Reviews with content warning for Violence - Iron Flame

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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aliceloyallaleon's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

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aliteraryescape's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.25

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szu's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

The shoddy worldbuilding keeps cracking at the seams more and more, no doubt since there was barely any thought given to it before this series was started – as evidenced by the first book in the series as well. We get more proof that the riders' quadrant is just ridiculous cause why are they not taught teamwork or basic survival and navigation skills until their 2nd year?? And even then it's only a few sessions!

Most of this is just weird heterosexual bullshit where they keep rehashing the same argument over and over. Neither is honest with each other and neither communicates. It gets old really fast.

We also have more of Violet supposedly being the smartest of all the cadets yet she is constantly missing obvious things everyone around her comes up with easily.

Every emotional beat this book tries to hit feels trite and the end "reveal" just made me roll my eyes.

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biscotita's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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amerid's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.5

As good if not better than Fourth Wing. I’m excited for the next installment. Personally, I could do without the graphic sex scenes as they really do not add to the story, but that's just me.

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