Reviews with content warning for Blood - Iron Flame

Much like my time when reading the first book, I couldn’t put it down. There were word choices that just completely threw me out of the story, like when they just kept saying “same.” Where it really made absolutely no sense at all, but it wasn’t enough to interfere with how much I liked it. The plot was great, twists were good, and god do I love dragons.

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athenian_frog's review against another edition

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I’m glad I tried, but it feels very long. Also the multiple interruptions to drool over Xaden were getting grating. I think the author could have benefitted from just describing Xaden’s attractive points in a good way instead of just having Violet straight up tell us “HES SO HOT GUYS I’m down bad 🥵🥵🥵”

The main two can’t communicate for shit. Sure she got together with the “leader of a revolution” or whatever but you’re in a serious relationship. Be for real. Violet is understandably feeling very insecure bc everything she knows is turning out to be fake (her image of the world, her brother’s death), she’s annoying but I kinda see why LOL.

The other thing is that the side characters still feel p flat. Most of what they say and do exists to prop Violet up in the eyes of the reader, very transparently. They don’t seem to have much going on in their lives even tho they’re in the same school. I think the only character I really got attached to was Jesinia.

There’s also a lot fo focus on anyone except the protagonists literal formerly dead brother from book one 💀💀💀 he’s been as relevant and explored as a potted plant,,, it’s annoying the hell outta me that we haven’t fleshed him out AT ALL 9 hours into the book. He’s been built up a good amount in book 1.

Anyways I might come back to this but I think I’ll be fine just reading a synopsis.

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emilycfox's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Not quite as good as Fourth Wing (honestly, that might be impossible so I knew it probably wouldn’t / couldn’t be), but Iron Flame still had a death grip on me until I finished it. I read FW and IF back-to-back, and I felt like I was living on adrenaline and almost disassociated from my life because ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS READ AND ALL I WAS THINKING ABOUT WAS THIS SERIES. I read literally all night until 7am or later multiple times. I was so sad when I finished IF because now I have to wait until the next book is released. But at the same time, the flood of relief I felt when I finished was PALPABLE (like after you turn in the last thing during exam WEEK after running on fumes for days) lol. I was like thank god I’m no longer held captive by these books and can relax now and get back to my normal life haha
A few things that brought it down from 5 stars for me: Violet and Xaden’s relationship dynamic gets pretty repetitive and frustrating, but I’m hoping that it was intentional and we’ll see growth from them moving forward. I also didn’t like how many times the story jumped forward to the next day or several days / weeks later because I felt like I was missing things (like, did they talk about xyz but we didn’t see it or have they not even discussed it?). I just want to know what happens every minute of every day!! Even the “boring” day-to-day stuff because that’s when we get to see Violet’s friends and learn more about the world :( but I also get that it’s already a long book. Similar to FW, the writing is simply fine — not so bad it ruins the story but also not fantastic (I swear to god everything is measured in heartbeats as if this world does not have any other unit to measure time)

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dandan10's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The dragons are the highlight of this book

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imds's review against another edition

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

3.5

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christinereads1823'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? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Great sequel. Yarros's world building is intricate and magnetic, woven so tightly with the development of plot and character arcs that the book is practically impossible to put down.
The twist ending seems utterly cruel, and I'm oddly excited to see what the third book does with it.

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elislittlelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I'm writing my review a few months after finishing this book, which probably helps the rating. I was somewhat positively surprised by the first book, so I went into the second book with more hope than I had for the first book. After reading, I have to agree with the negative reviews. The pacing was bad, essentially nothing happened until the last few pages, so it was hard to get through. The romance took over the plot even more, which really caused the fantasy aspect to slack. I did enjoy the dragons again, but that wasn't nearly enough. The plot and characters felt really very, some plot lines didn't make any sense. I hope that the author takes her time writing the next book in the series in the hopes that the quality will be better. Either way, I don't think I'll pick up the next books. Yes, there was a cliffhanger, but I do not feel inclined to continue this series. Though this may change in the future.

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halept's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-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

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! I listened to the audiobook version, and the performance is perfect! The cliffhanger has me very stressed, waiting for the next installment!!

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