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🙈 English Books, review Books , fantasy books online for free (Book #2) Iron Flame — Rebecca Yarros .PDF

So there’s this little fantasy-romance book (sorry, “romantasy”) out right now called Iron Flame — you may have heard of it? Ha, ha, ha. Just kidding. Rebecca Yarros’s smash-hit bestseller and follow-up to Fourth Wing, the first novel in her ‘Empyrean’ series, arrived in early November and, judging from my Instagram feed, I’m fairly certain 99 percent of earth’s population has already finished it. In the interest of that, I’ll cut to the chase after this brief commercial break (aka the plot summary, courtesy of the publisher):

“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.”

When I read Fourth Wing, I thought it delivered a twisty, thrilling, and unexpectedly heartfelt story of easily accessible fantasy, even if I found the writing to be overly simplistic and the world building a wee bit lacking. I was hopeful that Iron Flame would not only raise the stakes for these characters, but also build on the foundation established in the first book: adding complexity to the plot(s), better dialogue, more showing vs. telling, etc. Does the sequel accomplish that? Well . . . not really. But there’s still a lot I enjoyed. Let’s start off there:

Action on action on action — like the third act of Fourth Wing, the action in this one moves at a breakneck pace that doesn’t let up. Though certain relationships and plot points drag and feel repetitive, Yarros keeps the overall story moving right along.

Xaden’s extreme “I’d destroy the world to save you” energy — if you’re a fan of morally gray characters (usually found alongside the enemies-to-lovers trope) who’d sacrifice everyone and everything for their love (hi, it’s me), then you’re in luck, because that element of his personality is amped up to 11. And OK, does it sometimes feel like too much? Yes, yes it does. Luckily his red-hot chemistry with Violet is still palpable enough to run cover for any cringier moments. 

Exciting plot reveals — there’s a lot going on in the sequel, to say the least, which makes sense given the pace. We’ve got siblings coming back from the dead, a greedy king, perilous mountain journeys, vengeful dragons . . . the list goes on.

A much-needed change(s) of scenery from Fourth Wing — while the first book takes place almost entirely at Basgiath War College, Iron Flame takes us to an abandoned palace high in the mountains, remote border settlements, a kingdom outside of Navarre, and even just new and dangerous places within the bowels of Basgiath. I still find that the world building leaves much to be desired (this is such a cool world, I want to know every detail!), a fresh setting helps break things up.

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