Reviews with content warning for Violence - Iron Flame

and how half the book is at basgiath w violet playing spy / navigating the new dangers and then half the book is after they stop pretending and fully leave navarre and go to aretia! it was the best of both worlds, even if the first half of the book was hard to get thru jus bc of of varrish’s BULLSHIT he should’ve SUFFERED MORE!! literally my only complaint w the book is that he got a quick death 😤

so much happened in this book i feel like a different person than i was when i started it, so many crazy twists and reveals but also very fun bc a lot of my theories came true, even stuff i had been sus of since book 1, so many amazing payoffs!!

i never expected i would cry over

general sorrengail’s death, in fact at times i was begging for her to die bc she pissed me off but DAMNNN!!! i totally thought she was sacrificing sloane so i was already crying, but then the siblings’ reactions and seeing them all affected by the grief differently BROKE ME!!! GOD!!!

i have so many theories about

violets second signet

and so many questions about

andarna’s species and why she hatched for violet AND what the hell the fuckin venin want with violet and xaden!!

so i will be going absolutely CRAZYYYYYY until january!!! onyx storm cannot come fast enough!!!

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foresturken's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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s_r_sparrow's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

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

I hated this more than the first book. The characters digressed, characters were brought back to life unnecessarily, and the story was very stereotypical and took tropes from the popular books that preceeded it. It was a waste of time

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laurenellisx's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I thought this was really strong in the world building as well as setting up and introducing the readers to the overall conflicts that are driving the series as a whole. I think this book really focuses on betrayal and how it can come from different people in our lives and present itself in actions we take or don't take, and how people can try and repairs that relationships.
With this as the main focus of our story we do get a handful of miscommunication/mistrust between Violet and Xaden that was hard to get through and I know a few people had issues with this. I found it felt like for the whole 27+ hours I was listening these two took one step forward and two steps back, making the readers reread events that felt like it already happened or was similar enough to previous events that we lose interest. Whilst Violet and Xaden's relationship might have fallen a but in this story I think Rebecca Yarros did a really good job with the side characters and developing most of them and their relationships with Violet. I thought this was the strongest part of the book and keeps you interested to see what is happening next.
The overall conflicts in the story and the ending were good. I think the ending was interesting as to see how it plays out in the long run or if this is going to be one of those issues where everything is magically fixed. Given Rebecca Yarros has not shied away from breaking hearts and having consequences I think it will be an interesting to see hoe this will develop. The conflicts where fine across the book. The major conflict at the end was gripping and exciting but the conflict with Catriona I could do without as It doesn't feel like it really adds to the story for the most part.

Overall I think this was a good read and having listened to it on audio I think the pacing that others had issues with was less prominent. It does feel like it had some issues for the most part I didn't notice that critique. Overall I enjoyed the characters and the friendships particularly where a highlight of this book.

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edey_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

They have the same fight over and over again, and don’t seem to learn from it. Everyone keeps secrets yet still get mad when they learn about others keeping secrets from them. Really a bit of a let down from book 1, and don’t get me started on the cliffhanger. Will still read book 3 though, just hope the editors have more time to fix things next time.

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christie_esau's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

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allieh24's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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