Categories: Books

Iron Flame By Rebecca Yarros: Book Review

On Friday night I finished the sequel to Fourth Wing– Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros! It took me all of three days to finish which I was pretty proud of myself for considering it is almost 900 pages long! Iron Flame was one of the books I was most excited to read this year and I know it was highly anticipated for the many fans of Fourth Wing. I have a lot of opinions on Iron Flame since reading it, and I’m not sure if they are hot takes or if a lot of people are feeling the same, so I needed to write a formal Iron Flame book review. I’ll give a synopsis and spoiler free opinions (assuming you’ve already finished Fourth Wing!) and then I’ll get into more details and have more spoilers. If you haven’t read yet, I’ll let you know when it’s not safe to proceed further, but feel free to come back and read my thoughts once you’ve finished it!

Spoiler-Free Iron Flame Synopsis

After completing her first year at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail now has to start the real training. After discovering a revolution was happening under her nose, she now has to grapple with the feeling of betrayal from Xaden as well as from her country that they were hiding. Violet is trying to help figure out how to help the innocents as well as the people she loves. While trying to keep up in her second year at Basgiath, there is a new vice commandment trying to make her life as difficult as possible unless she betrays those who she cares about the most.

Spoiler-Free Opinions

Fourth Wing was one of my favorite books I’ve read this year and so when Iron Flame was announced to come out in November, I pre-ordered it immediately. Fourth Wing captured you with action and had you on the edge of your seat from early on. There was so much to be revealed in Fourth Wing, that I think in comparison, I found Iron Flame to be not as action-packed as I hoped and actually a little slow for the first 50%.

Unfortunately, for me, it felt like the things that I liked most about Fourth Wing were lacking or rushed in Iron Flame. It felt like the characters lost all of their good qualities from the first book, all of the secondary characters felt flat, and the action and twists felt rushed.

The romance of Fourth Wing was such a great build-up, and it felt a bit more chaotic in Iron Flame. It was as if Yarros wanted romance to be a bigger part of the book (as opposed to action and world building), and so the action and world building took a backseat for Iron Flame.

The ending of Fourth Wing made it obvious that Violet and Xaden were going to have a lot of communication to get through in the sequel due to the secrets that Xaden had kept from Violet. Sure enough, Iron Flame tackled communication, but like it was beating a dead horse.

If you haven’t read Iron Flame yet, proceed with caution! Spoilers are ahead! And if you are looking for the audiobook version of Iron Flame, you can get 2 free audiobooks with Audible Premium Plus here!

IRON FLAME SPOILERS AHEAD!

Oh where to begin. While it felt like a lot happened in this book (it was over 800 pages!), also not a lot happened for part 1. Although first of all…. can we talk about how the entire book is supposed to be a transcribed text? With all of the ~*spice*~ in this book and in Fourth Wing, it make me laugh that this is supposedly information that needed to be included for the history books.

The following text has been faithfully transcribed from Navarrian into the modern language by Jesinia Neilwart, Curator of the Scribe Quadrant at Basgiath War College. All events are true, and names have been preserved to honor the courage of those fallen. May their souls be commended to Malek.
Page 15

Let’s talk about the characters of Iron Flame and the relationships:

Violet Sorrengail

Multiple characters were suddenly less likeable to me in Iron Flame, and Violet’s character was no exception. In Fourth Wing, she is not the strongest rider, but her strength lies in her cleverness and intelligence (and then later on in her signet of lightening). However, in Iron Flame, she suddenly starts making rash decisions that are not thought through, endangering people, and demanding information even though she knows how much of a liability she is with it. It came off as so whiny and immature in this book, which was so disappointing! Violet was demanding information about the revolution even though they repeatedly told her that it wasn’t safe because she couldn’t keep her mental shields up and then she acted like a child who was getting left out. It was beyond annoying.

Xaden Riorson

For some reason, Xaden’s character lost some of the allure to me in this book. I enjoyed his character so much in Fourth Wing, but the constant fighting with Violet about refusing to open up to her was so frustrating. Communication is obviously so imporant in a relationship and he wanted her to trust him without him communicating anything. It just didnt make any sense and made their relationship seem so much more immature. He kept saying that he would tell her things about himself or things that would affect the way Violet made decisions, but then we would find out later on these big things that he was not telling Violet. And then he would blame Violet for “not asking the right questions”. Like sorry but that’s toxic? You don’t hide big information about yourself from someone you love, especially if you want them to love you for who you are (which he kept saying he did).

Xaden and Violet’s Relationship

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the romance of Fourth Wing. But it was so perfectly balanced with the action and world building, that even if you don’t love romance novels, I think you can enjoy Fourth Wing. Iron Flame put a lot more emphasis on the romance and the relationship between Xaden and Violet. After him hiding the revolution from Violet and the fact that her brother, Brennan was alive and the tactician of the revolution, it is hard for Violet to grapple with the love she has for Xaden while also feeling betrayed by him.

Turns out, falling in love with someone only brings that blissful high all the poets talk about if they love you back. And if they keep secrets that jeopardize everyone and everything you hold dear? Love doesn’t even have the decency to die. It just transforms into abject misery. That’s what this ache in my chest is: misery.
Page 38

Because of Dain’s ability to read memories and how it put them in grave danger in Fourth Wing, Xaden does not want to tell Violet everything about the revolution so that it doesn’t compromise all the work they are doing. This makes sense (although Violet seems too dense to understand), but Xaden seems to take it a step further by withholding things about himself and acting like you can keep secrets about yourself and still have your partner love you fully. But how can someone fully love you without knowing all of the facets of yourself?

“I tell you we’re not together because you won’t give me the one thing I need—honesty—and you counter with ‘it’s good for us’?” I scoff and walk down the stairs and past two of the marble pillars in the rotunda. “The arrogance.” “Confidence is not arrogance. I don’t lose the fights I pick. And we’re both allowed to have boundaries. You’re not the only one who gets to set the rules in this relationship.” I bristle at the implication that I’m the problem here.
Page 80

How can I want someone who refuses to tell me his whole truth? Who makes a game out of it with his ridiculous ask me anything act?
Page 88

While I fully expected communication to be a theme in Iron Flame after the way Fourth Wing ended, the communication issues between Xaden and Violet go through the. whole. book.

“And if I report that she’s not recording my requests, she’ll be at Markham’s mercy.” I grip the strap of the bag a little tighter. “Trust has to go both ways to mean anything.” “Both ways, but you’re shutting me out while I’m trying my damnedest to open up to you.” Says the man who’s never so much as told me he loves me. If he does. Gods, I’m so sick of having to make the first move when it comes to this man. And today isn’t the day to open myself up to that rejection, too. “Sure, as long as you can keep your secrets. Has it ever occurred to you that this”—I gesture between us—“ is all because you don’t trust me?” I take a step backward. “You expect complete, blind faith without giving it. It. Goes. Both. Ways.” “I’m the one who doesn’t trust you?” Shadows curl around his ankles, following him as he pivots, heading up the tunnel. “I’ll see you later. I have to find Bodhi.”
Page 264

The amount of time it takes for them to learn to meet in the middle and communicate was beyond frustrating.

I want the same three words he demands from me.
Page 361

“You want to fight for me?” I reach up into my hair and pull the pins loose one by one, letting them fall to the stone floor. “Then take a chance without knowing how I feel. You want my heart back? Risk yours first this time.” “If I tell you how I feel right now, you’d never trust that I’m not just desperate for your body.” His brow furrows.
Page 364

Xaden ultimately wants transparency from Violet without giving it himself and it takes him a long time before he actually reveals his biggest secret to Violet… but not before she has to literally pull the secret out of him. The fact that he couldn’t be upfront with information to her and then blamed her for not asking really left a sour taste in my mouth for Xaden’s character.

Other Characters

This might have been a personal problem, but I had such a hard time remembering names in Iron Flame. Yarros included a lot of characters, but they didn’t feel as developed as the secondary characters in Fourth Wing, so I think that was why it was hard for me to keep things straight. One of the new characters, “Aaric Graycastle”, whose name is actually Cam, is King Tauri’s third son, could have been developed so much more and created so much more conflict and intrigue– especially between him and Xaden. I do wonder if he’s going to have a bigger role in the subsequent book though!

Dain does not have a huge role until the end of part 1 when he essentially saves Violet from the torture and interrogation of Vice Commandment, Major Varrish. In saving Violet, he sees Violet’s memories and then understands the revolution and joins their side. It’s quite a redemption for Dain, and I really would have liked to see more of the relationship building between Dain and Violet. I actually think that because of the issues between Violet and Xaden, a love triangle between them would have made things much more interesting instead of the constant rehashing of miscommunication.

Reveals

General Sorrengail

The reveal that Violet’s mom, General Sorrengail, was not really all bad and really was just trying to protect Violet, actually wasn’t the most shocking reveal to me. In Fourth Wing, it felt too easy that she was bad, and it felt like there was more to it. Sure enough, after Violet kills General Varrish, her mom reveals that she forced Violet into the Rider’s Quadrant in hopes of keeping her from knowing the truth about how Navarre is hiding the venin and wyvern problem and that Navarre is safely sitting in the safety of wards and letting innocent civilians die at the hands of venin and wyvern just beyond the border.

“…I knew you’d never see it our way. Never agree with our stance on self-preservation. Markham saw you as his protégé, the next head of the scribes, the only applicant he thought smart enough, clever enough to continue weaving the complicated blindfold chosen for us hundreds of years ago.” She scoffs. “He made the mistake of thinking you’d be easy to control, but I know my daughter.”
Page 467

Her mom makes the argument that she knew that Violet would want to help the defenseless people if she knew the truth and after Brennan had died in the rebellion, she didn’t want to lose another child. But in revealing her reasoning, she reveals that she made a deal with Xaden that basically had made it so he had to keep Violet safe her first year in exchange for letting the children of the rebellion enter the rider’s quadrant.

“I put you into the Riders Quadrant so you’d have a shot at surviving, and then I called in the favor Riorson owed me for putting the marked ones into the quadrant.”
Page 468

This makes Violet question a lot of things about her relationship with Xaden and how it started and adds to the roster of secrets that Xaden is hiding from her.

He’s never had a choice when it came to me. His life—the lives of those he holds dearest—has always been tied to mine. And suddenly, I have to know. “Are those your knife marks on his back?”
Page 469

General Sorrengail ends up sacrificing her life so that Violet doesn’t burn herself out and so they are able to re-ward Basgiath, which was a great redemption arc for her character.

Jack’s Resurrection

This was the most random twist in the book to me. In part 1, it is revealed that Jack didn’t die when Violet let a landslide land on him. While he acts kind to Violet and actually saves her from an assassination attempt at one point, he ultimately fools everyone and turns out to be venin. So somehow the wards don’t actually keep venin out? This was a part that started to confuse me. When it is revealed that he is actually venin, he kills his own dragon and breaks the wardstone at Basgiath, thus taking down the wards protecting Navarre. This is what creates the big climax battle as it lets in all of the wyvern and dark riders/venin and they fight the cadets and riders at Basgiath while Brennan tries to fix the wardstone and get the wards back up. Instead of bringing Jack back, I almost would have liked to see someone else that Violet is close with betray her and have been venin right under her nose.

Cat and Xaden’s Former Relationship

Another big part of his past that Xaden was hiding was his former engagement to Cat who is the niece of Viscount Tecarus and 3rd in line the Poromiel throne. It was revealed earlier on in the book that Xaden had a former relationship that sounded serious but Violet instead decided to keep it to herself and not ask. Of course Violet shouldn’t have dwelled onto it and let it be another thing that she fixated on, but if I met a girl and my boyfriend didn’t give me a heads up of “hey btw, I was engaged to her” I think I would be pretty pissed off.

We are introduced to Cat in this book and she hates Violet because of her relationship with Xaden. I guess I kind of assumed in Fourth Wing that Xaden was a duke or something, but it was confirmed in this book that he is the Duke of Aretia by birth. Cat was really only ever in it because she was promised a crown , but still uses her channeling to heighten Violet’s emotions– specifically jealousy– to complicate things between her and Xaden.

Andarna

Of course my favorite part of this series is Violet’s relationship with her dragons. I think their banter is such a fun part of the book and I wished for even more of it in Iron Flame. We are left in Fourth Wing with Andarna giving a lot of power to Violet to stop time. Things pick back up in Iron Flame with her needing to recover and grow into an adult. She’s basically a teenager dragon which makes for some comedic relief of her acting like a teen in her conversations with Tairn and Violet.

At the end though, it is revealed that Andarana is actually a 7th breed of dragon which makes her the missing piece to re-raising the wardstone in Basgiath. However, because she is currently one-of-a-kind (or at least that we know of), and she already used her power to raise wards in Basgiath, as of now, they are not going to be fully able to raise wardstones in Aretia. One thing that I couldn’t figure out was when they were trying to raise the wards and reading through the journals, they declared that the Journal of Warrick was lying because it said:

“The breath of life of the six and the one combined and set the stone ablaze in an iron flame”
Page 746

Versus the Journal of Lyra which said:

“The breath of life of the seven combined and set the stone ablaze in an iron flame”
Page 842

The Journal of Warrick says “breath of life of the six and the one combined”, so I have a feeling that in the next book, the one is going to mean something different from Andarna’s dragon fire, but instead be like Violet’s ability to strike it with lightening or that Violet is going to get a second signet from Andarna that is going to help raise the wards. Just my theory!

Xaden’s Signets

I suspected pretty early on that Xaden had a secret signet or something but I definitely was surprised that he would read people’s intentions! That was a good twist. I thought I remembered from Fourth Wing that Sgaeyl had bonded with Xaden’s grandfather, so when this was said, I felt certain that he had a secret power or something:

“But she’s not a direct descendant, so I don’t have to worry about going mad like those whose dragons bond in the direct familial line. Dragons aren’t supposed to even get close to family lines for that exact reason– like they listen to human rules.”
Page 434

“Second signets only happen when a dragon bonds a rider in the direct familial line as its previous,” Sloane says, misunderstanding Visia’s question. “But there’s an equal chance of it causing madness. From what Thoirt told me, that’s why Cruth wasn’t punished for bonding Quinn. She’s only the great-niece of her previous rider. Her signet’s more powerful but not entirely different.”
Page 706

If you remember from Fourth Wing, being inntinnsic (having the ability to read minds) is a signet that they will kill you for. Xaden is technically inntinnsic because he is able to read their intentions through their mind. He has never told anyone about this secret signet because of this, but he finally reveals it to Violet at the end of the book because she basically pulls the question out of him. He kept the secret to keep himself safe obviously, but if he could read intentions, do you think he would be able to know how Violet would respond to him revealing that kind of information to her? Then he could have told her sooner? I specifically highlighted this line from Xaden from earlier on in the book:

I just need to know the important things. I won’t withhold information that could change how you make decisions, and I ask the same of you.”
Page 293

Xaden admits that he fears that she won’t love him with this information, because it changes how she views how she fell in love with him. Hypothetically, he could have used his ability to read her mind to manipulate her into falling in love with him. So was he withholding information that could change how Violet made decisions? I think so. And once again, he is expecting Violet to reveal things while keeping a lot of his secrets close to the chest.

“I’m pissed that you kept it from me, that you insist on making me ask for things you should openly share. How the hell am I in love with you when I feel like I barely know you sometimes?”
Page 720

Iron Flame Ending

The ENDING!!! Xaden is now venin?! I got the impression that he became venin in a deal to make sure Violet was not killed in the battle at Basgiath, but someone please correct me if I misunderstood that!

I think that the next book is going to be about Xaden trying to control it, maybe there will be a way for someone to siphon it or Violet’s second signet will provide a way to cure him.

Here’s where I got confused though. So the wards don’t actually keep venin out? And perhaps there are already other venin hiding in Navarre. Where I was lost though was Jack said that within the wards that venin are weakened? But at the same time they were also stronger? Because they said it heightened their signets? It all felt conflicting, but maybe we will get some answers in the next book!

Iron Flame Final Rating

3.5/5 stars

Overall, this book was giving much more of a YA Fantasy book than Fourth Wing did– especially because of the miscommunication between Xaden and Violet that we couldn’t seem to escape and dwarfed her relationships with everyone else. It really seemed to make their relationship appear a lot less mature which made it feel more YA.

Obviously I didn’t expect this to be the most phenomenal piece of literary work, but I was SO impressed with Fourth Wing that this one did fall a little bit short of my expectations. I think it felt a little rushed in a way, which would not be surprising given the huge success of Fourth Wing and Yarros wanting to capitalize and get a sequel out ASAP! It felt like it needed another round of editing or maybe that it should have been split into 2 books to give us a bit more world building and character development.

I know I really listed a lot of critiques, but I cannot lie that the plot of this series still has me hooked and I’ll keep reading for that reason! I do really hope that Yarros doesn’t try to rush to put out book #3. I know it has to be hard to feel like you have to outdo Fourth Wing considering its success, but hopefully she brings back some of the elements that made Fourth Wing excellent.