Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Has an excellent sex scene involving a
Back half of the book moves, but first half is very masc-Dolores Umbridge, but with an unrepentant murder college instead of a whimsical murder boarding school.
You may want to wait for the entire series to be out.
Graphic: Death, Torture, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Minor: Abandonment
Things I could do without - Violet's wishy/washy "I'm made, I'm not mad, he's gorgeous and I hate him"-ness. ...and that is it. That's all. I was annoyed by that and only that.
Graphic: Sexual content, Grief
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Colonisation
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Gaslighting
Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol
Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Classism
Minor: Ableism, Alcohol
4⭐ out of 5⭐.
Tropes:
→ fantasy romance /romantasy
→ enemies to lovers
→ forced Proximity
→ academy (war college)
→ New Adult romance
→ chronic illness (h) representation
→ morally gray H
→found family
→ slow burn
→ overcoming adversity/underdog
→ dysfunctional family
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail
Xaden and Violet’s relationship is “fixed” rather too easily, with both swapping roles and Xaden being the one not wanting intimacy without hearing Violet say I love you. Meanwhile, Violet wants him to say it. Honestly, for how much I loved them in book 1, everything between them fell flat this book.
My favorite parts of the book are everything to do with the dragons. Andarna, Tairn, Sgaeyl… all of the, add so much and they have their story within the story. Sgaeyl and Tairn’s relationship even mirrors and rivals what Xaden and Violet have. Another big like is Cam/Aaric, the King’s son. We don’t get too much, but he is setup to play a key role and fill the void Violet feels after losing Liam.
The low points for me were everything dealing with the gryphon riders. It felt like filler content and took up way too much of the book even though they play almost no role in the end conflict. The Dain arc was too rushed & we get no follow up or depth which I think was needed. The ending conflict also feels very rushed, especially with how much info we get & how much impact it has on everyone and everything. Sloane was a let down. Her character could use more development, especially because I think she will be key in future books. I would much rather take out the gryphon details and get more time to the characters mentioned above.
Overall, still enjoyable, but lacks a bit in pace, story, and development compared to Fourth Wing. Book 3 will definitely make or break this series.
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Blood, War
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Toxic relationship, Murder
idk, y'all. i was so excited for this but i think i have just lost patience for violet, xaden, and their relationship. the side characters, specifically iron squad, were more fun and i enjoyed their scenes more than most of the violet + xaden ones. rhiannon and ridoc are my favorites. i wish sloane and jesinia got more time being present, but at the same time this book was long enough to begin with. other things took priority that i don't think needed to.
the longer the book went on the more annoying violet and xaden became. if you cut out all of the unnecessary drama and secrets the book would be like two hundred pages shorter.
Also, what's the deal with their relationship being almost entirely physical???? either one of them walks in a room and they're both immediately drooling. violet only ever thinks about getting to know xaden when she realizes he's hiding things. i don't remember xaden literally ever, maybe even in fourth wing, asking violet a single thing about her. they're just being horny, but also still willing to risk the entire world for each other, to an irritating degree.
and what's up with violet being so dumb, for someone who is supposedly the smartest person at the whole school??
the MCs feel like yarros forgot who they are and rewrote them for the sake of finding ways to keep tension between them. and cat? jesus christ don't even get me started. i did NOT like that. that was so fucking ick. good god.
idk. there's a lot of other logic flaws that just didn't need to be included. this book felt too long and some of the pacing was kind of weird. things would be brought up and then forgotten for actual months of the story, despite seeming urgent when it first happens. i had moments where i was fist pumping, cheering, laughing, or crying, and then some moments where i didn't understand why we needed to know about what was happening, or what happened to the earlier stuff that seemed so important.
It also feels like yarros just took from the most popular romantasies and kinda plopped in a lot of those stereotypes. this book feels like it was written more to sell to market instead of to tell a story, if that makes sense. idk. a lot of hype for something that feels like it ended up falling flat in more ways than one. my score is the way it is ONLY for the moments i loved that were enough to bring it up. if it weren't for the rest of iron squad, i'd have probably only given it 3 stars.
i'll probably keep reading the series but i'm not as impressed as i was the first time i read fourth wing. (and i did a reread before the iron flame drop and i think i'll be changing my review)
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail