Book Review: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Rating: ★★★★☆(4/5)

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Introduction:

Released November 2023. Reread January 2025 for this review.

“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.” —Xaden Riorson

Onyx Storm releases tomorrow and oh what a time to be alive. I have ordered the Kindle edition because getting a hard copy of OS looks like a nightmare. Amazon and Barnes and Noble seem to have outsold themselves leading to a lot of turmoil from dissatisfied customers. That being said, it is a great time to revisit the first two novels. I reviewed Fourth Wing a couple of days ago and that can be seen here. https://readrantrepeat.com/2025/01/17/fourth-wing-review/

I will say that I am impressed with how long these books are and that they were only released a year apart. However, there are parts to this book that I think could have used some more editing.

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Summary: A Brief Overview (Without Major Spoilers)

A lot of the groundwork was laid out in Fourth Wing. We met a lot of the MCs and side characters, felt like we got a good idea of what Violet’s purpose was, and then right there at the end it all got flipped on it’s head. This book starts right where that flip happened.

No one (other than the readers) expected Violet to make it this far. Now that she has, she has to decide if she will fall in line with what the government and some of the leaders of her school want or if she will rebel for the cause that Xaden has revealed to her. It is a path that will put her at odds with everything she was raised to beleive to be true but a path she can’t ignore after the veil has been lifted off of her eyes revealing the truth of the world around her.

That is about the only way I can describe this book without Spoilers.

This book has been out for over a year so I feel like unless you are just discovering the book you already know what’s going on but I don’t want to be the one to ruin it for new readers.

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What Worked for Me:

Xaden. Riorson.

For real, though, his POV had me in a chokehold in some parts.

The plot being larger than a romance. I have read some romantasy books that focus too much on the romance. This one had a verty intricate plot that was unique enough to keep me turning pages.

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What Didn’t Work for Me: Trigger Warnings and Criticisms

How Yarros harps so much on Violet’s size like she hasn’t spent a year proving she can overcome it.

The leadership. This is a book where the government has a complicated relationship with the MCs. Some are all bad, some make bad choices, some try to correct mistakes. A lot of it revolves around the teachers or those who are supposed to protect the students and as a teacher myself I had a hard time relating to some of the methods they used.

Finding out what’s really going on. I get it furthers the plot but it was hard to digest how corrupt some of the characters are and having to read about Violet enduring torture because of it.

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Final Thoughts:

The ending! I am ready for Onyx Storm to see where this is going. I have read reviews that harp on how Yarros describes the characters or the fact they have read similar books that they feel deserve more attention that this series is getting. Cool story bro. Go read those then. For those of us just getting into romantasy and don’t want to reread ACOTAR then this is an entertaining book series. I reread it in 2 days. The Kindle edition is over 800 pages and I have a toddler if that shows how hooked this book got me.