Whirlwind romance and breathtaking action continues in the sequel to Let the Sky Fall, which Becca Fitzpatrick called “charged and romantic.”

Vane Weston is haunted. By the searing pull of his bond to Audra. By the lies he’s told to cover for her disappearance. By the treacherous winds that slip into his mind, trying to trap him in his worst nightmares. And as his enemies grow stronger, Vane doesn’t know how much longer he can last on his own.

But Audra’s still running. From her past. From the Gales. Even from Vane, who she doesn’t believe she deserves. And the farther she flees, the more danger she finds. She possesses the secret power her enemy craves, and protecting it might be more than she can handle—especially when she discovers Raiden’s newest weapon.

With the Gale Force weakened by recent attacks, and the power of four collapsing, Vane and Audra are forced to make a choice: keep trusting the failing winds, or turn to the people who’ve betrayed them before. But even if they survive the storms sent to destroy them, will they have anything left to hold on to? (Cover and synopsis from Goodreads.)

*Warning:  This is the second book in a series.  While I really don’t like spoilers, you might find some slight Book 1 spoilers in this review.*

Better Than the First…

Normally, second books in series just don’t live up to the first book.  Or they’re well written and include important information for the series, but they kind of act as a filler book to get out the info before the craziness in book three.

But this was definitely not the case for Let the Storm Break.  This book had more action, more characters, more twists, and more suspense than Let the Sky Fall.  And you guys know how I love my action and twists and suspense! In my review of Let the Sky Fall, I talked about how it seemed small in scope. There weren’t many characters, and even the side characters were barely seen, with the story focusing about 80% on Audra and Vane and their relationship.  And in Let the Storm Break, the world seemed to open up much wider, with more characters and more locations, as well as more plot lines. It almost seemed like book one was more of the filler book than book two.

I found myself laughing out loud a lot more during this book, and also yelling “Don’t do it!” at the book.  And I ended up liking Vane a lot more in this one than I had in book one.  In my review of Let the Sky Fall I talked about how Vane seemed to focus on the physical aspects of Audra a lot, like how she looked, what she was wearing, the fact that she was “hot”.  And it did seem to ebb as that book went on, and luckily, there was no trace of that aspect in Let the Storm Break.  I really felt like Vane loved Audra, and it wasn’t just for her looks.

Also in my review of Let the Sky Fall, I talked about how I wasn’t really sold on the sylphs.  Not that Shannon Messenger didn’t describe them right–she seemed to do a great job at that–but that I didn’t really like sylphs as a paranormal being.  And I didn’t really feel that wind power was that awesome of a power, even though I lived in Oklahoma for most of my life and know the power of a storm or tornado.  But in Let the Storm Break, you really feel the scope of the sylphs’ power, and one part really reminded me of those horrible tornadoes in Oklahoma last year.  I’m still not really sure if sylphs are that cool of a being, but I do recognize that being able to control the wind is a pretty powerful ability.

Bonus Points…

Shannon Messenger gets some of my bonus points for the following reasons:

• A Lord of the Rings reference = 25,000 points
• At one point, Vane and another character have to cross a major highway on foot, and Vane compares it to “a terrifyingly real game of Frogger” = 1,000,000 points

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. (Thanks, Simon Pulse!) I was not compensated in any other way for this review.