Let the Sky Fall

Seventeen-year-old Vane Weston lost his parents in a freak tornado when he was seven. While he loves his adopted parents, who live in California’s scorching Coachella Valley, he can’t shake the feeling that something about that accident doesn’t add up. Enter Audra, the gorgeous and disciplined “sylph” who saved his life and has been haunting his dreams. Audra reveals that Vane is also a sylph, a mystical creature who can control the wind, and that he’s being hunted by Raiden, a ruthless and powerful sylph. Readers learn the secrets of the sylphs, as Vane and Audra experiment with Vane’s emerging abilities and she struggles with her role as his guardian. As Messenger (Keeper of the Lost Cities) alternates between Vane and Audra’s perspectives, the story bogs down in detailed explanations about the sylph world, Vane’s training proceeds with excruciating slowness, and the romance between Vane and Audra is lackluster and predictable. The novel works best when Messenger’s characters are left to explore her vividly imagined world of wind, rather than just talk about it. Ages 13–up. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Mar.)