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A review by toni7tess
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Not as good as the first one, but still incredibly good. This series is an absolute trailblazer when it comes to disability representation and reading a disabled fantasy heroine brings me so much joy. Violet is truly my favourite part of the series, her strength is so well-written and her character springs right off the page. The cast in general is nuanced and diverse, though I would have maybe liked a bit more flesh added to minor characters like Quinn, and Xaden’s male friends especially, who just come across like identical guys sometimes. Overall the characters are wonderful, especially those  close to Violet who get more screen-time. But my main qualm with this specific book is that it sometimes felt a little disconnected plot-wise. I would have liked a more cohesive narrative, and the issue is not (just) the two separate parts, it’s more so that there are a lot of minor conflicts scattered around the book and it sometimes doesn’t feel like the plot is moving forward in a coherent manner. But the book is still fun to read, the dragons are great, and especially the first half is tense and had me glued to the pages. An awesome plot twist in the second half too, though its potential was a bit underdeveloped. Writing style is awesome too. The super random Scottish Gaelic still makes me cringe though. I won’t give anything away, but another bit I struggled with was the very end, which was imo both predictable and played into some toxic genre tropes. But overall the book was a real joy to read and I’d recommend this series to anyone who is able to read certain points critically. With recommending  romantasy or even fantasy in general to younger readers the sex is almost never the issue for me, but I do think relationship dynamics require an adult reader with a certain amount of relationship experience to be understood and taken with a grain of salt.
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