Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros – Review

Published: November 7, 2023

Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books

Series: The Empyrean #2

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 623 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Synopsis:
“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.” —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.

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After the resounding success that was Fourth Wing, I immediately went and pre-ordered Iron Flame so I could pick it up and binge read it upon release. I am so delighted I only had to wait six months to read this instead of the typical year or more between installments because the enthusiasm (and my memory) is still fresh! This book single handedly brought back midnight release parties, which I am also delighted about – just like the good ol’ days.

This picks up immediately after the dramatic events that concluded Fourth Wing, with Violet awakening after an injury in Riorson House only to find that her brother is alive and Aretia isn’t as destroyed as she thought it was. The venin and wyverns are real, her friends are dead, and Navarre has been perpetuating a lie for untold years, going as far as to rewrite history to cover it up. And of course, the only thing Violet can focus on is the fact that Xaden didn’t tell her about all of this beforehand. You know, despite the fact that there’s someone who can literally read minds with a mere touch who would give them all up in a second. This bit is hands down the most annoying thing in the entire book – Violet has been shown to be intelligent but NO, she gets mad about this when she knows she’s a liability but insists otherwise. This is my single qualm about the whole book.

Other than that, this was compelling, angsty, and because of the wider scope of the story, focused on much more than Violet completing her second year at Basgiath War College. This was a reckoning of sorts, pitting the allegiance of Violet and her companions to Navarre against their desire to do the right thing and stand against the venin threat. If you were curious about the gryphon riders from Fourth Wing, rejoice, because you get to learn more about them in this installment too! This book was definitely more about world building and plot advancement than character development but I didn’t mind that. I feel like the characters we know and love were fleshed out quite well in the first installment so I didn’t mind that this was less character focused. 

Overall, I loved this almost as much as the first book, which completely blew me away. For such a popular book to maintain the same level of momentum without completely sacrificing quality or suffering from excessive bloat through the second installment is a feat unto itself. The ending was surprising and honestly, while I could make a guess as to where this series will go from here, I would likely be off the mark! I have my fingers crossed that I won’t have to wait a year for the next installment