Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Iron Flame

My feelings from the first book hold steady - an entertaining popcorn read with the worst aspect by far being the romance. I groaned every time Xaden showed up because I knew I was going to be subjected to page-long kiss descriptions and poorly written sex scenes. Violet has so much stupid emotional drama over this boy, I hated it. It really dragged down the middle of this book, especially the jealously subplot. I kept reading because I wanted to know how the conflict with the venin was going to shake out and because I wanted to learn more about the dragons. There were some nice developments on that front, and the set up for the next book will keep me reading.

Some things stood as as really jarring. There is a returning minor character whose actions are all over the place in an illogical way. I cannot reconcile their behavior. It also bothers me that

torture is constantly portrayed as a valid and reliable way of getting information, when in real life torture is completely ineffective. The fact that the author is military-adjacent only makes me feel more sour about this.

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cmason101's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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zg0612's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book was really good, but it definitely had its flaws for me. For one, it took me almost an entire month to finish. That might just be a me thing, but it still irritated me. A second thing was the

god damn trust issue thing going on. Like, sure maybe the first one was ok, but 600 pages later??! No. now it’s just tiring and not making any sense. i was done with it. I did like how Violet and Dain have started to repair they relationship even if they’re not “friends anymore. I love Imogen now too. Aaric was definitely a little funny surprise, but he didn’t have a big enough roll in this book, which means he still has more left to do.
SAWYERS LEG???!!! poor leg. at least he’s not dead tho.
I’m also liking the character development between Violet and Cat. that was good.

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violetrage's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I know this is a romantasy, but I wanted more dragons and less relationship drama and sex. The angst and sex is reeeeally over the top. I started skipping it about halfway through. I’ll likely read the next book when it’s released, but by the end of this book the story was losing me.

Dragons - 5 stars
Plot - 3 stars
Characters - 2.5 stars
Sexual Endurance - 5 star but staaaawp already

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shadikb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

3.5

I really really wanted to love this but the repetitiveness of it got to me. It could have been shorter if removing the fluff to make it longer. Also, the writing is horrible.
Otherwise, the story was good.
Huge cliffhanger. The third book isn't even written yet.

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mzquirk's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

As long as this one was compared to Fourth Wing, I felt the length was a bit much compared to the meat we actually got. Did I like it, yes. But there's some things in there I could've done with out. But I also understood what we needed to get out of this book as well, to help set up what is to come. And I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Things I could do without - Violet's wishy/washy "I'm made, I'm not mad, he's gorgeous and I hate him"-ness. ...and that is it. That's all. I was annoyed by that and only that.

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thepeculiarlibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

takes a minute to get through, but goddamn that plot twist at the end…

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annick's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Oh my. That was so much better than I expected. I’m reeling and lost for words to describe my thoughts. I def recommend it.

There are some flaws in the writing and plot that I’d want to change/edit which is why I had a hard choice between 5* 4.5* and opted for 4.75* because it doesn’t meet my fierce criteria for perfect five stars. But I loved this and planned to reread it more than once so I figure those flaws aren’t material.

I spotted some of the plot twists but not others. I am grateful somethings were elusive. There are clues. And some twists too too long to be spotted by our main characters.

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