Decent plot, easy to read. If you're looking for a decent young adult fantasy with good (if infrequent) sex scenes, this is the book for you. But keep in mind that this barely qualifies as enemies to lovers, since

it was pretty obvious from the second interaction with Xaden that he was not, in fact, at all interested in killing Violet

. 

I feel like this book tried to emphasize the death scenes, and how crazy it is that riders are super likely to die all the time, and that dragons don't care if they do, etc etc, but it fell super flat to me. It's hard to take the deaths seriously when characters witness them and then move on with no trauma or nightmares or little more than throwing up and shedding a few tears, even less so when someone makes a "funny" quip about it immediately after. Plus, the dragons, however hyped up they were to be scary, don't feel intimidating after you meet Violet's and

learn that they talk and think exactly like humans, including by bantering with their riders

. 

I didn't fall in love with the world or the characters, and honestly didn't care if Violet (or anyone) lived or died. Maybe it was because her motivations were so unclear - was her goal just to survive? to prove her mom wrong? to be the best despite her physical limitations? - or maybe because she was written like a stereotypical boring protagonist with no clear flaws other than "she's so much weaker than everyone else, how could she possibly succeed," or maybe because she and Xaden always choose the "right" thing to do with almost zero consequences. I can name only three moments where a decision Violet made actually affected the plot, and only one that led to a pivotal consequence in the story (but not in her or anyone else's character arc).
 
Some thoughts on Violet's character (or lack thereof):

If Violet's goal is to survive, she should be so terrified of dying that she hesitates or fails to save her friends, not go after them or literally offer them the shoes off her feet without a second thought. If her goal is to prove her mother wrong about her abilities, she should be a stickler for the rules (with the added bonus of causing ACTUAL conflict with Xaden and the marked riders) or be so reckless with her power that causes someone she cares about to get hurt. Where is the character development?? How is the plot affecting how she views herself, changing what her goals are, or breaking her down in some irreversible way?? Maybe she is a pacifist because of her scribe training, so she has to either destroy that side of herself or work to change the system. Maybe she is a rule follower like Dain, but her relationship with Xaden turns her into a rebel. I don't know.

This book was neither bad nor boring, but it could use a clearer (or any) theme and another round of editing. The modern writing style and overuse of adverbs like "pretty much" and "basically" whenever Violet described anything really broke the immersion for me. Like, I get that it's first person, and we're seeing the world through Violet's eyes, but the sharpness and clarity of the descriptions and world building are dulled by these filler words. I won't go as far as to say it reads like a fanfiction, but it reads like a book that was meant to check booktok boxes, and if that's what you're looking for, then great. Personally, I think when you have a concept as cool as a dragon rider school and forced conscription of 20 year olds into a death college for the army, it shouldn't be hard to come up with a character that needs to achieve something meaningful, but through their journey realizes that they have to give something up or change in a significant way to make it happen. This book would have been far more interesting if written from Xaden's perspective, or if Violet had a real flaw to overcome other than physical inability.