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A review by beckys_books
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
5.0
You know when you start a book and just know you’re going to adore it? That’s how I felt about Fourth Wing. It has everything I love in a book and then more and I devoured it. It’s also a book that’s incredibly hard to sum up without giving away spoilers, so I’m just gonna jump right in to my review.
Violet was a character I had no trouble rooting for. Someone presumably in way over her head who goes ‘ you know what? fuck this… not only am I going to survive, but I’m gonna become the most powerful rider ever,’ and you have to give her kudos because I’m not sure I wouldn’t have given up multiple times if I was put through the things she was. She not only has her self doubt, but constant ridicule from other riders who think she isn’t worthy, too weak, but she holds her head high, plays to her strengths and bends the rules to her own advantage. She’s sarcastic as hell, witty and so incredibly strong, mentally if not physically, but she never lets any disability she has get in her way, rather uses it to push herself even more.
Alongside Violet we get to meet multiple other characters, some getting more page time than others, but all pivotal to the plot in some way. There are characters you will love and some you will want to die an incredibly grisly death, but the ones we spend the most time with are; Dain, Violets childhood friend who takes her under his wing when she joins the riders quadrant. Rhiannon, the person Violet meets on her first day as a rider and who quickly becomes her best friend and Xaden, Violets Wing leader and the man whose father killed Violets brother in the rebellion. Every single character leaps off the page, no matter how much page time they are given and help us to learn about the world and politics.
Speaking of the world, I adored the world building in this book so bloody much. Yes, it’s pretty heavy on the romance (we’ll get to that later don’t worry) but Yaros never skimps out on fleshing out her world, the politics and history of it making sure we get a deep dive without it ever seeming dumpy in anyway. And while I loved learning about the world, my favourite scenes by far were the ones showing Violet going through her rider training and when we finally get to interact with the Dragons. Yaros writes these creatures just as frightful as they should be. They are shown respect, and if they dislike you or feel you are weak… you quickly become a pile of ash. I honestly lived for the parts of the book where the Dragons were involved and loved seeing them bond and hearing them talk to their riders. There is so much about this that I want to say but can’t because of spoilers, but if you like a good snarky sidekick who is mega dangerous you’re going to love this book.
Fourth Wing is the kind of story that is predictable in the best way. You know this story, you’ve read it before. There will be drama, duplicity… death, but you know the rides 100% going to be worth it so you can just sit back and enjoy. It’s a story that feels completely fresh but also like an old friend and is filled to the brim with moments that have you wanting to pump your fists and jiggle your feet in excitement. Yaros throws in a few plot twists as well as edge of your seat moments to keep us on our toes and make sure we don’t get too comfortable, and her fast paced yet still descriptive writing style has you absolutely flying through the pages.
Finally! The romance and boy was it steamy in parts. Riders generally die young, especially with how many don’t make it through training, so as you can expect there’s a lot of sexy time going on and lets be honest, if you might die the next day you wouldn’t pass up a little bit of excitement right? Violet wise though I did fear the dreaded love triangle at first glance, but the further we get through the story, the clearer it is that there is only one choice for her. On one hand you have someone she has known for years, but someone so rigid, so prone to following the rules that they would rather risk her life than break them. Someone who see’s her as nothing but a weak girl and does their best to get her to quit. And on the other hand you have someone who constantly riles her up, has her questioning if he’s going to kill her one minute and then kiss her the next, someone who would burn down the world to keep her safe. Their scenes were SO steamy and I lived for their romance, it was slow burn and torturous in some parts, but also incredibly humorous in others.
All I’m going to say is this book deserves all the hype and if you were a little put off by how much hype it was getting… don’t be. I know for a fact this will make my top reads of the year and I am dying to get my hands on the second book after the author left us with that torturous ending.
Violet was a character I had no trouble rooting for. Someone presumably in way over her head who goes ‘ you know what? fuck this… not only am I going to survive, but I’m gonna become the most powerful rider ever,’ and you have to give her kudos because I’m not sure I wouldn’t have given up multiple times if I was put through the things she was. She not only has her self doubt, but constant ridicule from other riders who think she isn’t worthy, too weak, but she holds her head high, plays to her strengths and bends the rules to her own advantage. She’s sarcastic as hell, witty and so incredibly strong, mentally if not physically, but she never lets any disability she has get in her way, rather uses it to push herself even more.
Alongside Violet we get to meet multiple other characters, some getting more page time than others, but all pivotal to the plot in some way. There are characters you will love and some you will want to die an incredibly grisly death, but the ones we spend the most time with are; Dain, Violets childhood friend who takes her under his wing when she joins the riders quadrant. Rhiannon, the person Violet meets on her first day as a rider and who quickly becomes her best friend and Xaden, Violets Wing leader and the man whose father killed Violets brother in the rebellion. Every single character leaps off the page, no matter how much page time they are given and help us to learn about the world and politics.
Speaking of the world, I adored the world building in this book so bloody much. Yes, it’s pretty heavy on the romance (we’ll get to that later don’t worry) but Yaros never skimps out on fleshing out her world, the politics and history of it making sure we get a deep dive without it ever seeming dumpy in anyway. And while I loved learning about the world, my favourite scenes by far were the ones showing Violet going through her rider training and when we finally get to interact with the Dragons. Yaros writes these creatures just as frightful as they should be. They are shown respect, and if they dislike you or feel you are weak… you quickly become a pile of ash. I honestly lived for the parts of the book where the Dragons were involved and loved seeing them bond and hearing them talk to their riders. There is so much about this that I want to say but can’t because of spoilers, but if you like a good snarky sidekick who is mega dangerous you’re going to love this book.
Fourth Wing is the kind of story that is predictable in the best way. You know this story, you’ve read it before. There will be drama, duplicity… death, but you know the rides 100% going to be worth it so you can just sit back and enjoy. It’s a story that feels completely fresh but also like an old friend and is filled to the brim with moments that have you wanting to pump your fists and jiggle your feet in excitement. Yaros throws in a few plot twists as well as edge of your seat moments to keep us on our toes and make sure we don’t get too comfortable, and her fast paced yet still descriptive writing style has you absolutely flying through the pages.
Finally! The romance and boy was it steamy in parts. Riders generally die young, especially with how many don’t make it through training, so as you can expect there’s a lot of sexy time going on and lets be honest, if you might die the next day you wouldn’t pass up a little bit of excitement right? Violet wise though I did fear the dreaded love triangle at first glance, but the further we get through the story, the clearer it is that there is only one choice for her. On one hand you have someone she has known for years, but someone so rigid, so prone to following the rules that they would rather risk her life than break them. Someone who see’s her as nothing but a weak girl and does their best to get her to quit. And on the other hand you have someone who constantly riles her up, has her questioning if he’s going to kill her one minute and then kiss her the next, someone who would burn down the world to keep her safe. Their scenes were SO steamy and I lived for their romance, it was slow burn and torturous in some parts, but also incredibly humorous in others.
All I’m going to say is this book deserves all the hype and if you were a little put off by how much hype it was getting… don’t be. I know for a fact this will make my top reads of the year and I am dying to get my hands on the second book after the author left us with that torturous ending.