a lot of people really enjoyed this book but I was hoping for just a TINY bit more.

Vane Weston //Character Obsessions: Basically… Audra.
I actually really loved Vane’s POV. I felt like his voice was very authentic, funny, and truly sincere. He didn’t really hold back his feelings and his chapters were more of a stream of consciousness so I felt like I really got to know him as a character. I admired his bravery and his determination to learn all the ways of the Windwalkers.
Audra // Character Obsessions: Her duty to protect Vane. Breakthroughs.
Audra was a tough shell to crack. Her chapters were true to how she’s been keeping herself for many, many years: Guarded. Wary. Serious. She barely ever let her emotions come through and she didn’t start to let that happen until almost the end of the book. I just found it very hard to connect with her character and so it just took away quite a bit for me. Her voice IS half the book, so I felt like I was missing that connection half the time.

Kept Me Hooked On: Elemental magic. I’m digging books that feature powers involving or derived from the elements. I love the specificity of it and I think it’s a neat way to sort of explain the powers instead of just “magic”. *jazz hands*
Left Me Wanting More: Character development. I didn’t get a lot from Audra until the very end of the book and while I enjoyed Vane’s character, I think I wanted just a bit more depth from him as well.

Addiction Rating
BORROW IT.

I know a lot of people really loved this book, but I felt like there was so much more that I wanted from it. It was still an enjoyable read, but not one I would need to keep on my shelves for all time.

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