stinaynay 's review for:

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
3.0

Things I liked: the emphasis on Violet's friends and their friendships, the fact that several side-characters have more fleshed out stories, the Sorrengail family plotline, the suspense of the Andarna story, the overall adventure arc.

Things I didn't: the self-flagellating narration from Violet anytime anything went wrong for people in her life - this line felt over-dramatized and cringe. The half-baked will-they-won't-they with Violet and Xaden (spoiler: they do). A lot of cringe writing moments that almost made me need to put the book down.

This book was probably 25-40% too long. I almost gave up halfway - but the last 20% of chapters of action and the little character/story nuggets made this worth the read to the end.