Iron Flame

                   

Title: Iron Flame

Series: The Empyrean #2

Author: Rebecca Yarros

Published: Entangled: Red Tower Books, November 7, 2023

Pages: 884

Genre: NA Fantasy Adventure

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 already wondering how she’ll get through. 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 might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.

Welcome to your second year at Basgiath, for a time. I was truly shocked that they returned to Basgiath after everything that went down at the end of Fourth Wing. Yet, there we were, headed back to Basgiath after only a few days. 

This book suffered the same fate as many sophomore fantasy books. As much as the exposition was perfect in the first book to help us acquaint ourselves with the new world. The second book suffered from all of the story lines she had to start to set up the full arc. So there wasn't much to make it feel like its own entity. It feels more like just a vehicle to get us to the next book. 

Then you have everything that was happening with Violet and Xaden. When I tell you there was PLENTY of drama in this book without the needed relationship drama, I mean it. Violet and Xaden are dealing with a LOT. And the dumb questions game that they were fighting over was enough to make me want to scream at them. Then we had a weird cat-fight love triangle happening that also felt really boring. Cat could have been awesome. Getting to know the Gryphon Fliers WAS awesome. But Cat and Violet could have been a really great team, but instead we had some silly, contrived conflict between them. And most of the time it just felt like a full distraction or annoying time suck away from the cooler conflicts in the wider world.

In saying that, I still loved the book. Tairn and Andarna are everything! Adolescent dragons sound even more terrifying than the massive old guys! I absolutely SCREAMED in the final battle. I was so convinced that one thing was going to happen, and I wasn't even CLOSE. I can't wait for book 3!!!

Ratings

Stars: 5/5

Spice: 2/5