Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - Iron Flame

The first book was so much fun and well thought out. We all loved the theories and guesses about what was coming next. Iron Flame only delivered partially.

The story itself was engaging about a third of the way through. The first third was just excruciating watching our loved characters just be miserable.

The relationship conflicts were confusing and unnecessary, easily solved if given one rational conversation. These aren’t teens, so why are they acting so broody and immature? We expect better from them.

The ending felt more like an attention grabber than a plot twist. It just made me disengage from the story for how left field it was.

And lastly, the publisher really messed up on the delivery of this book. Not only did it have a slew of misprints, but there were dozens of typos and the grammar in some places was horrible. Not to mention the cheesy lines and nonsense derailments. They rushed this big time and the quality tanked because of it.

Content Warnings

texashippie's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

keelirae113's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

dianaschmidty's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Since I really don’t want to tackle any of the problems within this book (mainly the fantasy with a ton of plot-holes and

the destroying of the romance of Violet and Xaden/spoiler> ), I’m instead going to make my case for a different couple: Dain and Sloane

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

luna2020's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

singingshooter's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-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

4.0

Felt a bit denser than the first one, but still a lot of twists, turns, and further world building to keep you going.
It definitely needed some more time in editing. I kinda hope the third book isn’t rushed to be published so that we can get the best book possible.

Content Warnings

jennabeck13's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

More...