Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) by Rebecca Yarros Also by this author: Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
Series: The Empyrean #2
Also in this series: Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
Published by Entangled: Red Tower Books on November 7, 2023
Genres: Romantasy
Pages: 640 •Format: Audio Book, Hardcover •Source: Purchased
Goodreads
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 wondering how she’ll get through it. 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 is weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she has her wits—and a will of iron. Leadership forgets the most important lesson Basgiath taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules. But determination to survive won’t be enough this year, because Violet knows the secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
I am such a Fourth Wing stan, so I was excited to dive into Iron Flame and bought a copy as well as downloaded the audio book via my Everand subscription so I could flip back and forth between the formats. This proved to be an excellent choice because once trying the audiobook I was hooked on the narration, and enjoyed a month of excellent narration accompanying me everywhere throughout the day: on my lunch breaks, while doing chores, walking on the treadmill, brushing my teeth- if I could do it with my wireless headphones in, I was!
Despite having a little bit of a slower start (imo, at least) I really grew to love Iron Flame a ton. It hadn’t been too long since I had read Fourth Wing (maybe 6 months or so) so I did have the benefit of everything being relatively fresh in my mind. I loved seeing Violet, Xaden and the whole crew back together again, and the dragon’s dialogue in particular was delightful (adolescent Andarna is a hoot….”we do not eat our allies.”) I also love how the narrator really gave each dragon a very distinct voice and personality.
While Iron Flame was definitely more plot focused than romance focused, I still really grew to enjoy it, especially in the second half of the book when more folks are looped into the truth of the rebellion and we get to see more characters interact. There was a not-quite-love-triangle featuring Xaden’s ex (which I appreciated because it showed Violet is just as susceptible to normal emotions even if she’s a total badass), family reunions, and a lot more expansion of things touched on in the first books (other kingdoms, the griffin riders, the aging process of dragons, etc). All of this was set amongst the backdrop of Violet fully embracing the rebellion/revolution and figuring out how to navigate her relationship with Xaden despite his secrets and physical distance.
There was also some interesting redemption-type arcs for several of the not-villains-but-still-annoying characters. Violet’s mom, head of the war college and prolific rider, gets rather humanized in this book, and Dane makes some decisions that help readers understand why Violet was BFFs with him in the first place. Imogen, who always rubbed me the wrong way in the first book, is honestly low key hilarious in this one (and really has Violet’s back).
I continued to really enjoy Violet and Xaden’s love story in this book, even with less focus on it/them spending a lot of the beginning of the book away from each other. While they have some issues to work out, I appreciated that the book focused on them working through those and strengthening their relationship and feelings rather than forcing some sort of catastrophic breakup or additional love interests in to up the drama or make things “interesting.” Their relationship was plenty interesting to me even once they are together, as they both have so much going on and I appreciated seeing their different decisions and leadership styles (also I pretty much suspected it but Xaden being the heir to a throne is chef’s kiss). I also appreciated that Xaden was a good balance of “yes I respect my girlfriend” but wasn’t tripping over himself to let her do whatever she wanted (even though she often did anyways) or monologue on and on about her autonomy (*coughRhysandcough*). Like you can tell he’s desperately in love with her and that makes him stubborn and has him choosing her over the good of everyone, which honestly is more interesting to read about.
There’s a huge battle at Basgaith at the end of the book (honestly gave me HP7 Battle of Hogwarts vibes) and it was so well-paced and I felt truly anxious when reading it, because the stakes felt so high. I recently learned that the author has written a lot of military romances and I can now see why- she writes militaries/battles quite well. Honestly sometimes battles can be too drawn out or boring but there was a perfect pacing of tension and the battle did a lot to move the plot of the story along (that ending!!!)
Also, one thing I’ve noticed about these books is while they contain a little excerpt of the beginning of each chapter from either a letter, journal, textbook, etc. (which I love), it’s always written in past tense, even with the current characters (e.g., “recovered correspondence from Lieutenant Xaden Riorsen to Cadet Violet Sorrengail) and it gives me such an ominous vibe- like I’m being told the story centuries after their death. I’m really curious if we’ll get an explanation as to who’s recording all of this and how their timeline differs from the main characters.
Overall: Came to this series for the romance, stayed for the dragons, will now continue to stay for the politics and cast of characters as a whole. This series has it’s claws in me (pun fully intended) and I can’t wait for future books!
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