Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Iron Flame

Dain basically got a redemption arc. Once I found out that he didn’t know that he had been sending Violet off to her death in FW, I was able to get on board for a morally grey redemption arc. However, I will still never want him with Violet, no matter how toxic Rebecca Yarros made her and Xaden. So, I propose Sloane./spoiler>

Dain and Sloane really only interact on page in chapter 43, but her snapping at him was enough for me to sense enough tension for a great enemies to lovers arc. Also, their potential relationship would perfectly mirror the relationship between Violet and Xaden, all toxicity aside./spoiler>

The age difference when they meet. Violet & Sloane: first-years; Xaden & Dain: third-years
The chain of command forbiddeness. Both Xaden and Dain were/are the Wing Leaders of Violet/Sloane, and specifically in Fourth Wing.
Each pairing has a child of a Tyrrish officer and a child of a Navarrean officer.
Each pairing is equal in parent’s rank. Violet and Xaden are each the child of the military leader and Sloane and Dain are each the child of the military leader’s right-hand. Xaden even made that comparison, though with Liam instead of Sloane.
Dain and Violet each thought they wanted their best friend. Xaden (and likely Sloane) didn’t really care about romance, but did care about revenge/the rebellion.
This kind of all hinges on if Sloane knows about Dain’s involvement in her brother’s death, but Sloane and Dain have similar reasons to be enemies as Violet and Xaden did. Violet disliked Xaden for his father having “killed” her brother. And Xaden didn’t like her because he hated her mom for killing his dad. Dain’s father definitely got Liam killed and there’s definitely an argument for still blaming Dain even after learning that he didn’t know about the ambush./spoiler>
Violet and Xaden’s signets are both powerful and complimentary, with light vs dark. Sloane and Dain’s signets are also both powerful, and while not exactly complimentary, they are similar, with both being able to take from another rider and could easily be used as a weapon, which is demonstrated with Dain during Violet’s torture and Sloane with Violet’s mom./spoiler>

So yeah, I think that the next book should just ignore Violet and Xaden and whatever mess they’re in and focus on this new enemies to lovers story! And if Rebecca Yarros does ever see this, I’d love a shoutout in the acknowledgments!

Content Warnings

tguccione's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.25

Content Warnings

toastyghosty13's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

I have really enjoyed this series so far and read this book in 5 days. If you like dragons, war, conspiracies, betrayal, magic, and romance, then this is a great series to read. The following is me bitching about how insane this book/series is.

I did find this book to have a lot more drastic changes between highs and lows of "it's going to be ok" and "absolute panic and stress" from the different events that happened compared to those in the first book. One in particular is the

end of the book, where you think everything is ending on a somewhat high note since they just finished the main climactic battle and it seems like most of the characters are relatively unscathed with the exception of 1-2. The last 2 sentences of the 65th chapter

completely obliterated that sense of security and absolutely ruined the rest of my day, probably the rest of my weekend. MAJOR EOB SPOILER

I cannot believe that we were left off with Xaden being on the cusp of turning into a venin and I sincerely hope that there is a way to cure him so we don't get an SJM type of switcheroo on the main love interest.

This book had a lot of different plotlines going on and almost too many different things happening. I almost feel like it would have been better as 2 separate books because of how much content there is and it definitely needs time to digest. Violet is trying her best to cope with so many things, and secrets that are unraveled that are unexpected and I do wish that there was more time to elaborate and sit with the consequences of these occurrences. This is partially due to the fact that this book is clearly being used to set the stage for the much bigger picture that was absent from the main plot and conspiracy reveals of Fourth Wing.

Although this book was used to set the stage further and show us that there is more to the main conspiracy than just

venin exist and the government knows about them

, it still answered a lot of questions that were raised from the previous book; there were still more questions raised than answered, though.

On a high note, I love how Violet is simultaneously the smartest and most powerful woman in the room, yet also

cannot stop thinking about climbing Xaden like a tree for literally no reason. Their relationship is unhinged in the best way possible and it's a goofy little time

. It is so funny to me that they're in pressing times of war but who cares bc

hot shadow xaddy looked in her direction for a tenth of a second

.

This book completely fukt the rest of my weekend up. RY please finish writing the rest of the series so I can stop panicking about my fave main power couple and their future together. This is a great series and I recommend if you like magical world building and dragons, and don't mind a bit of romance

even if I thought too much of this book was spent figuring out their dynamic with all the secrets being kept

Content Warnings

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

jennabeck13's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

Genre: Fantasy

About 625 pages

🚩TRYING TO BE AS SPOILER-FREE AS POSSIBLE WHILE NOT BEING TOO VAGUE🚩

In the sequel to the hit book, Fourth Wing, we follow Violet Sorrengail through her second year at Basgiath War College. She survived her first year and a vicious attack, but that is nothing compared to what is to come. At school this year, she will be tested both mentally and physically. In her personal life, she will be forced to determine where her loyalties lie and who she can trust besides her dragons 🐉

Rebecca Yarros does it again! While it didn’t hit quite the same way as Fourth Wing for me, Iron Flame was still a knockout book. Certain parts felt a bit slow, but the ending was action-packed! I think the slow parts also had a lot to do with world-building, which I understand is necessary when creating and further developing fantasy worlds. One thing I found super interesting was how the characters from the first book evolved in Iron Flame. My feelings toward certain characters shifted SIGNIFICANTLY. We also got more dragon personalities in this one, and I hope we get even more in the future! Andarna is a sassy teenager and I LOVED IT💛

Also, can we talk about how STUNNING these covers are?😍 I can’t wait for the remaining books to come out and to see how they turn it into a TV series!

Favorite Quote: “Because love, at its root, is hope. Hope for tomorrow. Hope for what could be. Hope that the someone you’ve entrusted your everything to will cradle and protect it. And hope? That sh*t is harder to kill than a dragon.” 🐉

Content Warnings

andeng's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

Content Warnings

booking_along's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

3.0

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