Title: Failed Future (Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles #3)

Author: Elise Kova

Pub. Date: July 21, 2019

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When worlds collide, and things are rarely what they seem, there may be no one Vi can trust.

Having forsaken her crown for a chance to save her family, and the world, Vi Solaris washes up on the shores of Meru. She’s wounded and barely alive. But Vi’s fight for survival is only just beginning.

As a princess in a foreign land, everyone is after her.

The pirate queen Adela wants to sell her to the evil elfin’ra. The Twilight King wants to use her to settle an old score. And, perhaps most dangerous, is the scheming Lord of the Faithful who sees her as an opportunity to further consolidate his power.

The only path for Vi is forward. But she doesn’t yet know if she’s running toward salvation… or a brutal end to everything she loves.

Vi’s journey continues with even more betrayal, romance, magic, and a twist you never saw coming that leaves readers begging for the next book. 

This will be a spoiler free review. I want to thank Elise for gifting me an early copy to read and review!

I’m still screaming.

This was by far my favorite book in this series. It starts with a bang and keeps going, until your mind explodes in your skull, because Elise did that.

If you’ve read the book, then you’ll know what I mean.

Nothing, absolutely nothing prepared me for the ending. It was amazing, and while it blew my mind upon reading it – there were a bunch of little follow up explosions when I realized what it actually meant in the whole scheme of things.

If you haven’t yet, you definitely need to check out the Air Awakens series as well as the Vortex Chronicles…because you’re missing out big time. Elise knows how to tell a story, how to create a vivid and lush world with complex characters, and she does it in the most amazing manner.

This is the third book in the Vortex Chronicles, and it pulls all the punches. From the very beginning, picking up right where Chosen Champion leaves off, Vi on a beach and Taavin somehow miraculously there.

From there things just hit the fan right after another and Vi is tested in ways she’s not previously been. Some new characters are introduced, and truths are revealed.

Vi’s been on a journey for the whole series, obviously, but more so in this one, does she truly grow as a person. Her beliefs, her heart, everything she thought are challenged and she has to decide whether or not she’s strong enough to make it out the other side. Her world – everyone’s world is ending, and she will do whatever she can to try and stop it. That’s what I like about her, it was the same thing I liked about Vhalla in the Air Awakens Series – that it didn’t matter if there was a guaranteed successful outcome, that they would fight or die trying. That even the faintest spark of hope, of success was enough to get them to fight. Vi proves her strength, her smarts and her skills over and over in this book, and I cannot wait to see how her story progresses and closes in this series.

As for Taavin, I don’t want to say too much, since he has a really big role in this book, and to really talk about my feelings would be too much of a spoiler. But I will say that as much as I do love him, I’ve always had this sneaking suspicion that he was too good to be true. I’ll let you form your own opinions. I don’t think he’s a bad guy, I think he’s just been dealt a seriously shitty hand.

If it wasn’t clear, Elise blew me away with this book, and I’m infinitely more excited for the next one, Sovereign Sacrifice. If you’re looking for a lush, vivid, diverse fantasy world where the fate of the world is at stake and hearts are tested, then you should definitely check out this series, and the first one if you haven’t already. You’re missing out on an amazing journey with amazing characters. Elise’s worlds are so easy to picture, to visualize, they feel absolutely real.

Sovereign Sacrifice is out October 2019, so you have time to catch up!

I also just want to thank Elise again for giving me the opportunity to read Failed Future early!