Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Series: The Empyrean #1
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Publication Date: May 2, 2023
Format: Audiobook
Source: Bought with Audible credits.
Rating:
Goodreads Synopsis: Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today 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
Review: OMG THIS BOOK!
I finished it and immediately wanted to read it again.. and again. Now we have to wait til November for book 2. I almost can't.
I chose this book for my Fable bookclub, which includes my grandfather, it was slightly awkward because NOWHERE does anyone talk about the spice - only the romace so I figured fair game. Awkward, but he enjoyed it too, so that is good.
This book had everything I was looking for. It was fantasy...with dragons, romance, enemies to lovers, a magic system, political intrigue, war, friendships.. it was so good. The plot follows Violet as she enters the Basgaith War College. She wanted to be a scribe but her mother, a general, is forcing her into the college. Violet as a disability that makes her more fragile and weaker than others her age, so there is a chance she won't make it. Although tensions are high, Violet is able to push herself. She is such a great character. She knows that she is different but plays to her strengths in cunning and interesting ways that will help her. She is smart and her brain makes her stronger than some.
The relationships in this plot are about half the story. Violet finds friends before entering the college and while she is there. Her found family/friendships help her through. Then there is her sister who also roots for her from outside the college, and finally Xaden. Politics had her mother sentence his father to death, and Xaden is out for blood, what better a way than to target someone in a school where they might be killed anyway. There is so much romantic and sexual tension between Violet and Xaden it is crazy. This does boil over so be prepared for some descriptive spice.
The other half of the plot is Violet surviving and doing everything she can to do that, with people in support of her, out to kill her, and that think she is far too weak to even be there. Violet grows so much in just this first book, it is amazing and I can't wait for more of her.
The splicing of action with romance was fun and kept me reading.. I wanted to read it forever, through every responsibility that I had... I still want to be reading it.
If you read it and didn't love it, but snagged that black edged first edition, let me know, I will take it off your hands gladly. Book 2 is already pre-ordered.
