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Series: The Empyrean #2
Publication date: November 7th, 2023
Pages: 640
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Synopsis:
"The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity." -- Xaden Riorson
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 Basgaith 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 Basgaith War College--and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
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Review:
Violet thought she had made it through the worst of things after losing one of her best friends to the venin during a battle she and her squad were sent into in a bid for them to die during the fight. It came as a surprise when Violet and her friends return to Basgaith during their names being read off the death roll. They have survived but that doesn't mean that those who had aimed for them to die won't try again. Violet is thrown back into school with a vice commandant with his eye on burning her out, her mother's aid and ex-best friend's father wanting to finish what was started, and Navarre's leaders refusing to inform the rest of the populace of what is banging on the border of their warded homes. Violet and her friends have two choices: they can sit back and bury their heads in the sand like the rest of the citizens while they get their education or they can fight for their Continent. The fate of their world is not the only thing hanging in the balance, Violet's relationship with Xaden does as well. With secrets as dark as the shadows he wields can she find a way to love him despite being left in the dark?
I have heard from several friends who have also read the series that there was one over the other that they preferred within the secret. The preference was minute but it was still there for them. When I presented myself with the same question, I couldn't decide. I loved Fourth Wing for the introduction to Violet's life and her relationship with Xaden but in Iron Flame there is more history and action (not to mention a lot more hot, hot, hot scenes between the couples). I would have thought a book that was almost 700 pages that I would think there was unnecessary filler within the pages but there was never a single dull moment for me.
I found the world that Yarro created fascinating. The connections between dragons and their riders, the venin threat, the secrets and more secrets that seem to consume every single character to one extreme or another. There were twists and turns to the point where I had no idea which way was up. I felt like I was in the saddle with Violet and Tairn was taking a particularly aggressive flight pattern going up and down and all around until I nearly lose my focus entirely. But then the story flattens out and its smooth sailing until the next rollercoaster begins. I absolutely loved the ride.
Xaden and Violet were a couple that waxed on and on about how much they loved each other but the way they felt was always expressed differently. When Violet called Xaden her "gravity" I felt it. That all consuming love that feels like it is necessary to one's survival. They loved each other hard and supported each other like no other. Even when Xaden made me want to strangle him sometimes with the secrets he kept holding onto. His grand reveals always seem to push Violet to the brink that anyone else would back away from with an "I'm out" but she seems to power through it. She is stronger than just her power.
I loved Iron Flame as much if not more than Fourth Wing and the only regret I have is that I have to wait until January to know what happens next!
