A review by thebookishmechanic
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous 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

5.0

Purely based on Vibes I think this book is a 5 star read for me, but when you ignore the Vibes I would probably subtract a .5 

If you know me you know I didn't pick up Fourth Wing in the beginning, even with the pretty pages, and the hype because "I don't really care about dragons" boy was I wrong. It turns out I love dragons, and I missed out on a beautiful book - I'm still on the hunt for one. 

Iron flame was a lot, I throughly enjoyed it. I felt like I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time. 

Constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. I felt there there was a lot of predictability, but I am the kind of person who usually predicts books. It was great to dive a little deeper into the lives of Violets friends but we still don't know enough about them to be genuinely and completely attached to them. We lost a lot Xadens edge, he was too soft for me in this book when it came to his love for Violet, what happened to my morally grey shadow daddy? Violence however took some great cues from book one Xaden and there was a lot character development there that was necessary. We love a smart FMC but strong in her own way is good too. The ending of the book was ... disappointing. It was the obvious move. All that being said I am already ready for book 3. 

Now, I don't detract from stars for book condition or delivery, however, I feel that Red Tower should be embarrassed. The condition the dust jackets, edges, maps, spines, and so much more is disappointing. A major release was rushed and for what purpose, when you have a fan base of this size you know they will wait longer to get their hands on the quality print they wanted. The holiday SE was an added weight on an already rushed and over sold book. I genuinely feel that had Red Tower pushed back the holiday edition of Fourth Wing by even a month the pressure would have been less and the condition of books would have been improved.