Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Chama de Ferro by Rebecca Yarros

26 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

"I won't die today. I can't say the same about tomorrow." - Violet 

Review: Joining the revolution brings a whole new list of enemies for Violet, including allies and family, as she turns her back on all she knows. 

Synopsis: It's so hard to give this book a rating when some chapters had me gripped and reading late into the night, while others made me almost throw the book away. Part One was mostly filler, with Violet and Xaden arguing and fighting incessantly about if they loved and trusted each other, while Xaden kept holding back world changing secrets. Part Two picked up finally once the revolution got into full swing, with big action scenes and jaw dropping twists. I feel drained and definitely need a break before jumping into the next book

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adventurous emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Many of the pros and cons from the first book carry over into the sequel. The typical YA protagonist still over-explains and gets sidetracked by nonsense. The pacing is still terrible. It’s even slower this time, with far fewer action scenes and a lot of filler that drags the plot down. 

There's sort of an improvement with the shift in the romance. It moves away from the will-they-won’t-they (WTWT) get together and leans more into longing and emotional distance. There’s also a lot more spice, and it feels less forced. The relationship feels more equal because Xaden isn't her wing leader anymore. Only to revert to WTWT, trust each other after betrayals, making it a frustrating and repetitive read.
It doesn't help that Violet was becoming unlikeable and a hypocrite

 
There are so many characters(and their dragons and powers) introduced (and killed) that it gets hard to keep track of who’s who. Every time Cat, Dane, or Jack show up, I can’t help but roll my eyes.
bringing Jack back to be a fake nice guy was so clear a bad guy. Cat only cared about the crown, so why did she care so much? There wasn't even a real crown. And I hate the British accent that the va gave her. Why was Violet so jealous? They were over long ago.
I also hate how Andarna is treated in this book. Like, I get it, you hate teenagers.

She completely wasted the potential for family drama. What was even the point of the brother being alive besides being a cliffhanger for the first book and giving a cheap moment of satisfaction when the mom gets shocked? Then the ending was terrible and predictable. The first book is better.

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I didn’t like this one quite as much as The Fourth Wing but I still really enjoyed it. Excited to now start Onyx Storm. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Violet’s views and actions toward Xaiden and other main characters get quite annoying with how repetitive they get. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging emotional 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: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So in this sequel, Violet and Xaden are preparing to set up their rebel base and start their new year training. Violet struggles to control her signet and emotions following Xadens new assignment. After the trauma in Fourth Wing, Violet struggles to cope with Liams death and the revelation of her brother. To start on a positive note, I love that this was more like a spy novel with all the sneaking around and secrets. The increase in communication between Violet and Xaden is so needed and well handled. Onto the negatives, giving Xaden a crazy ex is so incredibly unnecessary emotionally that it makes me mad. This has almost no combat or actual training in it despite being a book set in a war college where soldiers train to fight. The lack of raw emotion that emanated from the first book is also pretty disappointing. I just feel like this was good conceptually but so rushed and under edited it loses all the charm that was present in book 1. Overall it was fine and I will read the next book but for me this is trending towards From Blood and Ash (great first book and terrible sequels). 

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