'Iron Flame' Review (No Spoilers!)

Summary

Everyone anticipated Violet Sorrengail’s failure in her initial year at Basgiath War College, including Violet herself. The Threshing, however, was merely the beginning. As Violet embarks on the true essence of her training, she is plagued by doubts about her ability to endure. The training is not only physically taxing and mercilessly harsh, but also engineered to push the riders to the brink of their pain threshold.

Then there’s the new vice commandant, intent on showing her just how vulnerable she is, especially if she refuses to betray the man she loves. But sheer willpower might not suffice 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.

I was one of the crazy few who didn’t immediately hop on the Fourth Wing hype. I’m actually really grateful for that because once I decided to read it, it was a week or so before the sequel was released. Which meant that I only had to wait about 7 days to read Iron Flame. And let me tell you, It felt like I had to wait months. I was immediately captivated by the story and it was torture to wait.

Fortunately, I was smart enough to pre order Iron Flame and once it was delivered I did nothing but read! I soon realized that I had a problem. On one hand I physically could not put the dang book down. I was invested. On the other hand, I knew this was a new release and once I finished there was no third book to begin. I tried so hard to read slowly. Unfortunately it was a lost cause.

That leaves me in this awful place of having my heart invested in a book that ended in a cliffhanger with no third book in sight. A freaking book hangover. So on that note, let’s talk about it!

Plot

Compared to Fourth Wing this book moved a bit slower. I felt like the story was good from the start, but there was a lot of back and forth without much action. But once it gets good, it gets good! I couldn’t finish a chapter without wanting to start the next one. This made my goal to read this book slowly doomed from the start. It had the same banter from the first book that I loved and continued world building. That is another big difference from Fourth Wing. Iron Flame delved deeper into history and topics like how the wards work and how they were originally made. I won’t lie, my eyes glazed over a bit at these parts, but they were short lived.

The second half of this book is action packed and I really enjoyed it. There were a couple massive reveals that made me gasp and left me with more questions than answers. We get more of Xaden and Violet as a couple, and more of her bond with Tairn and Andarna. Then the ending. WTF! It was the biggest gut punch. I’m absolutely annoyed. Annoyed that I read this dang book so fast and am now left with a hole in my heart and unanswered questions. It drives me crazy that I can’t pick up the next book and binge read that too! Rebecca, get on it!