Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Fourth Wing - Flammengeküsst

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Fourth Wing - Flammengeküsst by Rebecca Yarros

238 reviews

latenight_pageturner's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’ve never read Colleen Hoover, but I feel like this is romantasy for people who really like Colleen Hoover. I also want to disclaim that I am no fantasy expert and this is my first dragon-story and the action didn’t disappoint but I do feel like Yarros could have done better fleshing out the more original pieces to make this more unique. I was getting the Gaelic influences but was thrown off by some other spiritual/religious elements - it just seemed like she took bits and pieces of other stories and threw them together with some bad dialog and nothing was really explained.

Was this exciting? Yes. But was it well-done? No. She has a story that's interesting, but if you're looking for original and technically great, I'm sure there are other books. I think this would be a great place to start for being introduced to romance/fantasy books. Which is why I won't completely bash it, this might lead someone deeper into the genre towards better writing and storytelling (not talking about myself at all teehee). I hope she goes more into the dragon lore in Iron Flame.

TW: There are quite a few death scenes and violence, but none of it is extremely graphic. There was only one death scene I was upset about and it had nothing to do with gore.

Content Warnings

sugar_fox's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Usually, I’m not a huge fan of fantasy books. Specifically romance fantasy. I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance fantasy, at least not since I was incredibly young.

And yet, I found this book positively entertaining and brilliant, wonderfully so. The idea felt fresh despite being a trope I’m sure has been used many times before. I adore the characters within this.

Violet was a strong female character, but not to the level of being a Mary Sue. She’s the perfect level of strength, but having vulnerabilities (and not being fucking emotionless) and imperfections. She has to earn her skill, she doesn’t come into the academy knowing it all.

Xaden was introduced to us as the cold but cool love interest, and from the get-go I was all for that. From his first meeting with Violet in the woods, we see a man fatally loyal to others like him, that actually cares about things (again, not fucking emotionless) and has imperfections and faults of his own. I was expecting the classic ‘bad boy’ trope with Xaden and was pleasantly impressed that the author didn’t go down that route.

As for their relationship, I loved it. I was already biased given I love the romance trope, but this book made me believe in their chemistry. Not through defining the trope, and telling me, but showing me. It seemed like a natural progression from enemies to lovers, and the things they’d argue over wasn’t foolish or fickle unlike other books tend to make arguments between the main couple feel. They had their own grievances and character arcs outside of each other and I loved that.

Now for Dain. I fucking hate dain. I’m not talking about any other side characters (and I mean that as an insult towards dain), but I just had to mention my absolute loathing of this character. And I do not mean this in fault of the author, no, she wrote this exactly as she meant to to evoke these feelings. His character was almost too real. The overprotective smothering ‘friend’ who totally doesn’t want anything more than friendship. The way at every turn, he’d try to prove Violet incapable of making decisions. I almost wanted Violet to

kill him over Jack, because at least Jack was plain in his horribleness

.

I loved the way the background characters were written as well. They each had their own little arc and moments throughout the story, making them feel more realistic and like actual people would behave. They weren’t just chess pieces to move around in a game, they were the chess masters each with their own agenda and goals in mind. There was no clear 2 sides that people chose, it was a free-for-all.

As for the writing. This book is not complexly written. It does not take the mental mind of Albert Einstein to decode what the authors conveying. despite that, the scenes can be imagined clearly, and the events make excellent sense. I really do like the writing, as can be seen from the time period in which I finished the book (less than 2 days lol). The dialogue was golden and humour was used appropriately. These actually sounded like 20 year old kids in a perilous situation, but still having fun.

Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone thinking about picking it up. And whilst you begin reading this masterpiece, I’ll start hoping that I can buy the next book for myself by Christmas.

Content Warnings