Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Iron Flame - Flammengeküsst by Rebecca Yarros

159 reviews

adventurous emotional 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: Complicated

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adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark 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

This book was so long. Why wasn't it split into two? At one point I kept checking the audiobook too see how much time was left. It really felt like it was dragging on some how ,despite listening to it at a faster speed. The ending picked up, but that's just because of the in the moment action and drama during war/the frontlines.

Still tons of questions, as mentioned in my review of the first book. And.... these questions continue, thoughts notes below.
  •  Cat? (that's it. that's the question) Poorly written character that didn't start to have substance, besides "Mean girl", until later in the book and then for someone who was so 'pivotal' she just.... vanished in the late second half of the book.
  • Violet somehow gets more childish in this book? How did we stall out with her character growth in such a long second installment?
  • The fighting between her and Xayden draaaaaged on. It became very wash, rinse, repeat. I grew weary of it.
  • There are now so many side characters that I'm getting them confused...

The plot twists were (slightly) less visible in this book than the first, there was one notable thing that caught me by surprise.
Jack Barlow
  I pegged as being a twist but not HOW the twist was spun, so that was actually pretty great.

Overall this book was.... dramatic. Tense, emotional and full of various kinds of drama, but with very little character growth compared to what we saw in the first book.


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

This book was such a let down compared to book 1. Violet, girl, you gotta pull yourself together. Seriously. You chose Xaden. He told you he was going to keep things from you, he told you there would always be secrets, but you still decided to date him. STOP complaining about the secrets he is keeping from you!! Also Xaden and his bs of “I can’t tell her I love her right now because its bad timing, even though I secretly know she is insecure in our relationship and me saying it would mean so much to her, Im just gonna lock that away until the ~timing is right~.” Dude, you are in a war, the timing won’t be right. 

I liked book 1 so much better. If book 3 goes through the same miscommunication/ lack of communication and all the drama between Violet and Xaden I feel like I might have to DNF this series. Book 2 was written too fast and I would rather RY take her time and do it right then rush through it... Keeping my fingers crossed for book 3.

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adventurous dark 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

Reread; solid sequel. Honestly could’ve been cut up into two separate novels instead but I appreciate the longer book personally. Much more world building this time around which I appreciate. However I feel the foreshadowing was a bit more obvious in this novel than the last. Excited for Onyx Storm. 

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous mysterious 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

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

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