Synopsis

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to live a quiet life among books in the Scribe Quadrant. But her mother, the feared commanding general of Navarre, has other plans, and orders her to join the thousands of candidates fighting to get into the Riders Quadrant at Basgiath War College, the elite of dragon riders.

Smaller and more fragile than everyone else, Violet has the odds stacked against her. There are more cadets than dragons willing to bond, so plenty of them would kill her just to improve their own chances, and others, like the ruthless Xaden Riorson, the most powerful wingleader in the quadrant, want her dead simply because of whose daughter she is.

At Basgiath everyone is hiding something, and once you're in there are only two ways out: graduate or die. As the war grows deadlier and surviving becomes a daily fight, Violet starts to suspect that Navarre's leaders are keeping a terrible secret.

The protagonists

My review

Besties, this is the best book I've read in a long time, and I don't say that lightly. I went into Fourth Wing with all the hype on my shoulders and a little scared that the usual fantasy thing would happen to me, getting lost in weird names and endless battle chapters, and not at all. It's a really great story, it's so easy to read and it never once drags.

Violet was meant to spend her life among books as a scribe, but her mother, the commanding general, forces her into the Riders Quadrant, where cadets either graduate or die. And being tinier and more fragile than everyone else, with a body that gets hurt over nothing, she basically has a target on her back from day one.

What I loved most about her is how easy she is to relate to. She's not the typical heroine who's suddenly the strongest person in the world out of nowhere, Violet gets scared, gets tired, makes mistakes, and still uses her head to survive. Her morality feels real and isn't annoying at all, she's never insufferable or preachy, she's just trying to do the right thing in a place where everyone wants to kill her.

And then there's Xaden 🥵 Dark-haired, scarred, the most feared wingleader in the quadrant and with a sad past that explains why he'd have every reason in the world to hate Violet. Oof, besties. The tension between them is the kind that keeps you turning pages without even noticing, and when it finally explodes, it's worth every second of the wait 🔥

The world Rebecca Yarros builds is so well put together. Basgiath, the riders' rules, the war, Navarre's secrets, it all fits and she explains it without overwhelming you. And the dragons, we LOVE them, because they're sarcastic, grumpy and have more personality than half the humans in the book 😂 Tairn is one of my favorite characters, period.

One heads-up though, it ends on a cliffhanger that will leave you screaming, so keep Iron Flame close. There are hot scenes, the good kind, but the happy ending is earned over the course of the series.

Content warnings: graphic violence and frequent character deaths, constant threat of death, physical pain and chronic illness, a difficult mother-daughter relationship, grief over a father's death and explicit sexual content.

If you've never read romantasy, this is the book to start with. And if you're already a fan of the genre and somehow haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? 🐉

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Keep reading the series

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3.5