A review by beccisays
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous challenging emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

“Quite the necklace you have there.” He points to the greenish bruises on my throat.
“Thank you. It was expensive.” I lift my chin. “Cost someone their life.”

“Oh, no. You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
“You can’t possibly know that just by looking at me,” I counter, my spine stiffening.
“Ugh. Let’s go throw knives at shit.”

“Can you carry a luminary?”
“That question insults me.”
“Can you carry a luminary while insulted?”

“You could have crushed someone,” I lecture.
“Could have, but alas, they moved.”

“It’s already snowing up the pass. I bet we get seven inches tonight.”
“Maybe more if you’re good.”

I saw so much criticism of this book online and in reviews before I had the chance to read it myself and was quite worried it would drag on or be a follow up flop. That wasn’t my experience at all. I found it just as captivating and consuming as the first book, perhaps more so. I couldn’t put it down and read the whole book in one sitting, without sleep. Plus it was funny, like the out loud chuckle kind, particularly during all the dragon’s one liners and sass. I really enjoy these characters now that we know them well and I’m really tense whenever things go down, as I don’t want anyone else to die or be hurt.

Call me crazy but I definitely feel some Sarah J Maas/ACOTAR, ToG and CC influence at points, which I don’t hate at all. Xaden a.k.a Shadow Xaddy, feels Rhys coded to me, there’s even mirrors to both their sulky rooftop scenes. The fliers and their gryphons reminded me of Rukhin and the ruks from TOG, the venin are very valg like with the draining of life essence and magic. There’s systematic rewriting of history like in CC. I love all of these books and feel there’s enough originality in The Empyrean series that it isn’t distracting or detrimental, just something I noticed.

You can critique the writing or dialogue or the author to hell and back but it doesn’t change that I enjoyed it, was looking forward to it and hope to read the next one. Could do without the cliffhanger endings but I get why they are effective. I’m hoping that
expensive metal box belonging to Xaden’s Dad makes another appearance to stop him wreaking havoc while a cure is found, that Violet’s Dad’s research on feathertails is found to be as key and important to finding the cure as Dain’s Dad/Andarna’s silence hinted it could be and that we better explanation on why Violet’s hair and eyes were permanently leached of colour during pregnancy because that just screams venin magic to me
. I’d also love to hear more about Xaden’s culture and the lost traditions and folklore of his people and the other outlying territories. 
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