Read fourth wing first - this is book two of the series 

“I hope Iron Flame is more gripping in the first half than its predecessor.” - Fourth Wing Review, Dec ‘24

It was not. Not only that, it was (subjectively) worse than the first installment of the Empyrean series. I was only mildly fond of Violet Sorrengail before, but now I am staunchly in the group of people that absolutely hate her and her decisions. From her obsessive guilt ridden monologues, to her idiotic decisions that made absolutely no sense. The plot holes in this book were numerous but something I felt was personally insulting was the translation of the first journal CLEARLY pointing out that there were SEVEN dragons needed to power the ward stones, and violet glossing over the very clear instructions until the 9th hour before having the epiphany. For her to be as smart of a scribe as the books try to make her out to be, that oversight was absolutely unbelievable. 6 AND 1 equals what?! Seven. Why did it take 400 pages to figure that out?! And it wasn’t even mysterious in a way that made sense. One journal said seven, the other said Six AND ONE. They were the same! 

I have a plethora of notes listed for public view on goodreads, but this band of characters from the first book that were so impressive to me were not given justice in the writing this time around. Sawyer got badly hurt and I didn’t even blink. I cried when Liam died! Yarros built up this incredible supporting cast just to leave them hanging in this second book. Imogen starts out so strong and then becomes an afterthought. Rhiannon is an afterthought at first, and then solely used as a prop to move the story along. She deserved so much better. Ridoc’s comic relief was even lackluster.

Instead she focused on Xaden and Violet constantly going back and forth about secrets up until literally the last few chapters of the book. There was so much promise in incorporating the gryphon riders and even building more information into the Venin to make them stronger villains. After that many pages, we walked away with barely any information about these beings, AGAIN. 

The romance was weak because they could never get on the same page. It didn’t make the steamy moments worth it IMO. They’re in a constant struggle of Violet rushing to do things her own way while pushing everyone away from her and Xaden disappearing to do whatever he does and then playing 20 questions when he shows back up… it’s exhausting. 

My last note is this, Violet is too smart, too well trained and adept and solving complex problems to have been making the mistakes she made in this book. Trying to keep her friends safe but busting into the archives with a classified book and putting Jesenia in a very awkward predicament with her professor? Risking the entire squad by stealing journals without a solid plan? Rushing off to Cordyn, but then waiting a week to tell Xaden about raising the wards? Being facedown by TWO Venin with the life of Catriona (and the entire Vale) in the balance but trying to do a Q&A with them to satisfy her need for answers… as if anybody has time for that?! These decisions just don’t make sense. She’s smarter than that. Write her smarter than that. She was written smart in Fourth Wing, but figuring things out. She was not written smart in Iron Flame,  and it was a huge disservice to the story. 

I could keep complaining, but I’d be here until the Onyx Storm release date. I honestly don’t even know if I’m interested in reading it, but we will see.