Violet Sorrengail is supposed to be this weak but brainy underdog, but don’t let the book fool you—she conveniently wins every life-or-death trial, making her struggle feel about as real as a reality TV show fight. Her fragile body? Not an issue, because plot armor beats bone density every time. Xaden is your standard brooding bad boy with a tragic past who somehow manages to be both infuriating and predictable. Jack, the main antagonist, is so cartoonishly evil that he might as well have a mustache to twirl. And then there’s Dain—walking proof that not all men should be childhood best friends. Secondary characters? They exist, mostly to die or make Violet look better.

Basgiath War College is basically Murder Hogwarts, but with dragons. Sounds cool, right? Well, it could have been if the world-building wasn’t so half-baked. The school’s entire philosophy is “survival of the fittest” but also, like… maybe don’t kill too many recruits because, hey, we need soldiers for this ongoing war? Consistency is optional here. The dragons? Underutilized. The war? An afterthought. The actual world outside of the school? Barely developed. If you like settings that look cool but fall apart under scrutiny, you’re in for a treat.

The prose is functional, which is the nicest way I can put it. But let’s talk about the real problem: modern-sounding dialogue in a fantasy world. I get that snark is the lifeblood of this book, but having Violet drop lines that sound straight out of a 2020s Twitter thread? Yeah, that kills immersion real quick. Also, if I had a coin for every time Violet internally monologues about how weak she is despite, you know, constantly outmaneuvering and outlasting everyone, I’d be richer than this book’s publisher.

This book is like an amusement park ride—thrilling in the moment, but the second you stop and think about it, you realize it makes no damn sense. The trials Violet faces? Arbitrary. The life-or-death stakes? Undermined by her constant success. The romantic tension? Predictable as hell. The War College structure? A logistical nightmare. I mean, why would a military academy just let their cadets kill each other willy-nilly when they need actual soldiers? Oh, and the big plot twists? If you’ve read any YA fantasy in the last decade, you saw them coming from a mile away.

Yes, it’s fast-paced. Yes, it’s action-packed. But is it actually engaging when you stop being blinded by the constant movement? That’s debatable. I kept turning pages, but not necessarily because I was invested—I just wanted to see if this mess would eventually balance itself out (spoiler: it doesn’t). The story never lets you breathe or feel the weight of what’s happening because it’s too busy shoving the next dramatic moment in your face.

If you’re expecting well-developed relationships based on mutual respect and emotional growth, you’re in the wrong book. Xaden and Violet’s romance follows the "we hate each other but also want to rip each other's clothes off" formula without an ounce of originality. Dain spends half the book being the overprotective, condescending childhood friend no one asked for, and the rest of the cast exists to either be obstacles or cheerleaders. As for logic? There is none. The rules of the world are more flexible than Xaden’s moral compass, and the entire “dragons choose their riders” system feels like it was written on the fly.

Look, I didn’t hate it. If you turn off your brain, it’s fun in the same way that a bad action movie is—you know it’s dumb, but you’re still entertained. If you like hot, broody love interests, badass dragon battles (that we don’t get nearly enough of), and training montages where the protagonist somehow doesn’t die despite every odd stacked against her, then yeah, you’ll enjoy this. But if you’re looking for depth, logic, or actual stakes? This ain’t it.