A review by romancingthereader
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

🅂🄿🄾🄸🄻🄴🅁 🄵🅁🄴🄴

I finished this book a couple of hours ago, and it took me a moment to regain my composure to write this review. To be honest, I feel like I could write endless words about how I feel about Iron Flame.

But Instagram has a caption word count - so I have to pull down my review that I posted on other sites to a shorter version here - but I will share a link to the longer one as well, if you’re interested.

Fourth Wing awakened something in me that I hadn’t felt in years as a reader. But there’s always risk in a fantasy series, and the second book is often pivotal to knowing if the series would continue in the same way.

So I will say this - Iron Flame left absolutely no doubt in my mind - this series is going to be an all-time great series.

In Iron Flame, we got a little bit of everything I loved from Fourth Wing, but dialed up a few notches, with more anxiety and some incredible moments I won’t soon forget. This book felt like a journey, and as a reader I am completely emotionally drained.

I loved the complexity of Violet and Xaden’s relationship, and how it moved forward with so many layers of nuance. On top of that, unlike other books where I don’t pay full attention to or get attached to side characters, Rebecca Yarros does an incredible job of making me care. I care as much as Violet does, and when she’s ripped apart, so am I. It’s all of the squadron, and all of the dragons... and I feel a deep-seated attachment to all of them. And that’s some great writing… to be able to create connections out of a reader like that.

The forward motion of this plot was so well done, I am struggling to put it into words. But I will say, this book made me trust Rebecca Yarros, and trust the three remaining books are heading somewhere well-thought-out and plotted. Iron Flame might go down as one of my favorite books of all time - and I don’t say that lightly.

Final Rating: 5/5

Spice Rating: 3/5