Review – Iron Flame (The Empyrean, Book 2) by Rebecca Yarros (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: fantasy
Length: 895 pages
Publisher:‎ Entangled: Red Tower Books
Release Date: November 7, 2023
ASIN: B0C4JMJBNX
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in The Empyrean series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.”

Series Info/Source: This is 2nd book in The Empyrean series. I borrowed this on ebook from Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: I didn’t like this nearly as much as the first book in the series. I still read it fairly fast and found some of the parts intriguing. However, this is at the heart a disfunctional YA fantasy romance, and it feels like a lot of the plot is woven between that romance element rather than standing on its own. There was so much back and forth between Violet and Xaden that it was exhausting and I wanted them both to just go away.

Violet wakes up from being gravely injured at a secret location where her brother appears to be leading a rebellion; a rebellion that all of the marked are part of. As Violet and her classmates are forced to return to Basgiath War College to keep up appearances, they are also trying to keep some big secrets and prepare for an even bigger threat.

I am just going to cut right to the chase here and say that this book is completely about Violet and Xaden not being able to communicate. They are back and forth and back and forth about if they can be truthful with each other or if they can trust each other. However, they have the hots for each other so badly that they keep forgetting that they have all these other real life issues. This is the epitome of a toxic relationship, and it got weirder and more inconsistent as the story went on. For example, Xaden is all about saving the people outside of Basgiath and then as time goes on he is all about Violet and only Violet. Is that really healthy? I would never want a person so attached to me that they are willing to let loads of other people die so I can be happy. That’s a lot of pressure and bordering on flat out crazy.

Then there is Violet with her physical limitations. She is still constantly throwing herself in to danger, getting grievously injured, somehow making it out of an awful situation and doing it all over again. Part of having physical or mental limitations is having enough respect for yourself and others to know what those limitations are and plan for them. Constantly putting yourself in to situations where you are nearly killed and other people who care about you are forced to pick up the pieces is irresponsible and disrespectful and outright cruel to both you and those who care about you.

Still, I finished this..so what did I like? I loved the dragons here. The dragons are funny, and witty, and much wiser than the humans. I will also admit that the chemistry between Xaden and Violet is off the charts (when they are not being complete jerks to each other) and there are some hot sex scenes in here. The writing flows well and is very readable. I did enjoy the plot around the wards and around a mysterious additional type of dragon (although I still don’t understand where this is going).

However, back to complaints. I did find myself skimming a lot of the back and forth between Xaden and Violet. I also found myself skimming through a lot of Violet’s internal angsting. This book could have definitely used a lot more editing and cutting. It did not have to be 900 pages long; we could have gotten the same story done much better in half of that page space. Also, what was up with the ending and Xaden? I was rolling my eyes so hard at that reveal, seriously…oh what a plot twist (RME).

My Summary (3/5): Overall I finished this and did like parts of it but I have a lot of complaints as well. Xaden and Violet’s relationship took up a lot of page space, and it was a great example of how not to make a relationship work and of how unhealthy relationships can be. Will I read the third book? I am on the fence. If this was a trilogy, I would probably read it to wrap things up. However, there are five books planned in this series. Yes it does look like Onyx Storm is only 550 pages, so maybe it is better edited. However, right now, I am leaning towards stopping with this book.