Fourth Wing (The Empyrean Book 1) by Rebecca Yarros

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from #1 New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

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 Review

Let me preface this review by saying I don’t read many fantasy books, but this series is a must-read. This quickly climbed to my top read of the year.

This book begins with a map to help the reader navigate the fantasy world in the pages.  Violet is weaker than others, but her mother, the General at Basgiath War College, has enrolled her to become a dragon rider. 

I love that her issues are mentioned in the book, but I have yet to fully identify them. I picked up this story based on other reviews, chronic illness in the pages, and the overall hype about it. 

This book starts out right away with the action-adventure and edge-of-your-seat moments. Dain is nice, hot, and has a history with Violet, but intimacy is forbidden. Xaden is intriguing. He is complicated, male, and scary. 

This book is absolutely addicting. You don’t want to put it down. The Riders Quadrants is like an academy with only the best surviving. Violet is brilliant but at a disadvantage with her disability.  This storyline mixes the dragon riders from “Eragon “and the heroine-heavy storyline of “Divergent.” 

The story is gritty and rife with trials of heroism. But this fantasy is thrilling, fascinating, and exciting. I absolutely love Violet’s grit.  Violet is a particular case because of her empathy and cunningness. Still, she is also in a love triangle, choosing between her friend and her enemy. 

The dragon gifts are otherworldly and unforgettable. This is a story I would reread again and again.  

This story is about edge-of-seat, non-stop life and death, but our heroine grows stronger daily. This story gets steamy, but her intimate moment is with the last person I expected it to be. They have more of an armed truce. 

Omg her power is so good. 😊 it gets new adult steamy and brings in the enemies-to-lovers trope. Oh, so the romance finally makes its way into a fantasy story. 

Of course, their explosive intimacy gets sidetracked by an attack.  Ah, the love triangle is tested and broken as she finally decides it is slowly coming anyway.  The end of this is very twisted and immensely intense. The mythological creatures in the book become more than just the dragons.

Action-packed, life and death are hanging in the balance of their decisions, with one massive surprise at the end. Yes, this ends in a cliffhanger. I’m still rooting for Violet and Xaden, no matter what side they are on; these dragon riders have completely stolen my heart.  What a fantastic read! This book is worth all the hype and more. 

I love the blurb at the end and the author identifying herself in the characters. The fact that she is chronically ill also makes my heart swell as she portrays her characters amazingly. I love that Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is portrayed in this fantasy story in some sense, maybe not to the extreme case, but I feel it was well done. I also love that the Author has spoken out about her own chronic illness story and is a chronic illness warrior as well. I adore that this book is more new adult and not steamy every other chapter or page. I love that action and adventure, as well as the angst; it sucks you into the story so completely.

The political stuff in this book is way more constant, with the rebellion and the Navarrian characters having to navigate around each other in the same setting. 

You can find it on Amazon if you want to read Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

If you like this book, you may also enjoy books with these tags and categories: Dragons, Real-life Issues, and Heroine.