itstruly_flower's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, War, and Violence
Minor: Toxic friendship, Animal death, Death of parent, and Vomit
raiynnn's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Death, and War
Moderate: Ableism and Death of parent
noriboo's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It's good. I can see why a lot of people love this story so much. But there were a few things that made this not the most enjoyable read for me.
This book made me realise that military academia is not for me.
The story starts off strong, but after 10 chapters, it starts to drag. Chapters were too long, and the book could've been 200 pages shorter imo.
My favourite parts were anytime we got interaction with the dragons, and I was surprised to see that even after threshing, they spend more time with theorie than actual dragon riding.
I loved Xaden's character, but the nickname he came up with, "Violence," was cringy to me. Everybody talking about how frail Violet is was grating on my soul. Even after, she definitely bulked up and SURVIVED multiple challenges that killed other cadets. But sure, let's keep holding on to the narrative that she's the weakest link . BFFR🙄
My other hangup was that I didn't find Violet or most of the other cadets inquisitive enough. There were multiple times when Violet noticed that the math ain't mathing, but she didn't investigate. She let's it go until another thing pops up and rinse, repeat.
I was happy when we finally reached the point where Violet at least started kicking ass, taking names and telling Dain to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.
Xaden and the other descendants of the old rebellion were the saving grace of this story, as they seemed to be the only ones with critical thinking skills and not just blindly following codex.
Will I continue reading this series? Yes, probably, because I dislike starting and not finishing one. But I won't be picking up Iron Flame anytime soon.
This book made me realise that military academia is not for me.
The story starts off strong, but after 10 chapters, it starts to drag. Chapters were too long, and the book could've been 200 pages shorter imo.
My favourite parts were anytime we got interaction with the dragons, and I was surprised to see that even after threshing, they spend more time with theorie than actual dragon riding.
I loved Xaden's character, but the nickname he came up with, "Violence," was cringy to me. Everybody talking about how frail Violet is was grating on my soul. Even after, she definitely bulked up and SURVIVED multiple challenges that killed other cadets. But sure, let's keep holding on to the narrative that she's the weakest link . BFFR🙄
My other hangup was that I didn't find Violet or most of the other cadets inquisitive enough. There were multiple times when Violet noticed that the math ain't mathing, but she didn't investigate. She let's it go until another thing pops up and rinse, repeat.
I was happy when we finally reached the point where Violet at least started kicking ass, taking names and telling Dain to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.
Xaden and the other descendants of the old rebellion were the saving grace of this story, as they seemed to be the only ones with critical thinking skills and not just blindly following codex.
Will I continue reading this series? Yes, probably, because I dislike starting and not finishing one. But I won't be picking up Iron Flame anytime soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Death of parent, and Child death
cait's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Genocide, Sexual content, Medical content, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Violence, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, Body shaming, Classism, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Vomit, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Stalking
coco78337's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, War, Blood, Bullying, and Death of parent
thebookaddict's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
🇳🇱: Wat een emotionele rollercoaster. Ik heb alle emoties gevoeld in dit boek! Ik heb van elke seconde genoten. Ten eerste de land building is echt top! Ik kreeg gelijk een beeld bij alles zonder dat het overbodig voelde. En dan de karakters... stuk voor stuk een goede aanvulling in het boek (ook al kon ik sommige karakters niet uitstaan). Alle persoonlijkheden zijn zo verschillend en passen toch zo goed in het verhaal. Alle gebeurtenissen vallen hierdoor gelijk op zijn plek, je krijgt echt van die "ohwww daarom deed hij dit" momenten. Echt chefs kisses. Ik snap de hype helemaal... ik kan niet wachten om iron flame te lezen! Ik moet weten hoe dit verhaal verder gaat.
🇬🇧: What an emotional rollercoaster. I felt all the emotions in this book! First of all, the land building is really great! I immediately got a picture of everything and then the characters... each one is a good addition to the book. All the personalities are so different and yet fit so well into the story. This makes everything fall into place immediately, you really get those "ohwww that's why he did this" moments. Real chef's kisses. I totally get the hype... I can't wait to read iron flame! I need to know where this story continues.
🇬🇧: What an emotional rollercoaster. I felt all the emotions in this book! First of all, the land building is really great! I immediately got a picture of everything and then the characters... each one is a good addition to the book. All the personalities are so different and yet fit so well into the story. This makes everything fall into place immediately, you really get those "ohwww that's why he did this" moments. Real chef's kisses. I totally get the hype... I can't wait to read iron flame! I need to know where this story continues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Cursing, Physical abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Medical content, and Violence
Moderate: Child death
tootoo96's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, War, Violence, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Bullying, Blood, Medical content, and Medical trauma
thebankofbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, Body shaming, War, Death, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Grief, Bullying, and Genocide
annareadstoo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶🌶🌶
I am not surprised that I love this book. It gave me similar vibes to my personal Blueprint Books - very much Hunger Games with dragons, and some slight HP vibes as well. And of course, Twilight vibes because of the intense love triangle.
The booked moved at a steady pace from the beginning, with only a slight hiccup for me in the first chapter with the world building, but that always happens. This is my first single POV book in a while, and I was happy that I was still able to get to know both main characters with just the FMC's POV.
Violet's character is lovable and likable and relatable, although I am confused about what kind of condition she has that makes her so fragile. It is never mentioned explicitly in the book, but it seems like she was born with it. Xaden, of course, is a dreamboat and I am a sucker for a good enemies to lover story - and this one is great! Sometimes with this trope I feel that things move too fast for me to believe that they could ever logically become lovers within that timeline, but this book spans basically a whole year. I found myself wishing that we had a more in depth look at the days and weeks we missed because I was so invested in both characters, even from the beginning.
I thought that the combat and battle scenes were written really well. I am often wary of books with a lot of action because I get lost in the descriptions of the battles themselves, which requires me to reread certain scenes 2-3 times before I can internalize them and move onto the next part of the plot. Here, the scenes were descriptive enough that I got enough of the gist before they gave me the next plot point without too much unnecessary fluff, and it really helped keep the flow.
Yarros wrote in a diverse cast of characters, and I appreciated that they weren't pointed out as special or in need of an explanation - the scribe girl communicated using sign language, but Yarros kept the dialogue written the same as typical speech; one of the characters uses they/them pronouns and nobody batted an eye or had to explain it; cadets were hooking up with guys and girls and both and it was totally commonplace.
The ending absolutely broke my heart in so many ways.
I already have Book 2 ready to read, and I can't wait to dive in.
🌶🌶🌶
I am not surprised that I love this book. It gave me similar vibes to my personal Blueprint Books - very much Hunger Games with dragons, and some slight HP vibes as well. And of course, Twilight vibes because of the intense love triangle.
The booked moved at a steady pace from the beginning, with only a slight hiccup for me in the first chapter with the world building, but that always happens. This is my first single POV book in a while, and I was happy that I was still able to get to know both main characters with just the FMC's POV.
Violet's character is lovable and likable and relatable, although I am confused about what kind of condition she has that makes her so fragile. It is never mentioned explicitly in the book, but it seems like she was born with it. Xaden, of course, is a dreamboat and I am a sucker for a good enemies to lover story - and this one is great! Sometimes with this trope I feel that things move too fast for me to believe that they could ever logically become lovers within that timeline, but this book spans basically a whole year. I found myself wishing that we had a more in depth look at the days and weeks we missed because I was so invested in both characters, even from the beginning.
I thought that the combat and battle scenes were written really well. I am often wary of books with a lot of action because I get lost in the descriptions of the battles themselves, which requires me to reread certain scenes 2-3 times before I can internalize them and move onto the next part of the plot. Here, the scenes were descriptive enough that I got enough of the gist before they gave me the next plot point without too much unnecessary fluff, and it really helped keep the flow.
Yarros wrote in a diverse cast of characters, and I appreciated that they weren't pointed out as special or in need of an explanation - the scribe girl communicated using sign language, but Yarros kept the dialogue written the same as typical speech; one of the characters uses they/them pronouns and nobody batted an eye or had to explain it; cadets were hooking up with guys and girls and both and it was totally commonplace.
The ending absolutely broke my heart in so many ways.
Spoiler
LIAM. I LOVED HIM AND WE WERE ROBBED OF HIS OWN STORY THAT HE SO OBVIOUSLY DESERVED TO BE TOLD I AM SO UPSET!!! And honestly i should've anticipated the "betrayal" from Xaden and the marked ones. Looking back on it, it was pretty obvious, especially considering I already guessed that Dain was secretly seeing her memories. I am happy that Violet is holding her ground with Xaden in terms of the betrayal, although I'm interested to see how long she lasts. And I can barely even get into it with Brennan being alive in the last 4 sentences of the book. What an incredible ending!!! Can't wait to see how they get Mira on board. I want to know her more. The surprise Xaden POV was a welcome one, and I hope that that means we'll get a dual POV in book 2 because I love him so much and I'd love to know what his inner monologue sounds like.I already have Book 2 ready to read, and I can't wait to dive in.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
livbreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent