I feel like romance/fantasy in general is starting to drag making the story longer than it needs to be. I get why these authors want plot + romance + character development, but there's really no reason to make these books this long. this is a (as of now) 5 book series, there's no reason these books are 500+ pages long. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE big books, but I personally don't think a series full of these huge books is very inviting. There's so much filler and world building we could probably do good without.
I did enjoy Violet's character better as well as her relationship with her dragon's. Xaden still makes me cringe solely because of his name but we'll ignore that for the sake of the story.