Thin Air by Lynn Seresin Review

Title: Thin Air
Author: Lynn Seresin (Twitter, Facebook)
Publisher: Self-published
Publish Date: August 2, 2011
Genre: YA, Paranormal, UF
Pages: 437
Source: Author

Alice Ayre is no ordinary teenager. She took her first name from a statue in Central Park, pulled her last name out of the air (literally), and she’s actually almost a thousand years old. In fact, the only “ordinary” thing about Alice is that she’s in love.

Alice was a sylphid—a winged air spirit—when she spotted Daniel Field camping in the Adirondacks and lost her heart to the handsome NYU student. Intangible to the human senses, her only hope of winning his heart resides in becoming mortal, even though transmutation is forbidden by Paralda, ruler of the air. Risking punishment, however, seems a small price to pay for a chance at true happiness.

Alice is anything but ordinary, but she'd do anything necessary to fit in. She's a Sylphid, a spirit of the air, but a mere human made her want to be more, or less, according to her species. She wants to be mortal. Mortality has a price though, and whether Alice is ready to pay it or not is a serious question. Daniel might be the man of her dreams, but there are rules that Alice must break to find the one she is destined to be with. There's a chance she will fit in famously, but there's always a chance that her past will come back to haunt her.

Thin Air breathes new life into the paranormal genre, introducing readers to an entirely new type of being. Rather than inundating us with the common vampire or werewolf, we're given the ethereal, and we watch as it mingles and bleeds into real life. Author Lynn Seresin has wrote a tale of love and destiny, foremost, then added the paranormal into the mix, giving us the best of both worlds. With intricately detailed prose and a light, almost serene writing style, we can feel the world of air, fire, water and earth spirits. Thin Air risks it all with a new measure of the paranormal and allows the reader to delve into the elemental.

There was touch of brilliance behind Thin Air. Truly, it's a beautiful and unique story, blending elemental spirits into a very humanity-driven novel. We are introduced to Sylphs, who are air spirits, Salamanders, who are fire spirits), Gnomes, who are earth spirits and Undines, who are water spirits. It's an entirely new world within Thin Air, but the author develops the paranormal element very well, balancing it well with the necessary characterization. The setting of Thin Air was also done extremely well. Based on Greenwich Village in New York City, the backdrop of the novel is vivid and alive, lending to the urban aspect of the urban fantasy genre. Daniel and Alice, as a couple, were well-rounded, though I struggled with how quickly Delilah was pushed aside upon Alice's introduction. The other main issue that I had, honestly, had to be with how sweet and serendipitous the evolving relationship was and how abruptly sex was thrown into the mix. Now, I don't mind sex in YA books, but I want to see a true evolution, and I felt it was sudden and rushed and, to be honest, a bit out of place. The ending was also bit hasty for my liking, but at the same time, it did have that element that made you desperate for the next book.

All in all, Thin Air was a good book. Perhaps it wasn't my absolute favourite book, but it was fresh and original, which counts for a lot! I give it a strong 3.5 out of 5, and I highly recommend it fans of YA, especially those who enjoy paranormal, paranormal romance and urban fantasy.

I received this book free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.