Vortex Visions Review

I shall try my best to keep my language clean, but I make no promises because I swear when I’m excited and talking about this book is very exciting. Before we start, I would like to thank author Elise Kova for providing a review copy of the box set! I'm going to review the set as a whole, but for now, I'm reviewing each book individually.

Vortex Visions is the first book of the Vortex Chronicles. The story revolves around Vi, the crown princess of the Solaris Empire. She starts off in the North, where she’s been living since she was fourteen for political reasons. Vi makes an amazing main character: she’s funny, determined, and relatably flawed. She makes mistakes, she owns up to them, and she suffers the consequences in realistic ways. You get to know her character quickly, so nothing she does seems out of character for the rest of the book. Kova also perfectly captures the beauty of friendships between women with Vi’s closest friends, Jayme and Ellene. They’re constantly supportive of each other even through disagreements and never fall into the trap of female rivalry that’s so common these days.

The world-building is concise and immersive, with no need to read the previous series, Air Awakens, to understand it (though I do also heavily suggest Air Awakens based on my opinions on the first book!) The magic system is deceptively simple: depending on where you’re from, your magic will be control over water, earth, air, or fire, with a chance of the rare affinity of the self for a deeper magic. Yet, without spoiling anything, this magic system grows more complex when Vi finds she has a rare and dangerous power.

Now, let’s get into the plot. This is where I’m going to get excited because I LOVED it. It’s well-paced, it’s exciting, it’s complex without being overwhelming! It’s filled with twists and it covers prejudice and how history and even maps can be rewritten by those in power, creating conflicts between how Vi sees her homeland and how it actually is. You don’t even notice the pages flying by because you’re just cramming it all in, too excited to slow down. The climax gave me chills. I noticed halfway through that my nose was almost touching the screen of my phone and I was biting my lip and holding my breath because I was just so invested.

Kova’s writing is always good, but it SHINES in descriptions of magic, prophecies, and ancient ruins. She takes her time with those scenes, making them detailed and beautiful, but also knows where to pull back and spare the details to avoid the dreaded purple prose.

Speaking of, this book has everything I love: rare magic, ancient ruins, and maps! Vi’s cartography hobby means maps play a big role in the story and even become integral to the plot. It’s just so damn good (I’m actually censoring myself here because I was almost a lot more foul-languaged in my excitement there.)

Also, if you love the aesthetic of runes and summoning circles, this book is for you because it has both! A form of magic that becomes important uses visible versions of both of them that the users create at will, combining with Kova’s writing style to make amazing visuals in your mind. 

Lastly, the romance. Now, this is definitely what can be described as a slow burn, yet it is still incredibly romantic. Vi and her love interest meet only as illusions of each other, visions summoned by magic within the ancient ruins and in Vi’s room, making it both clandestine and mystical in nature as their interactions revolve first around magic but growing slowly closer.

All in all, Elise Kova crafted a detailed world, a magic system rooted in familiarity but grown into something unique, and a plot to keep you turning the pages well past your bedtime. I truly cannot wait to read book two.

And good news: You don’t need to wait! Not only is the whole series already out, but there’s an omnibus of all five volumes if you’re so inclined! Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s about time I jump into Chosen Champion.

You can find Vortex Visions on Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and ebook format, or the omnibus of the whole series is also on Amazon in the same formats!