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The Empyrean #2
Iron Flame
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky. Now the real training begins, and Violet’s wondering how she’ll get through it. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is—unless she betrays the man she loves.
Although Violet’s body is weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she has her wits—and a will of iron. Leadership forgets the most important lesson Basgiath taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules. But determination to survive won’t be enough this year, because Violet knows the secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
Although Violet’s body is weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she has her wits—and a will of iron. Leadership forgets the most important lesson Basgiath taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules. But determination to survive won’t be enough this year, because Violet knows the secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
886 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 7, 2023
210375 people are currently reading
694561 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Yarros
69 books199k followersRebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and coffee addict. She is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing, The Last Letter and The Things We Leave Unfinished. She’s also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward. Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years. A mother of six, she is currently surviving the teenage years with all four of her hockey-playing sons.
Want to know about Rebecca’s next release? Check her out online at www.rebeccayarros.com.
Want to know about Rebecca’s next release? Check her out online at www.rebeccayarros.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 243,936 reviews
January 27, 2025
3 ⭐️ The ending . . . I cried. I had a heart attack. And now I’m staring into space like life has no meaning. I am unwell.
"The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity."
Prepare to join the revolution.
WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ adult romantasy
✨ book 2 of the Empyrean Series
✨ established romance (but they're stubborn idiots)
✨ war college setting
✨ dragon riders
✨ magic
✨ unique world building
✨ complex politics
✨ found family
✨ chronic illness rep
✨ action-packed
✨ high stakes
✨ 2.5/5 🌶️ (3 explicit spicy scenes)
✨ massive cliffhanger
✨ TW: physical torture, imprisonment, brutal injuries, perilous situations, blood, dismemberment, burning, murder, death, grief, ow drama.
My Thoughts:
It's been one week since I finished Iron Flame and I am still unwell. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get this book out of my head, all because of those last 25 pages . . . How dare Rebecca do this to us, knowing we have to wait god knows how long for book 3. 😭
Did I enjoy it? Yes.
Was it better than Fourth Wing? No.
But will I continue the series? Abso-f*cking-lutely!
This book is really hard for me to rate because while I enjoyed the story and the ending, there were a lot of technical (plot/character) issues that definitely hindered my overall enjoyment.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
What I liked:
The story is action-packed from start to finish, so you'll never want to put this book down. Iron Flame is divided into two parts. Part one takes place at Basgiath War College and part two focuses on the Revolution. There's 623 pages total, and I genuinely felt like I read two books because so much happens. I'm glad I took detailed notes because I've already forgotten a lot and I know I'll need to refer to them before starting book 3.
The continued world-building is fascinating. Like I said, this story is non-stop and that includes uncovering new information about the history and politics of this world. We now have a solid idea on what's really happening on the continent, however, there's still so many unanswered questions about the past (before the unification), the venin, and the Empyrean. I love this phase of a long series because there's still so much we don't know or understand, and I can't wait to see everything unfold and come together in the next few books.
These characters are some of my favorites and need to be protected at all costs. Violet is still a badass. Xaden is still daddy. Tairn is fucking hilarious. And Andarna is the sassiest bitch in the realm. I do wish she wasn't away for half the story though.
Violet internally struggled a lot more in this book by bottling up her emotions, distancing herself from her friends, and taking on too much responsibility (like researching the wards). Violet is just as strong and determined as she was in Fourth Wing, but in Iron Flame, we see the toll everything takes on her. I'm glad that by part two she starts to lean on her friends more, but I'm worried how she's going to manage after the events at the end of book 2. There's only so much a person can take, and I fear Violet may break at some point in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing how her character develops in the rest of the series.
PS: Violet during the torture scenes and and final battle when she saves Sawyer was impressive as hell! I respect her so much and strive to be just as badass.
Xaden is still top tier book boyfriend material. Look, he is not perfect. In fact, I'm a little pissed at him for constantly putting the responsibility of sharing truths on Violet throughout this story when he could have easily been open and forthcoming. BUT I DON'T CARE. That man is just so damn confident, intelligent, sexy and loyal to Violet, that the minute he's on the page, I lose my damn mind. And when he writes letters to Violet . . . I melted. He isn't even a romantic guy, but did one of the most romantic things in the world.
There's also a lot of side characters (both old and new) that I enjoyed getting to know better: Rhi, Ridoc, Imogen, Bodhi, Mira, Brennan, Sawyer, Jesinia, Sloane, and Maren. There's also a bunch of characters I loathe and wanted to see die a slow and painful death. Some don't. Some do. *cough* Varrish *cough*. Fuck that guy. But I can't complain, because everyone likes a good villain and Iron Flame definitely had a few!
PS: I don't hate Dain anymore. Obviously, what he did was absolutely horrible and I don't think I can ever truly forgive him for the role he played in Liam's death. BUT we have to remember, he didn't know what was going to happen and seems to be very repentant for it all. Do I trust him? Hell no. But do I think he's a bad guy? No. I still think he needs to redeem himself, so I'll be curious to see where his character goes from here.
Those few chapters with imaginary Liam were everything. 😭 Liam's death absolutely broke me and still haunts me to this day. So seeing him again, in the way that we did, gave me some closure. But this entire situation has me wondering (THEORY AHEAD), what if Violet's second signent is her talking to the dead?! We know a lot of history has been lost or written out of existence, so I'm wondering if the only way Violet can find answers is through some power of communicating with the dead?
RIP Mama Sorrengail. For all of Fourth Wing and most of Iron Flame, I hated her. And honestly, even after everything, I still don't like her very much. However, while I know she wasn't a great person or mom, I understand her choices. Again, I don't agree with them, but she really thought she was protecting her children. I wept when she died, not because I am sad she's dead, but for Brennan, Mira, and Violet. They now know that even if their mom was misguided, her intention was driven by the love of her children and now that she's gone, they'll mourn what was and what could have been. They each had such different responses and I felt them all.
The ending . . . I mean, I've already talked enough about it but DAMN, I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. I predicted General Sorrengail would die but I thought maybe Violet would get taken by the Sage or something. So yeah, I am still completely shocked by that ending, maybe even a little pissed, and will be sending Rebecca Yarros my next therapy bill.
What I didn't like:
This is a small gripe, but why are they using the Julian Calendar in this fantasy world? I mean, Rebecca created a completely new world but couldn't come up with different names for the months of the year? Every time it mentioned December or July, it totally took me out of the story.
The pacing was frantic and for what? So much happens, yet, at the same time, I didn't feel like a lot happened to push the overarching plot forward. The highlights are: Violet goes back to school, Violet tries to learn about wards, Violet gets tortured, Violet and half the college goes back to revolution headquarters, Xaden and Violet get the luminary, and then the final battle happens. We didn't need 600+ pages just to give us that. @listenwithbritt mentioned in an IG reel that the pacing felt like she was watching a TV series, and I totally agree. Every few chapters felt like a TV episode with some small task that needed to be accomplished or there was a hurdle to overcome; then it would get quickly resolved and they'd move onto the next thing. There were a lot of small subplots that were unimportant and felt like filler scenes. So the constant bombardment of action, angst, or mystery was a bit overwhelming and it was hard to decipher at the time what scenes were really important for the overall story. For example, what real value did the survival class or the death hike scenes offer? In my opinion, not much but creating small moments of conflict to keep the story moving along. Maybe Rebecca wrote Iron Flame this way since the series is getting turned into a TV series by Amazon.
The story was too dense. There were too many new names, history, and general knowledge to really keep track of what was important. And there were quite a few things that weren't fully explained or were overlooked. Pair that with the frantic pacing, and there wasn't enough time to fully digest all this new information before we were forced to move on to the next part of the story. I had to read slowly, re-read sections, and take notes to keep track of everything. Doing that for 16 hours was a bit overwhelming and exhausting.
I HATED the other woman (OW) drama. It’s a tacky, cheap, and overdone romance conflict and totally unnecessary. There was also a big inconsistency surrounding it. First off, Bodhi mentions Cat early on by saying how Xaden has never cared so much about anyone, not even Cat, which alluded that at some point Xaden was involved with and potentially cared deeply for another woman. But later, Xaden says Cat could die for all he cares and he has never loved her. So why was Violet lead to believe he had feelings for another woman at some point? Solely to create drama between Xaden and Violet. And why didn’t Violet ask Xaden about Cat the minute she found out about her? If she did this, she wouldn’t have been blindsided by it all CHAPTERS LATER when they went to get the luminary from Cat’s family.
Also, Xaden should have been transparent about Cat when it first came up so Violet didn't spend chapters feeling insecure. And the way Cat was a nasty bitch to Violet the entire book, but then randomly decides she's cool with her after Violet saves her life was so anticlimactic. This was probably the weakest sub-plot of the entire book. And if there's more OW or OM drama in the rest of the series, I will fucking riot. Xaden better not use Cat to drive Violet away in the next book.
I was underwhelmed by the romance. Honestly, their relationship was stagnant because they didn't have enough time together in this book. With Xaden being away for most of the first part and then they end up doing their own things for the Revolution during the second part, there was little time for them to really grow deeper as a couple.
I also expected more groveling by Xaden at the beginning, but instead he makes Violet responsible for his honesty by saying she has to be the one to ask questions and then he'll answer. But for the entire book, Violet doesn't ask him anything! So, she doesn't get any answers! Meanwhile, Xaden just sits around, not communicating with Violet, when he could easily take the initiative to share his truths. Their lack of communication was so frustrating and was definitely done to create drama for the story. It was dumb and lazy writing. They could have easily set aside time to really hash out the issues of their relationship and dive deep into the secrets Xaden is keeping, but they don't.
The smut also didn't hit this time. For the size of this book and the fact Xaden and Violet are an already established relationship, I expected at least five sex scenes, but we got three. Okay, I'll admit, the throne scene was hot but only because of the setting. I wasn't excited by the dirty talk and, yeah, the smut was just lackluster in my opinion. It wasn't bad, just forgettable.
It didn't feel like any character had enough time to go through any real development. I think this occurred because there were so many new characters introduced that the attention of the story was split. Or maybe it's also because the story is in Violet's POV and she pulled away from everyone, so since she wasn't as ingrained in their lives, she didn't notice changes/growth? I don't know, but I wish we could have had more time with Xaden, Rhi, and Sloane.
There were a few things that didn't really get explained. For example, why wouldn't Brennan encourage Violet to do research on wards? Violet was trained as a Scribe and would be an excellent person to assign for this task. I get he didn't think they would have enough time to figure it out and he thought they should focus on making more weapons, but no one assigned Violet a mission, so why have her do nothing instead of possibly finding a solution to win the war? His logic wasn't full-proof. Also, the end where Brennan fixes the wardstone. . . we spent the entire book trying to understand wards and then figure out how to mend them and somehow Brennan does this but we don't see how? It better be explained in the next book and not glossed over. Also, why did Xaden become venin? In the dream he has, the Sage said it would save Violet from dying while she was draining herself for the wardstone, but I don't see how thats true. If you have any ideas please let me know. And random but can someone please make a timeline of when Xaden would have been able to have a relationship with Cat? Because according to my math, he would have been, like, 14 years old! There are even more situations that needed an explanation but I don't have the energy to go through them all.
Overall, Iron Flame was a decent sequel. I enjoyed it. I was entertained. But it was messy, and left me wanting more and less at the same time. It should have been shorter, the plot should have been cleaned up a bit, and we should have spent more time with our favorite characters instead of being introduced to a shit ton of new characters (whom I'm still not sure are important). It really is entertaining though, so if you enjoyed Fourth Wing, you'll probably enjoy this one, or at the very least, be able to push through it. I promise, the ending is well worth the wait.
-
The Empyrean Series:
1. Fourth Wing: 5 ⭐️
2. Iron Flame: 3 ⭐️
3. Onyx Storm: 3 ⭐️
4. Book 4
5. Book 5
-
Favorite Quotes:
Love doesn't even have the decency to die. It just transforms into abject misery.
_______
Love, at its root, is hope. Hope for tomorrow. Hope for what could be. Hope that the someone you've entrusted your everything to will cradle and protect it. And hope? That shit is harder to kill than a dragon.
_______
"Even when I'm not with you, there's only you."
_______
"Humans have the memories of gnats. Dragons hold grudges." - Tairn
_______
He is the horizon and nothing exists beyond for me.
_______
"You and I are not easy people. What we build together has to be strong enough to withstand a storm. Or a war. Easy isn't going to give that to us."
_______
"Violence, remember it's only the body that's fragile. You are unbreakable."
_______
He smells like mint and leather and mine.
_______
"Gods, look at you. You are all I'm ever going to want. Just you. Just this. Just us."
_______
"An emotional inconvenience? Is that what I am to you?" - Violet
"You're currently a prized annoyance." - Tairn
_______
"Don't leave me."
"I won't. I swear." 😭
_______
"I will happily watch Aretia burn to the fucking ground again if it means you live."
"You don't mean that."
"I do. I'm sorry if you expect me to do the noble thing. I warned you I'm not sweet or soft or kind, and you fell anyways. That is what you get, Violet - me. The good, the bad, the unforgivable. All of it. I am yours."
_______
"I love you. I'm in love with you. I'm grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won't have to face a day without you in it. My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I'll meet Malek at your side. It's a damn good thing that you love me, too, because you're stuck with me in this life and every other that could possibly follow."
_______
"I am not powerful just because he loves me."
"No. You're powerful and he loves you, which is even worse."
_______
"Do you know who you sound like right now?
"Please, enlighten me."
"Dain."
_______
"Would Riorson let you rush into a battle against gods knows how many wyvern - or worse, the venin who created them - when you're wounded?
"Yes. That's why I love him."
_______
"Secrets die with the people who keep them."
_______
"We do not eat our allies. Find another snack." - Tairn
_______
"My house. My chair. My woman." 🔥
_______
"Nothing you could ever do would be unforgivable to me."
_______
"How long do you think it takes for someone to fall out of love? A day? A month? I'm asking because I don't have any experience with it."
_______
"You're capable of hurting me in ways I'm not sure you've ever begun to fathom, Violet. I might be skilled enough to land a death blow, but you alone have the power to fucking destroy me."
_______
"I love you. You could throw my entire world into upheaval, and I would still love you. You could keep secrets, run a revolution, frustrate the shit out of me, probably ruin me, and I would still love you. I can't make it stop. I don't want to. You're my gravity. Nothing in my world works without you."
_______
I will not die today. I can't say the same about tomorrow.
_______
"I would rather lose this entire war than live without, and if that means I have to prove myself over and over, then I'll do it. You gave me your heart, and I'm keeping it."
_______
The world doesn't exist for me beyond you.
_______
"Do me a favor and don't die. I don't want to live without you."
"We don't die today. Even Malek himself couldn't keep me from you."
_______
I am the storm.
_______
"The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity."
Prepare to join the revolution.
WHAT TO EXPECT:
✨ adult romantasy
✨ book 2 of the Empyrean Series
✨ established romance (but they're stubborn idiots)
✨ war college setting
✨ dragon riders
✨ magic
✨ unique world building
✨ complex politics
✨ found family
✨ chronic illness rep
✨ action-packed
✨ high stakes
✨ 2.5/5 🌶️ (3 explicit spicy scenes)
✨ massive cliffhanger
✨ TW: physical torture, imprisonment, brutal injuries, perilous situations, blood, dismemberment, burning, murder, death, grief, ow drama.
My Thoughts:
It's been one week since I finished Iron Flame and I am still unwell. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get this book out of my head, all because of those last 25 pages . . . How dare Rebecca do this to us, knowing we have to wait god knows how long for book 3. 😭
Did I enjoy it? Yes.
Was it better than Fourth Wing? No.
But will I continue the series? Abso-f*cking-lutely!
This book is really hard for me to rate because while I enjoyed the story and the ending, there were a lot of technical (plot/character) issues that definitely hindered my overall enjoyment.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
What I liked:
The story is action-packed from start to finish, so you'll never want to put this book down. Iron Flame is divided into two parts. Part one takes place at Basgiath War College and part two focuses on the Revolution. There's 623 pages total, and I genuinely felt like I read two books because so much happens. I'm glad I took detailed notes because I've already forgotten a lot and I know I'll need to refer to them before starting book 3.
The continued world-building is fascinating. Like I said, this story is non-stop and that includes uncovering new information about the history and politics of this world. We now have a solid idea on what's really happening on the continent, however, there's still so many unanswered questions about the past (before the unification), the venin, and the Empyrean. I love this phase of a long series because there's still so much we don't know or understand, and I can't wait to see everything unfold and come together in the next few books.
These characters are some of my favorites and need to be protected at all costs. Violet is still a badass. Xaden is still daddy. Tairn is fucking hilarious. And Andarna is the sassiest bitch in the realm. I do wish she wasn't away for half the story though.
Violet internally struggled a lot more in this book by bottling up her emotions, distancing herself from her friends, and taking on too much responsibility (like researching the wards). Violet is just as strong and determined as she was in Fourth Wing, but in Iron Flame, we see the toll everything takes on her. I'm glad that by part two she starts to lean on her friends more, but I'm worried how she's going to manage after the events at the end of book 2. There's only so much a person can take, and I fear Violet may break at some point in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing how her character develops in the rest of the series.
PS: Violet during the torture scenes and and final battle when she saves Sawyer was impressive as hell! I respect her so much and strive to be just as badass.
Xaden is still top tier book boyfriend material. Look, he is not perfect. In fact, I'm a little pissed at him for constantly putting the responsibility of sharing truths on Violet throughout this story when he could have easily been open and forthcoming. BUT I DON'T CARE. That man is just so damn confident, intelligent, sexy and loyal to Violet, that the minute he's on the page, I lose my damn mind. And when he writes letters to Violet . . . I melted. He isn't even a romantic guy, but did one of the most romantic things in the world.
There's also a lot of side characters (both old and new) that I enjoyed getting to know better: Rhi, Ridoc, Imogen, Bodhi, Mira, Brennan, Sawyer, Jesinia, Sloane, and Maren. There's also a bunch of characters I loathe and wanted to see die a slow and painful death. Some don't. Some do. *cough* Varrish *cough*. Fuck that guy. But I can't complain, because everyone likes a good villain and Iron Flame definitely had a few!
PS: I don't hate Dain anymore. Obviously, what he did was absolutely horrible and I don't think I can ever truly forgive him for the role he played in Liam's death. BUT we have to remember, he didn't know what was going to happen and seems to be very repentant for it all. Do I trust him? Hell no. But do I think he's a bad guy? No. I still think he needs to redeem himself, so I'll be curious to see where his character goes from here.
Those few chapters with imaginary Liam were everything. 😭 Liam's death absolutely broke me and still haunts me to this day. So seeing him again, in the way that we did, gave me some closure. But this entire situation has me wondering (THEORY AHEAD), what if Violet's second signent is her talking to the dead?! We know a lot of history has been lost or written out of existence, so I'm wondering if the only way Violet can find answers is through some power of communicating with the dead?
RIP Mama Sorrengail. For all of Fourth Wing and most of Iron Flame, I hated her. And honestly, even after everything, I still don't like her very much. However, while I know she wasn't a great person or mom, I understand her choices. Again, I don't agree with them, but she really thought she was protecting her children. I wept when she died, not because I am sad she's dead, but for Brennan, Mira, and Violet. They now know that even if their mom was misguided, her intention was driven by the love of her children and now that she's gone, they'll mourn what was and what could have been. They each had such different responses and I felt them all.
The ending . . . I mean, I've already talked enough about it but DAMN, I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. I predicted General Sorrengail would die but I thought maybe Violet would get taken by the Sage or something. So yeah, I am still completely shocked by that ending, maybe even a little pissed, and will be sending Rebecca Yarros my next therapy bill.
What I didn't like:
This is a small gripe, but why are they using the Julian Calendar in this fantasy world? I mean, Rebecca created a completely new world but couldn't come up with different names for the months of the year? Every time it mentioned December or July, it totally took me out of the story.
The pacing was frantic and for what? So much happens, yet, at the same time, I didn't feel like a lot happened to push the overarching plot forward. The highlights are: Violet goes back to school, Violet tries to learn about wards, Violet gets tortured, Violet and half the college goes back to revolution headquarters, Xaden and Violet get the luminary, and then the final battle happens. We didn't need 600+ pages just to give us that. @listenwithbritt mentioned in an IG reel that the pacing felt like she was watching a TV series, and I totally agree. Every few chapters felt like a TV episode with some small task that needed to be accomplished or there was a hurdle to overcome; then it would get quickly resolved and they'd move onto the next thing. There were a lot of small subplots that were unimportant and felt like filler scenes. So the constant bombardment of action, angst, or mystery was a bit overwhelming and it was hard to decipher at the time what scenes were really important for the overall story. For example, what real value did the survival class or the death hike scenes offer? In my opinion, not much but creating small moments of conflict to keep the story moving along. Maybe Rebecca wrote Iron Flame this way since the series is getting turned into a TV series by Amazon.
The story was too dense. There were too many new names, history, and general knowledge to really keep track of what was important. And there were quite a few things that weren't fully explained or were overlooked. Pair that with the frantic pacing, and there wasn't enough time to fully digest all this new information before we were forced to move on to the next part of the story. I had to read slowly, re-read sections, and take notes to keep track of everything. Doing that for 16 hours was a bit overwhelming and exhausting.
I HATED the other woman (OW) drama. It’s a tacky, cheap, and overdone romance conflict and totally unnecessary. There was also a big inconsistency surrounding it. First off, Bodhi mentions Cat early on by saying how Xaden has never cared so much about anyone, not even Cat, which alluded that at some point Xaden was involved with and potentially cared deeply for another woman. But later, Xaden says Cat could die for all he cares and he has never loved her. So why was Violet lead to believe he had feelings for another woman at some point? Solely to create drama between Xaden and Violet. And why didn’t Violet ask Xaden about Cat the minute she found out about her? If she did this, she wouldn’t have been blindsided by it all CHAPTERS LATER when they went to get the luminary from Cat’s family.
Also, Xaden should have been transparent about Cat when it first came up so Violet didn't spend chapters feeling insecure. And the way Cat was a nasty bitch to Violet the entire book, but then randomly decides she's cool with her after Violet saves her life was so anticlimactic. This was probably the weakest sub-plot of the entire book. And if there's more OW or OM drama in the rest of the series, I will fucking riot. Xaden better not use Cat to drive Violet away in the next book.
I was underwhelmed by the romance. Honestly, their relationship was stagnant because they didn't have enough time together in this book. With Xaden being away for most of the first part and then they end up doing their own things for the Revolution during the second part, there was little time for them to really grow deeper as a couple.
I also expected more groveling by Xaden at the beginning, but instead he makes Violet responsible for his honesty by saying she has to be the one to ask questions and then he'll answer. But for the entire book, Violet doesn't ask him anything! So, she doesn't get any answers! Meanwhile, Xaden just sits around, not communicating with Violet, when he could easily take the initiative to share his truths. Their lack of communication was so frustrating and was definitely done to create drama for the story. It was dumb and lazy writing. They could have easily set aside time to really hash out the issues of their relationship and dive deep into the secrets Xaden is keeping, but they don't.
The smut also didn't hit this time. For the size of this book and the fact Xaden and Violet are an already established relationship, I expected at least five sex scenes, but we got three. Okay, I'll admit, the throne scene was hot but only because of the setting. I wasn't excited by the dirty talk and, yeah, the smut was just lackluster in my opinion. It wasn't bad, just forgettable.
It didn't feel like any character had enough time to go through any real development. I think this occurred because there were so many new characters introduced that the attention of the story was split. Or maybe it's also because the story is in Violet's POV and she pulled away from everyone, so since she wasn't as ingrained in their lives, she didn't notice changes/growth? I don't know, but I wish we could have had more time with Xaden, Rhi, and Sloane.
There were a few things that didn't really get explained. For example, why wouldn't Brennan encourage Violet to do research on wards? Violet was trained as a Scribe and would be an excellent person to assign for this task. I get he didn't think they would have enough time to figure it out and he thought they should focus on making more weapons, but no one assigned Violet a mission, so why have her do nothing instead of possibly finding a solution to win the war? His logic wasn't full-proof. Also, the end where Brennan fixes the wardstone. . . we spent the entire book trying to understand wards and then figure out how to mend them and somehow Brennan does this but we don't see how? It better be explained in the next book and not glossed over. Also, why did Xaden become venin? In the dream he has, the Sage said it would save Violet from dying while she was draining herself for the wardstone, but I don't see how thats true. If you have any ideas please let me know. And random but can someone please make a timeline of when Xaden would have been able to have a relationship with Cat? Because according to my math, he would have been, like, 14 years old! There are even more situations that needed an explanation but I don't have the energy to go through them all.
Overall, Iron Flame was a decent sequel. I enjoyed it. I was entertained. But it was messy, and left me wanting more and less at the same time. It should have been shorter, the plot should have been cleaned up a bit, and we should have spent more time with our favorite characters instead of being introduced to a shit ton of new characters (whom I'm still not sure are important). It really is entertaining though, so if you enjoyed Fourth Wing, you'll probably enjoy this one, or at the very least, be able to push through it. I promise, the ending is well worth the wait.
-
The Empyrean Series:
1. Fourth Wing: 5 ⭐️
2. Iron Flame: 3 ⭐️
3. Onyx Storm: 3 ⭐️
4. Book 4
5. Book 5
-
Favorite Quotes:
Love doesn't even have the decency to die. It just transforms into abject misery.
_______
Love, at its root, is hope. Hope for tomorrow. Hope for what could be. Hope that the someone you've entrusted your everything to will cradle and protect it. And hope? That shit is harder to kill than a dragon.
_______
"Even when I'm not with you, there's only you."
_______
"Humans have the memories of gnats. Dragons hold grudges." - Tairn
_______
He is the horizon and nothing exists beyond for me.
_______
"You and I are not easy people. What we build together has to be strong enough to withstand a storm. Or a war. Easy isn't going to give that to us."
_______
"Violence, remember it's only the body that's fragile. You are unbreakable."
_______
He smells like mint and leather and mine.
_______
"Gods, look at you. You are all I'm ever going to want. Just you. Just this. Just us."
_______
"An emotional inconvenience? Is that what I am to you?" - Violet
"You're currently a prized annoyance." - Tairn
_______
"Don't leave me."
"I won't. I swear." 😭
_______
"I will happily watch Aretia burn to the fucking ground again if it means you live."
"You don't mean that."
"I do. I'm sorry if you expect me to do the noble thing. I warned you I'm not sweet or soft or kind, and you fell anyways. That is what you get, Violet - me. The good, the bad, the unforgivable. All of it. I am yours."
_______
"I love you. I'm in love with you. I'm grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won't have to face a day without you in it. My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I'll meet Malek at your side. It's a damn good thing that you love me, too, because you're stuck with me in this life and every other that could possibly follow."
_______
"I am not powerful just because he loves me."
"No. You're powerful and he loves you, which is even worse."
_______
"Do you know who you sound like right now?
"Please, enlighten me."
"Dain."
_______
"Would Riorson let you rush into a battle against gods knows how many wyvern - or worse, the venin who created them - when you're wounded?
"Yes. That's why I love him."
_______
"Secrets die with the people who keep them."
_______
"We do not eat our allies. Find another snack." - Tairn
_______
"My house. My chair. My woman." 🔥
_______
"Nothing you could ever do would be unforgivable to me."
_______
"How long do you think it takes for someone to fall out of love? A day? A month? I'm asking because I don't have any experience with it."
_______
"You're capable of hurting me in ways I'm not sure you've ever begun to fathom, Violet. I might be skilled enough to land a death blow, but you alone have the power to fucking destroy me."
_______
"I love you. You could throw my entire world into upheaval, and I would still love you. You could keep secrets, run a revolution, frustrate the shit out of me, probably ruin me, and I would still love you. I can't make it stop. I don't want to. You're my gravity. Nothing in my world works without you."
_______
I will not die today. I can't say the same about tomorrow.
_______
"I would rather lose this entire war than live without, and if that means I have to prove myself over and over, then I'll do it. You gave me your heart, and I'm keeping it."
_______
The world doesn't exist for me beyond you.
_______
"Do me a favor and don't die. I don't want to live without you."
"We don't die today. Even Malek himself couldn't keep me from you."
_______
I am the storm.
_______
February 21, 2025
re-read no°2: 4 stars
I still love this universe and these characters so much. Now onto Onyx Storm and praying the ending of it won't break me 😭
-------
– 4 stars
SONG:
Power is Power – SZA, The Weeknd, Travis Scott
this book was my most anticipated release of the year and I wasn’t disappointed 🙏 while I adore Fourth Wing and gave it 5 stars and this book “only” 4 stars for various reasons i’ll be listing later, I still very much enjoyed this book as a whole and I loved being back in this world … Violetxaden, Tairn and Andarna my beloved ones came back to me 🧚♀️
that cliffhanger oh my god??? what the fuck was that? I didn’t see that coming and while it wasn’t Zodiac Academy cliffhanger level of bad, cuz let’s be real nothing will be as horrific as Shadow Princess or Heartless Sky cliffhanger 💀 Iron Flame ending had me spiralling.. how tf will this issue be resolved IF it can even be resolved I’M NOT OKAY 😭😭😭
Fourth Wing was so action packed and fast paced with lots of “OMG”-moments like when Violet bonded not one but two dragons, finding out the dragon’s power, certain sacrifices etc. So compared to the first book Iron Flame is much slower plotwise. It starts where Fourth Wing left off and continues with Violet and co. going back to Basgiath College for their second year and act like mentors for the new first year students.
🗡️ VIOLET SORRENGAIL (h) 🗡️
I love Violet so much, but I think she struggled a lot in this book with her position in this world and what her purpose is. Violet has the best intentions at heart, but feels like she is failing everyone and I just wanted to give her a hug this whole book 😭 when she said that she never failed anything in her life but now she keeps failing and making the wrong decisions I felt for her!!
But Vi’s struggle were actually the part that made me love her more. Yes, she did make some questionable decisions in this book, but that’s what makes her character so realistic for me. She tries her best and sometimes her best isn’t enough, but this girl never gives up. She will keep standing up no matter how many times she gets kicked down. She will find the solution to the problem no matter how many hours she will need to research, but she will do the work.
That scene with her Varrish and Nolan and a certain other character whose name I can’t name killed me 😭 it was so painful to read.. Violet was so strong for enduring everything and not losing her mind completely.. I would have folded so quickly 🌚 Violet Sorrengail best girl. There is a reason she bonded not one, but two dragons. 💅
🔹 XANDEN RIORSON (H) 🔹
LIEUTENANT RIORSON Y’ALL. If you think WINGLEADER Xaden was hot wait til you get Xaden as a lieutenant that just hits differently 🛐 He was so hot in this book.
Xaden has still so many secrets we don’t know about and I think there is still so much to his story. Like where did his mother disappear? I’m still so intrigued by his character and now even more after that ending… I didn’t see that coming and I’m still shocked. I wish we would get more Xaden POVs in the books because the one at the end is never enough… with that ending I hope that Xaden will be more of a focus in the next book, cause I just want to know more about him.
🐉 TAIRN & ANDARNA (DRAGONS) 🐉
It would be a huge lie if I’d say I haven’t missed my sunshine princess Andarna in this book, because I did, but eventually all babies have to grow up and Andarna became a teenager 🥺 her angsty teenager attitude towards Tairn had me laughing my ass off. I love their relationship so much and they are the best father-daughter duo. Their bond is so precious! When Andarna said she wanted to be just like Tairn, because he is loyal, fierce and strong it made me so emotional 😭😭 And to my grumpy, firerce, strong and loyal dragon Tairn.. I can only say that I thought I couldn’t love him more after Fourth Wing, but I do now. The way Tairn protects Violet and stands by her side is everything. The relationship that the dragons have with their riders is *chef’s kiss*
🧚 THE ROMANCE 🧚
My violetxaden heart was so happy!! I mean I knew Violet would be really stubborn about the Xaden lying to her thing and would hold it against him for quite some time, but I loved the angst that created. But Xaden is completely smitten with her and we love to see an obsessed boy. Vi doesn’t think that he would choose her over the revolution, but she doesn’t realized that Xaden would burn down the world for her 😌 he is not like that rule-following loser Dain .. Xaden would break every rule for her and the way Xaden is so worried for Vi and wants to protect her has my heart melting into a puddle 🥰
Also can we talk about Xaden writing Violet letters while he is away?? that is so romantic and had me going 🥺 I only wished we could have read more of his letters and not only small excerps. Don’t be shy Rebecca give us the full content.
👫 SIDE CHARACTERS 👫
Rhiannon: my queen i love you, it took me forever to remember you name, but now you better survive until the end or i will personally hunt Rebecca til the end of the world
Ridoc: my comedic king i love you
Imogen: i love you my other kickass queen
Dain: fuck you, i haven’t forgiven you and i don’t think i will
Jesinia: what a cutie, i like her and she better stays loyal to Violet and doesn’t betray her
Cat: FUCK YOU, but in capital letters.
Varrish: oh i hope someone fucks you with a 10 inch pole i fucking hate you. that c*nt… why does every magical school has a Professor Umbridge character that is so detestable. This man will answer for all his sins and the atrocities he commited against Violet. I hope this loser never finds a moment of peace.
to the rest of the side characters: you were either irrelevant, i couldn’t remember you’re names or i refuse to remember to name, cause you going to die either way in this book or later.
👯♀️ VIOLET & MIRA & BRENNAN 👯♀️
the scene where Mira finds out that Brennan is alive and punches him in the face lives in my mind rent free. That’s my girl lmao cause I would react the same way if I’d find out one of my sibling pretended to be death for the last six years. I’D BE LIVID.
But it was great to see all Sorrengail siblings back together. I love seeing them all together and get a glimpse of their different dynamics with each other. When Mira and Brennan were fighting and Violet was just standing next to them and felt like their little sister again dksdskd 😭 I love them and they are all badasses in their own way.
🔻 WHY IRON FLAME WAS WEAKER THAN FOURTH WING IMO 🔻
↠ if Fourth Wing was Catching Fire (The Hunger Games) then I’d say that Iron Flame is Mockingjay in terms of action and pace. As I mentioned above this book is much more slower paced. It’s one of those books where a lot happens, but at the same time nothing at all, because they are trying to establish the rebellion, gather their tropes, find out more information how to raise the wards etc. So it deals with the characters getting to class and learning about magic etc. While a lot of people still die in this book, Iron Flame just didn’t feel as high staked imo as Fourth Wing did. Violet and her friends survived all the trials and first year, so I didn’t feel like I was constantly on the edge of my seat not knowing what will happen next. Don’t get me wrong there were many scenes that HAD ME STRESSED OUT and sweating, because it was intense, but it wasn’t intense as a whole as Fourth Wing and didn’t me give me as much nostalgia as Fourth Wing did.
↠ the info-dumping was a bit much in this book. I think Fourth Wing had the perfect amount of world building and information. Iron Flame had a lot of information because the characters are going to class and learn about new magic and trying to gather info on how to raise wards and power the wardstone etc. and I get that it was important, but seeing them look for information, just to try it and fail and then having to continue their search was a bit exhausting.
↠ some of the themes in this book were repetitive. Since Violet and Xaden couldn’t see each other a lot in the first half of the book I ate up every scenes they had together, but the things they were fighting over were always the same.. Violet not being able to trust him, them not being able to proper communicate with each other, Violet complaining about Xaden lying and having too many secrets .. that was pretty much the root of every single fight they had. Their push and pull was a bit tiring to read at the beginning cause they had the same argument over and over again.
CONCLUSION
Fourth Wing was a perfect book for me and a 10 outta 10 so even though Iron Flame didn’t reach that level for me and had quite some flaws, it was still an enjoyable book to read and I love love love this world so much with the dragon and magic and harry potter vibes. I love this series and after that brutal ending I need the next book in my hands right now. Praying that we don’t have to wait a whole year for the next book to come out.
P.S: What is the author going to write in the next THREE books?! We are already in the middle of fighting against the venin and wyvern and I hope RY doesn’t drag out the storyline too much and makes it another Zodiac Academy situation 💀
┍━━━━━━━━»•» «•«━┑
THE EMPYREAN SERIES
#1 Fourth Wing – 5 stars
#2 Iron Flame – 4 stars
#3 Onyx Storm - tbd
┕━»•» «•«━━━━━━━━┙
I still love this universe and these characters so much. Now onto Onyx Storm and praying the ending of it won't break me 😭
-------
– 4 stars
SONG:
Power is Power – SZA, The Weeknd, Travis Scott
this book was my most anticipated release of the year and I wasn’t disappointed 🙏 while I adore Fourth Wing and gave it 5 stars and this book “only” 4 stars for various reasons i’ll be listing later, I still very much enjoyed this book as a whole and I loved being back in this world … Violetxaden, Tairn and Andarna my beloved ones came back to me 🧚♀️
that cliffhanger oh my god??? what the fuck was that? I didn’t see that coming and while it wasn’t Zodiac Academy cliffhanger level of bad, cuz let’s be real nothing will be as horrific as Shadow Princess or Heartless Sky cliffhanger 💀 Iron Flame ending had me spiralling.. how tf will this issue be resolved IF it can even be resolved I’M NOT OKAY 😭😭😭
Fourth Wing was so action packed and fast paced with lots of “OMG”-moments like when Violet bonded not one but two dragons, finding out the dragon’s power, certain sacrifices etc. So compared to the first book Iron Flame is much slower plotwise. It starts where Fourth Wing left off and continues with Violet and co. going back to Basgiath College for their second year and act like mentors for the new first year students.
🗡️ VIOLET SORRENGAIL (h) 🗡️
”Violence, remember it’s only the body that’s fragile. You are unbreakable.”
I love Violet so much, but I think she struggled a lot in this book with her position in this world and what her purpose is. Violet has the best intentions at heart, but feels like she is failing everyone and I just wanted to give her a hug this whole book 😭 when she said that she never failed anything in her life but now she keeps failing and making the wrong decisions I felt for her!!
But Vi’s struggle were actually the part that made me love her more. Yes, she did make some questionable decisions in this book, but that’s what makes her character so realistic for me. She tries her best and sometimes her best isn’t enough, but this girl never gives up. She will keep standing up no matter how many times she gets kicked down. She will find the solution to the problem no matter how many hours she will need to research, but she will do the work.
That scene with her Varrish and Nolan and a certain other character whose name I can’t name killed me 😭 it was so painful to read.. Violet was so strong for enduring everything and not losing her mind completely.. I would have folded so quickly 🌚 Violet Sorrengail best girl. There is a reason she bonded not one, but two dragons. 💅
🔹 XANDEN RIORSON (H) 🔹
“Violet.” His gaze rakes over my face, lingering on my cheeks. I love the way he says my name. Sure, it’s the alcohol overruling my logic, but I want to hear him say it again. “Lieutenant Riorson.”
LIEUTENANT RIORSON Y’ALL. If you think WINGLEADER Xaden was hot wait til you get Xaden as a lieutenant that just hits differently 🛐 He was so hot in this book.
Xaden has still so many secrets we don’t know about and I think there is still so much to his story. Like where did his mother disappear? I’m still so intrigued by his character and now even more after that ending… I didn’t see that coming and I’m still shocked. I wish we would get more Xaden POVs in the books because the one at the end is never enough… with that ending I hope that Xaden will be more of a focus in the next book, cause I just want to know more about him.
🐉 TAIRN & ANDARNA (DRAGONS) 🐉
“A rolling dismount would tear you limb from limb on impact,” he retorts.
“You don’t know that,” Andarna counters with what seems to be her new default form of conversation—telling Tairn he’s wrong. A growl rumbles through Tairn’s chest, vibrating the saddle beneath me and the harness that holds Andarna to his chest.
“I’d watch it,” I tell her, biting back a smile. “He might get tired and drop you.”
“His pride would never allow it.”
“Says the dragon who spent twenty minutes refusing to put on her harness,” Tairn fires back.
It would be a huge lie if I’d say I haven’t missed my sunshine princess Andarna in this book, because I did, but eventually all babies have to grow up and Andarna became a teenager 🥺 her angsty teenager attitude towards Tairn had me laughing my ass off. I love their relationship so much and they are the best father-daughter duo. Their bond is so precious! When Andarna said she wanted to be just like Tairn, because he is loyal, fierce and strong it made me so emotional 😭😭 And to my grumpy, firerce, strong and loyal dragon Tairn.. I can only say that I thought I couldn’t love him more after Fourth Wing, but I do now. The way Tairn protects Violet and stands by her side is everything. The relationship that the dragons have with their riders is *chef’s kiss*
🧚 THE ROMANCE 🧚
I meant what I said on the parapet. Even when I’m not with you, there’s only you
My violetxaden heart was so happy!! I mean I knew Violet would be really stubborn about the Xaden lying to her thing and would hold it against him for quite some time, but I loved the angst that created. But Xaden is completely smitten with her and we love to see an obsessed boy. Vi doesn’t think that he would choose her over the revolution, but she doesn’t realized that Xaden would burn down the world for her 😌 he is not like that rule-following loser Dain .. Xaden would break every rule for her and the way Xaden is so worried for Vi and wants to protect her has my heart melting into a puddle 🥰
Also can we talk about Xaden writing Violet letters while he is away?? that is so romantic and had me going 🥺 I only wished we could have read more of his letters and not only small excerps. Don’t be shy Rebecca give us the full content.
👫 SIDE CHARACTERS 👫
Rhiannon: my queen i love you, it took me forever to remember you name, but now you better survive until the end or i will personally hunt Rebecca til the end of the world
Ridoc: my comedic king i love you
Imogen: i love you my other kickass queen
Dain: fuck you, i haven’t forgiven you and i don’t think i will
Jesinia: what a cutie, i like her and she better stays loyal to Violet and doesn’t betray her
Cat: FUCK YOU, but in capital letters.
Varrish: oh i hope someone fucks you with a 10 inch pole i fucking hate you. that c*nt… why does every magical school has a Professor Umbridge character that is so detestable. This man will answer for all his sins and the atrocities he commited against Violet. I hope this loser never finds a moment of peace.
to the rest of the side characters: you were either irrelevant, i couldn’t remember you’re names or i refuse to remember to name, cause you going to die either way in this book or later.
👯♀️ VIOLET & MIRA & BRENNAN 👯♀️
the scene where Mira finds out that Brennan is alive and punches him in the face lives in my mind rent free. That’s my girl lmao cause I would react the same way if I’d find out one of my sibling pretended to be death for the last six years. I’D BE LIVID.
But it was great to see all Sorrengail siblings back together. I love seeing them all together and get a glimpse of their different dynamics with each other. When Mira and Brennan were fighting and Violet was just standing next to them and felt like their little sister again dksdskd 😭 I love them and they are all badasses in their own way.
🔻 WHY IRON FLAME WAS WEAKER THAN FOURTH WING IMO 🔻
↠ if Fourth Wing was Catching Fire (The Hunger Games) then I’d say that Iron Flame is Mockingjay in terms of action and pace. As I mentioned above this book is much more slower paced. It’s one of those books where a lot happens, but at the same time nothing at all, because they are trying to establish the rebellion, gather their tropes, find out more information how to raise the wards etc. So it deals with the characters getting to class and learning about magic etc. While a lot of people still die in this book, Iron Flame just didn’t feel as high staked imo as Fourth Wing did. Violet and her friends survived all the trials and first year, so I didn’t feel like I was constantly on the edge of my seat not knowing what will happen next. Don’t get me wrong there were many scenes that HAD ME STRESSED OUT and sweating, because it was intense, but it wasn’t intense as a whole as Fourth Wing and didn’t me give me as much nostalgia as Fourth Wing did.
↠ the info-dumping was a bit much in this book. I think Fourth Wing had the perfect amount of world building and information. Iron Flame had a lot of information because the characters are going to class and learn about new magic and trying to gather info on how to raise wards and power the wardstone etc. and I get that it was important, but seeing them look for information, just to try it and fail and then having to continue their search was a bit exhausting.
↠ some of the themes in this book were repetitive. Since Violet and Xaden couldn’t see each other a lot in the first half of the book I ate up every scenes they had together, but the things they were fighting over were always the same.. Violet not being able to trust him, them not being able to proper communicate with each other, Violet complaining about Xaden lying and having too many secrets .. that was pretty much the root of every single fight they had. Their push and pull was a bit tiring to read at the beginning cause they had the same argument over and over again.
CONCLUSION
Fourth Wing was a perfect book for me and a 10 outta 10 so even though Iron Flame didn’t reach that level for me and had quite some flaws, it was still an enjoyable book to read and I love love love this world so much with the dragon and magic and harry potter vibes. I love this series and after that brutal ending I need the next book in my hands right now. Praying that we don’t have to wait a whole year for the next book to come out.
P.S: What is the author going to write in the next THREE books?! We are already in the middle of fighting against the venin and wyvern and I hope RY doesn’t drag out the storyline too much and makes it another Zodiac Academy situation 💀
┍━━━━━━━━»•» «•«━┑
THE EMPYREAN SERIES
#1 Fourth Wing – 5 stars
#2 Iron Flame – 4 stars
#3 Onyx Storm - tbd
┕━»•» «•«━━━━━━━━┙
December 1, 2023
0/5 ⭐️ you thought Fourth Wing was bad…? Oh you sweet summer child.
Goodreads has been real finicky about reviews recently so I will only be speaking on the book and its content (not the author though I have very many opinions (none of them kind☺️))
also there are spoilers in this review but who cares because you shouldn’t be reading this book to begin with! (Don’t let my sacrifice be in vain)
I intended to get this review out way sooner but unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) this book was actually so much worse than Fourth Wing!🥳
I naively assumed Fourth Wing would be the top contender for worst book of the year but Iron Flame made me wish I was reading Fourth Wing!!
At least Fourth Wing had the decency to be short enough to get through in a week, Iron Flame takes every flaw of Fourth Wing and not only makes it worse but makes it LONGER(???!?!) while somehow simultaneously being even more boring! Wow!🤩 Good job Yarros!!! What a fantasy icon!!🧝🏻♀️
Remember how Fourth Wing had one of the most idiotic, and juvenile writing styles in any adult fantasy book ever? Imagine that but now in a world where editing was never invented!! 🥰
The sentence structure was legitimately horrendous. I actually wish I was kidding.
If you have the unfortunate displeasure of being in a twenty mile radius of a copy of Iron Flame and are unlucky enough to stroll past it in the store or your local library, I beg you, after you recover from the sheer horror of being in the same room as such an abomination to fantasy, open it to a random page and just ATTEMPT to read a paragraph out loud.
I am a creative writing major, I read books out loud all the time. I have never struggled so much with a book in my entire life. Sincerely whoever had to do the audio book must have the endurance and the mental fortitude of a saint.
Forgive me, Yarros, for believing reading should be an enjoyable experience, clearly you do not agree. 🧎♀️
Also Yarros used 493 ellipses and 1089 em-dashes on my count! The book is about 634 pages!💫
And oh! A Drinking game🥂: take a shot every time a character’s eyebrow or brow or brows are mentioned!! Actually don’t! You’d definitely die! Brows are mentioned over a hundred times!!
🫠 I have to laugh (or else I might scream) at the idea that THIS is accessible fantasy because not only is the plot and the world building convoluted and unengaging but the writing is so incredibly shit that it makes you reread half of the sentences over again if you want to the vaguest inkling of an idea of what is going on in this horseshit world. To call Iron Flame accessible spits in the face of twenty plus years of hard work and effort by truly talented authors to make fantasy books that are actually welcoming and accessible to a wide audience.
Let’s actually talk about the plot. Fourth Wing was derivative and predictable and Iron Flame doesn’t even try to be any more.
Here’s a list of some 🌈✨creative😍 plot points Yarros used:
- A shitty copycat version of the Hunger Game’s rebellion (with zero of the interesting nuance or intelligent discourse)😯
- what is essentially a boring Umbridge at a half-assed attempt to create tension😧
- The Rider Quadrant and the Infantry Quadrant finally interact!! They are dropped in the middle of a forest, are being hunted by dragons, and are given two maps and told to go to a location marked on the maps! A simple assignment for students at a war school who surely know how to navigate using a map because that’s an important skill for soldiers to know, right?! 🗺️ Not only do these riders not learn how to read a map until year two (WHY?) but apparently the Infantry and Riders hate each other so much😠 that THEY DON’T EVEN COMPARE THE TWO MAPS WHEN PEOPLE HAVE CONFLICTING IDEAS ABOUT WHERE THEY ARE. THEY WALK AROUND IN A FOREST FOR HOURS INSTEAD OF COLLABORATING ONCE. I don’t care how much you hate someone at school, if you are given a group assignment literally step one is compare all documents you have been given so you can be done as quickly as possible. ALSO WHEN ONE OF THE INFANTRY ASKS TO WHAT TO SO IN THE EVEN OF A DRAGON ATTACK THE RIDERS LAUGH AND MAKE FUN OF THEM FOR BEING SCARED??? THEN WHEN A DRAGON ATTACKS THE RIDERS ARE MAD AT THE INFANTRY FOR DOING THE WRONG THING AFTER THEY LITERALLY WERE NOT TOLD WHAT TO DO!! Yarros when I find you Yarros Yarros when I find you Yarros🏃♀️🏃♀️
- Jack Barlow back because I guess Yarros couldn’t come up with another new antagonist… also he’s Venin for reasons. Really it’s not that interesting. The resurrection trope is so fun!!🤩🤗
- A torture scene summary that is not scary in the slightest because this book conditions you to know that Violet is never in any real danger despite trying to tell you she is always on the verge of death 😱
- A visit to what is essentially the Summer Court in search the Book of some bullshit thing called a luminary (btw we don’t even know what it looks like until 60% through the book AFTER they’ve acquired it???)🤫
- a catty ex-girlfriend (named Cat, wow ✨creative✨) making a reappearance and doing nothing but promotes wonderful stereotypes (even though Yarros tries really hard to tell you it doesn’t on page the literal page)💃🏻
- and the most anticlimactic and boring battle with the dumbest ending I’ve ever read!! 🤺
There are more stupid plot points, but I’m getting brain damage trying to remember the plot of this book so I’m just going to talk about things that made me wish I was attempting to consume whole boulders rather than read the most accessible fantasy book of all time: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros😇
Varrish. He’s our Umbridge lookalike. He strolls into the Dragon Rider Academy and he’s super scary with his one-eyed dragon Solas!!! 😰
I mean he would have been, but literally the first time he does anything scary by letting his dragon incinerate an entire squad, TAIRN FLYS IN AND THREATENS SOLAS. AND SOLAS AND VARRISH BOTH COWER BECAUSE TAIRN IS SO BIG AND SUPER SCARY AND THE 🌈✨⭐️MoST PoWErFuL⭐️✨🌈 DraGOn😀
Well maybe this is understandable because Solas just killed like twenty people, right?🤔 But no! Tairn isn’t mad about that, he’s mad because Violet got like a first degree burn.
I don’t know what Yarros was attempting to achieve with this scene but you know what it does achieve? It tells the reader that Varrish isn’t actually a scary villain because having Tairn put him in his place the moment he does a single villainous action. IT DESTROYS ALL TENSION YOU COULD HAVE HAD.🧍🏻♀️And don’t you worry, dearest reader, this is a trend. LATER TAIRN MAKES VARRISH GET ON HIS KNEES AND APOLOGIZE TO VIOLET FOR BEING MEAN TO HER. ⁉️⁉️
IN FACT ANYTIME ANYONE IS MEAN TO VIOLET THE ENTIRE WORLD COMES TO HER DEFENSE. Any character, any dragon, I swear to god a speck of dust could land on Violet wrong and the entire cast of characters would jump them. And it’s not just her friends. THE SIDE CHARACTERS, MAIN CHARACTERS, CHARACTERS WITH LITERALLY A SINGLE LINE OF DIALOGUE, MINOR AND MAIN ANTAGONISTS.
THEY ALL COMPLIMENT VIOLET
C O N S T A N T L Y.
VARRISH COMPLIMENTS HER, THE VENIN COMPLIMENT HER, CAT COMPLIMENTS HER.
Sloane (the sister of Liam, the stupid dead guy👱🏻♂️ that Violet tries to convince us was her friend) says the most benign of comments against Violet and Rhiannon and every other personality-devoid lampshade of a character in a seven mile vicinity practically threatens to jump this GRIEVING 20 year old girl.
Characters that Violet doesn’t even know will compliment her out of the blue.
THE BOOK READS LIKE AN INSECURE PERSON WISH FUFILLMENT. 💇♀️
It’s so unbelievably unbearable. 👹
The Violet Defense Squad™️ is literally in every chapter. My favorite part about this book was that I couldn’t find a chapter where Violet isn’t complimented for doing literally nothing in any of all 66 chapters of the entire book.🤭🤩
And in case you were concerned that anyone who was mean to Violet would get interesting character development, nope! They either end up dead or want to be her friend by the end🥰 awesome!😎 Violet is my favorite character😍
Are you interested in Violet’s character arc? Well let me tell you the wonderful highs of this perfect character that we’re supposed to root for and support!!😘
Violet starts out strong by making insane demands of Xaden like demanding he tell her literally everything even though she had her mind read last book! And she doesn’t just mention this once. She mentions this every single time we see Xaden. She doesn’t trust him, she tells us, but she loves him, she tells us. 🙄 They’re such a cute and believable and interesting couple 🥰🥰 and their dynamic is made so much better by that random ex-girlfriend that was included because Yarros got bored I guess!😍
On top of being annoying and insecure, Violet decided that this book she would also double down on being one the worst people imaginable! Remember when all those people Violet considered friends died in her first year and she was so sad about that?
Well actually this book Violet tells us that she’s gained some new perspective!!🤯
Actually she’s glad all those people died because watching all those people die made her a better rider because they inspired her to… not die(?)! Because that’s a normal and morally good thing for our main character that is SO empathetic and SO kind to say!🙈 Violet is so good, I wish I was just like her!!!☺️
Also remember Sloane and her dead brother?!👱🏻♂️ Well Liam spent all of book one writing letters to Sloane, his only living family! Wouldn’t it be so nice if Violet gave those to Sloane out of the kindness and goodness of her heart to help Sloane cope with the loss of her older brother?!😊 Well she didn’t!!
Violet withheld the letters for weeks after Sloane arrived at the school, (weeks in which Sloane very well could have died by the way) and only offered to give Sloane the letters if she agreed to train with Imogen (a girl Sloane does not like) and only agreed to give her one letter a week!! There are over fifty letters Violet! What happens if Sloane dies during a freak accident which you KNOW are rampant at this death school???! Violet is such an empath guys🥺 she really understands and cares for the people around her.😣 Don’t you wish you were just like her?!😁
Violet also does a variety of things such as:
- Dropping a gryphon flier off the side of a cliff and then being surprised when said gryphon flier’s friends don’t like her? Inspirational💫
- Talking shit on the infantry for not trusting dragons and being cowards after literally being a prime example as to why the infantry should not trust riders or their dragons! So empathetic🥺
- Wanting to murder Xaden’s ex for saying a couple of barely mean comments to her! A totally rational response!!!👍
- Trying to translate a journal from a dead language she doesn’t know (she does know many other dead languages, of course) instead of giving it to the girl that she’s knows understands that dead language! Wow! the smartest main character of our generation! 🤯
- Accusing every scholar and student of the school of perpetuating misinformation and hiding history that she herself just found out about! She’s so kind and thoughtful 🥳
- Forgetting instantly about her friend who got her neck snapped after some assassin asked who Violet Sorrengail was. She cares so much about her friends!👯♀️
- And many, many more abhorrent things🤩
In case you forgot (because apparently Yarros did 90% of the book) Violet has EDS. Sometimes it’s brought up, but not really with any substance. And Violet just wraps her joints and “pushes through it” and “puts all her pain into a box” (??) and pretends she doesn’t have a problem at all. No further accommodations are granted to her in this book aside from the saddle from last book which is already dumb because everyone trying to hold onto a flying creature should be using saddles anyway.
I highly suggest: Fly Or Die: The Ableist Narrative of Toxic Perseverance by Ella T Holmes for a much better explanation than I can provide as someone that doesn’t have EDS.
Let’s talk about Xaden because if I have to think about how super special and powerful and amazing Violet is I might eat all the gravel in my backyard. Xaden’s depiction in this book is gross to say the least.
Rebecca has confirmed that he’s a PoC which is great!
Keeping that in mind, I love how he’s described as incapable of love and is called a monster and is untrustworthy!!😍😍And I absolutely adore that our super special and talented basic white girl Violet is the person that shows him true love and trust and is the only person who can take his mask of cruelty and violence off for the first time even though she’s so much smaller and weaker than big, strong, powerful Xaden. It’s so cool that all the other characters are so terrified of him and that he acts as little more than Violet’s big overprotective and jealous guard dog! I especially love that Violet’s mom practically tortured him and gave him a hundred and something scars and that he has to take responsibility for all of the marked ones!! That’s not concerning and horrific!!!! And I love that he also got another scar for “claiming” Violet!! that’s so attractive and romantic and good representation and not at all fetishizing men of color at all!!!🥰🥰🥰 Thank you so much for your hard work Yarros!!!🫡
He’s also annoying and refuses to tell Violet anything unless she asks hyper specific questions. Their whole dynamic is just annoying and stupid.
And I love all of Yarros’ other characters who have less personality than paper bags with faces drawn on them!!🪑 Frankly a folding chair has more charm than any of the characters in this book.
They’re so unique and are definitely really funny and don’t ever bog down the scenes with so many characters that you can’t tell who is even talking anymore! They’re all unique and dynamic with character arcs!! Of course! What else would they be?😆
And the dragons! 🐉 Oh the dragons! How could I forget about the dragons that are nothing but glorified Uber rides!! They don’t do shit but posture and growl and be boring!
Here’s some fun facts about dragons: dragons can choose their tail shape but they can’t choose their color which directly influences their personality and temperament!!
All baby dragons are gold because that’s interesting! Is there an evolutionary reason for that or something? Not that we’re told of!
More dragon sex is mentioned, thankfully we don’t have to live through the dragon-lust again though!
Also the dismounts that Rebecca describes the Riders doing are literally physically impossible!! All the riders should be dead if they try to pull that shit! Giant flying dragons are not horses you can’t just walk around on it while it’s diving and jump off of it😭😭
Oh and Anadarna also is now like a super special purple/chameleon never before seen breed of dragon with the rarest tail shape!🐲 Are we surprised? No. Just bored. 😴
She also now has like a disabled/malformed wing. Her wings were fine in the first book, but now they’re not? Idk. I feel like that should have been a thing in book one but whatever. (Tairn literally blames it on Violet which is sort of hilariously fucked up??) But anyway she obviously can still fly because god forbid a disability ever hinder a character in anyway that makes them adapt, but she can’t ever hold a rider? Violet is like 90 pounds as we are so graciously reminded so I feel like if Andarna gets bigger she definitely should be able to carry her but whatever. 🤷♀️
TLDR: the dragons are BORING. And they’re not even funny or cool or even scary. Why write about dragons if you make them boring and insignificant to the plot??! And Andarna is a special-special because of course she is. 🤪
This review is getting way too long so let’s just talk about the ending.
Oh no! Violet’s mom that got no real development or anything died! Anyway. 🧐
Why the fuck did the revolution refuse to help Navarre? They claim to be morally superior and to care about the lives of civilians but just blatantly ignore like 50% of the continent’s population because they’re Navarre citizens? And we’re supposed to root for them? Right! Awesome! Okay!😆👍
What are the actual morals of the revolution? What is their end goal? Why did Violet join them so quickly without asking any questions??🫠
She’s so intelligent!🤓
I’m completely fine with Xaden becoming Venin, though I doubt it will be resolved in an interesting way. Though I don’t think it’s really an interesting plot twist and I saw it coming a mile away after all the boring Venin info dumping I had to sit through, but at least it’s something.
HOWEVER I CANNOT FORGIVE IT FOR MAKING THE FINAL LINES OF THE BOOK
“Welcome to our fucked-up family. Guess we’re brothers now.”
THE SECOND TO LAST LINE IN THE BOOK IS “WELCOME TO OUR FUCKED UP FAMILY”😭😭😭😭😭
WHAT WHAT WHAT
DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT DID TO ME??
I READ 634 PAGES OF THE WORST, MEANDERING, BULLSHIT PLOT POINTS, HORRIFIC AND BORING SEX SCENES, INDECIPHERABLE INFO DUMPS, NONSENSICAL MAGIC SYSTEMS, FLAT CHARACTERS, BORING DRAGONS, HORRIBLE REPRESENTATION, AGGRESSIVELY UNFUNNY FRAT BOY HUMOR, UNEDITED GARBAGE AND YOU END IT WITH “WELCOME TO OUR FUCKED UP FAMILY”???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!!?!??!
ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A JOKER ARC??? WAS THAT THE POINT OF THIS BOOK????
AM I SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY AS AN ACTUAL FANTASY BOOK???
THE REASON THIS BOOK TOOK ME SO LONG TO REVIEW IS BECAUSE I GOT ACTUAL PSYCHIC DAMAGE FROM THE LAST LINES OF THIS BOOK.
I HYPERVENTILATED I THREW MY PHONE I SCREAMED I STARED AT A WALL AND CONTEMPLATED MY PLACE AND PURPOSE ON THIS EARTH
I HAD MORE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THAN ANY CHARACTER IN THIS ENTIRE BOOK IN THE 0.5 SECONDS AFTER READING THOSE LINES
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REACT TO THAT??
DID YARROS THINK SHE ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING WITH THAT ENDING??
HAVE I LOST MY MIND?? PEOPLE LIKE THIS BOOK? PEOPLE TAKE IT SERIOUSLY AND MAKE UP THEORIES FOR IT??? WHAT??????
GENUINELY IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK WHY? WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? ARE YOU OKAY? DO YOU NEED HELP?
WELCOME TO OUR FUCKED UP FAMILY??? GUESS WE’RE BROTHERS NOW???
YARROS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS WHAT DO YOU MEAN WELCOME TO OUR FUCKED UP FAMILY WHAT DO YOU MEAN😭😭😭😭😭😭
I FEEL LIKE I AM ENTITLED TO FINANCIAL COMPENSATION FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE THIS BOOK HAS INFLICTED UPON ME
so thanks for reading my review <3 I hope this helps your decision making process when it comes to buying books :) (don’t buy this book) Yarros did not receive any financial compensation for my suffering and I highly recommend that if you want to read this book (for some reason??? Why?? I spent so long writing this to give you reasons not to!😭) you get it from your library or literally any other means.
Red Tower and Yarros are not people that deserve your hard earned money or support.
Also whoever the fuck claimed to have edited this book is a world class scammer because they got paid for doing literally nothing. But also they should be fired and exiled and never allowed to look at words again.
I have more to say but I hit the word limit💀
Goodreads has been real finicky about reviews recently so I will only be speaking on the book and its content (not the author though I have very many opinions (none of them kind☺️))
also there are spoilers in this review but who cares because you shouldn’t be reading this book to begin with! (Don’t let my sacrifice be in vain)
I intended to get this review out way sooner but unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) this book was actually so much worse than Fourth Wing!🥳
I naively assumed Fourth Wing would be the top contender for worst book of the year but Iron Flame made me wish I was reading Fourth Wing!!
At least Fourth Wing had the decency to be short enough to get through in a week, Iron Flame takes every flaw of Fourth Wing and not only makes it worse but makes it LONGER(???!?!) while somehow simultaneously being even more boring! Wow!🤩 Good job Yarros!!! What a fantasy icon!!🧝🏻♀️
Remember how Fourth Wing had one of the most idiotic, and juvenile writing styles in any adult fantasy book ever? Imagine that but now in a world where editing was never invented!! 🥰
The sentence structure was legitimately horrendous. I actually wish I was kidding.
If you have the unfortunate displeasure of being in a twenty mile radius of a copy of Iron Flame and are unlucky enough to stroll past it in the store or your local library, I beg you, after you recover from the sheer horror of being in the same room as such an abomination to fantasy, open it to a random page and just ATTEMPT to read a paragraph out loud.
I am a creative writing major, I read books out loud all the time. I have never struggled so much with a book in my entire life. Sincerely whoever had to do the audio book must have the endurance and the mental fortitude of a saint.
Forgive me, Yarros, for believing reading should be an enjoyable experience, clearly you do not agree. 🧎♀️
Also Yarros used 493 ellipses and 1089 em-dashes on my count! The book is about 634 pages!💫
And oh! A Drinking game🥂: take a shot every time a character’s eyebrow or brow or brows are mentioned!! Actually don’t! You’d definitely die! Brows are mentioned over a hundred times!!
🫠 I have to laugh (or else I might scream) at the idea that THIS is accessible fantasy because not only is the plot and the world building convoluted and unengaging but the writing is so incredibly shit that it makes you reread half of the sentences over again if you want to the vaguest inkling of an idea of what is going on in this horseshit world. To call Iron Flame accessible spits in the face of twenty plus years of hard work and effort by truly talented authors to make fantasy books that are actually welcoming and accessible to a wide audience.
Let’s actually talk about the plot. Fourth Wing was derivative and predictable and Iron Flame doesn’t even try to be any more.
Here’s a list of some 🌈✨creative😍 plot points Yarros used:
- A shitty copycat version of the Hunger Game’s rebellion (with zero of the interesting nuance or intelligent discourse)😯
- what is essentially a boring Umbridge at a half-assed attempt to create tension😧
- The Rider Quadrant and the Infantry Quadrant finally interact!! They are dropped in the middle of a forest, are being hunted by dragons, and are given two maps and told to go to a location marked on the maps! A simple assignment for students at a war school who surely know how to navigate using a map because that’s an important skill for soldiers to know, right?! 🗺️ Not only do these riders not learn how to read a map until year two (WHY?) but apparently the Infantry and Riders hate each other so much😠 that THEY DON’T EVEN COMPARE THE TWO MAPS WHEN PEOPLE HAVE CONFLICTING IDEAS ABOUT WHERE THEY ARE. THEY WALK AROUND IN A FOREST FOR HOURS INSTEAD OF COLLABORATING ONCE. I don’t care how much you hate someone at school, if you are given a group assignment literally step one is compare all documents you have been given so you can be done as quickly as possible. ALSO WHEN ONE OF THE INFANTRY ASKS TO WHAT TO SO IN THE EVEN OF A DRAGON ATTACK THE RIDERS LAUGH AND MAKE FUN OF THEM FOR BEING SCARED??? THEN WHEN A DRAGON ATTACKS THE RIDERS ARE MAD AT THE INFANTRY FOR DOING THE WRONG THING AFTER THEY LITERALLY WERE NOT TOLD WHAT TO DO!! Yarros when I find you Yarros Yarros when I find you Yarros🏃♀️🏃♀️
- Jack Barlow back because I guess Yarros couldn’t come up with another new antagonist… also he’s Venin for reasons. Really it’s not that interesting. The resurrection trope is so fun!!🤩🤗
- A torture scene summary that is not scary in the slightest because this book conditions you to know that Violet is never in any real danger despite trying to tell you she is always on the verge of death 😱
- A visit to what is essentially the Summer Court in search the Book of some bullshit thing called a luminary (btw we don’t even know what it looks like until 60% through the book AFTER they’ve acquired it???)🤫
- a catty ex-girlfriend (named Cat, wow ✨creative✨) making a reappearance and doing nothing but promotes wonderful stereotypes (even though Yarros tries really hard to tell you it doesn’t on page the literal page)💃🏻
- and the most anticlimactic and boring battle with the dumbest ending I’ve ever read!! 🤺
There are more stupid plot points, but I’m getting brain damage trying to remember the plot of this book so I’m just going to talk about things that made me wish I was attempting to consume whole boulders rather than read the most accessible fantasy book of all time: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros😇
Varrish. He’s our Umbridge lookalike. He strolls into the Dragon Rider Academy and he’s super scary with his one-eyed dragon Solas!!! 😰
I mean he would have been, but literally the first time he does anything scary by letting his dragon incinerate an entire squad, TAIRN FLYS IN AND THREATENS SOLAS. AND SOLAS AND VARRISH BOTH COWER BECAUSE TAIRN IS SO BIG AND SUPER SCARY AND THE 🌈✨⭐️MoST PoWErFuL⭐️✨🌈 DraGOn😀
Well maybe this is understandable because Solas just killed like twenty people, right?🤔 But no! Tairn isn’t mad about that, he’s mad because Violet got like a first degree burn.
I don’t know what Yarros was attempting to achieve with this scene but you know what it does achieve? It tells the reader that Varrish isn’t actually a scary villain because having Tairn put him in his place the moment he does a single villainous action. IT DESTROYS ALL TENSION YOU COULD HAVE HAD.🧍🏻♀️And don’t you worry, dearest reader, this is a trend. LATER TAIRN MAKES VARRISH GET ON HIS KNEES AND APOLOGIZE TO VIOLET FOR BEING MEAN TO HER. ⁉️⁉️
IN FACT ANYTIME ANYONE IS MEAN TO VIOLET THE ENTIRE WORLD COMES TO HER DEFENSE. Any character, any dragon, I swear to god a speck of dust could land on Violet wrong and the entire cast of characters would jump them. And it’s not just her friends. THE SIDE CHARACTERS, MAIN CHARACTERS, CHARACTERS WITH LITERALLY A SINGLE LINE OF DIALOGUE, MINOR AND MAIN ANTAGONISTS.
THEY ALL COMPLIMENT VIOLET
C O N S T A N T L Y.
VARRISH COMPLIMENTS HER, THE VENIN COMPLIMENT HER, CAT COMPLIMENTS HER.
Sloane (the sister of Liam, the stupid dead guy👱🏻♂️ that Violet tries to convince us was her friend) says the most benign of comments against Violet and Rhiannon and every other personality-devoid lampshade of a character in a seven mile vicinity practically threatens to jump this GRIEVING 20 year old girl.
Characters that Violet doesn’t even know will compliment her out of the blue.
THE BOOK READS LIKE AN INSECURE PERSON WISH FUFILLMENT. 💇♀️
It’s so unbelievably unbearable. 👹
The Violet Defense Squad™️ is literally in every chapter. My favorite part about this book was that I couldn’t find a chapter where Violet isn’t complimented for doing literally nothing in any of all 66 chapters of the entire book.🤭🤩
And in case you were concerned that anyone who was mean to Violet would get interesting character development, nope! They either end up dead or want to be her friend by the end🥰 awesome!😎 Violet is my favorite character😍
Are you interested in Violet’s character arc? Well let me tell you the wonderful highs of this perfect character that we’re supposed to root for and support!!😘
Violet starts out strong by making insane demands of Xaden like demanding he tell her literally everything even though she had her mind read last book! And she doesn’t just mention this once. She mentions this every single time we see Xaden. She doesn’t trust him, she tells us, but she loves him, she tells us. 🙄 They’re such a cute and believable and interesting couple 🥰🥰 and their dynamic is made so much better by that random ex-girlfriend that was included because Yarros got bored I guess!😍
On top of being annoying and insecure, Violet decided that this book she would also double down on being one the worst people imaginable! Remember when all those people Violet considered friends died in her first year and she was so sad about that?
Well actually this book Violet tells us that she’s gained some new perspective!!🤯
Actually she’s glad all those people died because watching all those people die made her a better rider because they inspired her to… not die(?)! Because that’s a normal and morally good thing for our main character that is SO empathetic and SO kind to say!🙈 Violet is so good, I wish I was just like her!!!☺️
Also remember Sloane and her dead brother?!👱🏻♂️ Well Liam spent all of book one writing letters to Sloane, his only living family! Wouldn’t it be so nice if Violet gave those to Sloane out of the kindness and goodness of her heart to help Sloane cope with the loss of her older brother?!😊 Well she didn’t!!
Violet withheld the letters for weeks after Sloane arrived at the school, (weeks in which Sloane very well could have died by the way) and only offered to give Sloane the letters if she agreed to train with Imogen (a girl Sloane does not like) and only agreed to give her one letter a week!! There are over fifty letters Violet! What happens if Sloane dies during a freak accident which you KNOW are rampant at this death school???! Violet is such an empath guys🥺 she really understands and cares for the people around her.😣 Don’t you wish you were just like her?!😁
Violet also does a variety of things such as:
- Dropping a gryphon flier off the side of a cliff and then being surprised when said gryphon flier’s friends don’t like her? Inspirational💫
- Talking shit on the infantry for not trusting dragons and being cowards after literally being a prime example as to why the infantry should not trust riders or their dragons! So empathetic🥺
- Wanting to murder Xaden’s ex for saying a couple of barely mean comments to her! A totally rational response!!!👍
- Trying to translate a journal from a dead language she doesn’t know (she does know many other dead languages, of course) instead of giving it to the girl that she’s knows understands that dead language! Wow! the smartest main character of our generation! 🤯
- Accusing every scholar and student of the school of perpetuating misinformation and hiding history that she herself just found out about! She’s so kind and thoughtful 🥳
- Forgetting instantly about her friend who got her neck snapped after some assassin asked who Violet Sorrengail was. She cares so much about her friends!👯♀️
- And many, many more abhorrent things🤩
In case you forgot (because apparently Yarros did 90% of the book) Violet has EDS. Sometimes it’s brought up, but not really with any substance. And Violet just wraps her joints and “pushes through it” and “puts all her pain into a box” (??) and pretends she doesn’t have a problem at all. No further accommodations are granted to her in this book aside from the saddle from last book which is already dumb because everyone trying to hold onto a flying creature should be using saddles anyway.
I highly suggest: Fly Or Die: The Ableist Narrative of Toxic Perseverance by Ella T Holmes for a much better explanation than I can provide as someone that doesn’t have EDS.
Let’s talk about Xaden because if I have to think about how super special and powerful and amazing Violet is I might eat all the gravel in my backyard. Xaden’s depiction in this book is gross to say the least.
Rebecca has confirmed that he’s a PoC which is great!
Keeping that in mind, I love how he’s described as incapable of love and is called a monster and is untrustworthy!!😍😍And I absolutely adore that our super special and talented basic white girl Violet is the person that shows him true love and trust and is the only person who can take his mask of cruelty and violence off for the first time even though she’s so much smaller and weaker than big, strong, powerful Xaden. It’s so cool that all the other characters are so terrified of him and that he acts as little more than Violet’s big overprotective and jealous guard dog! I especially love that Violet’s mom practically tortured him and gave him a hundred and something scars and that he has to take responsibility for all of the marked ones!! That’s not concerning and horrific!!!! And I love that he also got another scar for “claiming” Violet!! that’s so attractive and romantic and good representation and not at all fetishizing men of color at all!!!🥰🥰🥰 Thank you so much for your hard work Yarros!!!🫡
He’s also annoying and refuses to tell Violet anything unless she asks hyper specific questions. Their whole dynamic is just annoying and stupid.
And I love all of Yarros’ other characters who have less personality than paper bags with faces drawn on them!!🪑 Frankly a folding chair has more charm than any of the characters in this book.
They’re so unique and are definitely really funny and don’t ever bog down the scenes with so many characters that you can’t tell who is even talking anymore! They’re all unique and dynamic with character arcs!! Of course! What else would they be?😆
And the dragons! 🐉 Oh the dragons! How could I forget about the dragons that are nothing but glorified Uber rides!! They don’t do shit but posture and growl and be boring!
Here’s some fun facts about dragons: dragons can choose their tail shape but they can’t choose their color which directly influences their personality and temperament!!
All baby dragons are gold because that’s interesting! Is there an evolutionary reason for that or something? Not that we’re told of!
More dragon sex is mentioned, thankfully we don’t have to live through the dragon-lust again though!
Also the dismounts that Rebecca describes the Riders doing are literally physically impossible!! All the riders should be dead if they try to pull that shit! Giant flying dragons are not horses you can’t just walk around on it while it’s diving and jump off of it😭😭
Oh and Anadarna also is now like a super special purple/chameleon never before seen breed of dragon with the rarest tail shape!🐲 Are we surprised? No. Just bored. 😴
She also now has like a disabled/malformed wing. Her wings were fine in the first book, but now they’re not? Idk. I feel like that should have been a thing in book one but whatever. (Tairn literally blames it on Violet which is sort of hilariously fucked up??) But anyway she obviously can still fly because god forbid a disability ever hinder a character in anyway that makes them adapt, but she can’t ever hold a rider? Violet is like 90 pounds as we are so graciously reminded so I feel like if Andarna gets bigger she definitely should be able to carry her but whatever. 🤷♀️
TLDR: the dragons are BORING. And they’re not even funny or cool or even scary. Why write about dragons if you make them boring and insignificant to the plot??! And Andarna is a special-special because of course she is. 🤪
This review is getting way too long so let’s just talk about the ending.
Oh no! Violet’s mom that got no real development or anything died! Anyway. 🧐
Why the fuck did the revolution refuse to help Navarre? They claim to be morally superior and to care about the lives of civilians but just blatantly ignore like 50% of the continent’s population because they’re Navarre citizens? And we’re supposed to root for them? Right! Awesome! Okay!😆👍
What are the actual morals of the revolution? What is their end goal? Why did Violet join them so quickly without asking any questions??🫠
She’s so intelligent!🤓
I’m completely fine with Xaden becoming Venin, though I doubt it will be resolved in an interesting way. Though I don’t think it’s really an interesting plot twist and I saw it coming a mile away after all the boring Venin info dumping I had to sit through, but at least it’s something.
HOWEVER I CANNOT FORGIVE IT FOR MAKING THE FINAL LINES OF THE BOOK
“Welcome to our fucked-up family. Guess we’re brothers now.”
THE SECOND TO LAST LINE IN THE BOOK IS “WELCOME TO OUR FUCKED UP FAMILY”😭😭😭😭😭
WHAT WHAT WHAT
DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT DID TO ME??
I READ 634 PAGES OF THE WORST, MEANDERING, BULLSHIT PLOT POINTS, HORRIFIC AND BORING SEX SCENES, INDECIPHERABLE INFO DUMPS, NONSENSICAL MAGIC SYSTEMS, FLAT CHARACTERS, BORING DRAGONS, HORRIBLE REPRESENTATION, AGGRESSIVELY UNFUNNY FRAT BOY HUMOR, UNEDITED GARBAGE AND YOU END IT WITH “WELCOME TO OUR FUCKED UP FAMILY”???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!!?!??!
ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A JOKER ARC??? WAS THAT THE POINT OF THIS BOOK????
AM I SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY AS AN ACTUAL FANTASY BOOK???
THE REASON THIS BOOK TOOK ME SO LONG TO REVIEW IS BECAUSE I GOT ACTUAL PSYCHIC DAMAGE FROM THE LAST LINES OF THIS BOOK.
I HYPERVENTILATED I THREW MY PHONE I SCREAMED I STARED AT A WALL AND CONTEMPLATED MY PLACE AND PURPOSE ON THIS EARTH
I HAD MORE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THAN ANY CHARACTER IN THIS ENTIRE BOOK IN THE 0.5 SECONDS AFTER READING THOSE LINES
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REACT TO THAT??
DID YARROS THINK SHE ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING WITH THAT ENDING??
HAVE I LOST MY MIND?? PEOPLE LIKE THIS BOOK? PEOPLE TAKE IT SERIOUSLY AND MAKE UP THEORIES FOR IT??? WHAT??????
GENUINELY IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK WHY? WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? ARE YOU OKAY? DO YOU NEED HELP?
WELCOME TO OUR FUCKED UP FAMILY??? GUESS WE’RE BROTHERS NOW???
YARROS I AM LIVING IN YOUR WALLS WHAT DO YOU MEAN WELCOME TO OUR FUCKED UP FAMILY WHAT DO YOU MEAN😭😭😭😭😭😭
I FEEL LIKE I AM ENTITLED TO FINANCIAL COMPENSATION FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE THIS BOOK HAS INFLICTED UPON ME
so thanks for reading my review <3 I hope this helps your decision making process when it comes to buying books :) (don’t buy this book) Yarros did not receive any financial compensation for my suffering and I highly recommend that if you want to read this book (for some reason??? Why?? I spent so long writing this to give you reasons not to!😭) you get it from your library or literally any other means.
Red Tower and Yarros are not people that deserve your hard earned money or support.
Also whoever the fuck claimed to have edited this book is a world class scammer because they got paid for doing literally nothing. But also they should be fired and exiled and never allowed to look at words again.
I have more to say but I hit the word limit💀
January 1, 2024
Because love, at its root, is hope. Hope for tomorrow. Hope for what could be. Hope that someone you've entrusted your everything to will cradle and protect it. And hope? That shit is harder to kill than a dragon.
Well, fuck🥲
That being said, I promised myself I'd finish my current readings before starting this one, but FoMo was a bitch and then, would you believe that, I tripped and fell into Xadaddy's arms.
Silly, clumsy me.
Iron Flame was alright, but I'm not crazy about it.
I found the writing even more YAish than it was in Fourth Wing and I, painfully, have to admit I feel the same about the romance.
I don't know if maybe, when I first read Fourth Wing, I was in a place, mentally speaking, where my reader needs were more than met despite the flaws, but it seems like I can't overlook them with the sequel.
Being completely honest, the plot does pick up after the first half and the romance has its up and downs all through the story, but it never reaches the point where I felt like giving up on it completely.
The smut was fine and the tension well written, but I'm not a fan of Yarros's idea of spicy dialogues.
The one liners, sometimes, made me cringe a little, and the characterization of the main characters left me a tad confused, at times, especially at the beginning. I couldn't follow the story properly because I felt like Violet was thinking one thing then acting in a completely opposite way.
Speaking of Violet...
When I read FW, I thought Yarros'd made her a bit of a Mary Sue, but that was okay, because she had obvious flaws, even she was aware of, to balance her randomly having every special skill on the menu and succeding in every single task she was burdened with.
Iron Flame Violet is a total badass and she's definitely grown a lot, but she also feels a little incomplete and rough at the edges. I don't know if it's intentional and/or tied to her future evolution, but I wouldn't have minded her being more confident, especially when it comes to her relationship with Xaden.
Xaden is still daddy, in case you're asking, and he was a total dreamboat, the ultimate book boyfriend from start to finish.
Like I've mentioned before, I wasn't really sure about the romance, at first. I wanted more grovelling and Violet's constant thirsting over Xaden's fine behind gave me a headache. It gave me major early Tory/Darius vibes, and if you're a fan of Zodiac Academy, you'll get what I mean.
Thankfully, things took a pleasant turn when I reached the second part and I wasn't only rooting for them, I was absolutely feral when everything mined their eventual happiness.
This works for the plot as well. In the first half, I wasn't really enjoying myself and could count on one hand the moments I actually found interesting.
But then shit hit the fan, twists started piling up and every page turned was an angsty fest I totally wanted to attend. I devoured the second half in hours and when I reached the end, just felt like staring at the wall.
And have a mojito or two.
I definitely didn't see THAT coming.
Another thing I really appreciated, aside from the chef's kiss perfect action scenes and THE SASSY DRAGONS (omg my baby Andarna!!!), were the secondary characers. Violet and Xaden's friends deserve their own books - Rhi in particular <3<3<3< - and I definitely hope the sequels will focus on them more, especially because some characters are only now starting to blossom and they seem particularly interesting.
I also would like to take advantage of this topic to admit I never really hated Dain. I'm pretty passive when it comes to him, but I swear to god, if RY takes that direction, I'm gonna throw a fit.
Overall, this was, for me, a decent sequel, albeit an unnecessarily long one.
If you loved FW but are having trouble with it like I did, I recommend pushing through it.
All in all, it's pretty worth it.
I'll leave under the spoiler tag some sort of disclaimer because, even though I usually try my best to stay clear of any kind of drama and hate brining real life politics into my bookish heaven, I've been harassed for a couple days both in public and in private because of my choice to give this book a chance, so for the first and last time in my permanence here on this site, I'll go out of my usual way and discuss things I usually never discuss on GR, after all.
February 12, 2025
3.75 stars
As a person with ADHD, the jokes are on me because I didn't even remember any location and the super-descriptive long ass paragraphs about borders and locations seriously made my head spin and I'm glad I finished this. 😭
I actually prefer Book 1 a lot more than this book because that was more clear and exciting than this one. Not that this one wasn't great, but it didn't give the same feelings as the first one did when it hooked me instantly because of the Parapet scene. Many things didn't work for me. The start of this book wasn't as exciting... (she was eating freaking biscuits). And Brennan's revealation and all were just so avg and boring? A lot of info dumps too. The Dragons made this book better.
The first 30% of this book is filled with 'You don't trust me enough' drama between Xaden and Vi, which was seriously getting on my nerves. I get that she's hurt, but she was being absolutely ridiculous, demanding info while withholding it as a form of retaliation. Her inner monologue about being a 'bad friend' and always 'feeling guilty' for lying again and again was constantly on repeat. NO ACTION NOTHING NADA. I felt bad for Rhiannon as she tried again and again and always checked up on her. Rhiannon deserved better! 😭
🔪SPOILERS:🔪
So, I'll start with my fav,
— TAIRN CARRIED THIS WHOLE BOOK. PERIOD. He's so damn possessive, and I'm dying at how powerful and protective he is of Violet! He's so freaking savage, I can write so much about him! I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS DRAGON 😌💕
“You do not have the right to burn what is mine.”
“Apologize,” Tairn demands, his voice low and sharp. “I’m sorry!” Varrish’s voice breaks. “Apologize to the one Andarna deemed worthy of her bond."
“I chose you last year for that brilliance, and now you’d like to be congratulated like it’s something new? How odd.” “You’re impossible to impress.” “I’m a dragon, a Black Morningstartail. The descendant of—”
— Tairn's and Andarna's banter was so fun ughhhhh I really enjoyed that!!!! 🥹 Both are so sarcastic and witty now! Andarna my cutieeee 🤭
“Scratch her eyes out,” Andarna suggests. “Really. The eyes are the softest tissue. Just jab your thumbs in there—” “Andarna! Use some common sense,” Tairn snaps. “The kneecaps are a much easier target.”
“Can you carry a luminary?” “That question insults me.” “Can you carry a luminary while insulted?” she prods”
"Adolescent."
— How can I not fall for Xaden when he says things like:
“She’s worth a dozen of me."
“I will happily watch Aretia burn to the fucking ground again if it means you live."
“I’m in love with you. I have been since the night the snow fell in your hair and you kissed me for the first time. I’m grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won’t have to face a day without you in it. My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I’ll meet Malek at your side.
— I'm dying at how much Dain is roasted in this book! 💀 It's like the author read all of our reviews about him.
“He’s trying desperately for Xaden’s charisma and coming up woefully short”
“Garrick has always been my best friend. His father was my father’s aide, which in a way makes him my Dain, except trustworthy”
“He’s not slowing down,” I murmur. Part of me hopes Dain falls off.”
Me when Jack mf Barlowe entered:
jdkskdhaha please he had no business pretending to be kind 😭 I was cackling! like IMAGINE a nice jack barlowe? *snort*. A wise man once said, "once a bitch, always a bitch"
TOXICITY AT ITS PEAK:
Xaden and Violet went from being a couple who support each other to being borderline toxic. They were restricted to meet only two days, and it was spent fighting! THEY FOUGHT AT EVERY CHANCE THEY GOT!
"you didn't tell."
"you didn't ask."
THIS SHOULD BE THE BLURB. This freaking drama grated on my nerves, and I was tired of how much this phrase was used. LIKE STOP? Everybody knew that Xaden is not sharing everything just to protect her life, and to a certain extent, I understand Violet, and I agree with her.
but she's being so immature and whiny, and I swear this book just kind of ruined her character in many ways because she was always back to this old topic, and they constantly fought each other, and Violet constantly defied Xaden again and again (as in risking her life) and then made up eventually.
The author really tried to put angst into their story with smut, but tbh I DO NOT PREFER THEM AS A COUPLE (at least not rn). The love was too quick, and the amount of trust issues, insecurities, and fights they had was so wrong and unhealthy. Xaden was being protective of her and hiding truths from her for her OWN SAFETY! and saying from experience, fantasy girlies do not like overprotective bfs. AND ADDING CATRIONA IN IT? That was the worst! The whole ex-jealousy thing was insane. and if this keeps going on, I don't think XadenVi will be the endgame (there are 5 books ffs)
• side characters:
For me, Rhiannon stole the show. She's so mature and amazing? and I love her sm! How she kept calm and been patient and supported Violet, and she's so damn skillful? SHE DESERVED APPRECIATION AND I'M GLAD SHE GOT IT. She's super genius and literally figured most of the things out and told Violet that 'she'll wait for her to tell her everything' like GURLLLLL 🥺🥰🤭💕
Dain's reasoning was prettyyy... reasonable? I knew and already predicted what he would say, and it turned out I was correct! I liked his redemption arc though and realized that I cursed him way too much 😂 ok, Dain, you can be back on my okay-ish list. and HE HAD NO RIGHT TO COPY XADEN'S LINES 💀
AARIC GRAYCASTLE Y'ALL (not his real name but will do) jekdjs he's so hot? 😭 GREEN EYES ARE A BIG WEAKNESS, and I truly see him getting bigger parts in the other books cuz duh he's so freaking amazing and .... royal. He's the next Liam 🥹 (sans the death part). HE CARES FOR VIOLET TOO, DADDY ISSUES AND IS CUTIEEE! I low-key ship him and Violet together hhahahaha and pls no sloaneAaric.
Sloane was seriously just different than Liam lol! I expected too much, but she was not that important in this book besides Violet constantly checking up on her. Ngl some scenes/hallucinations of Liam made me so happy and sad. 🥹
Rodic hdkejs he's so good, and his character damn he's actually pretty amazing! I'm glad his character got recognized a lot in this book!
Varrish soooo weirddd sooo creepyyyyy! 👺 I hated him so much and what he did with Violet? HE DESERVED A PAINFUL DEATH WTH! I loved when he begged violet on his knees like bishhhh you deserve that.
General Sorrengail MOTHER. 🫡 The quote where she told her husband THAT EVERYTHING SHE EVER DID WAS JUST TO SAVE HER CHILDREN! 💔
“Most generals dream of dying in service to their kingdom. But you know me better than that, my love.When I fall, it will be for one reason only: to protect our children.”
Now, all said, I truly think that this book was too long, and a lot of things were super tough and descriptive like: runes...? what the fuck were those? I read many times and I came with a seizure because why are they even added? A second reread would help, but I won't go there anytime soon. A lot of elements of this book were so weird that I prefer book 1 A LOT!
what the actual fuckery?(the ending ofcourse)
I can finally sleep now as I haven't slept more than 5 hours just to finish this book.
I'm sorry but I didn't know about this author being zionist when I read this book and I didnt contribute to her financially and all as I read the pirated version. I'm not supporting gen0cide at all!
RATINGS:
• Fourth Wing – 5 stars
• Iron Flame – 3.75 stars
• Onyx Storm – tbr
As a person with ADHD, the jokes are on me because I didn't even remember any location and the super-descriptive long ass paragraphs about borders and locations seriously made my head spin and I'm glad I finished this. 😭
I actually prefer Book 1 a lot more than this book because that was more clear and exciting than this one. Not that this one wasn't great, but it didn't give the same feelings as the first one did when it hooked me instantly because of the Parapet scene. Many things didn't work for me. The start of this book wasn't as exciting... (she was eating freaking biscuits). And Brennan's revealation and all were just so avg and boring? A lot of info dumps too. The Dragons made this book better.
The first 30% of this book is filled with 'You don't trust me enough' drama between Xaden and Vi, which was seriously getting on my nerves. I get that she's hurt, but she was being absolutely ridiculous, demanding info while withholding it as a form of retaliation. Her inner monologue about being a 'bad friend' and always 'feeling guilty' for lying again and again was constantly on repeat. NO ACTION NOTHING NADA. I felt bad for Rhiannon as she tried again and again and always checked up on her. Rhiannon deserved better! 😭
🔪SPOILERS:🔪
So, I'll start with my fav,
— TAIRN CARRIED THIS WHOLE BOOK. PERIOD. He's so damn possessive, and I'm dying at how powerful and protective he is of Violet! He's so freaking savage, I can write so much about him! I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS DRAGON 😌💕
“You do not have the right to burn what is mine.”
“Apologize,” Tairn demands, his voice low and sharp. “I’m sorry!” Varrish’s voice breaks. “Apologize to the one Andarna deemed worthy of her bond."
“I chose you last year for that brilliance, and now you’d like to be congratulated like it’s something new? How odd.” “You’re impossible to impress.” “I’m a dragon, a Black Morningstartail. The descendant of—”
— Tairn's and Andarna's banter was so fun ughhhhh I really enjoyed that!!!! 🥹 Both are so sarcastic and witty now! Andarna my cutieeee 🤭
“Scratch her eyes out,” Andarna suggests. “Really. The eyes are the softest tissue. Just jab your thumbs in there—” “Andarna! Use some common sense,” Tairn snaps. “The kneecaps are a much easier target.”
“Can you carry a luminary?” “That question insults me.” “Can you carry a luminary while insulted?” she prods”
"Adolescent."
— How can I not fall for Xaden when he says things like:
“She’s worth a dozen of me."
“I will happily watch Aretia burn to the fucking ground again if it means you live."
“I’m in love with you. I have been since the night the snow fell in your hair and you kissed me for the first time. I’m grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won’t have to face a day without you in it. My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I’ll meet Malek at your side.
— I'm dying at how much Dain is roasted in this book! 💀 It's like the author read all of our reviews about him.
“He’s trying desperately for Xaden’s charisma and coming up woefully short”
“Garrick has always been my best friend. His father was my father’s aide, which in a way makes him my Dain, except trustworthy”
“He’s not slowing down,” I murmur. Part of me hopes Dain falls off.”
Me when Jack mf Barlowe entered:
jdkskdhaha please he had no business pretending to be kind 😭 I was cackling! like IMAGINE a nice jack barlowe? *snort*. A wise man once said, "once a bitch, always a bitch"
TOXICITY AT ITS PEAK:
Xaden and Violet went from being a couple who support each other to being borderline toxic. They were restricted to meet only two days, and it was spent fighting! THEY FOUGHT AT EVERY CHANCE THEY GOT!
"you didn't tell."
"you didn't ask."
THIS SHOULD BE THE BLURB. This freaking drama grated on my nerves, and I was tired of how much this phrase was used. LIKE STOP? Everybody knew that Xaden is not sharing everything just to protect her life, and to a certain extent, I understand Violet, and I agree with her.
but she's being so immature and whiny, and I swear this book just kind of ruined her character in many ways because she was always back to this old topic, and they constantly fought each other, and Violet constantly defied Xaden again and again (as in risking her life) and then made up eventually.
The author really tried to put angst into their story with smut, but tbh I DO NOT PREFER THEM AS A COUPLE (at least not rn). The love was too quick, and the amount of trust issues, insecurities, and fights they had was so wrong and unhealthy. Xaden was being protective of her and hiding truths from her for her OWN SAFETY! and saying from experience, fantasy girlies do not like overprotective bfs. AND ADDING CATRIONA IN IT? That was the worst! The whole ex-jealousy thing was insane. and if this keeps going on, I don't think XadenVi will be the endgame (there are 5 books ffs)
• side characters:
For me, Rhiannon stole the show. She's so mature and amazing? and I love her sm! How she kept calm and been patient and supported Violet, and she's so damn skillful? SHE DESERVED APPRECIATION AND I'M GLAD SHE GOT IT. She's super genius and literally figured most of the things out and told Violet that 'she'll wait for her to tell her everything' like GURLLLLL 🥺🥰🤭💕
Dain's reasoning was prettyyy... reasonable? I knew and already predicted what he would say, and it turned out I was correct! I liked his redemption arc though and realized that I cursed him way too much 😂 ok, Dain, you can be back on my okay-ish list. and HE HAD NO RIGHT TO COPY XADEN'S LINES 💀
AARIC GRAYCASTLE Y'ALL (not his real name but will do) jekdjs he's so hot? 😭 GREEN EYES ARE A BIG WEAKNESS, and I truly see him getting bigger parts in the other books cuz duh he's so freaking amazing and .... royal. He's the next Liam 🥹 (sans the death part). HE CARES FOR VIOLET TOO, DADDY ISSUES AND IS CUTIEEE! I low-key ship him and Violet together hhahahaha and pls no sloaneAaric.
Sloane was seriously just different than Liam lol! I expected too much, but she was not that important in this book besides Violet constantly checking up on her. Ngl some scenes/hallucinations of Liam made me so happy and sad. 🥹
Rodic hdkejs he's so good, and his character damn he's actually pretty amazing! I'm glad his character got recognized a lot in this book!
Varrish soooo weirddd sooo creepyyyyy! 👺 I hated him so much and what he did with Violet? HE DESERVED A PAINFUL DEATH WTH! I loved when he begged violet on his knees like bishhhh you deserve that.
General Sorrengail MOTHER. 🫡 The quote where she told her husband THAT EVERYTHING SHE EVER DID WAS JUST TO SAVE HER CHILDREN! 💔
“Most generals dream of dying in service to their kingdom. But you know me better than that, my love.When I fall, it will be for one reason only: to protect our children.”
Now, all said, I truly think that this book was too long, and a lot of things were super tough and descriptive like: runes...? what the fuck were those? I read many times and I came with a seizure because why are they even added? A second reread would help, but I won't go there anytime soon. A lot of elements of this book were so weird that I prefer book 1 A LOT!
what the actual fuckery?
I can finally sleep now as I haven't slept more than 5 hours just to finish this book.
I'm sorry but I didn't know about this author being zionist when I read this book and I didnt contribute to her financially and all as I read the pirated version. I'm not supporting gen0cide at all!
RATINGS:
• Fourth Wing – 5 stars
• Iron Flame – 3.75 stars
• Onyx Storm – tbr
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January 24, 2025
|| 2.0 stars ||
Well, damn. This was incredibly disappointing...
I don’t even really know where to start with this review, because I feel like I have so many complaints.
First and foremost, let’s start with one of the book’s most glaring issues: the writing was genuinely bad. It’s as plain and simple as that. This whole thing dragged like crazy and I was just so bored most of the time. Not only that, the writing was also painfully shallow. Nothing and no one had depth: all of the characters were completely one-dimensional and the plot failed to be interesting or engaging in any way.
Speaking of the characters, let’s go on with my complaints by talking about our failure of a main character. I don’t know what happened to Violet between this one and the previous book, but I don’t recognize her whatsoever. She used to be the perfect balance of kind and bad-ass with a clever and sharp mind to boot! But now this girl we all knew and loved disappeared completely and instead we got this whiny, insecure idiot without a single rational thought going on inside that annoying brain of hers. I suddenly couldn’t stand her anymore!
Same goes for Xaden: he suffered from major character assassination as well. He used to be strong, smart, mysterious, intriguing, and swoony as hell, but that was all gone now. Xaden turned into the most flat character ever, and he had no depth whatsoever. He truly felt like a robot to me, and I lost all interest in him. He is gone for most of the book, and at first I really missed his presence, but after a while, I was just bored every time he came on page, because I knew he would be the same repetitive and annoying character he was during all his other scenes, so I kind of didn’t care anymore if he was gone or not.
The fact that both Violet and Xaden turned into insufferable characters is probably a big reason as to why their romance was terrible in this book too. First of all, after the end of the first book I needed to get some groveling from Xaden, but did we get that here? No. Not even for a second. Xaden wasn’t sorry, he wasn’t regretful, he wasn’t trying to earn back Violet’s trust. No. He didn’t do anything. He didn’t even fight for Violet to forgive him. He was just... waiting. Not lifting a single finger to get back the woman he supposedly loves. He was so cocky in knowing that Violet would crawl back to him anyway that he refused to do anything to speed up the process. He just waited. And I guess he was right, because our spine-less heroine did indeed take him back without getting anything in return: no promises, no trust. Just nothing.
Which obviously leads to a very unhealthy relationship between them where they don’t trust each other and in which they refuse to communicate. EVER. All they do is be horny and have sex, but they never actually talk anymore. They don’t confide in each other and neither do they let themselves fully open up to the other. Their entire relationship was just shallow, boring and irritating. I no longer liked anything about it. And then we even got some goddamn other woman drama, and my patience just vanished! I hated it.
Now, when it comes to the side characters I don’t even know where to begin, because I feel like none of them were written well or with any depth to them. It’s like the author could never seem to focus on more than a few characters at the same time, so whenever she wanted to pay attention to one side character, all the other side characters just fell away. For example: at the beginning of this book we have quite a lot of focus on Imogen, and I was really seeing some amazing progress between her and Violet. I thought I saw the start of a beautiful friendship forming between them. But then, the moment Rhiannon started coming back into the fold (after being ignored in the first part), Imogen completely fell away again and her relationship with Violet never picked up. It’s like the author couldn’t handle Violet having more than one close female friend; she couldn’t focus on both at the same time. And therefore, neither Imogen or Rhiannon ever truly felt like friends to Violet because they were often suddenly ignored in her inner monologue or in the story. They were more like decoration, like tools to further the story along. Thus, none of Violet’s friends ever feel like real characters on their own..
I loved the dragons in the first book; they were my favourite part of the entire book. But now, I couldn’t care less. Tairn used to be this sassy, grumpy dad-type, but now he was just a flat, monotone character with no real personality. Everything he said was repetitive, and his entire character just seemed way too simple and lacking any sort of depth. When it came to Andarna, I genuinely think her entire character was butchered. She used to be this cute and precious little baby, and now she turned into someone annoying, bitchy and arrogant without any meaningful connection to Violet. She was like an entitled teenager, and there’s a reason why nobody likes those.
Of course, there were also other characters of whom I was really looking forward to seeing their story develop, but I didn’t get anything remotely satisfying when it came to them. Liam’s sister was only in a few scenes and in most of them she was just flat-out exasperating; everything about her character was anti-climactic.
More importantly however, I feel like Dain just got completely ignored during this entire book. He used to be Violet’s best friend for such a long time and after it is revealed he didn’t even really do anything to betray her, Violet doesn’t remotely seem to care?? She doesn’t think about him and she doesn’t give him the time of day... she sort of forgives him but not really?? It was so weakly developed and I honestly expected more. It was, once again, very anti-climactic.
Long story short, the only reason I somewhat enjoyed this book, and why I even finished it, is because I still felt a semblance of attachment to the story and these characters after book one, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me engaged for long enough. I couldn’t help but skim near the end of this book, because I was just so bored. I genuinely didn’t care anymore, and this book was just way too long for no reason. All in all, this was one big disappointment to me.
'The Empyrean' series:
1. Fourth Wing - 4.5 stars
2. Iron Flame - 2.0 stars
3. Onyx Storm - 2.5 stars
Well, damn. This was incredibly disappointing...
I don’t even really know where to start with this review, because I feel like I have so many complaints.
First and foremost, let’s start with one of the book’s most glaring issues: the writing was genuinely bad. It’s as plain and simple as that. This whole thing dragged like crazy and I was just so bored most of the time. Not only that, the writing was also painfully shallow. Nothing and no one had depth: all of the characters were completely one-dimensional and the plot failed to be interesting or engaging in any way.
Speaking of the characters, let’s go on with my complaints by talking about our failure of a main character. I don’t know what happened to Violet between this one and the previous book, but I don’t recognize her whatsoever. She used to be the perfect balance of kind and bad-ass with a clever and sharp mind to boot! But now this girl we all knew and loved disappeared completely and instead we got this whiny, insecure idiot without a single rational thought going on inside that annoying brain of hers. I suddenly couldn’t stand her anymore!
Same goes for Xaden: he suffered from major character assassination as well. He used to be strong, smart, mysterious, intriguing, and swoony as hell, but that was all gone now. Xaden turned into the most flat character ever, and he had no depth whatsoever. He truly felt like a robot to me, and I lost all interest in him. He is gone for most of the book, and at first I really missed his presence, but after a while, I was just bored every time he came on page, because I knew he would be the same repetitive and annoying character he was during all his other scenes, so I kind of didn’t care anymore if he was gone or not.
The fact that both Violet and Xaden turned into insufferable characters is probably a big reason as to why their romance was terrible in this book too. First of all, after the end of the first book I needed to get some groveling from Xaden, but did we get that here? No. Not even for a second. Xaden wasn’t sorry, he wasn’t regretful, he wasn’t trying to earn back Violet’s trust. No. He didn’t do anything. He didn’t even fight for Violet to forgive him. He was just... waiting. Not lifting a single finger to get back the woman he supposedly loves. He was so cocky in knowing that Violet would crawl back to him anyway that he refused to do anything to speed up the process. He just waited. And I guess he was right, because our spine-less heroine did indeed take him back without getting anything in return: no promises, no trust. Just nothing.
Which obviously leads to a very unhealthy relationship between them where they don’t trust each other and in which they refuse to communicate. EVER. All they do is be horny and have sex, but they never actually talk anymore. They don’t confide in each other and neither do they let themselves fully open up to the other. Their entire relationship was just shallow, boring and irritating. I no longer liked anything about it. And then we even got some goddamn other woman drama, and my patience just vanished! I hated it.
Now, when it comes to the side characters I don’t even know where to begin, because I feel like none of them were written well or with any depth to them. It’s like the author could never seem to focus on more than a few characters at the same time, so whenever she wanted to pay attention to one side character, all the other side characters just fell away. For example: at the beginning of this book we have quite a lot of focus on Imogen, and I was really seeing some amazing progress between her and Violet. I thought I saw the start of a beautiful friendship forming between them. But then, the moment Rhiannon started coming back into the fold (after being ignored in the first part), Imogen completely fell away again and her relationship with Violet never picked up. It’s like the author couldn’t handle Violet having more than one close female friend; she couldn’t focus on both at the same time. And therefore, neither Imogen or Rhiannon ever truly felt like friends to Violet because they were often suddenly ignored in her inner monologue or in the story. They were more like decoration, like tools to further the story along. Thus, none of Violet’s friends ever feel like real characters on their own..
I loved the dragons in the first book; they were my favourite part of the entire book. But now, I couldn’t care less. Tairn used to be this sassy, grumpy dad-type, but now he was just a flat, monotone character with no real personality. Everything he said was repetitive, and his entire character just seemed way too simple and lacking any sort of depth. When it came to Andarna, I genuinely think her entire character was butchered. She used to be this cute and precious little baby, and now she turned into someone annoying, bitchy and arrogant without any meaningful connection to Violet. She was like an entitled teenager, and there’s a reason why nobody likes those.
Of course, there were also other characters of whom I was really looking forward to seeing their story develop, but I didn’t get anything remotely satisfying when it came to them. Liam’s sister was only in a few scenes and in most of them she was just flat-out exasperating; everything about her character was anti-climactic.
More importantly however, I feel like Dain just got completely ignored during this entire book. He used to be Violet’s best friend for such a long time and after it is revealed he didn’t even really do anything to betray her, Violet doesn’t remotely seem to care?? She doesn’t think about him and she doesn’t give him the time of day... she sort of forgives him but not really?? It was so weakly developed and I honestly expected more. It was, once again, very anti-climactic.
Long story short, the only reason I somewhat enjoyed this book, and why I even finished it, is because I still felt a semblance of attachment to the story and these characters after book one, but even that wasn’t enough to keep me engaged for long enough. I couldn’t help but skim near the end of this book, because I was just so bored. I genuinely didn’t care anymore, and this book was just way too long for no reason. All in all, this was one big disappointment to me.
'The Empyrean' series:
1. Fourth Wing - 4.5 stars
2. Iron Flame - 2.0 stars
3. Onyx Storm - 2.5 stars
May 3, 2024
✅REREAD (MAY 2024)
I had such an amazing time with this book. If anything, I loved it even more than the first time. The foreshadowing was worth enjoying. The dragons? Great as ever. The side characters? Fun as ever. The romance? Swoon worthy as ever. I found the communication to be better read this time comparatively. The ending? Gut wrenching as ever.
~•~•~
✅ORIGINAL REVIEW (Nov 2023)
Before I start with the review, please note- I sympathize and support people who have been impacted by the war. Genocide isn't okay. War isn't okay. But at the same time, am not gonna be discussing these issues on a bookish website. This is not the place for me to share my personal beliefs and what is being done behind the scenes. I do NOT owe anyone any explanations here. I can choose how to go about on my account and my reviews and you can choose not to read it.
I will only be discussing the actual book on my reviews and won't be engaging in any debates or harassment. Please try to refrain from commenting if you are looking to fight, cause I will delete those comments and block.
I have had enough and I wish you all love and peace. This is not the way to go about things, let's be rational and restore GR to a loving community. I just want to read in peace.
LET'S START WITH THE REVIEW
"Trust me yet?"
"With my life." 🫠🫠
After having some time to recollect my thoughts, I do believe that in no way this was a perfect book. Yet it was so enjoyable and exciting. I loved it in all its imperfections. Xaden and Violet have my heart and the series seems to be getting darker and more powerful. But oh how I ate it all up 🤭
Was it better than Fourth Wing? The plot certainly was better but I do think people will find its execution a bit messy in general.
Is it binge worthy? Absolutely, you just need time.
So A LOT happens in this one, in fact way more than the first book. This book is so action packed and relationship focused, I didn't think I could love this series more but I really do. The best part about this was Tairn and Andarna. No one can tell me otherwise. I came in to love Xaden and Violet but the dragons... AHHHH 😩😩❤
The book picks up immediately after the events of Fourth Wing and with no time wasted we jump into the story. I liked the addition of new characters and the way they all had their own personalities yet never overpowering. Felix and his sarcastic arse was top notch. I liked how he kept things real. I do believe the transition of Solane's issues with Violet could have been smoothened a bit considering how strong she came to be. I absolutely LOATHED Varrish. He's the equivalent of Umbridge I swear. Hated, hated, hated him. Those who have read Fourth Wing know, am not mentioning one of the characters, but I'll just say- his dynamic with Violet was chef's kiss 🤌
"I want you exactly how you are, emotions and all. I want the woman I fell for..."
🩶I loved Xaden and Violet. The groveling and reassurance THROUGHOUT the book was everything!! So we all know how things were left in Fourth Wing, and I expected Xaden to grovel his way for a few pages but our girl Violet made him grovel the whole time and I LOVED it. He was patient with her, he took his time with her. He made mistakes in this one too but he owned up to it and gave her answers.
❤️🔥She had 100 questions? He answered them all. She asked the same question a million times? He answered it each and every damn time. Someone tried to make her jealous? He confidently claimed and assured her every time. Yeah, exactly! That's the kind of man he is 🤭😌
⚡I adored Violet in this. Let's be honest, there will be a lot of people who will find her annoying and insecure in this one. I personally did not. To me it made sense. Everyone lied to her throughout her whole life. Almost every new person wants to kill her. She lost someone very close to her. Her issues with Cat although wasn't really necessary but made sense. It gave Xaden and Violet the opportunity to become confident in each other and gave the opportunity to trust each other again. I loved Violet was patient and open towards Xaden, well eventually 🤭
🐉Now let's get to my babies- Tairn and Andarna. Y'all if you adored them in the last book? You will LOVE them in this. Tairn was his sarcastic self, caring self and always giving his Silver One wisdom. I absolutely LOVED Andarna. Her adolescent self was so snarky, it was adorable. I wanted to protect them both, and especially my baby Andarna. Her reveals (Yes, multiple reveals 👀) had me gasping. I can't wait to see what else is in store for them.
🔥The side characters- Ridoc, Sawyer, Imogen and Rhi were such good friends. The way they supported Violet through thick and thin. They had each other's backs. Sawyer and Jesina? They'll be cute together if it happens 🤭 These four kept me laughing. They made the two main characters real and brought life to the book. B and Mira 🫡
🤡 Dain and Cat- Bro now idk what to think about them 😭😩 It feels weird. No they're not a couple or anything, just two idiotic characters....
"I would have done the same thing you did because I'm just as reckless for you as you are for me."
The romance. The spice. The action. The plot twists. The drama. The reveals. The writing. PERFECT 🤭🤭 I believe the torture scenes and the training bits were the best written parts as it showed how deep all of their bond was. But that one scene (can't spoil) had me bawling my eyes out, so heart touching and I just wanted to hold and hug him 😭😭😭❤ Those who have read it will know 😭
The reveals at the end tho OH MY GOSHHHH. Yes it's true I got spoiled for the ending but I didn't let it get to me. I was bummed but I ate it up because of how well Rebecca Yarros wrote it. The action was so good!! I couldn't put the book down at all. The cliffhanger tho 😭😭😭😭 DAMN BRUTAL. DAMN. BRUTAL.
Am gonna be obsessed with the next one too 😩😩 Can't wait for it.
Be kind on the review. Or just move on, I won't tolerate any harassment on my reviews against my friends or me.
~•~•~
LET'S GOOOOO
I had such an amazing time with this book. If anything, I loved it even more than the first time. The foreshadowing was worth enjoying. The dragons? Great as ever. The side characters? Fun as ever. The romance? Swoon worthy as ever. I found the communication to be better read this time comparatively. The ending? Gut wrenching as ever.
~•~•~
✅ORIGINAL REVIEW (Nov 2023)
Before I start with the review, please note- I sympathize and support people who have been impacted by the war. Genocide isn't okay. War isn't okay. But at the same time, am not gonna be discussing these issues on a bookish website. This is not the place for me to share my personal beliefs and what is being done behind the scenes. I do NOT owe anyone any explanations here. I can choose how to go about on my account and my reviews and you can choose not to read it.
I will only be discussing the actual book on my reviews and won't be engaging in any debates or harassment. Please try to refrain from commenting if you are looking to fight, cause I will delete those comments and block.
I have had enough and I wish you all love and peace. This is not the way to go about things, let's be rational and restore GR to a loving community. I just want to read in peace.
LET'S START WITH THE REVIEW
"Trust me yet?"
"With my life." 🫠🫠
After having some time to recollect my thoughts, I do believe that in no way this was a perfect book. Yet it was so enjoyable and exciting. I loved it in all its imperfections. Xaden and Violet have my heart and the series seems to be getting darker and more powerful. But oh how I ate it all up 🤭
Was it better than Fourth Wing? The plot certainly was better but I do think people will find its execution a bit messy in general.
Is it binge worthy? Absolutely, you just need time.
So A LOT happens in this one, in fact way more than the first book. This book is so action packed and relationship focused, I didn't think I could love this series more but I really do. The best part about this was Tairn and Andarna. No one can tell me otherwise. I came in to love Xaden and Violet but the dragons... AHHHH 😩😩❤
The book picks up immediately after the events of Fourth Wing and with no time wasted we jump into the story. I liked the addition of new characters and the way they all had their own personalities yet never overpowering. Felix and his sarcastic arse was top notch. I liked how he kept things real. I do believe the transition of Solane's issues with Violet could have been smoothened a bit considering how strong she came to be. I absolutely LOATHED Varrish. He's the equivalent of Umbridge I swear. Hated, hated, hated him. Those who have read Fourth Wing know, am not mentioning one of the characters, but I'll just say- his dynamic with Violet was chef's kiss 🤌
"I want you exactly how you are, emotions and all. I want the woman I fell for..."
🩶I loved Xaden and Violet. The groveling and reassurance THROUGHOUT the book was everything!! So we all know how things were left in Fourth Wing, and I expected Xaden to grovel his way for a few pages but our girl Violet made him grovel the whole time and I LOVED it. He was patient with her, he took his time with her. He made mistakes in this one too but he owned up to it and gave her answers.
❤️🔥She had 100 questions? He answered them all. She asked the same question a million times? He answered it each and every damn time. Someone tried to make her jealous? He confidently claimed and assured her every time. Yeah, exactly! That's the kind of man he is 🤭😌
⚡I adored Violet in this. Let's be honest, there will be a lot of people who will find her annoying and insecure in this one. I personally did not. To me it made sense. Everyone lied to her throughout her whole life. Almost every new person wants to kill her. She lost someone very close to her. Her issues with Cat although wasn't really necessary but made sense. It gave Xaden and Violet the opportunity to become confident in each other and gave the opportunity to trust each other again. I loved Violet was patient and open towards Xaden, well eventually 🤭
🐉Now let's get to my babies- Tairn and Andarna. Y'all if you adored them in the last book? You will LOVE them in this. Tairn was his sarcastic self, caring self and always giving his Silver One wisdom. I absolutely LOVED Andarna. Her adolescent self was so snarky, it was adorable. I wanted to protect them both, and especially my baby Andarna. Her reveals (Yes, multiple reveals 👀) had me gasping. I can't wait to see what else is in store for them.
🔥The side characters- Ridoc, Sawyer, Imogen and Rhi were such good friends. The way they supported Violet through thick and thin. They had each other's backs. Sawyer and Jesina? They'll be cute together if it happens 🤭 These four kept me laughing. They made the two main characters real and brought life to the book. B and Mira 🫡
🤡 Dain and Cat- Bro now idk what to think about them 😭😩 It feels weird. No they're not a couple or anything, just two idiotic characters....
"I would have done the same thing you did because I'm just as reckless for you as you are for me."
The romance. The spice. The action. The plot twists. The drama. The reveals. The writing. PERFECT 🤭🤭 I believe the torture scenes and the training bits were the best written parts as it showed how deep all of their bond was. But that one scene (can't spoil) had me bawling my eyes out, so heart touching and I just wanted to hold and hug him 😭😭😭❤ Those who have read it will know 😭
The reveals at the end tho OH MY GOSHHHH. Yes it's true I got spoiled for the ending but I didn't let it get to me. I was bummed but I ate it up because of how well Rebecca Yarros wrote it. The action was so good!! I couldn't put the book down at all. The cliffhanger tho 😭😭😭😭 DAMN BRUTAL. DAMN. BRUTAL.
Am gonna be obsessed with the next one too 😩😩 Can't wait for it.
Be kind on the review. Or just move on, I won't tolerate any harassment on my reviews against my friends or me.
~•~•~
LET'S GOOOOO
January 17, 2025
Reread: 6 stars the first time around 100 excruciatingly painful stars the second time around. Guys my heart is absolutely broken, I cannot stop crying. The way this book and these characters have seeped in to every part of my life…. All I feel is dread and anxiety and pain. Knowing the ending made this read a million times more painful. But this book is absolutely perfect I will accept zero criticism.
Final thoughts as I wipe the tears off my phone:
- Xaden is the only fictional man to exist. Number 1 book boyfriend forever and always.
- xadens love confession is the best love confession I have ever and will ever read.
- xaden and violet are soul mates and their love makes me actually physically and mentally ill. They are endgame but I know they are going to go through hell and back a million times over to get there.
- XADENNNNN MY SHAYLAAAAA WHYYYYYYYYYY why why why can’t my baby catch a break????!!!!!!
- onyx storm is going to ruin us in ways we can’t even imagine. I feel like this is absolutely going to be the book where xaden leaves Violet in the end to protect her and like guys…. I can’t take it. I can’t. I’m terrified. This cliffhanger is gonna put me in my grave. I probably will die before book 4 comes out.
- I can’t read anything else. Like I literally can’t do it.
- books ruin my life.
———————————————————————-
I have no words. This was PHENOMENAL, far exceeded my expectations and absolutely did not fall victim to second book syndrome in any way shape or form. I went absolutely FERAL gobbling up every single word on every page. Rebecca you are a GENIUS!!
Honestly I was scared that the ending was going to ruin me based on the reactions I saw on social media… but in all honesty I’m so happy with where the book ended! Hot take… but I definitely saw the foreshadowing throughout both books leading to this ending for either Xaden or Violet. I think this is a phenomenal progression of the story line and cannot wait to see where book 3 takes us!!
Xaden and violets relationship: I know some people are annoyed with their back and forth but I absolutely loved what Rebecca did with their relationship in this book. How Violet acted was REAL, she’s freaking 21 years old navigating her first real relationship and learning how to trust someone after the ultimate betrayal! I would have been surprised if their relationship wasn’t so wishy washy in the first half of the book! I adored seeing Xaden let his guard down and prove to Violet that his love will not falter and he will stand by her every step of the way. Them learning how to communicate and finally trust each other in the end was so rewarding and melted my heart. The spice…. Also PERFECTION
Personally I love Violet so much and watching her come into her power and learn how to trust herself tugged at my heartstrings. She stays true to the fact that she will do anything for the people she loves despite not being the strongest in the bunch, her mental toughness was beyond empowering.
The world building and plot development had me SO EXCITED! I feel like we learned so much while still having just the right amount of questions that have yet to be answered. This magic system is phenomenal and continues to surprise me. This book has just the right amount of plot, romance, and world building that is rare to find from a fantasy romance!
The side characters and little found family that was created also had me feral, definitely one of my favorite tropes.
Ahhhhh this was incredible I cannot wait for book 3!!!!!
Final thoughts as I wipe the tears off my phone:
- Xaden is the only fictional man to exist. Number 1 book boyfriend forever and always.
- xadens love confession is the best love confession I have ever and will ever read.
- xaden and violet are soul mates and their love makes me actually physically and mentally ill. They are endgame but I know they are going to go through hell and back a million times over to get there.
- XADENNNNN MY SHAYLAAAAA WHYYYYYYYYYY why why why can’t my baby catch a break????!!!!!!
- onyx storm is going to ruin us in ways we can’t even imagine. I feel like this is absolutely going to be the book where xaden leaves Violet in the end to protect her and like guys…. I can’t take it. I can’t. I’m terrified. This cliffhanger is gonna put me in my grave. I probably will die before book 4 comes out.
- I can’t read anything else. Like I literally can’t do it.
- books ruin my life.
———————————————————————-
I have no words. This was PHENOMENAL, far exceeded my expectations and absolutely did not fall victim to second book syndrome in any way shape or form. I went absolutely FERAL gobbling up every single word on every page. Rebecca you are a GENIUS!!
Honestly I was scared that the ending was going to ruin me based on the reactions I saw on social media… but in all honesty I’m so happy with where the book ended! Hot take… but I definitely saw the foreshadowing throughout both books leading to this ending for either Xaden or Violet. I think this is a phenomenal progression of the story line and cannot wait to see where book 3 takes us!!
Xaden and violets relationship: I know some people are annoyed with their back and forth but I absolutely loved what Rebecca did with their relationship in this book. How Violet acted was REAL, she’s freaking 21 years old navigating her first real relationship and learning how to trust someone after the ultimate betrayal! I would have been surprised if their relationship wasn’t so wishy washy in the first half of the book! I adored seeing Xaden let his guard down and prove to Violet that his love will not falter and he will stand by her every step of the way. Them learning how to communicate and finally trust each other in the end was so rewarding and melted my heart. The spice…. Also PERFECTION
Personally I love Violet so much and watching her come into her power and learn how to trust herself tugged at my heartstrings. She stays true to the fact that she will do anything for the people she loves despite not being the strongest in the bunch, her mental toughness was beyond empowering.
The world building and plot development had me SO EXCITED! I feel like we learned so much while still having just the right amount of questions that have yet to be answered. This magic system is phenomenal and continues to surprise me. This book has just the right amount of plot, romance, and world building that is rare to find from a fantasy romance!
The side characters and little found family that was created also had me feral, definitely one of my favorite tropes.
Ahhhhh this was incredible I cannot wait for book 3!!!!!
February 2, 2025
"Remember it's only the body that's fragile. You are unbreakable."
Ahh, that was pretty awesome. I'm going to need a moment to process all this.
Many moments later...
Right, onto my thoughts.
Allow me a second to gush here. I love it when a book knows what it's there to do, and that is to entertain the reader. It isn't there to be slow or boring or god forbid, pretentious (shudders). Rather, its goal is to squeeze every ounce of joy and delight out of the pages, and that's what this series does best.
Cracking open the first page, I was sucked right back into the world of Navarre and Violet Sorrengail. It's as if I've never left it. Everything I loved from the first book is here—nonstop action, characters I could root for, snarky dragons, and sizzling romance. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
The only thing I didn't love was our main couple having squabbles for half the book over reasons I couldn't make heads or tails of. I get that Rebecca Yarros has to inject some sort of strife between them to keep things interesting, but I was just confused. But if it's that or hundreds of pages of lovey-dovey mush, I guess I'll take confounding couple problems any day.
I always have a sliver of trepidation going into book 2 of a series. What if my enjoyment of the first book was a fluke, a figment of my imagination? Or that the author somehow found the magical formula once, but can't reproduce it again? Or worse, that there's no interesting story left to tell? But I needn't worry because Iron Flame contains all the magic of its predecessor.
I will say though, going in, the length at more than 600 pages was a bit daunting. But once I started, it didn't even matter. I was riveted throughout. It felt like every single page served a purpose—except for the aforementioned confounding couple problems—building momentum and eventually hurtling towards a stunning conclusion. Honestly, if there were another 600 pages, I'd happily gobble those up too.
Before this book, I admit I was a bit puzzled that there could be five books in this series, like how much more is there to this story? But seeing the way Yarros has built out the universe and the war in this book, and especially that ending, I get now how there could be so much more to this. And I'm glad. I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye to Navarre any time soon, so I'm happy there are still a few more books to come. I just hope the wait isn't too long.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
See also, my thoughts on:
#1. Fourth Wing
#3. Onyx Storm
~~~~~~~~~~~~
✧ Connect with me ✧ Instagram ✧
December 21, 2024
1 Star
Alright, I'm not going to rant or be very specific in this review because I know many people are still currently reading the book. I'll come back to edit and write a proper review at a later time, just didn't want to leave it hanging with no thoughts or rating.
Please take this with a grain of salt if you are a super fan of this series or of Rebecca Yarros in general.
I don't like her writing at all-not even a little bit.
The entire feel of the book is still juvenile af. Like all the YA trappings- except they fuck nonstop 🙄
I felt that really diminished Violet's character because
Let me not forget to mention the 'It'S aLl My FaUlT, eVeRyThInG iS mY fAuLt- AlL tHaT iS wRoNg In ThE wOrLd Is AlLlLlLlLlL mY fAuLt' - fr- stfu.
The world building again isn't very fleshed out .
Miscommunication, jealousy and insecurity GALORE
No character development - I actually disliked them more in this book than in book 1. Like, they went backwards. Lemme be specific- the main characters, Violet and Xaden.
The pacing is off- the beginning I felt didn't give enough, the middle was a slog, and everything but the kitchen sink is thrown at you so fast and hard at the end. Like wut?
I can't wait for more ppl to finish to see how they felt- I know I'm not a fan of this series but there has to be complaints from actual fans out there lol I mean come on. This was a hot mess and a bit of a dumpster fire.
⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂ ⠂⠄⠄⠂☆⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂ ⠂⠄⠄⠂☆⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂ ⠂⠄⠄⠂☆
OMG...ya'll- I'm freaking finished. 😅😅 RTC tomorrow 🖤🖤
Let's see what this sequel is bringing...here we go.
➽──────────────❥➽──────────────❥➽──────────────❥
It's not even the official release date yet (here in the US) and I already feel so late.
Late to read.
Late to discuss.
So behind.
Alright, I'm not going to rant or be very specific in this review because I know many people are still currently reading the book. I'll come back to edit and write a proper review at a later time, just didn't want to leave it hanging with no thoughts or rating.
Please take this with a grain of salt if you are a super fan of this series or of Rebecca Yarros in general.
I don't like her writing at all-not even a little bit.
The entire feel of the book is still juvenile af. Like all the YA trappings- except they fuck nonstop 🙄
I felt that really diminished Violet's character because
Let me not forget to mention the 'It'S aLl My FaUlT, eVeRyThInG iS mY fAuLt- AlL tHaT iS wRoNg In ThE wOrLd Is AlLlLlLlLlL mY fAuLt' - fr- stfu.
The world building again isn't very fleshed out .
Miscommunication, jealousy and insecurity GALORE
No character development - I actually disliked them more in this book than in book 1. Like, they went backwards. Lemme be specific- the main characters, Violet and Xaden.
The pacing is off- the beginning I felt didn't give enough, the middle was a slog, and everything but the kitchen sink is thrown at you so fast and hard at the end. Like wut?
I can't wait for more ppl to finish to see how they felt- I know I'm not a fan of this series but there has to be complaints from actual fans out there lol I mean come on. This was a hot mess and a bit of a dumpster fire.
⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂ ⠂⠄⠄⠂☆⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂ ⠂⠄⠄⠂☆⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂ ⠂⠄⠄⠂☆
OMG...ya'll- I'm freaking finished. 😅😅 RTC tomorrow 🖤🖤
Let's see what this sequel is bringing...here we go.
➽──────────────❥➽──────────────❥➽──────────────❥
It's not even the official release date yet (here in the US) and I already feel so late.
Late to read.
Late to discuss.
So behind.
November 22, 2023
I thought the first half of this book was close to unbearable and the second half was riveting.
Why an editor didn't suggest shaving off a hundred or so pages of this book I do not know. It would be quite easy. Just get rid of the constant repetitive repetitious:
and
Because, god, it's really not that complicated. The romantic will they/won't they mostly played out in Fourth Wing (of course they will) so having to sit through loads of faux love angst about "oh, Xaden, how can I know you? How can I trust you? Fuck, you have a hot ass" was so boring. Not to mention the fact that Yarros' smutty talk is kinda cringe.
I was so so close to skimming during the first half BUT I have to say I thought the book went on to redeem itself a lot in the second half.
The politics and magic of this world are surprisingly quite interesting when they manage to rear their head in between Violet and Xaden's theatrics. Yarros developed side characters further and I really came to love the camaraderie between Violet, Rhi, Sawyer and Ridoc, as well as the developing relationships and tensions with new characters. I love the voices of the dragons. I enjoyed Varrish as a villain (one of the few things I did enjoy about the first half.)
When we reached the battles at the climax of the novel, I couldn't look away. The action scenes were suspenseful and dramatic and the ending, though a bit predictable, made me actually interested in reading the next book.
I admit I was shocked to discover three more books are planned. Will they all be 600+ pages? Because I find it hard to believe this story has that much life left in it.
Why an editor didn't suggest shaving off a hundred or so pages of this book I do not know. It would be quite easy. Just get rid of the constant repetitive repetitious:
“How am I supposed to really love you if I don’t know you?”
and
“He doesn’t trust me.” I shrug. “And I can’t really trust him. It’s complicated.”
Because, god, it's really not that complicated. The romantic will they/won't they mostly played out in Fourth Wing (of course they will) so having to sit through loads of faux love angst about "oh, Xaden, how can I know you? How can I trust you? Fuck, you have a hot ass" was so boring. Not to mention the fact that Yarros' smutty talk is kinda cringe.
I was so so close to skimming during the first half BUT I have to say I thought the book went on to redeem itself a lot in the second half.
The politics and magic of this world are surprisingly quite interesting when they manage to rear their head in between Violet and Xaden's theatrics. Yarros developed side characters further and I really came to love the camaraderie between Violet, Rhi, Sawyer and Ridoc, as well as the developing relationships and tensions with new characters. I love the voices of the dragons. I enjoyed Varrish as a villain (one of the few things I did enjoy about the first half.)
When we reached the battles at the climax of the novel, I couldn't look away. The action scenes were suspenseful and dramatic and the ending, though a bit predictable, made me actually interested in reading the next book.
I admit I was shocked to discover three more books are planned. Will they all be 600+ pages? Because I find it hard to believe this story has that much life left in it.
December 31, 2024
This is definetly staying one star
After the shambles Rebecxa Yarros did on her Instagram, no wonder a person who supports the taking of other ppl's land has no problem stealing ideas, quotes, characters, plot and story from others
Canceling my order
Never reading
(Edit: well I read it, or rather fast read it cause it was baaaaad. Had to do that because of how ""sensitive"" some were of ""rating a book"" before reading it. Funny of how they have the problem with 1 stars but not 5 stars.
Anyway
Read it
Still 1 star)
The only thing that could save this book from the joke that was book 1 is if the dragons turn out to be the bad creatures who control the people for power or something
And Xaden dies
Anything
Just anything
Until then
This stays 1 star
Edit 2: oh my God🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 that ending
Well, I called it
How else she'll write a 5 book series 🤪🤪🤪
But still 1 star 🖕
≈===========================
Edit:
For those saying ""don't review without reading""
1- I don't need to read it to know that this book is baaaad, even worse than the first one. The rush to write and publish already doomed it
Example:
"Riders party as hard as we fight. And we fight pretty damn hard." 🤪🤪🤪
Like English is not my first language, and I even know how grammatically wrong these are!!
2- I did read 20% even before Nov 7 😎 (don't ask how) and 20% is more than enough
I may continue skimming because I am looking for a certain info to confirm a suspicion
3- "you call it revolution not a rebellion" .."you think you can win"
B:" we have to win, or we're dead. Navarre thinks they are safe behind wards..." How can RY write about this with passion and yet.....
4- the amount of damaged copies that were distributed is laughable. They doped you with sprayed edges and sacrificed the story (just check the 1 stars on Amazon)
5- the fact that most 5 stars here are from Romance girlie gives me all the evidence I need to know that as a fantasy, this book sucks 🤣🤣🤣🤣
After the shambles Rebecxa Yarros did on her Instagram, no wonder a person who supports the taking of other ppl's land has no problem stealing ideas, quotes, characters, plot and story from others
Canceling my order
Never reading
(Edit: well I read it, or rather fast read it cause it was baaaaad. Had to do that because of how ""sensitive"" some were of ""rating a book"" before reading it. Funny of how they have the problem with 1 stars but not 5 stars.
Anyway
Read it
Still 1 star)
The only thing that could save this book from the joke that was book 1 is if the dragons turn out to be the bad creatures who control the people for power or something
And Xaden dies
Anything
Just anything
Until then
This stays 1 star
Edit 2: oh my God🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 that ending
Well, I called it
How else she'll write a 5 book series 🤪🤪🤪
But still 1 star 🖕
≈===========================
Edit:
For those saying ""don't review without reading""
1- I don't need to read it to know that this book is baaaad, even worse than the first one. The rush to write and publish already doomed it
Example:
"Riders party as hard as we fight. And we fight pretty damn hard." 🤪🤪🤪
Like English is not my first language, and I even know how grammatically wrong these are!!
2- I did read 20% even before Nov 7 😎 (don't ask how) and 20% is more than enough
I may continue skimming because I am looking for a certain info to confirm a suspicion
3- "you call it revolution not a rebellion" .."you think you can win"
B:" we have to win, or we're dead. Navarre thinks they are safe behind wards..." How can RY write about this with passion and yet.....
4- the amount of damaged copies that were distributed is laughable. They doped you with sprayed edges and sacrificed the story (just check the 1 stars on Amazon)
5- the fact that most 5 stars here are from Romance girlie gives me all the evidence I need to know that as a fantasy, this book sucks 🤣🤣🤣🤣
March 28, 2024
I…think I liked this more than fourth wing? I’m scared something’s wrong with me but I really don’t know why people have so many negative things to say about this book. It was action packed and Xaden was as gorgeous as ever. Even though it was spoiled for me I actually liked the ending and am excited for that plot line to pick right back up in the next book. I will say a qualm I have is that things are described in a way more complicated way than they need to be (ex. the runes/wards and also I cannot for the life of me orient myself in the battle scenes). And yes violet was annoying in the beginning but we all have our days… 4.5 stars
April 12, 2024
The conflict seems too complicated… The author tries too hard to paint it black and white… I think we need to remember that there are always two sides to the story... Maybe the MC IS the bad guy… Maybe there is nothing wrong with the system!! It’s a shame they are trying to start a rebellion. Violet should just stop fighting and pray for peace ☮️🙏🏽
Right?.. 🙃
EDIT: If you’re not seeing clear metaphor in my review you should read something besides fantasy. Like… the room 🍉
Right?.. 🙃
EDIT: If you’re not seeing clear metaphor in my review you should read something besides fantasy. Like… the room 🍉
January 15, 2025
reread review : truly LOL revisiting my most-viral Goodreads review that still gets me hate to this day - it was a JOKE, Y’ALL!!😂 but also!!! upon my second read this did dip to 4.5⭐️s but I simply refuse to go any lower because I still loved it!!! it just was a tad slow + repetitive! however *~Violet + Xaden 5ever~*
———————————————————————————
I got married in July but these books are still the best things that happened to me all year.
———————————————————————————
I got married in July but these books are still the best things that happened to me all year.
November 9, 2023
Literary fast fashion. Fast fantasy? To the people rating this five stars, get well soon. Whatever you're going through can't be easy.
Anyways, I'm extremely happy I hate-read this on my library app instead of paying real green US dollars for a book that was so obviously rushed by everyone involved.
Anyways, I'm extremely happy I hate-read this on my library app instead of paying real green US dollars for a book that was so obviously rushed by everyone involved.
June 9, 2025
They removed my previous review. So I’ll keep it with this
November 9, 2023
DNF @ pg 125
if you decided not to read this book, you are missing nothing 😒
I can't believe this trash got approved for 5 books, RY literally what more do you have to say??
***
i better see some good, long groveling goddammit 😮💨😮💨
if you decided not to read this book, you are missing nothing 😒
I can't believe this trash got approved for 5 books, RY literally what more do you have to say??
***
i better see some good, long groveling goddammit 😮💨😮💨
November 9, 2023
violet somehow had time to shave her coochie while at war
November 9, 2023
what the fuck am i supposed to do now?
November 13, 2023
nobody talk to me, i‘m having a mental breakdown
November 28, 2023
ngl this one made me embarrassed that I liked the first book. i will be taking no questions at this time. thank you 🤡
November 18, 2023
El primero me gustó más, pero este también es todo un ride. Estoy súper invested.
March 21, 2024
so this is what they meant when they said "fast fashion books"
rushed, lazy, just carbon-copies the blueprint of book 1 in the series... but doesn't work.
rushed, lazy, just carbon-copies the blueprint of book 1 in the series... but doesn't work.
January 18, 2025
no one talk to me i’m unwell
January 13, 2025
glad this is my last book of 2024 because we can only go up from here in 2025
January 18, 2025
Part One:
Picking up fifteen minutes after the ending of Fourth Wing, Iron Flame opens with Violet staring at her not-dead brother and not with her killing everyone in the room, which had been my hope. Xaden promises to tell Violet everything from now on except for the stuff he won’t tell her. Dain is just Ken. Violet lifts her chin once every eight pages and tries to make up for Liam’s death by taunting his sister with letters that absolutely do not belong to her. Xaden is upset Violet won’t say “I love you” while also never saying “I love you”. The school spends a huge amount of effort bringing one asshole back from the dead while just kind of letting other students get murdered in the hallways without interfering, like National Geographic photographers. There is also dragon stuff, I guess. Wards? Sure.
Part Two:
Everyone who didn’t hate Dain and assumed he was capable of some sort of redemption feels very smug (it’s me). Violet feels guilty about everything and Tairn continues to call her Silver One even though that and her name have the same number of syllables. Mira finds out Brennan is alive and promptly punches him, which was the right call. Tairn keeps threatening to eat people and then not eating them. Xaden has an ex who is an absolute bitch. There is a mountain hike that lasts like a hundred pages for… bonding? Xaden is a lying hunk of junk and Andarna is a bratty teenager who is also super old. Momma Sorrengail dies, which is fine. There is a battle that is about seventy pages too long and ends with Xaden getting Venin-vermined (Dorian’d, if you will). Oh no, whatever can be done? Someone should punch Brennan again.
1/17/25 reread: Reread update: the real hero of this story is Tairn, for remaining the growly voice of reason during uncertain times, and also for not eating his bonded rider and teenage daughter when a lesser dragon would have. Also, you know what? Dain’s not so bad. There, I said it. Dain’s not so bad. He’s fine. He’s growing and learning and he’s doing fine.
Picking up fifteen minutes after the ending of Fourth Wing, Iron Flame opens with Violet staring at her not-dead brother and not with her killing everyone in the room, which had been my hope. Xaden promises to tell Violet everything from now on except for the stuff he won’t tell her. Dain is just Ken. Violet lifts her chin once every eight pages and tries to make up for Liam’s death by taunting his sister with letters that absolutely do not belong to her. Xaden is upset Violet won’t say “I love you” while also never saying “I love you”. The school spends a huge amount of effort bringing one asshole back from the dead while just kind of letting other students get murdered in the hallways without interfering, like National Geographic photographers. There is also dragon stuff, I guess. Wards? Sure.
Part Two:
Everyone who didn’t hate Dain and assumed he was capable of some sort of redemption feels very smug (it’s me). Violet feels guilty about everything and Tairn continues to call her Silver One even though that and her name have the same number of syllables. Mira finds out Brennan is alive and promptly punches him, which was the right call. Tairn keeps threatening to eat people and then not eating them. Xaden has an ex who is an absolute bitch. There is a mountain hike that lasts like a hundred pages for… bonding? Xaden is a lying hunk of junk and Andarna is a bratty teenager who is also super old. Momma Sorrengail dies, which is fine. There is a battle that is about seventy pages too long and ends with Xaden getting Venin-vermined (Dorian’d, if you will). Oh no, whatever can be done? Someone should punch Brennan again.
1/17/25 reread: Reread update: the real hero of this story is Tairn, for remaining the growly voice of reason during uncertain times, and also for not eating his bonded rider and teenage daughter when a lesser dragon would have. Also, you know what? Dain’s not so bad. There, I said it. Dain’s not so bad. He’s fine. He’s growing and learning and he’s doing fine.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2023
If I could erase one series from the world, it would be this one. Nothing original, badly written with bland characters and romance. The way she has written the main girl, like she needs to be violent under the threat of violence(her nickname, btw), has written Murica all over it. People are dying on the page, but she is horny which is something that
Rebecca does in her books.
Also, I'm positive this is an industry plant series, so I'm interested if this book is going to get booted in rating like the first one. Read anything else besides this.
Rebecca does in her books.
Also, I'm positive this is an industry plant series, so I'm interested if this book is going to get booted in rating like the first one. Read anything else besides this.
November 14, 2023
I don’t remember signing up for 600+ pages of miscommunication and gaslighting? 🤠
if you don’t like rants, buckle up.
this was easily the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I don’t understand how an author can go from writing a captivating world with a fun magic system, an incredible enemies to lovers dynamic, & well-written, fleshed out characters… to completely dismantling every aspect of that in a single book. I can not stress enough how painful this was to get through. I was tempted several times to dnf and simply pretend it doesn’t exist.
the main characters in this were absolutely infuriating. they both became the worst possible versions of themselves and it made their relationship completely insufferable. they went from being one of my favorite book couples, to me not caring whether they even lived to see the end of the book.
the entire story was so rushed through that I was getting whiplash. the plot of this one book could’ve been spread across the next three books. she needs to slow down the story, because rushing through the plot devalues everything.
throwing in plot twists every other chapter for shock value does not make a book better, especially considering most of these plot twists were clearly not planned out. it just feels exhausting.
rebecca yarros needs to seriously reevaluate her long-term plan if she wants to restore the integrity of this series (if possible at this rate). the remaining 3 books need to be properly researched, thoroughly thought out, and most importantly: NOT rushed for the sake of popularity.
and it probably wouldn’t hurt to fire whoever her editor is (if said editor exists)
two stars for a three star read. yes, i’m knocking an additional star off for this being my most highly anticipated read for the back half of the year, and then it having the absolute audacity to be one of the worst books i’ve ever read.
if you don’t like rants, buckle up.
this was easily the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I don’t understand how an author can go from writing a captivating world with a fun magic system, an incredible enemies to lovers dynamic, & well-written, fleshed out characters… to completely dismantling every aspect of that in a single book. I can not stress enough how painful this was to get through. I was tempted several times to dnf and simply pretend it doesn’t exist.
the main characters in this were absolutely infuriating. they both became the worst possible versions of themselves and it made their relationship completely insufferable. they went from being one of my favorite book couples, to me not caring whether they even lived to see the end of the book.
the entire story was so rushed through that I was getting whiplash. the plot of this one book could’ve been spread across the next three books. she needs to slow down the story, because rushing through the plot devalues everything.
throwing in plot twists every other chapter for shock value does not make a book better, especially considering most of these plot twists were clearly not planned out. it just feels exhausting.
rebecca yarros needs to seriously reevaluate her long-term plan if she wants to restore the integrity of this series (if possible at this rate). the remaining 3 books need to be properly researched, thoroughly thought out, and most importantly: NOT rushed for the sake of popularity.
and it probably wouldn’t hurt to fire whoever her editor is (if said editor exists)
two stars for a three star read. yes, i’m knocking an additional star off for this being my most highly anticipated read for the back half of the year, and then it having the absolute audacity to be one of the worst books i’ve ever read.
January 23, 2025
10000/5 starts, HOLLY. FUCKING. SHIT. I’m literally unwell after reading this….
Update: read it for the second time, I still think the same thing.
Update: read it for the second time, I still think the same thing.
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