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3 ⭐️ The ending . . . I cried. I had a heart attack. And now I’m staring into space like life has no meaning. I am unwell.


"The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity."

Prepare to join the revolution.


WHAT TO EXPECT:
�� adult romantasy
�� book 2 of the Empyrean Series
�� established romance (but they're stubborn idiots)
�� war college setting
�� dragon riders
�� magic
�� unique world building
�� complex politics
�� found family
�� chronic illness rep
�� action-packed
�� high stakes
�� 2.5/5 🌶�� (3 explicit spicy scenes)
�� massive cliffhanger
�� TW: physical torture, imprisonment, brutal injuries, perilous situations, blood, dismemberment, burning, murder, death, grief, ow drama.


My Thoughts:

It's been one week since I finished Iron Flame and I am still unwell. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get this book out of my head, all because of those last 25 pages . . . ⁠How dare Rebecca do this to us, knowing we have to wait god knows how long for book 3. 😭
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Did I enjoy it? Yes. ��
Was it better than Fourth Wing? No. ��
But will I continue the series? Abso-f*cking-lutely! ��

This book is really hard for me to rate because while I enjoyed the story and the ending, there were a lot of technical (plot/character) issues that definitely hindered my overall enjoyment.


*SPOILERS AHEAD*

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What I liked:

��The story is action-packed from start to finish, so you'll never want to put this book down. Iron Flame is divided into two parts. Part one takes place at Basgiath War College and part two focuses on the Revolution. There's 623 pages total, and I genuinely felt like I read two books because so much happens. I'm glad I took detailed notes because I've already forgotten a lot and I know I'll need to refer to them before starting book 3.

The continued world-building is fascinating. Like I said, this story is non-stop and that includes uncovering new information about the history and politics of this world. We now have a solid idea on what's really happening on the continent, however, there's still so many unanswered questions about the past (before the unification), the venin, and the Empyrean. I love this phase of a long series because there's still so much we don't know or understand, and I can't wait to see everything unfold and come together in the next few books. ��

These characters are some of my favorites and need to be protected at all costs. Violet is still a badass. Xaden is still daddy. Tairn is fucking hilarious. And Andarna is the sassiest bitch in the realm. I do wish she wasn't away for half the story though.

Violet internally struggled a lot more in this book by bottling up her emotions, distancing herself from her friends, and taking on too much responsibility (like researching the wards). Violet is just as strong and determined as she was in Fourth Wing, but in Iron Flame, we see the toll everything takes on her. I'm glad that by part two she starts to lean on her friends more, but I'm worried how she's going to manage after the events at the end of book 2. There's only so much a person can take, and I fear Violet may break at some point in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing how her character develops in the rest of the series.

PS: Violet during the torture scenes and and final battle when she saves Sawyer was impressive as hell! I respect her so much and strive to be just as badass.

Xaden is still top tier book boyfriend material. Look, he is not perfect. In fact, I'm a little pissed at him for constantly putting the responsibility of sharing truths on Violet throughout this story when he could have easily been open and forthcoming. BUT I DON'T CARE. That man is just so damn confident, intelligent, sexy and loyal to Violet, that the minute he's on the page, I lose my damn mind. And when he writes letters to Violet . . . I melted. He isn't even a romantic guy, but did one of the most romantic things in the world.

There's also a lot of side characters (both old and new) that I enjoyed getting to know better: Rhi, Ridoc, Imogen, Bodhi, Mira, Brennan, Sawyer, Jesinia, Sloane, and Maren. There's also a bunch of characters I loathe and wanted to see die a slow and painful death. Some don't. Some do. *cough* Varrish *cough*. Fuck that guy. But I can't complain, because everyone likes a good villain and Iron Flame definitely had a few!

PS: I don't hate Dain anymore. Obviously, what he did was absolutely horrible and I don't think I can ever truly forgive him for the role he played in Liam's death. BUT we have to remember, he didn't know what was going to happen and seems to be very repentant for it all. Do I trust him? Hell no. But do I think he's a bad guy? No. I still think he needs to redeem himself, so I'll be curious to see where his character goes from here.

Those few chapters with imaginary Liam were everything. 😭 Liam's death absolutely broke me and still haunts me to this day. So seeing him again, in the way that we did, gave me some closure. But this entire situation has me wondering (THEORY AHEAD), what if Violet's second signent is her talking to the dead?! We know a lot of history has been lost or written out of existence, so I'm wondering if the only way Violet can find answers is through some power of communicating with the dead?

RIP Mama Sorrengail. For all of Fourth Wing and most of Iron Flame, I hated her. And honestly, even after everything, I still don't like her very much. However, while I know she wasn't a great person or mom, I understand her choices. Again, I don't agree with them, but she really thought she was protecting her children. I wept when she died, not because I am sad she's dead, but for Brennan, Mira, and Violet. They now know that even if their mom was misguided, her intention was driven by the love of her children and now that she's gone, they'll mourn what was and what could have been. They each had such different responses and I felt them all.

The ending . . . I mean, I've already talked enough about it but DAMN, I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. I predicted General Sorrengail would die but I thought maybe Violet would get taken by the Sage or something. So yeah, I am still completely shocked by that ending, maybe even a little pissed, and will be sending Rebecca Yarros my next therapy bill.


What I didn't like:

This is a small gripe, but why are they using the Julian Calendar in this fantasy world? I mean, Rebecca created a completely new world but couldn't come up with different names for the months of the year? Every time it mentioned December or July, it totally took me out of the story.
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The pacing was frantic and for what? So much happens, yet, at the same time, I didn't feel like a lot happened to push the overarching plot forward. The highlights are: Violet goes back to school, Violet tries to learn about wards, Violet gets tortured, Violet and half the college goes back to revolution headquarters, Xaden and Violet get the luminary, and then the final battle happens. We didn't need 600+ pages just to give us that. @listenwithbritt mentioned in an IG reel that the pacing felt like she was watching a TV series, and I totally agree. Every few chapters felt like a TV episode with some small task that needed to be accomplished or there was a hurdle to overcome; then it would get quickly resolved and they'd move onto the next thing. There were a lot of small subplots that were unimportant and felt like filler scenes. So the constant bombardment of action, angst, or mystery was a bit overwhelming and it was hard to decipher at the time what scenes were really important for the overall story. For example, what real value did the survival class or the death hike scenes offer? In my opinion, not much but creating small moments of conflict to keep the story moving along. Maybe Rebecca wrote Iron Flame this way since the series is getting turned into a TV series by Amazon.

The story was too dense. There were too many new names, history, and general knowledge to really keep track of what was important. And there were quite a few things that weren't fully explained or were overlooked. Pair that with the frantic pacing, and there wasn't enough time to fully digest all this new information before we were forced to move on to the next part of the story. I had to read slowly, re-read sections, and take notes to keep track of everything. Doing that for 16 hours was a bit overwhelming and exhausting.

I HATED the other woman (OW) drama. It’s a tacky, cheap, and overdone romance conflict and totally unnecessary. There was also a big inconsistency surrounding it. First off, Bodhi mentions Cat early on by saying how Xaden has never cared so much about anyone, not even Cat, which alluded that at some point Xaden was involved with and potentially cared deeply for another woman. But later, Xaden says Cat could die for all he cares and he has never loved her. So why was Violet lead to believe he had feelings for another woman at some point? Solely to create drama between Xaden and Violet. And why didn’t Violet ask Xaden about Cat the minute she found out about her? If she did this, she wouldn’t have been blindsided by it all CHAPTERS LATER when they went to get the luminary from Cat’s family.

Also, Xaden should have been transparent about Cat when it first came up so Violet didn't spend chapters feeling insecure. And the way Cat was a nasty bitch to Violet the entire book, but then randomly decides she's cool with her after Violet saves her life was so anticlimactic. This was probably the weakest sub-plot of the entire book. And if there's more OW or OM drama in the rest of the series, I will fucking riot. Xaden better not use Cat to drive Violet away in the next book.

I was underwhelmed by the romance. Honestly, their relationship was stagnant because they didn't have enough time together in this book. With Xaden being away for most of the first part and then they end up doing their own things for the Revolution during the second part, there was little time for them to really grow deeper as a couple.

I also expected more groveling by Xaden at the beginning, but instead he makes Violet responsible for his honesty by saying she has to be the one to ask questions and then he'll answer. But for the entire book, Violet doesn't ask him anything! So, she doesn't get any answers! Meanwhile, Xaden just sits around, not communicating with Violet, when he could easily take the initiative to share his truths. Their lack of communication was so frustrating and was definitely done to create drama for the story. It was dumb and lazy writing. They could have easily set aside time to really hash out the issues of their relationship and dive deep into the secrets Xaden is keeping, but they don't.

The smut also didn't hit this time. For the size of this book and the fact Xaden and Violet are an already established relationship, I expected at least five sex scenes, but we got three. Okay, I'll admit, the throne scene was hot but only because of the setting. I wasn't excited by the dirty talk and, yeah, the smut was just lackluster in my opinion. It wasn't bad, just forgettable.

It didn't feel like any character had enough time to go through any real development. I think this occurred because there were so many new characters introduced that the attention of the story was split. Or maybe it's also because the story is in Violet's POV and she pulled away from everyone, so since she wasn't as ingrained in their lives, she didn't notice changes/growth? I don't know, but I wish we could have had more time with Xaden, Rhi, and Sloane.

There were a few things that didn't really get explained. For example, why wouldn't Brennan encourage Violet to do research on wards? Violet was trained as a Scribe and would be an excellent person to assign for this task. I get he didn't think they would have enough time to figure it out and he thought they should focus on making more weapons, but no one assigned Violet a mission, so why have her do nothing instead of possibly finding a solution to win the war? His logic wasn't full-proof. Also, the end where Brennan fixes the wardstone. . . we spent the entire book trying to understand wards and then figure out how to mend them and somehow Brennan does this but we don't see how? It better be explained in the next book and not glossed over. Also, why did Xaden become venin? In the dream he has, the Sage said it would save Violet from dying while she was draining herself for the wardstone, but I don't see how thats true. If you have any ideas please let me know. And random but can someone please make a timeline of when Xaden would have been able to have a relationship with Cat? Because according to my math, he would have been, like, 14 years old! There are even more situations that needed an explanation but I don't have the energy to go through them all.


Overall, Iron Flame was a decent sequel. I enjoyed it. I was entertained. But it was messy, and left me wanting more and less at the same time. It should have been shorter, the plot should have been cleaned up a bit, and we should have spent more time with our favorite characters instead of being introduced to a shit ton of new characters (whom I'm still not sure are important). It really is entertaining though, so if you enjoyed Fourth Wing, you'll probably enjoy this one, or at the very least, be able to push through it. I promise, the ending is well worth the wait.

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The Empyrean Series:

1. Fourth Wing: 5 ⭐️
2. Iron Flame: 3 ⭐️
3. Onyx Storm: 3 ⭐️
4. Book 4
5. Book 5

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Favorite Quotes:

Love doesn't even have the decency to die. It just transforms into abject misery.
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Love, at its root, is hope. Hope for tomorrow. Hope for what could be. Hope that the someone you've entrusted your everything to will cradle and protect it. And hope? That shit is harder to kill than a dragon.
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"Even when I'm not with you, there's only you."
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"Humans have the memories of gnats. Dragons hold grudges." - Tairn
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He is the horizon and nothing exists beyond for me.
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"You and I are not easy people. What we build together has to be strong enough to withstand a storm. Or a war. Easy isn't going to give that to us."
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"Violence, remember it's only the body that's fragile. You are unbreakable."
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He smells like mint and leather and mine.
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"Gods, look at you. You are all I'm ever going to want. Just you. Just this. Just us."
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"An emotional inconvenience? Is that what I am to you?" - Violet
"You're currently a prized annoyance." - Tairn
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"Don't leave me."
"I won't. I swear." 😭
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"I will happily watch Aretia burn to the fucking ground again if it means you live."
"You don't mean that."
"I do. I'm sorry if you expect me to do the noble thing. I warned you I'm not sweet or soft or kind, and you fell anyways. That is what you get, Violet - me. The good, the bad, the unforgivable. All of it. I am yours."
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"I love you. I'm in love with you. I'm grateful my life is tied to yours because it means I won't have to face a day without you in it. My heart only beats as long as yours does, and when you die, I'll meet Malek at your side. It's a damn good thing that you love me, too, because you're stuck with me in this life and every other that could possibly follow."
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"I am not powerful just because he loves me."
"No. You're powerful and he loves you, which is even worse."
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"Do you know who you sound like right now?
"Please, enlighten me."
"Dain."
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"Would Riorson let you rush into a battle against gods knows how many wyvern - or worse, the venin who created them - when you're wounded?
"Yes. That's why I love him."
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"Secrets die with the people who keep them."
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"We do not eat our allies. Find another snack." - Tairn
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"My house. My chair. My woman." 🔥
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"Nothing you could ever do would be unforgivable to me."
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"How long do you think it takes for someone to fall out of love? A day? A month? I'm asking because I don't have any experience with it."
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"You're capable of hurting me in ways I'm not sure you've ever begun to fathom, Violet. I might be skilled enough to land a death blow, but you alone have the power to fucking destroy me."
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"I love you. You could throw my entire world into upheaval, and I would still love you. You could keep secrets, run a revolution, frustrate the shit out of me, probably ruin me, and I would still love you. I can't make it stop. I don't want to. You're my gravity. Nothing in my world works without you."
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I will not die today. I can't say the same about tomorrow.
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"I would rather lose this entire war than live without, and if that means I have to prove myself over and over, then I'll do it. You gave me your heart, and I'm keeping it."
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The world doesn't exist for me beyond you.
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"Do me a favor and don't die. I don't want to live without you."
"We don't die today. Even Malek himself couldn't keep me from you."
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I am the storm.
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