”A dragon without its Rider is a tragedy, A Rider without its dragon is dead.”
A week ago, I wrote a review on the first book in the The Empyrean Series, Fourth Wing. You can check it out here
if you missed it.
Like I said in the previous review, I have heard alot of good reviews about this series so I decided to read it and I don't not regret my decision on reading this series. The only thing I wish I had done before reading this series is that I should have waited till the whole series was completely published, which is five books. I should have waited, I should have waited! Because right, I feel sad, empty, anxious to read what happens next now that I have finished reading the second. I am hungover from this series because I don't know what to read next and I don't know which book I should read to make me forget this series temporarily until the next book is released.
Well the damage has been done already. There is no going back, I wish I could regardless.
The Empyrean Series is my first book about dragons. After reading the two books in this series, I have come to the conclusion that I love books centered around dragon creatures. I will be reading more about dragon stories by different authors. I really need to explore this aspect of literature. It was interesting, intriguing, thrilling and superb. In the end, I might get addicted to this aspect of fantasy.
Series: The Empyrean
Book: Two
Title: Iron Flame
Pages: 624
Published: November 2023
Little About The Synopsis.
“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.” —Xaden Riorson
Violent Sorrengail now has survived the first year in Basgiath college regardless of the odds against her. Now here comes the challenge, the second year which entails more training and series of tests to make riders become real dragons, have control over their bond with their dragons, and have control over the power bestowed on them from their dragons.
On the other hand, Violent now knows the secret that their superiors have hidden away from the citizens and riders for over six hundred years. Now, a great war is brewing and coming with its might. A war that will shatter their reality they have known all their lives. A war that will unveil secrets that have been buried for decades and unveil their true enemies. Violent knows that the war that is coming can not be won by fire or powers of the dragons except by one thing that remains hidden and lost in timeline. What is that thing? It is unknown, it is a power but unknown?
My Review And Rating.
Reading ’Fourth Wing’, the first book in the series, I experienced a thrilling, twisty, and unexpectedly heartfelt plot. The writing was simple, easy to understand though with lots of grammatical errors. The word building was amazing, I will give Yarros that, and the characters were well built. However, in the aspect of ’Iron Flame’, I thought there would be more improvement. Like in the aspect of more complexity added to the plot, better dialogues and a new dynamic storytelling.
Let's get into the review. The plot was well written, fully packed with mystery that are yet to unveil, lots of twists and turns. Iron Flame contains more action than fourth wing for me. The plot included a lot of problems that I feel were unnecessary just to further frustrated the readers and make the story longer. The romance aspect was written but it was still unbalanced. I feel this is a big problem authors have when writing enemies to lovers trope, they always fail in letting the relationship survive in peace, it has to be chaotic or toxic.
Tairn
The female character (Violent Sorrengail) was more annoying in this second book, I literally felt like pulling her out of the book to deal with her. She doesn't have her shit together, she takes a step forward and later takes ten steps back. From. Progress to regression. At one point, I was really exhausted with her.
Sgaeyl
My favorite character are the dragons(Tairn, Sgaeyl, Andarna), Ridoc (the comic relief), Liam (oh this character made literally cry), Sawyer, Rhiannon (Violent's best friend).
Andarna
In the plot, we get to read about the trust issue Violent and Xaden have between each other for about 500 pages or more. Xaden not opening up to Violet and her not trusting him. I wanted to throw my iPad across the room, but then I remembered how valuable my iPad is to me. Their relationship was chaotic, there was no peace, it was always one thing or the other. There were many days of fighting and little days of happy moments. I was feeling drained for both of them.
The storytelling was okay, but not impressive for me, I wished Xaden had more POV but the whole story was told from Violent’s silly POV, except for last chapter which was dedicated to Xaden.
The dialogues were cheesy, cliché and childish . Some popular slang words were included in the dialogues which defeats the timeline of the story which 600 AU. I feel the book was rushed to publish because Yarros wanted to capitalize on the fervor surrounding Fourth Wing. If the two books were published at the appropriate time, it would have been a masterpiece like the likes of Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings and the rest.
The ending was excellently written, the war, the cliffhanger was superb. Yarros did well at the end and left her reader with so many questions in their mind. Hence why I am hungover, I need to move on but I can't. The ending left me speechless and for minutes I was just staring at my ceiling with nothing to actually say.
Rating this book, I will give it 4 out of 5 stars. I prefer the Fourth Wing more to Iron Flame. I hope Yarros takes her time to write the third book well, edit well and also tie up the loose ends she left in the first and second book. I enjoyed this book regardless. If you haven't read this series I urge you to add it to your read list and wait for it to be complete to read or better still start reading immediately.
All images above are from my E-library
Other image created with Nightcafe AI using prompts from the book.
Thank you for visiting and supporting my blog. 🤗
Honestly, I've been stuck on iron flame for the past one month. I've been reading other books in between. I'm happy that I wasn't the only one noticing the unnecessary plot twists. For instance, bringing Jack Barlowe back. What's the reason? And why's he currently acting like he's a nice person towards violet. Then, there's Sloane who was a good person deep down but kept on refusing the truth that violet didn't kill her brother. Then finally accepting it when she knew the truth all the way. I found that really unnecessary. But then, Yarros did well where the action is concerned. (It still doesn't beat Fourth Flame). You were very truthful in your review I must say
Haha, I think bringing Jack back was reveal who their enemies were. In the end Jack betrayed them all. Some of the twist in this book were not concluded at the end. I hope Yarros will be able to tie all loose end when she finish the series. Let's be hopefully the third book fixes all these flaws. I am your time here. Thank you for the visit.
Hey Esther, appreciate that you're sharing awesome review in our community
By the way, if we (hive book club) organizes a monthly book club,would you want to participate? and what platfrom that you'd be most likely joining in? we have a few options
Let me know if you're interested and if you have any feedback.
I think Discord will work best unless we have invite people from outside Hive to join in, then I would recommend maybe we use X spaces. I would definitely love to participate in the monthly book club.
I've not read this book yet, but everyone I listen talking about this book, just say good things about it.
Ah! You should find time to read the series, I bet you, you'd enjoy it. Thank you for visiting. I appreciate your comment.
I was immersed in your post as I read your reviews and the plot of the series book. The book must be an interesting one because I saw how it is through your review but unfortunately, I am not into books like this as I might get bored reading it. But it was fun while reading this and giving your opinions on the characters.
I popped in here through #dreemport
Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I glad you liked it. Probably, audio books might suit you better. It will just be like you are listening to a Christian teaching or sermon. I appreciate your visit.
The book looks so entertaining with its magical features.
But me, it's so hard to pick a book to read🥹
Hahah, that's okay. Books are not for everyone. Thank you for visiting and commenting. I appreciate your time here.
Hahahah 🤣
That's the gospel truth.... it's not for everyone.
Don't know when I lost it cos I used to read a lot before.
You're welcome dear