The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

Release Date: September 17, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Series: The Elemental Trilogy, Book 1
Rated: YA 14+
Format: eGalley
Source: Edelweiss
Buy: Amazon ● The Book Depository
Goodreads ● Website

It all began with a ruined elixir and an accidental bolt of lightning…

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.

Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.

But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life.

It's been a while since I've read such a high fantasy– but WOW. I was completely blown away by this book. Even though it took me ages to actually get through the eGalley (curse you slow scrolling!), this was such an intense and fabulous read. I've been told that this book was amazing, and I'm glad that I reciprocated the same feelings for it.
The danger of fantasy is that generally authors tend to focus all-too-much on the characters and then the world-building falls to shambles, or they create this gorgeous world only to have shoddy characters. However, in this case Sherry Thomas had a great balance between the two. Despite the book being in third person, although it didn't really feel like it because it switched between Titus and Iolanthe's characters, you could really connect with the characters, but you could still get an understanding of the setting and where the action takes place.

Both Iolanthe and Titus were absolutely fantastic, I adored their chemistry. Dare I say it, I SHIPPED them. I guess you could then guess my frustration with their stubborn personalities in that they refused to act on their feelings for the most part of the book. Totally felt like tearing out my hair or stomping around the room because they were just so darn cute together but complete idiots to keep arguing with one another. ARGH. But ohmygosh: LOVE LOVE LOVE them. Especially Titus *wink*.
Other than their to-die-for relationship, I thought that both characters displayed a great show of strength and determination throughout the book.

There were times though when I thought the book got a little too confusing, especially with terminology I wasn't familiar with, and this confused my reading of the book. I know that definitely before the second book comes out I'm going to have to re-read this one, because there were some parts that are completely blurry for me, and I really need to sit down and thoroughly understand what exactly the heck is going on.
Despite it being an amazing book, I don't think there were too many twists that jumped out at me surprisingly. I think it might have been the pace that reduced the shocked-oh-my-god-WHAT factor for me, because it was a little slow-paced. Only small little heart-startlers now and then but nothing too major, which was a tiny bit of a let down, but it was interesting to see how elemental magic, wands, a boy's boarding school, the joining of two worlds, and visions all play an instrumental part in this novel.

The Burning Sky was beautiful. I loved this world that Sherry Thomas has created and am excited for the sequel to dive back into Iolanthe and Titus' story. There was quite a lot left unexplained and hopefully more will be revealed in the follow up. Lengthy but never a dull moment, this book had me lingering on every page, soaking up the romance and magic that poured from every word. Brilliant!

If you like this, try...

• A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray ● Goodreads

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