Fourth Wing
The Empyrean #1
Rebecca Yarros
Publisher: Entangled
Publication date: May 2, 2023
Genre: New Adult Fantasy
Rating:
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die
My thoughts…
I’m always on board for a good old fashion romance with dragons. Okay, maybe that came out wrong. I’m not looking for dragon porn or anything. I just meant, dragons are awesome and they are not very common in the romance books I read. Vampires? Sure. Werewolves? All the time! But DRAGONS??? They never get a lot of time in the spotlight. So, I was really happy to see this story deals with the bonding of humans to ancient dragons in order to become weapons for war.
We follow Violet as she’s voluntold by her mother, the commander of the dragonwing warriors, that she will not go into training to be a scribe, but instead will be going into training to become a fierce dragon rider like her. Of course, Violet had not planned on this and has spent all her time studying to be a scribe. So, switching to something else is not only a shock in itself, but to a unit that is known to have such a low survival rate during training… let’s just say it’s a hard pill to swallow. We follow Violet as she navigates treacherous waters where other trainees are just as likely to kill her as the challenges are.
I really liked the idea behind this book, that there are elite dragon riders who, thanks to the dragons they bond with, have magical abilities that they can wield in battle. Everyone’s is different, and not every ability is open to common knowledge as it’s seen more as a intel advantage. Not only is Violet trying to survive all these challenges that come her way during the trials, but she has enemies in her own squad wanting to take her out, and if she is lucky enough to make it to the end and meet a dragon. Well, let’s just say, dragon don’t have the patience to deal with anyone they feel like is not worth there time. So, yeah…. Violet is toeing a fine line between survival and death the entire time.
I enjoyed the romance aspect, but there were times where I wanted to shake Violet. I’m a firm believer of actions speak more than words. Yet, time and time again Violet flings accusations at people without actually stopped and taking a minute to catalogue their actions. I’m find if this happens a time or two as the pieces start to settle into place, but good golly Miss Molly, she road that blame train to the very end.
I had a hard time putting this book down at times. There’s a lot that goes on between the trials, training, developing friendships, romance, and then all the secrecy that trickles into the story. I honestly thought this story would just be up until Violet gets through the trials and gets a dragon. Maybe she makes it to the clearing and a big badass dragon comes out of the trees and says “Hello, little one” and the book ends. I guess I’m just used to author’s pulling that crap. However, I was pleasantly surprised that after getting her dragon, there’s still SO MUCH MORE to the story. From flight lessons, to channeling power from the dragon to rider, to being able to telepathically talk to her dragon and vise verse. I really enjoyed just how rich this story got instead of just showing us the trials. The story ends on a cliffhanger, but that’s to be expected. With so many things up in the air at the end of this book, I’m intrigued to see what is in store next.
