No, no, no! That's no way to start a book after such a cliffhanger! – The start of Onyx Storm was disappointing. After the exciting ending of the second book, I had high expectations, but the time jump was too sudden, and too little attention was paid to unanswered questions and developments from the previous book, making it difficult to get into the story.

Another issue is the constant repetition. Violet repeatedly talks about needing to save Xaden, but somehow, she doesn't really do much about it. Especially in the first 500 pages, the story often feels repetitive, like a recounting of things we already know, which takes away the tension.

The secondary characters, who were highly interesting in the first two books, are unfortunately hardly given any space here. This was very disappointing, as many of them had the potential to make the story even more exciting.

The relationship between Violet and Xaden is often toxic and overly passionate. Violet's constant obsession with Xaden takes up far too much space and makes it difficult to focus on the actual plot. This over-focus on their relationship means many other important themes and characters are neglected.

The dragons continue to be a highlight of the series! I love the connection between them and their riders. Ridoc was also a bright spot and brought much-needed freshness to the story. He saved the book!

Final Verdict: Onyx Storm has a lot of potential, but it suffers from repetition, an overly exaggerated and toxic relationship between Violet and Xaden, and a lack of development of important secondary characters. More story and less romance, and this book would have earned 5 stars from me.

As it stands, it's only 3.5/5 ⭐