Tag: Fourth Wing

Review: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Anna and AlexisLeave a comment
Alexis' hand, in a fuzzy white sweater, holds a library copy of Iron Flame in front of a bookshelf and a stuffed gingerbread man.

Alexis:

Was I the first person to put Iron Flame on hold at my library? Yes, yes I was.

Hi, everyone! It’s been a while again. Work and life have been busy, but I’ve been reading as much as ever.

I recently read Iron Flame, the much anticipated sequel to the dragon fantasy/romantasy book Fourth Wing. I had heard some mixed reviews from other reviewers, so I was interested to see what I thought.

Well, I liked it! It’s hard to review a sequel without giving away anything, but I’ll go over some key points.

Things I Liked:

  • I enjoyed the worldbuilding. Fourth Wing was definitely more of an all vibes, no worldbuilding kind of book, so I’m glad that Yarros delves deeper into the world in Iron Flame.
  • Dragons! There are a lot more dragons in this book, and more facts and lore about dragons are revealed. There’s also a good dragon-related plot twist.
  • The ending. Yarros is clearly good at writing a good cliffhanger, which can be a plus or minus for readers. For me, I think she actually does a good job of making you anticipate the next book in the series without making the cliffhanger itself super frustrating. There is also, yet again, another good plot twist at the end.

Things I Didn’t Like As Much:

  • The romance. To be fair, the romance wasn’t my favorite part of Fourth Wing, either. But Xaden somehow manages to feel more toxic in Iron Flame, and a large aspect of this book centers on a point of contention—which feels like it purely exists just to add tension to their relationship. 

Overall, I definitely don’t think this was a bad sequel, and I also don’t think it felt rushed or unedited. It just wasn’t as fast-paced or romance heavy as the first book. I think this series is worth a read if you’re looking for a fun, action-y series that doesn’t take itself seriously, and if you don’t mind modern dialogue in fantasy books. Plus, dragons!

A GIF of Dany from Game of Thrones with her dragon

Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Anna and Alexis1 Comment
Alexis' hand holds a library copy of Fourth Wing over a gray blanket and a green blanket

Alexis:

Look what came in from the library! And yes, I did sit down and binge-read it in two days.

I want to start out by saying that I know that Fourth Wing has been EVERYWHERE. Like, I have seen it not only on book accounts, but just all over the internet in general. And by the time I realized this might be a book I should read (especially since it’s my genre), it was sold out of bookstores. So, thank you to my local library!

Due to this book’s hype, I’m not going to include a synopsis here, so feel free to look up what this book is about if you’ve managed to miss the frenzied discussion around it.

First off, I want to start off with my criticisms of this book.

Fourth Wing is in the same vein as A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Serpent and the Wings of Night with a dash of Eragon on top, so if those are your jam, this might be for you. 

This certainly isn’t a unique book, and honestly, that in itself is my main criticism—there were a lot of moments that were just too close to those of other books. I also found the plot to be extremely predictable. I can’t go into it that much without revealing spoilers, but I found that Yarros dropped too many hints about what ended up going down in the ending. The writing also does lean more YA, which honestly doesn’t bother me (this is NA people, that’s the point—adult themes but with the voice and snapiness of YA) especially because they’re in a college.

I also wish we got to see more of Violet’s dragon bonding. And I found Xaden, the love interest, to be exactly like every other love interest in the fantasy romance space and honestly not the most interesting character. 

Yet, that being said, I couldn’t put this book down. It has that thrilling, adventurous feeling that’s addicting. Yarros’ writing style is easy to devour, and I appreciated the amount of action scenes in this book. There’s never a dull moment! 

The Basgiath War College, aka the dragon riding college, in itself sounded super cool. I loved the brutality of both the college and the world. And I really appreciated the Ehler-Danlos syndrome rep, and I thought Yarros did a good job of exploring how it affects Violet’s training and her confidence. 

This book was wholly engrossing, and I definitely think it’s a good start to the series. I’m glad we don’t have too long of a wait until the sequel arrives this fall!

VERDICT: 5⭐ reading experience