A review by etymoye
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? No

2.0

 Genres: New Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal / Supernatural
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Possessive Hero, Competent Heroine, Magic, Royalty/Aristocracy, School/College

While Fourth Wing left me feeling somewhat neutral-positive, I’d say unfortunately Iron Flame left me with more negative impressions, mostly thanks to the writing. I felt like more happened in this book plot-wise than in Fourth Wing, which is frankly why I finished it. That being said, this book needed a few more rounds of editing, and it was pretty clearly pushed out fast to capitalize on the hype of book one.

In addition to the clunky sentences, there were at least two times where I definitely felt like I suddenly missed key information that wasn’t explained anywhere. For example, the rest of the squad learning that 
feathertail dragons are actually hatchlings (aka children). Sawyer just casually mentions this to Violet in passing, but I couldn’t figure out when this was revealed to them. In Fourth Wing, Tairn made it ABUNDANTLY clear that this was a huge secret and Violet didn’t have permission to endanger the hatchlings…so when did she tell everyone? And shouldn’t she have cleared it with the dragons? Why are the hatchlings suddenly no longer in danger by exposing this secret to everyone?

Similarly, there were many, many times where Yarros would intentionally keep information from the reader in order to create tension, but it honestly felt clumsy and distracting more than anything. For example, here’s some of Violet’s internal dialogue at one point:

Gravity shifts. That can’t be right. That would mean—

Yarros intentionally cuts away there, keeping Violet from finishing her thought and making the reader wait pages to see what the big revelation is. I feel like this is a writing tactic that’s really only effective when it’s used intentionally and sparingly, and Yarros used it to the point where it felt incredibly annoying, like Violet could never finish any of her own thoughts. 

As for whether or not I’ll read book three when it releases…I’m not sure. I liked Fourth Wing well enough, and when Yarros has a good editor and the time to devote to making a book shine, I think it definitely shows. But I’m not sure Onyx Storm will be in a much different boat than Iron Flame was, so I’m on the fence.

Safety Stats:
Ages:
Violent is 21 in this book, Xaden is 23.
Cheating:
None.
Other Man/Other Woman:
We meet Cat, Xaden’s ex-fiancee in this book. The engagement was arranged and Xaden never had feelings for Cat, but Cat clearly wants him back and is incredibly hostile to Violet. Honestly, I pretty much hated everything about Cat’s character. Adding her accomplished almost nothing except to instill jealousy in Violet.
Separation:
Yes, Xaden has graduated from Basgiath in this book, so he stationed elsewhere. However, they try to see each other once a week, but this doesn’t always happen.
Triggers:
Some descriptions of violence, death, and a torture scene of Violet.
HEA/HFN?:
Cliffhanger, book 2 in a series.
 
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