Before I start this review, here are some links for if you want to see more about Thin Air:
Goodreads | Lulu | Barnes and Noble | Amazon | Facebook
And, for a grand finale of this blog tour, there will be the Grand Prize. The winner shall receive a signed, paperback copy of Thin Air and a pair of specially made earrings!
To win, you have to find the red letters. Not all the blogs will have one, but they will pop up, and when they do, the letter will be in bold and will be red. It should look like this:
"This is how the blog tour post should look like. Then there's a bunch of content here, and somewhere in the middle, the blogger will just bold and put in red their letter."
You need to write them down, as these letters should make up two words. So just collect them all, and fill out this Form.
Now, my review....
Series: Air, Book One
Publisher: Self
Format: Kindle
Published: 2nd August 2011
Number of Pages: 437
Book: For Review From Author*
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Mythical, Magic, Fairy Tale, Paranormal, Dark Romance, Action, YA
Recommended Age: 14+
Contains: Strong Violence, Death, Sex (not adult fiction sex, but stronger than some YA), Mild Swearing, Alcohol References
No Drug References
Author's Blog: No Blog, But Here's Her Twitter: @lynnsere
May Contain Mild Spoilers (Though No More Given In the Full Version of the Synopsis)
Synopsis From Goodreads:
Alice Ayre is no ordinary teenager. She took her first name from a statue in Central Park, pulled her name out of the air (literally), got her clothing from a homeless woman who had once been a gnome, and she's actually almost a thousand years old. In fact, the only "ordinary" thing about Alice is that she's hopelessly in love.
Review:
Aeris is a sylphid, a spirit of the air. She is considered especially beautiful, even for her fair kind, and is desired by all the sylphs, even King Paralda himself. But none of them are of any interest to her. Until Aeris does the forbidden: she falls in love with a human called Daniel. All she longs for is to have the chance to be with him, but as a sylphid, that is impossible. So Aeries makes the only choice that seems bearable for her, even though it has been banned by Paralda. She chooses to be transmuted – transformed into a flesh-and-blood human. Changing her name to Alice Ayre, she sets out to find her love. The worst she was expecting was that she would have to compete with Daniel’s current girlfriend. Instead, her past catches up with her. And it will not let go, will not go away, until…
I expected an airy-fairy tale when I picked Thin Air up. That was not what I got. Sure, there were fairy beings. But there were also humans. There was the worst of humanity – assault, death – and the best – love, hope, friendship. Altogether, this combination of magic and realism was outstanding – above and beyond anything I expected. It had the beauty of faeries and a gritty realism that almost made everything one-hundred-per-cent believable.
Aeris was rather proud, although she loved her friend Tempesta, her home and her sister spirits. And she really did love what she was – being at one with the air. She was so full of life, of passion, so strong. Once human, Alice Ayre became less proud and more vulnerable. Some of her reactions to human things were really cute and funny! Although, some of them were totally cringe worthy. She was really naïve, yet really mature at the same time. I can’t wait to see where her character goes. The one thing I hope for? That she may be more sure in herself, more confident in her strength. She was just a little damsel-in-distress at times… Which was unnecessary, ‘cause she was stronger than she thought she was…
Daniel Field was a sweetie, artistic, a musician. He was really nice to Alice, even when she made big blunders. And he was the cutest! I mean, he had a collection of pigs. And he named them. How adorable? I love him. He was strong, sweet, accepting, darn adorable. The dream boyfriend. The only thing he may lack: witty sarcasm! Which is made up for by…
Dante Sinclair, who was wonderful. He was warm, fun, sweet and great. And he was in the theatre program at NYU, “studying to be a drama queen”. Plus: such a sweetie! He was hilarious, slightly snarky and eccentric. And my own personal favourite! Dante rocks!
The rest of the characters were wonderful, a wide variety of personalities. Shane, Dante’s wonderful boyfriend, who had a snake called Lady Gag-Gag (he and Dante were the cutest!). Wren, who was blind and got “feelings” that were never wrong. Her boyfriend, Nicky, who was a real sweetie. The rich Giovanni Accello, jolly, kind and an aspiring jeweller. Delilah, Daniel’s girlfriend, who was cold, evil, possessive and plain horrible (in my opinion). And another favourite of mine, who wasn’t in it much at all: Terra, an air spirit who helped Alice out at the beginning. I loved him, and would really, really like to see more of him in the next book… (hint, hint).
What was amazing about this book was the world Seresin created. All the different beings were intriguing. The sylphids and sylphs of the air. The undine of the water. The gnomes of the earth. The salamanders of the fire. Flower spirits. Forest spirits. For them, there was no death, no pain, no hunger. They were practically immortal. And, of course, the whole seeing-the-world-through-a-spirit’s-eyes was fascinating. Aeris had no idea what pain was, or hunger. She had no clue about anything. I mean, she didn’t know what a statue was.
This was a great read. It was addictive and new: wonderful. I may not have been a big fan of the violence, but – while it shocked me at times – it was needed in an odd way. Alice had to see the bad side to get the most from the good side, if that makes any sense. Horrible, yes. But Alice just had to know – how horrible humans can be, I mean.
As for the writing… it was beautiful, lyrical and so Alice. I was entranced by its style, actually stunned. From the way this lady writes, this book should be sitting on a shelf at Waterstones, if you ask me. She even made love-at-first-sight work! Which is, as many of us know, an impressive, impressive success. Still not 100% convinced by the sex scene... it didn't really seem to fit, in my opinion... And, while some twists were rather obvious, others took me completely by surprise. ‘Though, I gotta say, not entirely convinced by the justice in the book…
Even so, I can’t wait to see what Lynn brings out next – especially if it has Dante and Alice and Daniel in it! (And maybe Terra?) I loved the airy-fairy side to the story: the romance, the characters. The humanity was shown at its best, its worst. It was completely new and different. I can’t wait for Friendly Fire!
Star Rating:
4 Out of 5
4 Out of 5
Previous stop on Thin Air Blog Tour: Silver Thistles
Next stop on Thin Air Blog Tour: Words That Fly
To see all taking part in the Thin Air Blog Tour, Go to The Magic Attic
Read this book if you liked:
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
Challenges It's Taking Part In:
Happy Reading 2011 eBook Challenge (Hosted by The LadyBug Reads)
Megan
* This book was received from author in exchange for an honest review
