book review fourth wing

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Fourth wing, common sense media reviewers.

Explicit sex, some violence in fun but shallow fantasy.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Positive messages of friendship, loyalty, and not

Violet is smart and bold, and she's determined and

Characters are mostly White. There are strong wome

Frequent violence, fighting, battles, and some blo

Characters openly, positively, and frankly talk ab

Strong language includes all variations of "f--k,"

Brief scene mentions characters smoking something

Parents need to know that Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is an adult fantasy romance novel about a young woman who's fighting for her place in a dangerous war college. Many young warriors will be chosen to train as dragon riders, but first they have to conquer difficult challenges and tests, often battling…

Positive Messages

Positive messages of friendship, loyalty, and not judging books by their covers. You never know what people have been through or what tragedies may have befallen them in their past. Help others in need, and be friendly to people no matter what their position in life. Try to love well and communicate your feelings bravely. Sometimes rules can get in the way of what's right and just. Listen to your heart.

Positive Role Models

Violet is smart and bold, and she's determined and brave when facing stronger opponents and difficult challenges. Her friends and companions are supportive, kind, and encouraging, coming to her aid as good listeners, trusty battle companions, and voices of reason. Together, they show great teamwork when tackling large-scale obstacles, tests, and fights.

Diverse Representations

Characters are mostly White. There are strong women characters and sex-positive depictions of sexuality and desire. But one of the few characters of color's main function/purpose is to be sexually promiscuous. Author Rebecca Yarros gave main character Violet a chronic illness, though it's not named, that the author herself has: Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). EDS is a connective tissue disorder that can cause hypermobile joints, joint pain, and other physical limitations that Violet manages throughout the story. Yarros never saw this kind of representation in the fantasy genre, so set out to change that. Secondary characters include one who's nonbinary and another who uses sign language to communicate (main characters also all know how to sign).

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent violence, fighting, battles, and some blood and death as characters face peril and danger. Young people fall to gruesome deaths from cliff edges, ledges, towers, high windows. Characters break bones, get stabbed, and are strangled and choked, poisoned, chased, burnt to ash by fire, run through with swords, zapped by magic bolts and lightning. Necks are snapped and cut. Fistfights, wrestling, knife and sword fights. Dragons and wyverns fight and maul each other, rip throats out, claw and slice and shred each other. Wizards kill civilians, including children, and cause some to "desiccate and shrivel." A character poisons other characters with various physically debilitating but nonlethal concoctions.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Characters openly, positively, and frankly talk about sex, orgasms, and relationships and often talk about "really needing to get laid." There are a few fairly explicit sex scenes, make-out scenes, and scenes that describe desire, longing, and lust. Frank descriptions of nudity, intercourse, insertion, oral sex, thrusting, ass grabbing, rubbing, fingering, partner masturbation, nipple play, "hard length," "cumming," and "clit rubbing." Sex jokes and innuendo about penises, penis size, and sexual ability. Characters talk about other characters' bodies, butts, and chests.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes all variations of "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "ass," "c--k," "clit," "d--k," "pr--k," "bitch," "balls," "hell," and "damn."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Brief scene mentions characters smoking something akin to nicotine, tobacco, or weed, but it's unclear. Characters drink wine.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is an adult fantasy romance novel about a young woman who's fighting for her place in a dangerous war college. Many young warriors will be chosen to train as dragon riders, but first they have to conquer difficult challenges and tests, often battling each other to prove their worth. Violet Sorrengail was supposed to train as a scribe, but her mother, a tough commander general, has other ideas. Expect quite a bit of violence, with blood, death, and fighting. Young people fall off cliff edges, ledges, and towers and suffer bone breaks, stabbings, cuts, and neck snaps. Characters are strangled, choked, poisoned, chased, burnt to ash, run through with swords, and zapped by magic bolts and lightning. Dragons and wyverns fight and maul each other, rip throats out, claw and slice and shred each other. The book also has explicit sex scenes, some several pages long, that include frank descriptions of caressing, nudity, intercourse, oral sex, orgasms, nipple play, and more. Characters drink wine and smoke a tobacco or marijuana-like substance. Characters swear regularly, using words like "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "ass," "c--k," "d--k," "pr--k," "bitch," "balls," "hell," and "damn."

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (19)
• Kids say (16)

Based on 19 parent reviews

This is NOT Young Adult

What's the story.

In FOURTH WING, Violet Sorrengail was meant to live the quiet life of a scribe, her head in books instead of on proverbial chopping blocks. But at the last minute, her respected commander general mother signs Violet up for the incredibly dangerous war academy that trains future dragon riders. Small and weak, Violet's physical limits will be tested. With death and danger at every step, no one expects her to survive. Will she be able to prove everyone wrong?

Is It Any Good?

This serviceable fantasy romance reads like young adult fantasy with an R-rated dash of romance. With slightly less-explicit sex scenes, Fourth Wing could have been marketed as YA, but its adult fantasy status won't stop many teens from racing through this story. Alas, the central romance feels immature at best. Violet falls, predictably, for the "hot guy," and their physical attraction magically turns into love after a few sexual encounters. It's unclear why Violet's lover returns her affections so intensely given that her beauty, charm, and personality—beyond being "bookish, small and weak, and not confident"—all remain undeveloped.

On the plus side, Rebecca Yarros does a great job representing chronic illness in Violet's character, who deals with chronic pain and must negotiate how to be a dragon rider given her physical limitations. The story is basically a fun read, with an interesting (if not wholly original) world full of adventure, dragons, magic, and love triangles set at a war college. Characters are clearly drawn but a little flat, with few getting fully developed. The central conflicts and political intrigue are also a bit bland: Too often, things just happen, robbing them of the tense, high stakes they need. Hopefully, the world will be better fleshed out in future books. For now, there's enough to satisfy mature fantasy fans—and enough to get readers coming back for the next installment.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about sexual content in fantasy romance novels. Did you find the sexual content in Fourth Wing excessive, or justified? Why, and how so?

How do characters demonstrate courage and teamwork ? How does Violet overcome her "shortcomings" to become a successful candidate? How do her friends get past their beefs and drama to work together to defeat larger threats?

What does Violet learn about love and desire by the end of her adventure? Why do you think she falls for one person over another?

Do you like the way dragons are depicted in this world? What questions do you still have about how dragons behave, work, or live?

Book Details

• Author : Rebecca Yarros
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures
• Character Strengths : Communication , Teamwork
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Entangled: Red Tower Books
• Publication date : May 2, 2023
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 16 - 18
• Number of pages : 528
• Available on : Paperback, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Last updated : August 3, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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How Rebecca Yarros Packed Dragons, Magic and Steamy Sex Into a Blockbuster Fantasy

Yarros drew on her experience with chronic illness and life in a military family to write “Fourth Wing,” a huge best seller that spawned a spicy fantasy series.

For Rebecca Yarros, writing Violet, the main character in “Fourth Wing,” was cathartic. Credit... Joanna Kulesza for The New York Times

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• Share full article

By Alexandra Alter

• Nov. 6, 2023

When Rebecca Yarros pitched her publisher a sexy fantasy about telepathic dragons and their riders, she thought it might be a tough sell.

She’d built a career and a dedicated following writing romances, often drawing on her experience as a military wife. What she was proposing was wildly off-brand: an epic fantasy series with dragons, griffins, magic and political intrigue.

To Yarros’s surprise, her publisher, Entangled, loved the idea, and wanted to launch a new fantasy imprint with it. Over a feverish few months, Yarros crash-wrote “Fourth Wing,” an intricately plotted 500-plus-page narrative that takes place at an elite war college, where two dragon riders feud, then fall in love. She was stunned when she learned they were printing more than 100,000 copies and rolling out an elaborate marketing campaign with limited-edition hardcovers.

Yarros — who lives in Colorado Springs and has a busy home life, with six children, two dogs, a cat, two chinchillas and a bearded dragon — was exhilarated, but also felt as if she was “in a vise.”

“The pressure was utterly intense,” she said. “I was like, am I going to be personally responsible for dragging down this whole publisher?”

Her publisher assured her it would be a hit. Still, Yarros was unprepared for the frenzy that has erupted over “Fourth Wing” and its sequel, “Iron Flame,” which comes out on Nov. 7.

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FOURTH WING

From the empyrean series , vol. 1.

by Rebecca Yarros ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2023

Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.

On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.

Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.

Pub Date: May 2, 2023

ISBN: 9781649374042

Page Count: 528

Publisher: Red Tower

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024

FANTASY | GENERAL FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

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More In The Series

BOOK REVIEW

by Rebecca Yarros

More by Rebecca Yarros

More About This Book

SEEN & HEARD

From the Empyrean series , Vol. 2

by Rebecca Yarros ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.

Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023

ISBN: 9781649374172

Page Count: 640

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024

FANTASY | EPIC FANTASY | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

FILTHY RICH FAE

by Geneva Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2024

A lush, sensual page-turner for fans of urban fantasy, folklore, and dark romance.

In Lee’s paranormal romantic thriller, a young woman in New Orleans is plunged into a terrifying but intriguing underworld after striking a bargain for her brother’s life.

Twenty-four-year-old trauma nurse Cate Holloway’s life takes a dramatic turn when her 19-year-old brother, Channing, is rushed to the ER with a gunshot wound while she’s on duty.Even more shocking for Cate is the discovery that Channing is in debt to the notorious Gage crime family, who practically rule New Orleans. They distribute the street drug “clover,” pay off all the right people, and even own the hospital where Cate works. She resolves to keep Channing safe, and directly confronts crime boss Lachlan Gage at the lavish Avalon Hotel. Lachlan presents Cate with a bargain: trade her soul in exchange for her sibling’s. Cate accepts, even though she thinks the idea is ridiculous, and seals the deal by taking a bite of an apple Lachlan gives her. She’s then transported to a realm called the Otherworld, where she finds out that the Gages are fae royalty, and that getting out of a fae bargain is almost impossible. Now tethered to Lachlan, she has to figure out how to free herself; along the way, she must navigate fae politics between royal families, a blossoming friendship with Lachlan’s sister Ciara, and her own undeniable attraction to Lachlan himself, who just might be more than the monster she thinks he is. Lee’s skillfully written dark urban fantasy novel is infused with classic fae lore, humor (“So, you claim that you aren’t pixies or garden gnomes,” Cate muses), and meticulous worldbuilding. All the major characters, and especially the fiercely independent and capable Cate and the rakish yet family-oriented antagonist/love interest Lachlan, are well developed and compelling. The book’s richly detailed descriptions of clothing, architecture, and fae customs will immerse readers in the Otherworld and cause them to linger long after the final page. Readers may particularly enjoy the steady buildup of romantic tension and appreciate that the relationship resists problematic tropes, instead emphasizing consent and mutual respect.

Pub Date: June 25, 2024

ISBN: 9781649375773

Page Count: 364

Publisher: Entangled: Amara

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

ROMANCE | PARANORMAL ROMANCE | PARANORMAL FICTION | FANTASY

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‘Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1)’ Book Review – Is this dragon fantasy worth the hype?

Is this dragon fantasy worth the hype?

Hold onto your hats because we’re diving headfirst into the world of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. This scorching hot YA fantasy romance has taken 2023 by storm faster than a dragon with a caffeine addiction. In a world full of dragons, magic and war, the Navarre kingdom is in desperate need of dragon riders who can keep up the wards and stop the enemy nation, Poromiel from invading with their gryphons. 

In the first instalment of The Empyrean series, meet Violet Sorrengail, the scribe-turned-dragon-rider extraordinaire with a weak constitution and brittle bones that pop off every other Tuesday. Her life goes from scribbles to swoops as her general of a mother drops her into a dragon college.

Cue the wings, drama and the marked students with a grudge hotter than dragon fire. Oh, yeah, there is a faction of marked rebels whose parents were executed by General Sorrengail for betraying the country. It’s like Mean Girls with leather, minus the pink, but with more bloodlust.

And no YA fantasy is complete without some complicated love interests thanks to Violet’s childhood best friend Dain Aetos who never breaks the rules, and the marked Xaden Riorson, the son of the man who killed her brother and in turn was executed by Mommy Sorrengail. If that isn’t enough, Violet needs to bond with a dragon who only picks the strongest or she will have to keep repeating First Year till she…dies?

If the summary caught your eye, you are not the only one as Fourth Wing has blown up on BookTok, BookGram and all the book platforms out there. However, there are a couple of complaints that keep it from being the best fantasy book of 2023. And look you’re not here to just check out the positive aspects of this book, there are enough posts out there hyping it up. We are here to dissect and strip it to its bare bones and see if it is worth reading. 

So without further adieu, let’s get into it. First things first, we really wish that Yarros had stuck to her gut regarding the enemies-to-lovers trope which is the main attraction for potential readers. And it starts off strong, so strong – our families killed each other and now we want to murder each other for revenge. It cannot get better than that. Unfortunately, it spirals into…something not as exciting which just leaves us with one question – why?

If that doesn’t give it away, the writing is messy sometimes including some really cringy dialogue, which even though they are minuscule and trivial, can take one out of the reading experience. Writers really need to come up with the sassy nickname first before naming their characters because Violet being teased as ‘Violence’ was not it. Xaden, stop trying to make Violence happen, it’s not going to happen!

As for the exposition, Yarros keeps info-dumping through random dialogues that break the flow of a scene. First rule of storytelling – show don’t tell. The politics and revolution get a little tedious as well and you end up skimming the pages.

We get that it is all needed to make sense of the conflict later but it ends up boring readers with its cliches and borrowed tropes from other currently popular YA books. Risky move, we say, especially when the overall premise is sort of unique and refreshing. On top of it, the pacing of the story is like a dragon that can’t decide whether to fly or nap. It’s slow in the beginning, picking up speed once Yarros figures out the structure of the plot. 

And most of the foreshadowing is a little too obvious like a neon sign saying “Plot twist this way!” Is your book club trying to make things exciting? Play a drinking game and take a shot every time a reader accurately predicts what’s going to happen next. But maybe it is to throw us off with the actual jaw-dropping plot twist with a certain best friend that we did not see coming at all. 

Now let’s talk about the supporting cast. Or rather, the supporting ‘who-are-they-again?’ squad. These secondary characters are like background noise at a rock concert. We cannot relate or worry of the very high stakes when something bad is about to happen to them, not even for Liam, sorry. Don’t get us wrong, they are sassy and loveable or evil and annoying but that’s it to them.

No backstory, it’s as if Yarros threw a dart on a board full of adjectives and alloted one to each student. We apologise to the token bisexual, martial artist, sassy Black female character who vanishes every time we blink. Points for at least thinking about diversity? With more missed character arcs than Violet’s wonky lightning aim, they leave us wanting more. Is it too much to ask for character development? Apparently so.

The world-building, like a dragon’s wingspan, has the potential to soar, though. Dragony Jurassic Park, obstacle courses, and a war college dressed up as Hogwarts for the bloodthirsty? Sign us up! But, oh Yarros, why focus on battle briefs and squads and quadrants when all we want are more of Tairn, Andarna and the other dragons?

Tairn is your typical grumpy old mentor in the guise of a dragon and Andarna is the bubbly little sidekick that is likeable and endearing. They are the best part of the book but we barely see them, especially poor Andarna. You’d think a book about dragons would give us a little more…dragons, but Fourth Wing is no Eragon (the book, not that terrible movie adaptation).

Time to get to the main course which, thankfully, does not disappoint. The spice factor is hot sriracha sauce over red chilli peppers (with a little too much modern dialogue for those who prefer age-of-yore authenticity) and anyone who picks it up for the steaminess is in for a treat.

As for those who like their romance to be PG-13 and came for the thick sexual tension that can be sliced with a butter knife, they can easily skip the smut without fear of missing out on any plot developments. 

Also, the author or editor needs to give a little context or some kind of explanation for the, to be honest, majority of readers who have been annoyed with the constant description of Violet being frail and weak with her joints always popping out. Well, if the mention of subluxation and brittle bones twice did not give it away, Violet has a medical condition – Ehlers-Danlos syndrome like Rebecca Yarros herself.

A+ for representation there while also shading the chosen-one trope. The whole point is that the protagonist doesn’t miraculously become perfect after ‘attaining’ her powers. She is still herself, overcoming all odds and using her other strengths instead of cribbing about her weakness. 

The main guy isn’t bad either when compared to some extremely toxic male leads in YA fantasy novels. Xaden is your Walmart version of SJM’s evil black-haired-and-tattooed protagonist who is actually a hopeless romantic, but there is no sexual assault under the pretence of protection, phew, dodged a bullet there Yarros.

Fourth Wing is mostly told from Violet’s point of view, but a sudden Xaden chapter is welcome and also gives us more insight into the anti-hero who is more mysterious than a dragon’s hoard.  Let’s circle back to Liam for a minute, just like the screen time given to him. Ouch, too soon? Sweet and loyal, he’s the friend everyone wishes they had. He does get a tiny backstory, but that just makes us curious to know more.

And the classic Rocky training montage would make even Stallone proud as Yarros keeps it realistic while still pushing the limits of fantasy and finally giving us what we really came for – dragons. Alexa, play Eye of the…Dragon?

So, there you have it. Is Fourth Wing perfect and worth the hype? Not exactly, but it is definitely fun and steamy. If you want an easygoing book to pass the time and skip the usual politics in fantasy novels without missing out on the plot, go ahead. It is an enjoyable read with magic, romance and a dash of some really weird dragon-mating heat.

Read More: Iron Flame (The Empyrean #1) Book Review

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The Book That Made Me Rethink Every Five-Star Review I’ve Given

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I have a bad habit I’ve recently realized I need to break ASAP. As soon as I finish a book, I rate it on Goodreads. The problem is I’m far too generous with these ratings. Books I absolutely loathe will still somehow get a 2 or 3-star rating (I can always find something to like and realize not every book I find is meant for me). While books I generally enjoy will probably get 4 or even 5 stars, I’ll often finish a book I liked and fully believe it’s the best thing I’ve ever read. Then rate it as such only to forget every single thing about it two days later. All of this to say, I need to stop handing out 5-star reviews so frivolously and reserve them for the books that really deserve it.

The reason for this epiphany? I recently read a book that was so damn good giving it a 5-star rating wasn’t enough. Because it was miles and away better than every other 5-star book on my Goodreads shelf. Gentlefriends, I’m here today to share the book that made me rethink everything: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

20-year-old Violet Sorrengail spent her life preparing to go into the Scribe Quadrant and live a quiet life among books and history. Her mother, the commanding general of Navarre, had other plans. Violet instead finds herself competing with hundreds of candidates to become one of Navarre’s elite: a dragon rider. While her competitors have spent their lives training for this very moment, Violet is leagues behind them and, on top of that, has a chronic illness that makes her even more vulnerable at Basgiath, the deadly war college she's being forced to enroll in. All she has on her side are her wits, which are admittedly better than most, and the ever-frustrating Xaden Riorson, who can’t seem to decide whether to kill her or help her survive long enough to bond a dragon of her own.

Why Fourth Wing is My Favorite Book of the Year… So Far

The worldbuilding makes it feel like you’re watching a movie.

One of the biggest issues with the fantasy genre is that it can be hard to get into a new book. It’s an entirely new world, with a new magic system, and largely made-up words, names. And places you have to first figure out how to pronounce and then remember what they even mean. Even as someone who considers themselves a professional fantasy reader, I get how hard it can be. Fourth Wing , however, is a masterclass in worldbuilding. From the very first page, the world is mapped out clearly and compellingly. 

I often find myself flipping to a book’s glossary or map to remember what a term or place is. But with Fourth Wing , this isn’t at all necessary. Yarros creates a vivid yet easy-to-understand magical world the likes of which I rarely see in the genre. When you drop into the world of Fourth Wing , it really feels like you’re watching a movie that draws you in from the very first clip.

The Heroine is Badass & Complicated

When it comes to enjoying a book, I can often look past vague worldbuilding (which isn’t even the case with Fourth Wing ), a sketchy magic system, or even a meh plot. The one thing that will turn me off a book like no other, though? A main character who falls completely flat or is even downright annoying (no, I will not be naming names).

Violet is multidimensional and Yarros makes you root for her from the very beginning. She wants a quiet life—it’s what she’s prepared her entire childhood for. But when she’s forced into dragon rider training, during which hundreds of her peers will literally die, she doesn’t balk at the challenge. Instead, she rises to it. Watching her grow into a strong warrior throughout the book is a truly rewarding experience. 

I also can’t stand main characters who inexplicably have no flaws and are somehow the chosen one destined to save the world. Violet is complicated, makes mistakes, and then actually learns from them—and she is 100% the underdog at Basgiath. What Yarros does expertly here though is have Violet make mistakes that are extremely relatable… rather than just dumb. I’ve read more than a few books where the main character makes choices that make me want to bang my head against the wall. With Violet, even when she makes questionable choices (and believe me, she does), you can’t help but root for her and realize that if you were in her shoes, you’d make those same mistakes too. 

Source: Garri Chaverst

The Non-Romantic Relationships

I’m going to get to the story’s main romance in a minute, but what actually made me excited in the first couple of chapters was the dynamic of Violet’s family. With her father and brother dead, Violet’s sister and mother are her only family left. Violet’s mother is the commanding general of Navarre’s dragon riders. And her sister is the perfect daughter living up to their mother’s legacy. When Violet’s mother forces her to join the Riders Quadrant and Violet resigns herself to her fate, you get a clear picture of the fraught mother-daughter relationship that remains a theme throughout the book.

Violet does what she does because she’s forced to, yes. But she also wants to prove herself to the mother who by the looks of it, doesn’t really love her. Or, at the very least, believe she’ll survive her first year. Along the way, Violet realizes that not only can she live up to her mother’s expectations, but even more so, she can surpass them and prove her wrong.

Violet’s relationship with her sister endeared me right away. Where the girls’ mother is distant and seemingly uncaring, Violet’s older sister looks out for her and does everything in her admittedly limited power to set her up for success—after all, she excelled at Basgiath when she was a student a few years ago. 

And the girls’ brother, though he passed away some time ago, is also present in the book in a way that proves the three of them have always been thick as thieves. We have no choice but to stan the Sorrengail sibs.

This is all without even beginning to get into the friendships Violet makes at Basgiath. Each side character introduced is nearly as fleshed out as the main ones—something fantasy books all try to do but rarely stick the landing on. In every book I read, there’s always at least one character or side plot I have absolutely zero interest in and have to force myself to read through. That is not the case with Fourth Wing . Instead, Yarros does an excellent job making each character and interaction matter in the grand scheme of the story. She also peppers in just the right amount of humor and heartfelt (but not cheesy) moments, making even the non-romantic parts of the book fun and exciting to read.

…And The Romantic Ones, Too

For me, a strong romantic relationship is a must-have for a good adult fantasy book and Fourth Wing has a romance that, dare I say, is up there with the ones in A Court of Thorns and Roses for me (and maybe even better? Alert the presses). The romance in Fourth Wing is a slow burn done absolutely right. By the time I got to our first real romantic scene between the characters, I had been rooting and waiting for it to happen for ages.

Too often, though, romance plots come seemingly out of nowhere. And you’re left wondering how the hell we got here when there was no chemistry to speak of. And no hints at something deeper going on between the characters. Or even worse, the characters have an undeniable and unexplainable attraction for each other the very first time they meet. And their relationship is never really developed beyond that. Yarros created a love story that is both believable and one you can’t help but root for. I still get giddy thinking about it and would reread this book again for the romance alone.

It’s been literal ages where I’ve been more invested in a book’s plot than its romance or characters. Fourth Wing is truly thrilling from beginning to end. Will Violet survive the deadly war college? Will one of the classmates who has it out for her be her downfall (our girl survives multiple murder attempts)? And will Violet bond with a dragon? Why the heck are attacks on Navarre’s borders increasing? Can Violet really trust anyone she’s met at Basgiath?

There is so much going on in Fourth Wing and each subplot is as compelling as the main one. There’s also no shortage of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. However, when those twists are revealed, you realize that Yarros left you breadcrumbs every step of the way. Not in a way that makes the twists predictable. But in a way that makes the payoff extremely satisfying.

The plot is seriously so compelling that when one particular storyline wrapped up, I cried real tears of joy and rushed to tell my husband all about it. This was also the exact moment I knew Fourth Wing was a hall-of-fame read for me and a book I would never forget.

The Bottom Line

I had absolutely zero expectations going into this book, but I was blown away by every single page. As I was reading it, I said multiple times out loud “I just really love this book.” Even weeks after finishing it I can’t stop thinking about it. And would give anything for the opportunity to read it for the first time again. The good news is that Fourth Wing is the first book in a new series so I’ll get more of this story. But the bad news is I’ll have to wait who knows how long until then. In the meantime, you can find me listening to the audiobook and rereading my hard copy on repeat.

I urge every single person on this earth to run to their nearest bookstore or library and get this book in their hands. Reading it was an experience I’ll never forget. And if it were up to me, it would win all of the awards. Bravo, Fourth Wing , bravo.

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BOOK REVIEW: Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros

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 .

We can live as cowards or die as riders.

Fourth Wing was epic, breathtaking and consumed my every thought.  This is easily one of my top favorite books, ever.  This book had me screaming from excitement, gasping from betrayal, and crying all the happy and sad tears. Foreshadowing of what was to come was secretly laced into the pages, leaving us with the feeling of dread that was all consuming. The betrayals cut deep. The friendships were beautiful. The enemies to lovers romance was a slow burn that was passionate and steamy. And the battles were intense and epic. If you love romantasy, you definitely need this one on your tbr!

“I’m used to functioning in pain, asshole. Are you?” I raise the dagger in my right hand just to prove that I can despite the blood that runs down my arm and drips from the tip of my blade, saturating the wrap across my palm. My gaze drops meaningfully to his side. “I know exactly where I sliced into you. If you don’t get to a healer soon, you’ll bleed out internally.” Rage contorts his features, and he moves to strike.

Violet Sorrengail is one of my favorite heroines.   She was smart, cunning and brave.  She was so easy to connect to and feel all of her emotions.  She thought she was destined to enter the Scribe Quadrant, but her mother changed her future.  As the commanding general, her mother forced Violet to go to the Basgiath War College.  And there she would either survive and become a dragon rider or die trying like countless others. The trials she went through were gutting, and I found myself cheering out loud for her every step of the way! Violet is a heroine that you can respect and love!

His eyes flare, and I don’t miss the hint of a smirk on that infuriatingly decadent mouth of his. It should be against the Codex to look that good and be so ruthless.

Xanden Riorson was someone that was so easy to obsess over. He was Violet’s enemy, because his parents had a rebellion that went against Violet’s mom. In punishment, he and the other children of those who rebelled had to attend the Basgiarth War College. Yet by the end of Chapter 7 I was definitely betraying Violet, I was obsessed. Xaden was smart, sly and seemed honorable. His subtle banter with Violet was EVERYTHING! So when Violet would follow through with one his suggestions for training, I was grinning from ear to ear. And when he taught her how to grapple on the mats, it was so hot *fans face*. It seemed like Xaden was trying to protect Violet, yet in her world deception and backstabbing were done without a second thought. So while I was under his spell, I still didn’t know whether I could trust him or not. I kept whispering for him not to betray her.

The inches between us feel like kindling, ready to burn at the first suggestion of heat, and I’m a living, breathing flame. This is everything I should run form, and yet denying the primal attraction I feel is completely, utterly impossible. “We’ll both regret it.” He shakes his head, but there’s more than hunger in his eyes as he stares at my lips. “Naturally,” I whisper. But knowing I’ll regret it doesn’t stop me from wanting it – wanting him. Regretting is a problem for future Violet. “Fuck it.”

This world was fascinating!  Maybe I was putting the clues together wrong, but it seemed like not everything was as black and white as Violet was taught.  All the while, others around her elicited so many emotions.  It was terrifying not knowing who you could trust.  There were those who had no problem killing a threat, or just killing for fun.  Even the grappling was intense, and I was shocked with my mouth left hanging open over how that would play out.  Broken bones were the least of your concerns. So as people showed their true colors over time, some of that made my blood simmer. But at the same time, be careful who you get attached to. Death found some of them too soon.   One especially I still can’t handle, even after finishing this book *sobs*.

“Are you pushing for a reason?” Tarin asks. “Can you give me one not to?” “He cares for you. That’s already hard enough for him.” I scoff. “He cares about keeping me alive. There’s a difference.” “Not for him there isn’t.”

The dragons in this book were larger than life! I can’t say much, because of spoilers, but the conversations and interactions were spellbinding. Also I loved the friendships that were formed between the humans. They were the type of friendships where you knew they would do anything to protect your life. Which is desperately needed since life and death moments were always present. Throughout this story, there was always this charge in the air that left me terrified of what was to come. And it was impossible not to have sweaty palms during some of the scenes or to feel your heart pounding in your chest! Plus the twists and turns were done beautifully! Some of it I saw coming, but others left me with my mind blown!

“There is no me without you,” he says against my skin.

With the most epic of last lines, this book left us at the perfect spot where we can breathe. For a bit. Yet you’ll still be left desperately wanting to grab that next one! With emotions and tensions running high, this was an action packed ride! The dragons, sparring, battles, political intrigue, friendships, and scorching hot and seductive scenes made this book beyond memorable. It had my whole heart in the palm of its hand and made me cry all the tears! Fourth Wing was beyond addictive and will easily become a favorite for romantasy fans!

“Going for blood today, are we, Violence?” he whispers. Metal hits the mat again and he kicks it past my head and out of my reach. He’s not taking my daggers to use against me; he’s disarming me just to prove he can. My blood boils. “My name is Violet ,” I seethe. “I think my version fits you better.”

PS The nickname that was given to Violet? I loved it so much!

I arch into him and claim his lips, kissing him like this might be the only time I’ll get the chance. This kind of desperation isn’t natural; it’s a wildfire that’s likely to burn us both to the ground if we let it.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book, provided by the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

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May 1, 2023 at 11:42 am

I truly can’t wait for my copy now Jen!

August 28, 2023 at 10:33 am

I am SO excited for you!

May 2, 2023 at 7:34 am

August 28, 2023 at 10:35 am

Yesssssss! It’s my top favorite book of the year, it was phenomenal!

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REVIEW: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

• Book Reviews
• June 13, 2023
• 7,962 views
• By Sally Berrow

Last Updated on February 14, 2024

In the wise words of the late Sir Terry Pratchett:

“Susan hated Literature. She’d much prefer to read a good book.” ( Soul Music , 1999)

Such a statement perfectly sums up my feelings regarding seasoned contemporary romance author Rebecca Yarros’ first foray into the fantasy world. Fourth Wing is a rip-roaring, breathlessly exciting war school fantasy featuring high stakes, a tough as nails heroine, a brooding love interest, epic power-up moments, and wonderfully sarcastic dragons. High literature it is not, but it’s still the best book I’ve read all year.

I should mention to Grimdark Magazine readers that Fourth Wing is neither grimdark, nor is it really even dark fantasy. Yes, there’re a lot of people falling to their deaths. Yes, there’re a lot of people getting barbequed by angry dragons. However, there are numerous recognisable romance tropes that bring this book firmly into the ‘romantasy’ category, which isn’t much of a surprise given the author’s background in contemporary romance. Also, despite its adult themes—violence, swearing, gore and explicit sex scenes— Fourth Wing is written in the first-person present tense; a narrative style typically associated with Young Adult. That’s not to say the romance sub-plot is the central focus (it’s not), nor that it reads especially young (it doesn’t), but if you’re looking a palette cleanser amidst your usual grimdark fare, you might want to dive in.

Rebecca Yarros executes the tropes and predictability of Fourth Wing with all the skill and prowess only a seasoned writer can bring. Entirely comfortable with her craft and fully aware of her audience’s expectations, she consistently delivers on tried and tested formulas whilst still managing to surprise. You may think you know exactly what’s going to happen next (and happen it does), but there’ll always be a sting in the tail. Yarros’ writing is informal, pacey and completely addictive, making pages fly by faster than a soaring dragon. For some, this informality may be a barrier to their enjoyment, but I personally lost count of the number of times I wished to cry out just from the sheer exhilaration of what I was reading. The entire plot was a melodramatic rollercoaster and I never wanted to get off.

By far the highlight of Fourth Wing for me is its heroine, Violet Sorrengail. Violet, like Rebecca Yarros herself, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: a degenerative condition which affects connective tissues in the human body. This results in hypermobility, joint pain, brittle bones and prematurely greying hair. Underestimated by everyone she encounters, including her own mother and supposed best friend, Violet proves to her naysayers time and time again that she’s not to be messed with—that she has what it takes to survive. Yarros handles the additional difficulties Violet faces due to her condition with effortless skill and beautiful empathy. Strong, sassy and seriously smart, her heroine’s successes feel justified, plausible and, most importantly, earned :

“I’m used to functioning in pain, asshole. Are you?”

Speaking as someone who also lives with daily chronic pain, this made for a joyful and cathartic read.

If you’re a fan of brutal war games, smart-talking dragons, swooning ‘enemies to lovers’ romances and unstoppably angry women with knives, Fourth Wing is the book for you. Please go pick it up immediately —I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Read Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Sally Berrow

Sally presently resides behind a mountainous pile of books in Greenhithe, UK, kept alive only by tea and surrounded by a menagerie of animals. A lifelong fantasy lover with a tendency towards the darker side of the genre, she hopes one day to write a grimdark fantasy of her own, inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy. She considers wringing an apology from Joe Abercrombie to be her greatest achievement.

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Review ‘Fourth Wing’ by Rebecca Yarros

2023 July 11th, 2023 Maureen Bakker 18 comments

I bought this book myself. Opinions are my own.

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 .

After reading and hearing about ‘Fourth Wing’ for what feels like forever, I knew I wanted this book to be my next read. I read a book by Rebecca Yarros back in 2021, and absolutely loved it. But I’m always a bit apprehensive to read a book where I read so many great things about. What if my expectations are too high? But since I kept wondering and thinking about this book it was time to give it a go. (Apparently I was lucky there were four hardcover books left in the Waterstones when I arrived. One of the booksellers told me they just got a new delivery because they sold so fast.)

‘Fourth Wing’ pulled me in right from the start and I couldn’t stop reading. This book is a perfect blend of the Hunger Games and the From Blood and Ash series, which happen to be two of my favorite series ever, and I never wanted it to end. The book starts right away when Violet is forced to join the Riders Quadrant. She always planned on joining the Scribe Quadrant, a place surrounded by books. But now she’s joining a place where many people get killed just by entering the school year. Add the fact that Violet gets hurt easily, and isn’t built for combat or physical work at all, and everyone is counting on her to get killed soon.

”you look all frail and breakable, but you’re really a violent little thing, aren’t you?”

But Violet doesn’t give up easily and she works hard to get stronger. Luckily for Violet she has her brains to work with. And although she also gets stronger, she is pretty good in outsmarting everyone. But being in a place where everyone around her is just there for themselves, it’s hard to see who really can be trusted and who only wants to get her killed.

And then there is Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. Not only is Xaden one of the most powerful (and most handsome) guys at the Quadrant.. he is also someone who would love for Violet to end up dead. Seeing as her mom was the one that killed his father.

“I will not die today.”

‘Fourth Wing’ had everything I loved in a book. Fantasy, romance, suspense, twists.. I loved every single page of this book. I loved reading a great fantasy after not having read a lot of Fantasy novels lately. The dragons, the magic.. Oh I loved it all! And although it’s a pretty brute world, I couldn’t get enough of it. And I found myself thinking about this book and the characters a lot during the day.

“A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.”

And the romance.. Well.. It ruined me! It was just soooo good! And I can’t wait to read more! The ending made me grave the next book! And I ended up pre-ordering it right away. (November can’t come soon enough.)

‘Fourth Wing’ is easily going on my favorite list! The easiest given 5 star rating this year for sure!

Available at (*affiliate):

Amazon US * Barnes & Noble Apple Books Waterstones

About Rebecca Yarros

Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and coffee addict. She is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing, The Last Letter and The Things We Leave Unfinished. She’s also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward. Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years. A mother of six, she is currently surviving the teenage years with all four of her hockey-playing sons.

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Maureen is a mom, wife, nurse, and Ravenclaw living in the Netherlands. She spends her days juggling mom-life, reading, blogging, planning date nights with her husband and working as a nurse. Maureen also is a big Anglophile, loves cooking, Gilmore Girls, Bridgerton and Harry Potter.. Always!  Facebook | Instagram

18 Responses to “Review ‘Fourth Wing’ by Rebecca Yarros”

Oooh very nice! I impulse bought this one bc I kept seeing it around. I still need to read it but I might have to rearrange my reading queue to make it even sooner! Glad it was a winner!! Great review!

Thanks Jessica. I hope you’ll get to read it soon. It was soooo good! I wish I could re-read it already! 😀

Two series I have NEVER read haha I like some of JLA books but to be honest my favorites are her lesser known Avon ones like her gothic contemporary one and her NA books are fab. But I have heard such mixed things about her fantasy I have been scared haha Glad you loved Fourth Wing. Many readers are loving it. I am pretty sure its not my type of fantasy though. I am more of a Jeffe Kennedy, CL Wilson, Milla Vane gal lol But I do love that so many readers are loving this book.

Thanks. I really really loved it. But to each their own 😉 I haven’t read or even heard about the authors you’ve names. I’ll have to check them out.

Yes. I am excited about the upcoming release, but for now am listening to A Soul of Blood and Ash, Star Bringer and Light Bringer.

I’m a bit behind on the From Blood and Ash series but definitely hope to catch up soon. I hope you’re enjoying your reads 😉

I have this on my TBR. So glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks. It’s a wonderful read! I hope you’ll get to it soon.

Very nice review. I’ve got this on my TBR and I’m currently on the wait list at my library. Heard such good things about this new book. ^_^

Thanks Angela. I hope you’ll get it soon. It’s an amazing read!

Yay! So glad you enjoyed this one. I did as well. Maybe more than I even expected to. I’m glad the next book is not too far away.

I’m so glad you loved it too! November feels way to long for me. LOL!

I am so jealous!! Everyone has read this book but me 🙁 I was tempted to buy it, but was worried. What if I didn’t love it? I’m still waiting for my reserve copy to be available from the library lol. I wish I could tell those anonymous people to hurry the heck up!! Great review btw xo

I know how you feel! I felt like I was so late as well. But it’s worth the wait 😉 I hope you’ll be able to read the book soon! 😉

I pre-ordered Fourth Wing and yet I still haven’t read it. I get so nervous about reading fantasy. It’s just not my genre and I always worry that I’m not going to follow the world building or the fantasy aspects and feel lost. But I love Rebecca Yarros and her storytelling so I really need to just dive in.

I totally understand. Although I love Fantasy, I haven’t read it a lot these last few years.. So I was a bit scared as well. But since I looooooved the other book I read by Rebecca I just decided to go for it! And I loved it! I hope you’ll get to read it too! Can’t wait to read what you think 😉

I can’t wait to read this one! It’s very high on my TBR! Your review makes me want to move it up! lol

I hope you’ll get to it fast. You won’t regret it 😉

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BERKELEY FICTION REVIEW

A Review of Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros

Book Content Warning: Character Death

Growing up, I always had a book on me. I was practically born with a library card in hand. I would spend hours in the YA section of my local library, shuffling slowly back and forth between rows, careful not to step too fast and drop the mountain of titles that had inevitably accumulated in my arms. I was a YA fantasy fanatic. I inhaled fast-paced fictional battles and love stories like oxygen, frequently reading several at once and staying up until my vision blurred—the vow of “one more chapter” always morphing into “okay, but maybe one more.”

These days, my reading looks a little different. A couple of pages at a time, snuck between lectures, study hours, laundry, and all the other demands that come with being a member of the real adult world. What I read has changed, too. Most of the time, I’m selective about what I pick up because of how much my book consumption rate has slowed. The YA fantasy novels are now contemporary fiction books about realistic people with realistic worries, fears, and challenges. Recently, I’ve felt a new pressure to read classic or critically acclaimed books, in the sense that being a reader is less about any personal pleasure found through the act of reading, and more about being able to say that you’ve read a certain book. Even if not consciously, I find myself embarrassed by the kind of stories I want to pick up, thinking them not literary enough and thus less meaningful. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros was a book I picked up on a whim, almost by accident. Maybe something about the golden gloss of the cover compelled me to grab it off the fantasy shelf at my local bookstore. Maybe it was the fact that it’s set in a “war college for dragon riders,” reminding me a bit of the books I used to read. Either way, it was a deviation from my path of adulting. A deviation that I cannot recommend enough.

Recently, I’ve felt a new pressure to read classic or critically acclaimed books, in the sense that being a reader is less about any personal pleasure found through the act of reading, and more about being able to say that you’ve read a certain book.

Fourth Wing is a high fantasy novel that follows a cadet named Violet Sorrengail as she braves Basgiath War College, where the only goal is to bond with a dragon or die trying. As the daughter of a commanding general, she has an immediate target on her back. She spends 517 fast-paced pages forging friendships, navigating enemies, and flirting with a very hot fellow dragon rider, who, obviously, wants to kill her to get revenge on her mother. My favorite thing about this book, hands down, was that it didn’t take itself too seriously. At a time in my life when everything feels serious, at a school like Berkeley, where sometimes it feels like students are constantly pressure-cooked by stress, it was a breath of fresh air. The setting was limited to the confines of the college, so there wasn’t a lot of heavy or overwhelming worldbuilding, and the tension of the story stayed high because of the constant threat of bodily harm and certain death that hung over the characters. Violet had clear character development that was fun to follow as she challenged herself, using her intellect—she had intended to join the Scribe college until her mother forced her at the last minute to become a Rider—to go from one of the weakest cadets to, spoiler, one of the strongest. The theme of romance is thickly woven throughout the book, with a series of very convenient plot devices tying Violet to the main love interest, Xaden Riorson. It’s revealed that the pair happen to be bonded to mated dragons, who suffer if they are separated for too long. Because of this connection, the two riders can communicate telepathically and will be dependent on each other for the rest of their lives. It’s not quite PG, but is adorable if you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and get swept up in the silliness.

The plot is addicting, and each brush with death pulls you a little deeper into a magical world. A world where both dragons and hot dragon riders are real and can communicate telepathically.

To be clear, I don’t think Fourth Wing is the best-written book in the world. I don’t even really think it’s well-written, and wouldn’t recommend it to people looking for a work of groundbreaking literature. Violet’s inner monologue is interspersed throughout the narrative, occasionally providing commentary such as a description of Xaden as “Flaming hot. Scorching hot. Gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level of hot,” which certainly paints a picture, though not a very creative or nuanced one. Some of the plot conveniences also feel a little too convenient, and the plot structure very much falls into the common “chosen one” main character fantasy trap. Violet bonds to the most powerful dragon, has the coolest silver hair, and might be one of the most powerful dragon riders ever. However, I think it’s possible to enjoy a book without being wowed by the writing. The plot is addicting, and each brush with death pulls you a little deeper into a magical world. A world where both dragons and hot dragon riders are real and can communicate telepathically. If you relate at all to my nostalgia for the kind of reading that happened as a kid, back before the pressure for every book we pick up to mean something, read Fourth Wing. You might laugh, you might cry—I definitely did—but I guarantee you’ll be in for a wild, wild ride. 

— Georgia Kerr, Fall 2023 Staff

REBECCA YARROS is a hopeless romantic and coffee addict. She is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing , The Last Letter and The Things We Leave Unfinished . She’s also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence for Eyes Turned Skyward . Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for over twenty years. A mother of six, she is currently surviving the teenage years with all four of her hockey-playing sons.

Fourth Wing can be purchased here .

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The Berkeley Fiction Review is a UC Berkeley undergraduate, student-run publication. We look for innovative short fiction that plays with form and content, as well as traditionally constructed stories with fresh voices and original ideas. We invite submissions of previously unpublished short stories year-round and publish annually. View all posts by Berkeley Fiction Review

One thought on “ A Review of Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros ”

I felt the same way about Fourth Wing. It had such a nostalgic feeling. Definitely not the best as far as writing fundamentals goes but still a great read!

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Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, 1) Hardcover – May 2, 2023

A #1 New York Times bestseller • Optioned for TV by Amazon Studios • Amazon Best Books of the Year, #4 • Apple Best Books of the Year 2023 • Barnes & Noble Best Fantasy Book of 2023 • NPR “Books We Love” 2023 • Audible Best Books of 2023 • Hudson Book of the Year • Google Play Best Books of 2023 • Indigo Best Books of 2023 • Waterstones Book of the Year finalist • Goodreads Choice Award Winner • Newsweek Staffers’ Favorite Books of 2023 • Paste Magazine's Best Books of 2023 "Suspenseful, sexy, and with incredibly entertaining storytelling, the first in Yarros' Empyrean series will delight fans of romantic, adventure-filled fantasy." ― Booklist , starred review " Fourth Wing will have your heart pounding from beginning to end... A fantasy like you've never read before." ―#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from 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 . The Empyrean series is best enjoyed in order. Reading Order: Book #1 Fourth Wing Book #2 Iron Flame

• Book 1 of 3 The Empyrean
• Print length 528 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Entangled: Red Tower Books
• Publication date May 2, 2023
• Dimensions 6.4 x 1.65 x 9.3 inches
• ISBN-10 1649374046
• ISBN-13 978-1649374042
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

“A fantasy like you've never read before.” ―Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Smart-ass. Bad-ass. Kick-ass. One helluva ride!” ―Tracy Wolff, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Utterly addictive and completely unputdownable. I devoured every page and fell hopelessly, desperately in love with these characters and the incredible world Rebecca Yarros has so carefully, lovingly crafted. Hands down the best book hangover I’ve ever experienced. I can’t wait for more!” ―Helena Hunting, New York Times bestselling author “An exhilarating dragon ride of a fantasy! Brutal, fast-paced, compelling, and simmering with romantic tension that left me on the edge of my seat. Fourth Wing is everything I want in a book and more. Phenomenal! Move this one to the top of your TBR.” ―Samantha Young, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author “Buckle up because with nonstop action, sizzling romance, and the BEST DRAGONS EVER, you will not be able to put down Fourth Wing until the last page is turned. It's a wild, sexy, roller coaster of a ride.” ―Mary E. Pearson, New York Times bestselling author “Dragons and war, passion and power… Fourth Wing is dazzling. Rebecca Yarros has created a world as compelling as it is deadly, and I can't wait to see where she takes it next.” ―Nalini Singh, New York Times bestselling author “This book should come with a warning label, because once you start it, you won’t stop until you reach the final page. Forbidden romance that simmers off the page; relentless, heart-stopping action; and a delicious, morally gray hero―this is the book I’ve been waiting for!” ―Geneva Lee, New York Times bestselling author “ Fourth Wing is an unforgettable adventure from cover to cover. I cheered, laughed, grinned, and refused to put it down. This expertly crafted romantic fantasy is sure to launch the beginning of a brand-new insatiable fandom!” ―Lexi Ryan, #1 New York Times bestselling author “Kapow, what a story! In Fourth Wing , Rebecca Yarros gives you gutsy young heroines and sexy bad boys living in a world where no one―not even the mightiest dragon―is safe. This is some sharp, bold, and delicious storytelling!” ―Rachel Howzell Hall, New York Times bestselling author “ House of the Dragon meets Divergent in this utterly thrilling, unputdownable new fantasy! Fourth Wing is full of scintillating adventure, soaring dragon flight, and slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance. Climb on and enjoy the ride!” ―Amalie Howard, USA Today bestselling author “As smoldering as it is spellbinding, Fourth Wing is a thrilling, dragon-filled delight!” ―Cindi Madsen, USA Today bestselling author “Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing kept me up at night whispering "one more chapter" until suddenly the sun was rising―and even then I still couldn't bring myself to stop. Utterly immersive, fiercely romantic, and unforgivably addictive, this book is a spectacular masterpiece and my new fantasy obsession.” ―Lynette Noni, Australia's #1 young adult fiction author “An expertly woven tale in a riveting world of dragons, life-or-death competition, and betrayal, Rebecca Yarros hits all the high notes and delivers a thrilling new romantic fantasy that readers will devour.” ―K.A. Tucker, international bestselling author

About the Author

Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than fifteen novels, with multiple starred Publishers Weekly reviews and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. A second-generation army brat, Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for more than twenty years. She’s the mother of six children, and she and her family live in Colorado with their stubborn English bulldogs, two feisty chinchillas, and a cat named Artemis, who rules them all. Having fostered, then adopted their youngest daughter, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October, which she cofounded with her husband in 2019. To learn more about their mission, visit oneoctober.org. To catch up on Rebecca’s latest releases and upcoming novels, visit RebeccaYarros.com.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Entangled: Red Tower Books (May 2, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1649374046
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1649374042
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.61 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.65 x 9.3 inches
• #6 in Fantasy Action & Adventure
• #20 in Romantic Fantasy (Books)
• #28 in Epic Fantasy (Books)

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About the author

Rebecca yarros.

Rebecca is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, Sunday Times, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over fifteen novels, including FOURTH WING, and is always ready to bring on the emotions. She's also the recipient of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence in New Adult for Eyes Turned Skyward from her Flight and Glory series.

She loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for twenty-one years. She’s the mother of six children and lives in Colorado with her family, their stubborn English bulldog, feisty chinchillas, and Maine Coon cat who rules them all. Having fostered then adopted their youngest daughter, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October.

Visit her website at www.RebeccaYarros.com for more!

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Customers say

Customers find the action and adventure thrilling, filled with danger, and keeps them on their toes. They also describe the pacing as fast and the pages just fly by. Readers appreciate the fantastic dragon characters and their unique magical abilities. They love the relationships, drama, and fantasy of the book. They find the humor hilarious and cunning. Customers describe the book as well-written, spellbinding, and easy to become fully invested in. They appreciate the engaging storyline and world building.

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Customers find the plot engaging, relatable, and a feast for the imagination. They also say the love scenes are well written, addictive, and well-built. Customers also mention that the characters are lovable, complex, and charming.

"...Fourth Wing was beyond addictive and will easily become a favorite for romantasy fans!PS The nickname that was given to Violet?..." Read more

"...the world building was perfection and so seamless that it never felt awkward and i was never confused about the fantasy world...." Read more

"...is a well-written, easily-read, highly-entertaining book with an engaging storyline , relatable characters, a believable heroine, and excellent pacing..." Read more

"...One final note the love scenes were well written often I read authors who don’t know how to describe passion in a book, but this was very tasteful...." Read more

Customers find the book well written, detailed, and easy to follow. They also appreciate the author's great job showing rather than telling, making the military solid and making sense. Customers also mention the book is phenomenal and easy for a fantasy book. They say the building is perfection and seamless.

"...I can't say much, because of spoilers, but the conversations and interactions were spellbinding ...." Read more

"...Some of the innuendos and just the bickering, bantering type of dialogue was so cringy and awful that I had to read parts aloud to my husband for a..." Read more

"...is clear this was a book written by an experienced author and professionally edited , something one can no longer take for granted with Amazon's self-..." Read more

Customers find the characters in the book fantastic, loyal, and honest. They also love the relationships, drama, and fantasy.

"...The dragons, sparring, battles, political intrigue, friendships , and scorching hot and seductive scenes made this book beyond memorable...." Read more

"...The dragons are intriguing characters who all deserve more page time, especially Andarna and Sgaeyl, as well as the secondary characters dragons,..." Read more

"...GOOD with described all of the details of the dragons and giving them so much personality ...." Read more

"...-read, highly-entertaining book with an engaging storyline, relatable characters , a believable heroine, and excellent pacing...." Read more

Customers find the world building incredible, unbeatable, and solid. They also appreciate the structure of the government and military, which makes sense. Readers also mention that the book is fast paced, interesting, and encouraging.

"...Violet Sorrengail is one of my favorite heroines. She was smart , cunning and brave. She was so easy to connect to and feel all of her emotions...." Read more

"...her bond with her sister and her friends was so genuine. she is tough and strong willed and is unstoppable, despite her disadvantage..." Read more

"...Such incredible world building , complex characters and a plot line that sucks you in leaving you desperate for more...." Read more

"...Speaking of abilities, Rebecca Yarros also did an excellent job creating a wide range of abilities since there are so many different characters...." Read more

Customers find the pacing of the book fast from beginning to end. They also say the time span in the book makes sense and the pages just flew by.

"...fourth wing is fast paced from beginning to end and will absolutely hook you from the very first chapter...." Read more

"... It was quick , full of fire and flat out consuming...." Read more

"...The pacing is surprisingly quick given how long the book is, and the reader will appreciate the swoops and twists of the plot...." Read more

"...story, the characters and world building were top notch and the pacing was great. ..." Read more

Customers find the dragon characters wonderful, unique, and snarky. They also appreciate the game of thrones theme and unique magical abilities. Customers also mention that the book is addictive and worth every second.

"...Don't get me wrong - the dragons were magnificent and I loved learning the little bits of history they shared and most especially loved learning..." Read more

"...These dragons are so well done . I applaud Rebecca Yarros for her imagination and vivid depictions in bringing them all to life...." Read more

"...I was captivated from beginning to end!
The dragons were amazing !..." Read more

"...The dragons can communicate with their riders and that dialogue is clever as well...." Read more

Customers find the humor in the book hilarious, witty, and cunning. They also mention that the lead characters are great.

"...Violet Sorrengail is one of my favorite heroines. She was smart, cunning and brave. She was so easy to connect to and feel all of her emotions...." Read more

"...Last but not least, the dragons…I LOVE them, especially Tairn. He’s so hilarious . The comebacks he made- I can’t even 😂..." Read more

"...Fierce, intelligent, small by mighty FMC- Broody, grumpy, witty , morally gray MMC- Xaden & Violet’s chemistry, their give and take-..." Read more

"...And man...were some of then so cringy . What force on this planet made me even think it was young adult?!..." Read more

Customers find the book thrilling, filled with danger, adventure, humor, and heartbreak. They also say the enemies are fierce, the story is full of poison, passion, and potential. Readers say the book is fast-paced and always keeps them on edge.

"...And the battles were intense and epic . If you love romantasy, you definitely need this one on your tbr!..." Read more

"...The enemies were fierce ...." Read more

"...the heartbreak, betrayal , suspense, love, hate, friendship, family, history, and story building that advances through this book is amazing and i..." Read more

"...of emotions with moments of laughter, tears, romance, and betrayal . I am eagerly looking forward to diving into the second book!" Read more

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The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros book review

The Fourth Wing was one of the most talked-about books on the internet this year. It, for many, has been the entrance into fantasy that they finally needed. It features dragons, a sweeping landscape, a broadening world, different cultures and conflict – enough for me to consider it fantasy.

Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the products.

I’m a huge fan of fantasy having bread Brandon Sanderson, John Gwynne, J.R.R. Tolkien, G.R.R. Martin and many more. I’ve also indulged in some YA fantasy such as Sarah J Maas, Leigh Bardugo and Liani Taylor. This means I’ve read some brilliant fantasy books with sweeping worlds and so think of myself as qualified enough to decide whether genuine fantasy readers should pick this up or those where fantasy isn’t the interest but “romance” is should pick this up.

Fourth Wing follows twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail, daughter of the commanding general of Navarre, sister of one of the most respected military members and sister to one of the most promising dragon riders lost during the war. Violet was destined to be a Scribe (essentially work with books and use her intelligence) but her mother has told her she’s going to be a dragon rider throwing everything up in the air.

Fourth Wing plot – 4.5/5

Fourth Wing’s plot is both its best and its worth element. The story itself and the world that Yarros is setting up in this first book (there are five books planned in total) is absolutely fantastic. The cultures, the large map, the college, the conflicts and even the dragons are cool. These are all massive positives of the book and what often kept me reading.

Yarros clearly had some key moments she wanted to hit upon in the book and it did feel like there was an intended direction (as opposed to sometimes where you feel like the author was never really sure where they were going with the plot). Something that many people online said about this book is that it’s addictive because the plot moves at such a fast pace and a lot of key moments happen and I have to agree.

Something I respect about this book is that Yarros wasn’t afraid to kill off big characters too. Often with YA fantasy, things are written to appease the reader, keeping your favourites and making sure nothing too bad ever really happens. Luckily, Yarros wasn’t interested in keeping readers too happy and so was willing to risk killing off some big names and often quite quickly too (no long drawn-out deaths here).

However, this leads me to the elements of the book I highly disliked. The descriptions of men is hideous, the shallow depictions of their “muscles” and how “handsome” they are and how much they “turn her on” is actually quite disturbing. Many people said this book reminded them of Harry Potter – I can tell you now, HP would not have sold half as many copies it has if it used descriptions of people and sex scenes the way this book does. Most people I’ve spoken to about it find the descriptions and “smut” as off-putting and wish they could skip it.

This book isn’t a romance to me. There’s absolutely nothing romantic about the book. The only moments that would come close are pure lust, not romance. Avoiding any scenes featuring Violet and the love interest, the plot of Fourth Wing is addictive, full of action and very satisfying throughout.

Fourth Wing characters – 4.25/5

I’m going to carry on my theme from the review of the plot of Fourth Wing by getting out of the way the fact that I despised Yarros’ description of men and not sure why she felt it necessary to put in. I hope she didn’t add it in because she wasn’t confident that the story itself would be good enough.

Aside from the awful descriptions of men, the actual characters are really quite good. Yarros has managed to write young enthusiastic characters quite well here. They joke with one another, they love one another and it’s great to see. This for me was the element that felt most like Harry Potter – the characters bonding with one another and forming something that makes it genuinely nice to read when they come back together is great to see.

Violet, our main character, has a surprising amount of personality considering the book is written from a first-person point of view which is something that can often hinder the character as they serve as more of a vessel for the story than actual personalities. Violet is strong, has a sense of humour, is passionate but most importantly – not perfect. This isn’t like a lot of other YA books where the main character is naturally incredible at everything; Violet gets lucky with almost all of the initial trials and is actually considered one of the weakest throughout the whole process. A refreshing change.

The villain characters are sometimes a little overly mean – angry for no reason and ridiculously violent for 20-somethings. However, the fellow protagonists are kind and interesting enough to make you glad they’re there.

Fourth Wing final rating – 4.5/5

Fourth Wing was billed to me as one of the biggest YA fantasy books of our generation. There is a big band of great characters, there is an established and interesting fantasy setting and it has a plot that will keep you reading. The book is completely ruined by the “smut” Yarros has put in as it doesn’t add to the story or the characters at all and there is absolutely no “romance” here, simply very shallow lust.

I am a huge fantasy fan and this isn’t adult fantasy, it’s very much young adult but with crude moments. If you enjoy high fantasy such Game of Thrones , Lord of the Rings or The Stormlight Archive , this may not be the sort of fantasy you’re looking for, but if you’re a fan of Sarah J Maas’ similar work then you could well find yourself enjoying this book a lot.

It’s a good book, at times a great book, it just doesn’t quite deserve the enormous praise and hype it’s received.

Buy a copy of Fourth Wing from Amazon.

4 thoughts on “ The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros book review ”

Based on this excellent review I shall undoubtedly have to read the book, if only to check out in detail what sounds like blatant androgyny! Besides, I’m a sucker for dragons.

The dragons are very good! If not a bit naff at times!

I have seen this book everywhere and it certainly seems to be very popular. I have had it on my list of books to read for a while but have not yet taken the plunge, reading this review it does make me want to make sure I get into it (even with the odd way men and the sex scenes are written). Thanks for this, it might end up being something I begin next year!

Thank you for commenting. It’s definitely worth a read if not to just see if it’s worth the hype!!

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Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros | Book Review

Posted October 26, 2023 by Jana in Adult Fiction , Book Review / 4 Comments

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 .

Hello, I’d like to introduce you to Fourth Wing , my new personality. I’m sure you’ve been seeing reviews of Fourth Wing all over the internet for months now, so I’m not going to say a lot here. I’m not going to discuss the characters or the story or anything specific, really. I’m just going to tell you my thoughts and whether or not this book is worth reading! My brain feels very unorganized, so a list of random thoughts it is! We all know how much I love lists!

• This. Book. Is. Everything.
• You need to read it.
• The hype is absolutely 100% real and justified.
• The world is rich and interesting and will suck you in.
• The characters will make you either love or loathe them.
• I loved dragons before, but the dragons in this book have my heart. I love them so much.
• Basgiath War College is such a cool, yet ruthless place.
• The romance was on fire.
• This is the new ACTOAR series for me. I’m obsessed. I have needed a romantasy series like this for so long, and I am so excited about how long it’s supposed to be.
• I haven’t read a book this quickly in an extremely long time. I could not stop, it was so gripping.
• There’s danger!!
• Prepare to cry.
• Your mouth will drop at the end.
• Seriously, beware the cliffhanger.

I can sum it all up in two words: read it. I will never not recommend this book! I am counting down the days until my copy of Iron Flame , book #2, arrives in my mailbox! I can’t wait!!

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4 responses to “ Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros | Book Review ”

Read it last week and it became my fav. of the year. Such a fascinating, all-in read. Couldn’t put it down. Can’t wait for more of the series.

I’ve got this one on my TBR list, and everything about it sounds so good. Especially the dragons! Lark recently posted… Two Quick Bookish Books Recommendations…

Your new personality? lol. That’s hilarious! I’m glad you enjoyed it that much. I loved it as well.

I haven’t felt this way about a series of books since Harry Potter. Fourth Wing is the real deal. The Empyrean series is the next phenomenon. I’m considering staying up until midnight on Monday so I can download my Kindle version of Iron Flame and start reading. I haven’t done that since Harry Potter. Can’t wait to see what happens next. Surely there will be a movie deal. BonnieReadsAndWrites recently posted… Indie Spotlight: 2024…Your Year of More by Noah William Smith

Book Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Pages: 512 Publish date: May 2, 2023 Publisher: Piatkus ISBN: 9780349437002 Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU – QBD

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.

Fourth Wing:

Thank you to Hachette Australia for a review copy. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book. I did try and make this review as spoiler free as I could but a few things may have slipped. 

I finished this book over a month ago now, and it’s taken me a while to get all my thoughts together. And I was so excited and nervous going into Fourth Wing. If you didn’t know already, Rebecca Yarros is one of my all-time favourite authors. I have loved every single book of hers. So when I heard she was doing a fantasy, I was fricken excited but also nervous.

But I don’t know what I was thinking, because once again Rebecca Yarros has outdone herself, and my expectations, and Fourth Wing has jumped to my favourite of her books and my favourite book of the year. I know that you are probably seeing this book everywhere at the moment, and that makes me so damn happy because I think Rebecca Yarros deserves it. Don’t shy away from reading it because of the hype. 

Fourth Wing  by Rebecca Yarros follows Violet Sorrengail as she begins her journey to become a dragon rider. She wasn’t supposed to be a dragon rider but her mother has other plans for her. Now she is fighting with hundreds of other candidates to become part of the elite. But being a dragon rider isn’t easy and Violet will need to fight for her life, if her own body even allows it. It’s not just the elements trying to kill her but other dragon riders as well. *cough cough* Xaden Riorson. There are only two ways to finish at Basgiath War College; die or graduate. 

Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash

Violet has to be one of my favourite female protagonists ever. I have always loved how Rebecca writes her female main characters and Violet really highlights that. Throughout Fourth Wing, the reader gets to see Violet not only grow strong and find her place in this violent world but understand herself more and more. I really understood her. I adored that she never gave up, even if she wanted to. And I already want to do a re-read and really take in Violet’s growth throughout the book. She really explores herself in Fourth Wing  and the reader gets to see her believe in herself more. 

Violet is strong but knows her limits. She works around them. And when thrown into a situation that doesn’t seem possible to get out of, Violet works out a way. She is the type of protagonist that I am so happy reading about and I don’t think I will ever get bored of her. 

Xaden Riorson? What can I say about him? He is dark, dangerous and exactly what I love. He will kill you, but he also cares so deeply. From the start, I knew I was going to love Xaden. How couldn’t I? He really stands out in this book and boy there were times when I wanted to kill him. But as the story goes on and we find out all the things that Xaden has done to protect those around him. My little heart couldn’t. I also love that he breaks for Violet. We slowly start to see him want to help protect her. Not stop her from doing anything, but help her achieve what she wants. And he does that with a lot of the people around him. He wants everyone to do their best. But he is also a man and makes some dumb decisions, and we will need to wait until the next book before I might forgive him. 

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Now let’s get into the world. There are two ‘worlds’ in this Fourth Wing. The world of Basgiath War College and the outer ‘real’ world. For most of this book, we are exploring the world of the College. And I found that so fantastic. It’s such a layered world and if we had found out everything right at the start about the whole world it might have been overwhelming. What I loved so much about the world-building is that through Violet’s rambles and the little notes throughout the book we find out about things. We aren’t info dumped but when we need to know about the information it’s given to us nicely and slowly. 

I loved how damaged this world is. How hundreds of kids want to be dragon riders and so many die before they even step foot into the college. It’s fascinating and I can’t wait to find out even more. I don’t want to talk too much here about the world-building, because it’s a complex world and I don’t want to spoil anything. But there is magic, war and lots of betrayals coming your way. But this layered world of Fourth Wing is enticing us to know more and that makes everything so much more exciting. 

Now it’s time to talk about the dragons. I love them. I love that they are given human traits. It makes the emotional connection between the dragon and the rider mean so much more. We get to see so many types of dragons and the different ways that they interact with riders. I mean if a dragon just doesn’t like someone, they just torched them. This world is brutal. It’s not a nice world. They are in a war college. I just want to love I do love me a grumpy dragon. 

One of the things that I don’t see talked about enough and that makes me angry and sad at the same time, is the disability rep and honestly the representation in general. I adored the disability representation in Fourth Wing.  There were times when I just felt it. While it isn’t explicit throughout the book, Violet shows signs of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. A genetic condition that Rebecca herself has. What I loved about how it was explored throughout the book was that it wasn’t forgotten, but it also wasn’t just who Violet is. It’s not her disability and that’s it. I loved she was able to adapt – with a little help, but it didn’t stop her. The general representation in the book was also fantastic. It’s just there, like you know, life. 

Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash

Now it’s the romance’s time to shine. This angsty, slower-burn romance is exactly what I need. It’s enemies to lovers and so much more. Violet and Xaden have so much tension between the two of them that I was waiting for the pin to drop. I loved that the reader could see the connection from the start and it just slowly built up. One of my favourite things about these two is how much Xaden advocated for Violet without even realising it. It made me so happy. He didn’t stop her. He helped her figure out ways she could accomplish what she wanted. This isn’t just about Violet and Xaden but I adored how sex-positive Fourth Wing  was. It just happens. It wasn’t a big deal. They made jokes here and there but it wasn’t like this big thing. 

I don’t think I will ever stop thinking about this book. I am telling everyone at work about it, I’m trying to convince every customer to read it. And my family is getting sick of me talking to them about it. But if you love dragons, fantasy with a little bit of spice. And lots of death. Then pick please Fourth Wing  up. This new adult fantasy romance is one to keep an eye on.  I know that this book won’t be for everyone. I wish it was. But I think a vast majority of you will love it.  

Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash

Overall Fourth Wing  by Rebecca Yarros has so many elements that I have loved in a book. An angsty romance, a fantasy world that will not leave my mind and characters that took hold of my heart. Plus grumpy dragons just made my day. With a protagonist that has jumped to the top of my favourites list and a romance has me wanting more. And that ending has left me gasping and waiting for the next book. I tried to explain how much I love this book in this review and I do hope that it has come across. But I am so excited for the next one, and I cannot wait. 

Have you read Fourth Wing  by Rebecca Yarros yet? What did you think of it? Are you planning on reading it any time soon? What book has blown you away this year? Let’s Chat! 

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Fourth Wing

Recap, summary & spoilers.

The Full Book Recap and Chapter-by-Chapter Summary for Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros are below.

Ending & Explanations

See the Ending & Explanations for Fourth Wing

Quick(-ish) Recap

The three paragraph version: Violet is forced by her mother, a high-ranking general in the kingdom of Navarre, to enroll in the dangerous and brutal training to become an elite dragon rider at Basgiath War College. There, she meets Xaden whose father was executed by Violet's mother for leading a rebellion five years ago. Violet manages to survive training and bond with not one but two dragons -- Tairn, a large black dragon, and Andarna, a small golden adolescent dragon -- something that has never happened before. Tairn is mated with Xaden's dragon Sgaeyl, which creates a bond between Xaden and Violet. As Xaden helps to train and protect Violet, they develop feelings for each other.

Eventually, Violet discovers her "signet power" (a power manifested from the bond between the dragon and rider) of wielding lightning. Just before graduation, Violet goes with Xaden and a small group he trusts to complete a mission at an outpost outside the kingdom's boundaries. Xaden reveals he and his friend have been delivering weapons to help protect Poromiel, their enemies. Navarre has been under attack by gryphon fliers from nearby Poromiel because Poromiel needs resources from Navarre to fight off "venin" -- people who have been corrupted by channeling dark magic. Venin absorb the life force and magic from things around them and they are able to and conjure wyvern to fight off dragons. Navarrian authorities have led people to believe Poromiel is simply greedy and war hungry, and they deny the existence of venin.

Xaden figures out that Violet's childhood friend, Dain Aetos, has secretly been using his power of seeing someone's recent memories, on Violet without her consent in order to glean information about Xaden's activities. Violet agrees to join Xaden's fight as they engage in a deadly battle when venin attack nearby. Violet's lightning bolts are able to help kill the wyvern and the venin. When Violet recovers, she learns that her brother Brennan (who she believed to have been killed during the rebellion) is alive and part of the revolutionaries.

Chapters 1 - 3 . Violet Sorrengail is a new conscript at Basgiath War College who is being forced by her mother to join the Riders Quadrant where she'll train to become an elite dragon rider, assuming she survives the competitive and brutal process. Growing up, Violet's training was to be a scribe like her father, but her mother, General Sorrengail , is a high-ranking officer in the Kingdom of Navarre and insists otherwise.

Violet's older sister Mira is an active dragon rider and warns her to stay away from Xaden Riorson , whose father Fen Fiorson was executed by their mother five years ago for leading a rebellion, since he likely wants her dead. The children of all the rebellion leaders were marked with a "rebellion relic" (a magical tattoo denoting their status) and were forced to conscribe in the college. Violet and Mira's older brother Brennan , a healer, died fighting against rebellion forces.

Enrollment at the college begins by crossing a narrow and dangerous parapet into the Riders Quadrant where many first-years die before they even arrive, since the training and challenges of becoming a dragon rider are designed to root out the weak. Violet manages to survive and makes a friend, Rhiannon . Once on the other side, she finds Dain Aetos , a childhood friend whose father is her mother's trusted advisor. Dain is a second-year cadet and a squad leader.

Violet and Rhiannon join Dain's squad. The Riders Quadrant is divided into four wings, which has three sections each and three squads within each section. Xaden, a 3rd year, is the wingleader of the Fourth Wing. After he meets Violet, he instructs that Dain's squad be moved into a section within his wing.

Chapters 4 - 12 . Violet and her fellow cadets take classes in battle strategy and undergo a number of challenges as part of their training. In the battle strategy classes, they discuss recent attacks on their borders to keep everyone up to date in case they need to be shipped out early. However, Violet knows from doing library duty that there are also attacks that they are not being told about. The nearby kindgom of Poromiel has ramped up their invasion attempts and are sending out gryphon fliers to raid their supplies.

In training, Violet has never had combat training, so instead Violet uses her knowledge of foraging and herbs to poison her opponents to get through sparring matches. Next, they have to master The Gauntlet, a dangerous climbing challenge, consisting of five ascents. Violet uses her ingenuity to get through the last two ascents to survive the Gauntlet.

Meanwhile, Violet is relieved when Xaden does not attempt to kill her outright. One night, she learns that he's been leading meetings with other "marked" children, which is technically treason since it's impermissible for three or more people with rebellion relics to assemble. However, Violet sees that he's merely giving the younger ones advice and guidance on getting through the trainings and challenges, and she agrees to keep that knowledge secret.

The training and challenges all leads up to the Threshing, the day when the cadets will be taken to a field to approach and hopefully be selected by a dragon. The bond between a dragon and its rider is what makes someone a dragon rider. It imbues the rider with minor magic powers and more significantly a signet power, which is a powerful and unique magical ability. The stronger the bond and the dragon, the stronger their signet powers will be. Dain's signet power is the ability to see someone's recent memories. Xaden is able to control shadows.

Chapters 13 - 20 . During their threshing, there are roughly 100 dragons available to bond and around 160 cadets, which means a bond is far from a guarantee. One of the dragons is a smaller weaker golden dragon. Three of the cadets decide they should kill the golden dragon because it's not fit for combat and is a liability. Violet ends up fighting off the other three in order to defend the golden dragon. When she does, a large black dragon -- one of only two black dragons and one of the strongest dragons on the continent -- descends and chooses her as its rider. The dragon, Tairn , tells her he has chosen her for her intelligence, courage and character. Then, the small golden dragon, Andarna , chooses her as well.

There has never been an instance of two dragons bonding with one rider, but the Empyrean (the dragon leadership) meets and decides that it is permissible, so the humans have no choice but to accept their decision. Violet soon learns that Tairn's mate is Sgaeyl , a vicious blue dragon who is bonded with Xaden. Once bonded, a rider will die if their dragon dies, though the same is not necessarily true for the dragon. However, Tairn nearly died when its previous rider died, which in turn nearly killed his mate Sgaeyl. In other words, Xaden now needs Violet to survive since her death could weaken or kill both Tairn and Sgaeyl which could also kill him in the process.

After the Threshing, Dain who Violet once had feelings for, finally kisses her, but Violet feels nothing. Dain has been trying to protect her, but has never believed in her or encouraged her. Instead, Xaden begins to take an intense interest in protecting and training Violet, and he believes in her in a way that Dain does not. One night, a group of unbonded cadets attempt to attack Violet in the hopes of getting a chance to win the respect of her dragon and bond with it instead. Violet is able to survive with the help of Andarna (who turns out to be a adolescent dragon with the power of freezing time, though it's a gift that will likely go away as she matures), and Xaden believes Violet when she tells him who was involved, while Dain doubts her.

Chapters 21 - 32 . Xaden soon assigns his foster brother, Liam, who is the strongest and fastest of the first-year cadets, to watch over Violet. Liam tells her how they were taken from their homes after the rebellion and raised by loyalists instead, and Xaden trained him as kids. Xaden and Violet's desire for each other begin to grow, and one day they kiss.

Violet's squad soon participates in a squad battle, from which they emerge victorious. The prize is a trip to an outpost to learn from experienced dragon riders, and it happens to be where Mira is stationed. Xaden also joins them because Tairn and Sgaeyl cannot be separated for long due to being a mated pair.

Soon, the squads must participate in a series of battles as part of the War Games leading up to graduation. In the first battle, they're assigned to capture an egg that the First Wing is defending and to defend their own Fourth Wing flag. There is a near-death encounter for Liam, which Violet manages to prevent by using Andarna's time-freezing gift. Violet then kills Liam's attacker, Jack Barlowe , when she discovers and subsequently unleashes her own signet power as a lightning wielder. Xaden and Violet soon sleep together, but he isn't able to acknowledge his feelings for her, and Violet tells him she can't be with him until he's able to do so. Xaden eventually relents, saying that he's tired of fighting his feelings.

Chapters 33 - 38 . The last War Game involves a mission that each squad must complete that takes place at outposts across the kindgom. Xaden is assigned to the Fourth Wing headquarters at Athebyne an outpost that sits outside Navarre's protective wards. He brings with him a cadre of people he trusts, and he instructs Violet and Liam to join him. When they arrive, it is completely abandoned, and Xaden realizes they've been sent there to die. He figures out that Dain has been secretly using his signet power -- to see recent memories -- on Violet, which is how he learned that Xaden has been visiting this outpost.

They're joined by gryphon fliers, and Xaden admits to Violet that he and his friends have been giving them weapons. He tells her that despite what Navarrian authorities are saying, Poromiel is not simply attacking them out of greed. They need the materials that Navarre uses to power their wards in order to fight off venin. Violet has only heard of venin as being referred to in folktales and myths -- they are men whose souls have been corrupted by channeling dark magic from the earth to perform magic and conjure wyverns. In doing so, they destroy the life force and any magic from surrounding areas. Xaden tells her that venin are real and that they've been attacking Poromiel.

Nearby, there is a trading post under attack by venin, and Xaden and the others wants to stay and defend it. Violet decides to join them as well. Xaden gives her two black blades which are capable of fighting off venin. The ensuing fight is vicious, and Liam's dragon is killed, which kills him, too. During the fight, Violet realizes she's able to use her lightning strikes to kill wyvern as well as venin. Once a venin dies, any wyvern conjured by it die as well. Violet is poisoned, but survives the fight. She's taken somewhere nearby to be mended.

Chapter 39 . The book ends with Violet being greeted by Brennan, who is apparently alive and well. He welcomes her to the revolutionary cause.

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Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

Violet Sorrengail is at the Basgiath War College of Navarre on Conscription Day. Today, she and thousands of other 20-year-olds will sign up for their chosen quadrant. Violet, along with hundred of others, plans on be joining the elite Riders Quadrant.

As she approaches General Sorrengail’s office, Violet overhears her sister Mira tell her mother, the general, that she’s sending Violet to die by having her joining the dangerous Rider’s Quadrant. Violet was trained to be a scribe, like her father who died a little over a year ago. Her mother suffered from a sickness when she was pregnant with Violet, which her mother believes weakened her. However, her mother insists that Violet become a dragon rider, warriors who are at the top of the social and military hierarchy.

Mira insists that Violet is too weak, but their mother insists that Violet is strong but capable. Mira reminds their mother of their brother Brennan’s death five years ago during the Tyrrish rebellion. Violet recalls how her father’s heart pains began after Brennan’s death. General Sorrengail tells Mira to leave, and she reminds Violet that she scored well in speed in agility. She also reminds Violet that she won’t be acknowledging her during the next three years since she’ll be her commanding officer.

Mira and Violet head to her room, and Mira insists on repacking her stuff to lighten her rucksack to ensure her survival. Mira then helps her get dressed and braids her hair so it won’t be a liability in battle. She also gives her a corset with dragon scales sewn in to protect her.

Mira then walks her to her gate and tells her to go find Dain Aetos , a second-year, whose squad she can join. She also says to stay away from Xaden Riorson , a third-year whose father, Fen Riorson , is known as the “ Great Betrayer ” and who likely will want her dead. All the children of the traitors were forced to conscribe, but Xaden has risen within the ranks to become a wingleader.

Violet eyes the entrances to the other quadrants — The Infantry Quadrant, The Healer Quadrant, and The Scribe Quadrant. To get to the Rider’s Quadrant requires crossing a dangerous stone bridge parapet. Mira steps up to sign her name on the roll and begin her crossing. As they walk up the stairs, Violet meets two other candidates, Rhiannon Matthias and Dylan . When Violet sees that Rhiannon’s shoes don’t have enough traction, she offers to swap one of her rider shoes with Rhiannon just before they cross.

As she starts to cross the parapet she spots a distractingly handsome and tall man, but then someone refers to him as Xaden Riorson. When someone speaks to Violet, he realizes who she is as well. He accuses her mother of overseeing the execution of his father, and she accuses his father of killing her brother. Their conversation is interrupted by the sound of Dylan screaming as he falls to his death from the parapet.

On the parapet, a guy named Jack Barlowe taunts Violet. The others have an incentive to kill each other if “there’s a shortage of dragons that year or a cadet is a liability to their wing”.

As Violet crosses the parapet, she forces herself to calm down and focus as she runs through facts in her head to push all other thoughts out of her mind. Out in front, she sees Rhiannon has crossed safely. As Violet gets to safety, Jack threatens her, but Violet manages to get the upper hand. He tells her “You’re dead, Sorrengail, and I’m going to be the one to kill you.”

On the other side, Rhiannon greets her warmly and thanks Violet for the boots. Violet feels ill after getting across the parapet. Dain Aetos finds her and tries to comfort her. Dain’s father is one of her mother’s most trusted advisors, and Dain is a close childhood friend. He’s also the leader of the Second Squad, Flame Section, Second Wing. Dain says both of them can join his squad.

Dain asks Violet why she’s even here and not in the Scribe Quadrant, and Violet explains that her mother insisted on it. Dain then takes her to his room to help her wrap her leg that was injured during her crossing. As they talk, he encourages her to go back down and join the scribe quadrant, worried that even if she survives until the “Threshing” that a dragon won’t bond to her and that she’ll be killed. Dragons only bond to riders that they sense are strong.

He reminds her that here, you either graduate or die, but Violet says if she tried to leave, her mother would just force her right back. Dain says that she’s not really a volunteer if her mother is forcing her, referencing how the Riders Quadrant is the only quadrant that doesn’t accept conscripts. Because of how dangerous it is, everyone must be a volunteer.

Afterwards, Violet finds Rhiannon again, who has befriended someone names Tara . Soon, Commandant Panchek addresses the group, congratulating them for being one of the 301 cadets to cross the parapet alive. 67 died in the process. He says that they’ll continue to be challenged until and during the Threshing and until graduation, and Violet thinks about how it’s likely only a quarter of them will survive.

After that, they get into their squads. There are about 15-16 people in each squad, three squads in each section and three sections in each of the four wings. As they line up, Xaden says something to one of the other wingleaders, and Dain instructed to switch his squad into the Fourth Wing, for which Xaden is wingleader.

A riot of dragons show up and the cadets are impressed and scared of their presence. By bonding with humans, the dragons give humans signet ability which allow them weave protective spells to protect the Vale where the dragons live from things like gryphons. Once a human is bonded to a dragon, they cannot live without it. A dragon will live fine without a human, but they stil have to choose carefully since it’s shameful to choose a human who is too weak to survive.

In the morning Captain Fitzgibbons reads out the death roll, which is the only type of memorial the dead get around here. As a first-year, Violet has gotten her academic schedule and then they’ll all be in the sparring gym later today. In two months, they’ll be expected to master The Gauntlet , a terrifying vertical obstacle course. Violet notes some of the other cadets in their squad. There’s Ridoc , a smart-ass, and a Sawyer , a repeat which means that he went through his first year but didn’t bond with a dragon so now he’s repeating his first year to try again.

Violet heads into the impressive rotunda, and Dain finds her to check on her. Dain’s dragon is Cath , a Red Swordtail. As part of the bonding process, Dain can now do lesser magic like opening dooring or speeding up, but his signet ability is that he can read a person’s recent memories. Violet thinks about how his is a very valuable ability.

She asks Dain why their squad got switched, and Dain says everyone assumes it’s because Xaden wants her dead. He also warns her of Xaden’s navy blue dragon, Sgaeyl . It’s a Blue Daggertail and it’s vicious. He reassures her that all the wingleaders stick to the Codex, their code of conduct, very closely and they’ll make sure that the Codex will keep her safe. When Xaden approaches them, Dain recommends that Violet leave.

That morning Violet has history class, and later in the morning, Violet attends class with Professor Devera and Professor Markham , a scribe, where they have a battle briefs and talk about the politics and strategy of the situation they’re involved in. It’s the only class they have every day, since it’s important in case they get called into service early.

Today, they start by discussing a recent gryphon attack. She notes that it was made possible because the wards that protect their borders faltered in that area for some reason. There is a constant threat of gryphon raiding parties without them, since they are always wanting to get access to the resources in Navarre. Violet wonders why they attacked that mountain range and what caused the wards to falter, but she knows better than to ask.

Violet asks about the altitude of the attack and notes that it’s a strange place for the Gryphons to attack given that their weak at that altitude. She also notes that the squad that fended them off must’ve known about the attack since they got their more quickly than otherwise would have been possible. Professor Devera confirms that one of the dragons sensed the failing ward. Xaden then speaks up, asking more about the attack and noting that they must’ve been looking for something there.

At the sparring gym, Rhiannon says she’s impressed with Violet’s knowledge in their classes that day, but Violet shrugs it off, saying that it’s because she was originally training to be a scribe. Violet notes that her hand-to-hand combat training on the other hand is basically non-existent. Rhiannon offers to help train her in combat if she helps her with their classwork.

Before her, two of her squadmates fight, and Aurelie loses a tooth and is sent to the healers. Meanwhile, Jack Barlowe fights a first year and breaks his neck, killing him. Rhiannon is selected to fight another first year, Tynan , and bests him easily. Then, Violet is called up to fight a pink-haired second year, Imogen , who accuses Violet’s mother of murdering her family. Imogen uses her powers and attempts to stab Violet with a dagger, but Violet is protected by Mira’s armor. When Violet is bested, the moderator Emetterio tells them to stop, but Imogen breaks her arm anyway.

Dain takes Violet to the Healer’s Quadrant. Healing is one of the rarest signet powers, and Brennan had been a mender. Here, Winifred helps Violet and calls for another mender, Nolon , to help. Dain insists again that Violet return to the scribe quadrant for her own protection, but Violet refuses.

When Violet returns to the barracks, her arm is in a sling. When she gets to her bed, Mira has left a note for her, along with a book that Brennan put together and had once given to Mira. As the reads it, Violet sees that it’s a guide to her survival. In the first entry, he talks about the hand-to-hand combat pairings are predetermined. He then tells her how to figure out who her sparring partner will be so she can prepare accordingly.

Violet is out foraging outside when she spots Imogen and Xaden together. Then, more riders arrive and they all have rebellion cloaks. According to the codex, any three “marked ones” (people associated with the rebellion) who assemble together “is considered an act of seditious conspiracy and is hereby a capital offense”. Violet hears Xaden say that there’s 41 of them in all in the rider’s quadrant.

As Violet listens to them, she realizes that the group doesn’t really appear to be conspiring to do anything. Instead, the older riders are giving the new riders advice on how to survive their first year. Then, someone asks when they’ll be able to kill Violet Sorrengail. Xaden responds that when the time is right, he take care of her. Someone named Garrick defends Violet, saying that she shouldn’t be punished for her mom’s actions. Xaden also speaks up saying that Violet’s brother was killed, so Violet has reasons to dislike them as well.

The group disbands and then someone sneaks up on Violet — it’s Xaden. He says that his signet is a shadow-wielder so he could sense someone was there. Shadow-wielding is very rare and also very valuable in combat. Violet tells Xaden she has no intention of reporting their group to anyone, and Xaden tells her to go back to the barracks since she’s out after curfew.

The next morning, Dain reminds her that the challenges start that afternoon. Violet has volunteered for breakfast duty that day, and she has followed Brendan’s advice to figure out that she’ll be sparring with Oren Seifert today. Dain tells her to steer clear of Jack Barlowe, though Violet thinks of Xaden’s advice last night to toss a few daggers near Jack’s head to scare him off. Violet then heads to breakfast and sprinkles some dried powered fonilee berries that she foraged last night onto Oren’s food.

Today, Professor Kaori talks about the Threshing and how to approach the dragons. He explains that there will be around a hundred dragons available to bond this year. The professor notes that the number of dragons looking to bond has been dropping each year in recent years, though the reasons why are unknown. He also admits that there’s been more breaches of their boundaries lately.

The rarest dragon breed is the massive black dragon. General Melgren is bonded to one, Codagh . There is only one other one black dragon, but it hasn’t wanted to bond with anyone since its previous rider, Naolin . In general, the strength of the bond and the dragon determines how powerful the signet power will be. Naolin’s signet was siphoning powers from others. Naolin died trying to resurrect a fallen rider, which was Brennan — but there’s no power of resurrection which is why he burned out and died.

The professor talks to Violet afterwards and reminds her that both her siblings were and are great riders, but she’s smarter than them both. And dragons choose people for reasons unknown, and not all strength is physical.

That afternoon, at the sparring ring, when Jack Barlowe threatens her, Violet does what Xaden recommended and flicks a few daggers near his to scare him off. Violet is then called up along with Oren. As planned, Violet is able to get the best of him when he gets nauseous, and Violet takes a dagger off of him (which are won off of other people).

The next week, Violet uses hallucinogenic mushrooms to help her win her next fight, and the week after that some poisonous roots help her to win that combat. By September, Violet has taken down five opponents in all. Her next opponent is Rayma Corrie , but Violet realizes she gave her the poison too early when Rayma is sent to the healer’s and can’t spar.

Instead, Xaden offers himself up as a replacement.

On the mat with Xaden, Violet knows she’s completely screwed. Dain keeps yelling for them Xaden to stop. As they spar, Xaden lets her know that he’s aware of what she’s been doing by poisoning her opponents. He also gives her advice on her sparring tactics. Finally, Xaden simply stops. He tells Dain that Violet could use “a little less protection and a little more instruction”.

Afterwards, Dain tells Violet that he talked to Professor Markham and that she could still join the first years in the scribe quadrant. Violet gets upset, saying that she’s tired of Dain not believing that she can cut it. Dain says that the Threshing is in four weeks and he’s not going to be allowed to help her even if the other students are hunting her and determined to kill her. He pleads with her to think about joining she scribes.

Today, they are outside to practice the Gauntlet where they’ll be scored on their performance individually and as a team. Professor Emetterio tells them to get started. He calls out their squad members — Sawyer, Pryor, Trina, Tynan, Rhiannon, Ridoc, Violet, Aurelie, and Luca — and notes that they’re the only squad to not have lost anyone yet since the day at the parapet.

The Gauntlet takes place on a cliff and is a climbing challenge with various obstacles in the way. There are five ascents designed to mimic the skills they need in battle — strength, balance, stamina, etc. The cadets one by one mount the obstacle course and things are going smoothly until a dragon flies overhead. Aurelie is distracted and loses her grip and falls.

The next day, Aurelie’s name is read on the death rolls. As the last person who saw her, Violet volunteers to take Aurelie’s stuff to the burn pits. As she returns, she sees Xaden, Garrick, and Bodhi and wonders what they were doing out that night. Xaden tells them to continue on without him, and he approaches Violet instead. As they talk, Violet admits that she isn’t able to make it up the Gauntlet yet. Whereas in practice they are allowed to climb down if they can’t make it, on the day of the Presentation, that’s not an option. Xaden tells her she should stop sulking because has everything she needs to be able to scale the Gauntlet.

By the ninth (the second-to-last) practice session for the Gauntlet, Violet still hasn’t been able to scale it. Soon, it’s Presentation day, and Violet knows it will be a very deadly day for the first-years, but she has a plan though it’s not a great one. She ends up using a rope that’s meant for climbing down to help her scale the formation that has been troubling her. And for the final ramp that she’s too short for, she uses her dagger as leverage to help her over.

When she gets over, Rhiannon congratulates her happily, but Amber Mavis , the wingleader of the Third Wing who Dain was “close” with last year, accuses Violet of cheating. She marches up to talk to Xaden, but she’s intercepted by the section-leader Garrick who says he doesn’t appreciate her accusations.

Violet steps in to defend herself. She says that using the rope is just a 30-second penalty. As for the dagger, she says she’s allowed to bring any items that she carries into the quadrant and once they’re carried over the parapet, they’re considered part of that person.

By the end of the Presentation, the rest of their squad has made it through the Gauntlet safely as well.

There are 169 cadets left by the time the morning is over, and their squad places 11th out of 36 squads for their combined performance on the gauntlet. Liam Mairi wins the gauntlet patch for being the fastest.

Next up, the dragons get to inspect the cadets as they walk past. There’s no approaching any dragons today, instead the dragons are checking them out prior to the actual Threshing. The dragons might also choose today to incinerate anyone they deem weak. As the cadets walk up, they note that another dragon, a feathertail, has been added to the list of dragons that will potentially bond with a rider.

They trudge up in a line, and at the end of the line is the golden featherfail. It’s smaller than the rest and bright gold. As they chat, Tynan is being obnoxious while Pryor is indecisive as usual. A red dragon steps forward and incinerates Pryor. They keep walking. Then, two green dragons approach Violet. She speaks to them as they try to sniff her. She realizes they must smell Mira’s dragon scales on her. As instructed, Violet lowers her gaze in supplication as she speaks and eventually, they retreat.

Luca talks about how she thought they were going to eat Violet since she’s the weakest link — just as a dragon incinerates her, too. Their squad returns with six cadets.

October 1st is the Threshing. Violet says she doesn’t know what dragon she’ll try to approach. Rhiannon seems partial to one of the green dragons that sniffed Violet.

After a few hours, Violet has seen many dragons around but still hasn’t felt a particular connection to any one of them. Violet overhears a conversation where Jack, Oren and Tynan talk about killing the small golden dragon, saying it’s a liability and that it’s going to get someone killed. They say that feathertails are known to be useless in combat.

With that, Violet is determined to go warn the golden dragon. As she goes looking for it, she hurts her ankle, but she keeps going, determined to warn the dragon. She finds it and tries to shoo it off, just as the thee guys approach the dragon as well. She tells the golden dragon to scorch them, but it doesn’t seem to be able to. Jack has a sword. Before they can do anything, Violet steps in front of them and raises her daggers. Jack raises his sword.

Then, they’re interrupted by Xaden who arrives riding Sgaeyl and looking displeased.

Violet is relieved to see Xaden, but she also knows that he’s not permitted to interfere during the Threshing. Violet notices that the golden dragon doesn’t even seem to have claws, it just has paws. Jack then runs at the feathertail, and Violet uses her dagger to attack his shoulder, which leaves him on the ground in pain. The other two attack, and Violet attacks back. Sgaeyl looks unhappy as well but still does nothing. Soon, Violet’s arm and leg are both injured.

Suddenly, Tynan backs off as the black dragon comes and wraps the golden dragon under its arm. It speaks and order Violet to step aside, referring to her as the “silver one” because of her hair color. It incinerates Tynan. It also suggests that Violet kill Oren, but Violet says she doesn’t want to kill someone who is unconscious. Meanwhile, Violet sees Xaden and his dragon take off.

The black dragon then tells her to get on, and Violet realizes that the dragon has chosen her. Violet doesn’t want to leave the golden dragon, but it flies off, and the black dragon tells her its name, Tairneanach , though it says “ Tairn ” is will do fine.

Tairn takes flight, and Violet immediately falls off. Tairn catches her and chides her, telling her to stop making them look bad. As they fly, Tairn tells her that Violet was chosen because she is the smartest of her year and she chose to protect the golden feathertail. Tairn says Violet possesses the strength of courage.

When they land, the golden dragon comes back and is still tucked away under the black dragon’s arm. Typically dragons don’t talk to riders who aren’t theirs, but when Violet asks it why it didn’t fly off when she was trying to save it, the golden dragon responds that maybe it was there to save her.

At dusk, Violet approaches the roll call table where they record the bonded pairs. The General and her mother are seated there along with Professor Kaori and others. The table of people are appropriately impressed, saying that Tarin is a legend. Then, the golden dragon speaks up as well and instructs Violet to give them its name, Andarnaurram . Violet does and “all hell breaks loose”.

There is pandemonium after Violet announces that two dragons have chosen her. The generals are screaming at one another. Violet meanwhile is waiting for a healer after the injuries she sustained from trying to protect the golden dragon. At the healer’s tent, Jack is injured from the encounter as well, though he did bond with Baide, an orange dragon. He tries to approach Violet but Professor Kaori warns him that Tairn is likely to scorch him to death if he does.

Kaori tells Violet that no one has ever bonded to two dragons before, but there’s no point in the generals arguing about it. Ultimately, it’s up to the dragons and not to them. When Violet returns to her dragons, Tairn tells her that the Empyrean — dragon leadership — will decide whether or not this is permissible. Tairn and Andarna join the other dragons to discuss, and Tairn advises Violet to stay close to Xaden for protection until they can return.

When Violet reunites with her squad, Rhiannon reports that she bonded with Feirge , a green daggertail. Meanwhile, Ridoc congratulates Violet and says that he’s riding Aotrom , a brown swordtail. Sawyer is delight to be bonded to Sliseag , a Red Swordtail. Trina sadly fell to her death, and Violet tells them Tynan is dead.

When Dain finds her, he tells Violet that she’ll have to choose a dragon and that she should choose the little feathertail. That way, she won’t be fit to ride in battle, and then they can make her a permanent instructor here instead, like Kaori. Violet argues that Kaori is an instructor because his signet powers make him a great teacher, not because he can’t fly.

Dain tell her that Sgaeyl and Tairn are a mated pair, so where ever Xaden goes, Violet will have to go as well since mated dragons can’t be separated for long. That means if Xaden goes into dangerous and unpredictable situations, then Violet will have to as well and it’ll get her killed.

Xaden interrupts them and Dain and Xaden get into an argument about what happened that day. Xaden then flat out asks Dain if he would have interfered to prevent Violet from getting killed, and Dain admits that he would not have because of the rules. Afterwards, Violet asks Xaden why he forced Dain to admit that, and Xaden says it’s because she has too much faith in Dain and she needs to know who she can really trust.

Xaden then tells her that a dragon’s bond to their rider gets stronger with each one. When Tairn’s previous rider died, it nearly killed him which then nearly killed Xaden’s dragon. Xaden’s dragon dying would kill Xaden too. So, for better or for worse, Xaden’s survival now requires Violet’s survival as well if the pairing is allowed to stand. Xaden warns that the unbonded riders are likely to try to kill Violet in hopes of her dragon bonding to them instead since Tairn is one of the strongest dragons on the continent and they all want its power.

The Empyrean meeting concludes and Codagh relays to General Melgren the verdict that the dragons have chosen and their choice stands. Violet is then marked as their rider, as represented by the “glistening black relic of a dragon mid-flight stretching from shoulder to shoulder and, in the center, the silhouette of a shimmering golden one” tattooed across her back.

Dain rushes up to Violet to congratulate her and kiss her, something she’s wanted for so long only to realize she doesn’t want it anymore.

The next morning, Violet teases Rhiannon for hooking up with Sawyer. Rhiannon teases Violet back for kissing Dain, but Violet admits that she’s not actually feelin’ it with him.

The next morning, everyone is extremely friendly and accommodating towards Violet. There’s been a power shift, she’s told, and anyone with good sense is going to be scared of her. The unbonded, like Oren, have no been handed the less desirable duties to do, and Violet sees him on breakfast duty that morning.

Violet and her friends are joined by older riders in their squad, Quinn and Imogen, that previously showed very little interest in them. One of them Quinn explains matter-of-factly that there’s no point in getting to know the first-years when most of them are going to die. They’re also joined by third-years, Heaton and Emery . As they chat, Emery shows them his signet, which is water manipulation.

Imogen tells Violet that she’s going to help her train at the sparring gym today. Violet realizes they all know that Xaden’s fate is tethered to Violet’s so they need her to train and get stronger and survive.

At flight lessons that day, they’re told that 92 dragons in total bonded yesterday. Kaori reminds them that the bonds are at their weakest right now, so if they fall, the dragons might just let them and that there’s 41 unbonded riders to take their place. Right away, someone falls off their dragon and dies.

As Violet rides Tairn, he instructs her on what to do. Violet and Tairn keep trying to have her hold on, and she falls many times. By the end of the session, Violet is sore and bruised from being caught after falling.

She heads to the sparring gym, she runs into Dain who tells her that the kiss was a mistake since he’s above her in the chain of command and he’s determined to become wingleader someday. Violet is relieved and tells him that she understands. Imogen soon drags Violet away to help train her. Violet wonders about whether Imogen and Xaden are lovers given how dedicated she is to his survival.

Today, Violet is assigned to the archives for her cadet chores. She sees Jesinia Neilwart there, who she previously studied with and who has recently passed her scribes test. Violet is happy to be back in the archives, but she also realizes that the Rider’s Quadrant was the right one for her.

She asks Jesinia if they have a book called The Fables of the Barren , a book of wvyern folktales, which her father had given her but she wasn’t able to bring because she needed to lighten her pack. Jesinia isn’t able to locate it, and Violet thinks about how she’s never seen that book around anywhere, and the Archives are supposed to have a copy of every book unless it’s forbidden.

Later, back with her squad, Sawyer’s signet power has appeared, and he’s now a metallurgist and working with the metals professor, Professor Carr . The older cadets talk about how the powers manifest when the dragon trusts them enough for it to do so. However, if it doesn’t happen after six months or so, then the power will consume them instead, though that hasn’t happened to anyone in a very long time.

At flight class, Tairn continues to practice advanced maneuvers despite them not being there yet in class, and Violet continues to struggle. Tairn says it’s to train her for battle. Dain soon comes up to Violet and gives her a hard time about falling off her dragon all the time, and he drones on about how he’s terrified she’s not going to make it to graduation. Violet finally tells him they’ll never be more than friends because he has no faith in her.

Suddenly, there’s a scream when one cadet, Jeremiah , starts to manifest his powers and he can hear others’ thoughts. He’s an inntinnsic, and “his powers are a death sentence”. Xaden tells Violet that she should find a way to clear her head unless she’s fine with Jeremiah knowing all her secrets. Jeremiah is about to reveal Garrick’s thoughts when Xaden uses his shows powers to silence him. Then, Professor Carr comes out and snaps Jeremiah’s neck.

Violet is dreaming of her father when Tairn commands her to wake up for her own safety. There are seven unbonded in her room. There’s a tussle and Violet tries to get away, but Oren gets her and is about to stab her throat when suddenly Andarna screams and no one is able to move other than Violet.

With everyone else frozen, Andarna tells her to hurry, since she can only hold it momentarily. Violet breaks free, and Xaden shows up in the doorway. Xaden’s shadow grabs all the cadets in the room. He strangles them all other than Oren, who he slashes in the throat. Garrick and Bodhi soon show up as well.

Xaden checks on Violet and, she admit to him about her dragon scale armor that Mira gave her that she also sleeps in, which saved her life. He then tells her to come with him and takes her to a hidden door along the hallway revealing a tunnel. Xaden says they’re going to talk to Tairn. Violet asks him why he was out and about and fully dressed at this time of day, but Xaden declines to tell her.

Soon, they’re in front of Tairn, Andarna and Sgaeyl. Tairn talks directly to Xaden, who he called on to come protect Violet. Xaden demands to know what happened in that room, because from his perspective, Violet was under Oren’s knife one second and then across the room the next.

Finally, Andarna explains that feathertails generally don’t bond because they can gift their powers to humans and their powers can be unstable and unpredictable. Instead, dragons wait until they’re fully grown. However, since Andarna is still a feathertail, she was able to give her gift of freezing time to Violet. She’s two now and will be fully grown in a year. Andarna is an orphan so the rest of the dragons take care of her.

It’s important not to tell others that Andarna is still a feathertail because if they know, they would be tempted to hunt her and take her power for themselves instead of having to rely on signets. As for Violet, it’s dangerous for feathertails to bond because it’s too easy for riders to use their gifts and burn out their powers, killing them. She can see how tired Andarna is from just today. It’s also important not to tell people that Violet can now stop time because that’s not a power anyone else has.

Xaden and Violet both agree not to tell anyone about this power or about Andarna being a feathertail. Also, most feathertail gifts disappear when they mature so Violet likely won’t have this power that long.

After they leave, Xaden wonders how those cadets even got past her locks and into her room. Violet says she says there was someone else in there before who ran away before he arrived, and she must’ve unlocked it from the inside, but Violet is reluctant to tell him who. Xaden demands to know who unlocked the door.

The next morning at roll call, Xaden arranges for Liam Mairi, one of the fastest and strongest first years, is put into Dain’s squad. Violet knows that he did it essentially so that Violet would have a bodyguard.

Next, Commandant Panchek informs them that a breach of the Codex has occurred. Xaden climbs the dais and informs everyone of the illegal attack last night and explains that it was interrupted by himself, Garrick and Bodhi. The perpetrators, he explains, were executed. He also says that one person got away, and then he accuses Wingleader Amber Mavis of being part of the illegal attack.

Amber steps forward and denies what happened. Dain asks to see Violet’s memories, but she doesn’t want him to see her freezing time so she refuses. Xaden then calls for the other wingleaders to discuss the situation. Their dragons soon all show up as well, along with Amber’s orange dragon.

Dain insists Violet is mistaken, and Violet thinks about how Xaden believed her and is up there fighting for her based on her word. Violet then asks Tairn to share her memory of seeing Amber with the other dragons, and he does. The wingleaders then condemn Amber to die by fire. Amber’s dragon, Claidh , wants to protect her but is stopped by Tairn. Tairn incinerates Amber.

As instructed by Xaden, Liam accompanies Violet everywhere now, including to her library duties. Liam is nice and courteous and likes whittling little figurines. Violet notes how rude everyone is to the “marked ones” including Liam. He’s the son of the disgraced Colonel Mairi . In the library, Jesinia and Liam flirt gently.

Violet asks Liam about his relationship with Xaden, and Liam says that they were both fostered at the same estate — in Tirvainne under the care of Duke Lindell — after the Tyrrish rebellion against King Tauri , referred to by him as the “apostasy” which is the Tyrrish term for the rebellion. The great houses of their families were given to loyal nobles so the children of the rebellion leaders were sent to foster homes. Liam adds that his little sister was sent elsewhere. She’s a year younger so he’ll get to see her next year when she enters Basgiath if she makes it.

When Violet comments that she could choose a different quadrant, Liam tells her that the marked children are only allowed to become riders. Violet knew they were forced to conscribe, but she didn’t know that. Liam says some think it’s because they hoped to kill off the kids without doing it themselves and didn’t think the dragons would bond with them.

There were 107 children with rebellion relics (markings) in all, with Xaden being the oldest of all of them. The youngest, Julianne, is now 6. Liam says Xaden trained him to fight when they were kids and he owes him everything, which is why he is fine being told to be Violet’s babysitter.

Violet’s attention soon turns to a scroll that she finds. It says that the village of Sumerton was recently attacked along the southern border in another high-altitude attack.

Later that morning, Liam and Violet head into their daily battle briefing. They talk about Liam babysitting Violet and he mentions that Xaden warded her bedroom door so only Violet can open it.

Today, Professor Devera talks about the upcoming squad battle where the winning team will get to shadow an active wing on the front lines. Professor Markham then says that things have been relatively quiet lately so they’re doing to discuss a past battle. Violet wonders about Sumerton, knowing that an entire village was just raided and looted. Liam askes if the scroll had been marked confidential, but Violet doesn’t think it was. She tells herself that she must’ve just missed it.

By December, Violet is still unable to channel and she wonders what else they’re not hearing about in the battle briefings. She’s sparring with Rhiannon when she’s distracted by the sight of Xaden and Garrick sparring, shirtless. Jack Barlowe comes and taunts Violet some more, though she reminds him of how he ran away from her that day at the Threshing. Xaden walks over to intervene, and when he leaves Violet notices that his back is covered in silver-lined scars.

At the end of practice Tairn notes that Violet seems ready to channel.

When she is alone later, a power expands within her. Then she has a sudden feeling of lust and realizes that she’s feeling whatever her dragon is feeling and that he must be mating with his partner. She goes outside to get some fresh air and to be alone, and she finds Xaden there doing the same thing, and she has an obsessive desire for him in that moment.

Tairn tells her she needs to learn shielding to block Tairn out sometimes. However, Violet says she hasn’t taken those classes yet. He gives her a crash course on trying to ground herself and mentally block her dragon out.

Xanden and Violet end up kissing, and she feels out of control, but Xaden stops things, saying that her feelings of desire are actually Tairn’s feelings and not her own.

Violet tells Rhiannon about the kiss, and Rhiannon shows Violet her newly discovered signet power. She can summon objects. She says she can only do it from a few feet away and can’t go through walls, but Violet says she’ll get stronger. Violet also notes that this is a very rare ability that could make Rhiannon’s career.

At battle briefing, Violet looks over at Xaden who is with the other wingleaders including the newly appointed Third Wing Leader, Lamani Zohar , who replaced Amber. Violet’s thoughts are interrupted by Dain who wants to talk about what happened between them and with the incident with Amber.

Dain asks Violet if she trusts Xaden more than she trusts him, and Violet tells him that he needs to stop protecting her and start believing in her. She also says that she has no choice but to trust Xaden. Dain reminds her that because of his signet abilities, he has special security clearances and he knows that Xaden has his secrets and reasons to never forgive Violet’s mother. He just wants to make sure Xaden isn’t using her to get his revenge.

Back in class, Professor Carr addresses Violet, noting how both her siblings had very powerful signet abilities. Brennan was a mender while Mira is able to conjure wards to protect her squad. Violet miserably notes that she has no signet power yet, but Rhiannon reassures her. She says that even though Xaden is the most powerful rider of his generation so far, Rhiannon believes Violet will be which is why Tairn chose her.

By January, Violet still has no signet power. She continues to train and to try to learn how to shield. Ridoc is now an ice-wielder. Liam has the power of far vision. Technically Violet can stop time, but she can’t really use it for fear of draining Andarna’s energy. Instead, all Violet can do is little party tricks with her magic.

Tomorrow she’s sparring against Jack and she knows he’ll try to kill her. She warns Liam not to get involved. As they spar, Jack breaks a number of rules and they both get injured, but Violet wins by having a vial of orange juice, which Liam is allergic to.

Bandaged up after her fight, Xaden comes to talk to her. Violet confronts him about their kiss, but Xaden says there’s no point in talking about it. They’re stuck with each other forever so getting involved would be a huge mistake. Xaden tells her he’s taking over her training. Soon, they’re training together on the mat constantly. February goes by, and still Violet has never managed to beat Xaden at the mat, and he never goes easy on her. Still, Violet has no signet powers.

Today, Xaden pulls Violet from wielding training. Even though she needs the practice for the upcoming squad battle, Xaden says that training that will keep her alive is more important since she’s likely going to be on the front lines next year. Xaden will be out fighting and their dragons can’t be separated for long periods of time.

They run into Violet’s mother, Commandant Panchek and Colonel Aetos. Her mom and Colonel Aetos ask if Violet would let them study her feathertail, but Violet says she doesn’t think Andarna would like that. They mention having limited knowledge on feathertails, and Violet’s mother says she though Violet’s father had done some research on them but doesn’t know where that information went. Violet knows where her father kept his notes, but she declines to say anything.

Out in the flight fields, their dragons greet them, and Xaden says they’re going to figure out this flight thing.

At the squad battle, their squad is now 7th out of 24 as Liam secures another victory on the mat for their team. Despite her efforts, Violet still got the slowest time in the squad for the gauntlet sky race.

The announcement is then made that they’ll be proceeding with the last portion of the squad battle immediately instead of waiting for tomorrow. In the final task, their leaders have all been sequestered and the squads will be expected to carry out a mission without them: to “find and acquire, by any means necessary, the one thing that would be most advantageous to our enemies regarding the war effort.” They’re told that anything within the walls of Basgiath is fair game and they have three hours before they have to present their treasures.

The squad agreed on Imogen as their leader. They discuss what their skills are and what would be useful and they decide that information is probably the most valuable thing. Violet suggests breaking into her mother’s office.

AS they head up, Liam reports there’s only one guard in front of the staircase. Quinn has the power of astral projection so she can distract the guard. Then, Sawyer uses his metallurgy ability to keep the door shut behind them. They get to the office and Nadine has the power to unweave wards, so she gets to work.

Once they’re in the office, they look for something useful. They settle on the map with all their outpost and battlement markers and supply routes. They’re interrupted by the guard so they have to get out quickly. They end up taking out the guard and putting him to sleep with a tonic.

They’re the last squad to make it back. The various squads present their treasure. When Violet happily reports that they stole the map of current Navarrian military information right from her mother’s office, it’s clear their squad has won that portion, bringing them to first place.

For their prize, there is six hours of flying to get to there, and they end up in Montserrat, where there are 12 riders stationed. Violet is surprised and delighted to find that Mira is there.

Two days later, Violet and Rhiannon have their own plan to go out since Rhiannon’s village is an hour away. As they prepare to sneak out, they run into Mira. Mira stops them at first, but Violet pleads with her to just join them and Mira relents. When they arrive, Rhiannon bonds with her family while Violet and Mira get caught up on her time at Basgiath.

Mira tells Violet that she has her father’s book of wvyern folktales at Montserrat that she can take back with her. They chat some more and soon it’s time to leave. Just before they do, Xaden steps out of the shadows.

The next day, the group is split up into two. Xaden is there too now apparently since he’s chosen to tag along. Mira and Dain are both suspicious of Xaden. Mira goes through some questions about battle strategy with then, talking through an exercise about what they’d do if an enemy captured a fortress nearby. During the exercise, Xaden reveals to Violet that he’s able to talk to Violet in her mind without actually speaking because they’re linked.

Xaden and Dain get into a pissing contest and Mira pulls all three of them aside afterwards. Mira first gets mad at Dain for sulking about Xaden and Violet being bonded together. Then Mira tells Xaden and Violet they need to figure stuff out with their dragons since Violet needs her training and can’t be flying off to be with Xaden constantly. Mira reminds Violet that she can’t just become his shadow or she’ll never be the rider that Tairn picked her to be.

They’re interrupted by Tairn announcing a drift of gryphons headed their way. Mira has to go and tells them all to leave. Violet wants to stay and help, but Mira insists that they’re untrained and need to leave.

Back at Basgiath, Xaden acknowledges his desire for Violet as they wait outside Professor Markham’s office to ask about the outcome of the gryphon attack at Montserrat. When the Professor shows up, Violet pleads for an answer, and he says the outpost was damaged but no riders were lost. Later, Violet asks Xaden about his scars, but he declines to answer.

In May, the first battle of the War Games approaches. Violet’s signet still has not manifested. For the battle, their squad has to defend a flag and attempt to capture a crystal egg that First Wing is guarding. The plan is to keep the flag moving among the squad so there’s not one clear target.

Tairn shows up with a saddle strapped on so that Violet can stay seated. Xaden had it made for her. Violet worries it’ll make her look weak to everyone else, but Xaden points out that everyone already knows she’s not able to stay seated. Violet gets on the saddle and the game begins.

Violet spots a group on three dragons and she assumes it’s where they’re keeping the egg. Violet alerts Xaden. She spots Jack and Liam’s dragons going at it, and she sees Jack jump onto the back of Liam’s dragon and attack him with a sword. Liam goes falling, and Violet instructs Tairn to try to catch him.

He just out of reach and Andarna tells her to freeze time other than her and Tairn to get to Liam. In a few moments, time snaps back and she has Liam safely on Tairn’s back. Furious, Violet is determined to kill Jack this time. She lets loose her power in the form of a bolt of lightning, and her signet becomes clear, she’s a lightning wielder.

When Violet lands, she knows Jack is dead and that she killed him. Fourth Wing is victorious as Garrick clutches the egg and Dain holds on to their flag. Liam is injured but alive. Dain notes it’s been a long time since there’s been a lightning wielder. Violet wishes she had a signet power that was useful outside of battle, but Xaden reminds her that her powers will save lives in the war.

Rhiannon also asks her how she moved so fast in battle. She saw Violet going to catch Jack and it was like she blinked and she missed it, suddenly Violet had caught him.

Later that night, Xaden comes in to check on her. She vents her frustrations out, and they kiss.

They have sex and in doing so confirm that she is able to use her powers indoors. Afterwards, she asks him about his scars. There are 107 of them, one for every marked child. He took a deal where he took personal responsibility over these kids in exchange for giving them a chance to become riders. The alternative was their certain death. If any of them betray Navarre then he dies.

The next morning, Professor Carr lets Violet know she’s off of archive duty and that they’ll be working together instead. He reminds her that lightning and books don’t mix. They go somewhere farther away where Violet can practice her powers. They practice her lighting strikes but her aim is terrible.

Later, Xaden drops by, saying that he left yesterday because he had an early leadership meeting. He offers to help clean up the mess they made the day before with all the lightning and whatnot. As they clean they come across Violet’s book of wyvern fables from her father. Today she notices a note in the book from her father saying that he knows she’ll make the right decision when the time comes. She also tells Xaden that the fables in the book are all about the corrupting influence of power, so perhaps he thought someone in their leadership was corrupt.

Violet knows she can’t separate sex from emotion here and asks Xaden how he feels. He continues to insist that he desires her but doesn’t have feelings for her. Even though Violet feels certain it isn’t true, she knows she doesn’t wants to proceed with him unless he’s able to admit to himself where this is going.

Later, Violet is with her squad and they discuss King Tauri’s plan to celebrate Reunification Day at Basgiath. Xaden and Violet continue the conversation in their heads as she tells hin that they can be together if he’s willing to admit his feelings for her.

It’s now ten days before graduation and it’s been a month since they slept together. It’s also reunificatuon day as well as the 6th anniversary of Brennan’s death. They all attend the party along with all the other quadrants. Xaden is nowheere to be found, though Violet suspects where he is.

Violet finds Xaden sitting partway across the parapet. Reunification Day is also a celebration of his father’s death. Barefoot and in a dress, Violet heads across the parapet to find Xaden. When he sees her, he demands that she turn around. While Xaden’s shadows can save him if he falls, Violet cannot.

Violet tells Xaden she wants to be together and she knows he wants it too. Finally, he says he’s tired of fighting it too. They get off the parapet — carefully — and head to his room. They have sex.

Afterwards, they’re interrupted by the sound of Garrick knocking on the door. He tells them to come out because they’re under attack.

They hurry into formation in a panic, but Xaden soon mentally tells Violet that it’s just the beginning of the final war games before graduation.

Colonel Aetos announces the scenario and explains the rules. It’s a five-day exercise. Each squad chooses and outpost. Fourth Wing is stationed at Athebyne , and Violet remembers that’s where Xaden, Garrick and Bodhi were the night she saw them out, but Xaden wouldn’t tell her why they were there. She also knows that’s past the wards.

Dain chooses the Eltuval outpost for the squad. They’re given thirty minutes to pack whatever they need for the next few days and return. When Violet gets into formation, she sees her dragons on the field. She notices that Andarna has a harness similar to Tairn’s. Andarna tells her that it hooks onto Tairn’s harness so it can help her to keep up and that Xaden had it made for her.

Before they head out, Xaden instruct Dain that he’ll be taking Liam, Violet and Imogen with him to be part of the Fourth Wing headquarters team. Dain argues with him, and the two men bicker about where she’ll be safer. However, Violet tells Xaden that she trusts him and that she’ll go with him. She tells herself and Dain that she’s made her choice, and they leave.

On the way to Athebyne, the group rests and recuperates after the long flight. Violet knows the final war games are always deadly for the graduating class, but there’s something she can’t quite put her finger on that’s unsettling her as well. Out here, Xaden and Violet are free to be a couple in public, since Xaden reassures Violet that he trusts every single person here with his life and that they would never say anything to anyone.

When they’re alone Xaden and Violet fool around until they are suddenly ambushed by a pair of gryphon fliers who emerge from the brush. They see Violet’s silver hair and surmise that she’s General Sorrengail’s youngest daughter.

Violet is about to lightning strike these riders when Xaden stops her. He tells them they’re early.

As Xaden speaks with the fliers, Violet hears them talk about venin attacking villages. Venin are men who have been corrupted by dark magic and who create flocks of winged creatures called wyvern and scour the land for magic and power — but those are merely villains in folktales ad legends. The gryphon fliers tell Xaden that he’s been warned and they fly off.

Violet looks around and realizes she’s surrounded by separatists and feels the shock of betrayal. Liam urges her to give Xaden a chance to explain. Xaden tells the others to leave, and he asks Violet to consider whether they might’ve ended up on the wrong side of this war.

He tells Violet that he’s been providing weapons to the gryphons fliers so they can fight the venin. He says they’re real. They are people who can tap into magic without the aid of a dragon or gryphon but it corrupts them and drains magic from the lands.

Violet asks Tairn if he knew what Xaden was up to and he admits that he did, but it’s up to Violet to be smart and draw her own conclusions. He tells her the reason they don’t attack Navarre is because of the wards, and that leadership knows about the venin attacking Poromiel (the southern province outside their borders), but they choose to do nothing about it.

The material used to power Navarre’s wards are what’s needed to fight the venin, which is why the gryphon fliers attack them. Xaden then gives Violet a black dagger, saying she should have one in case she ever needs to fight the venin herself. Violet recognizes the dagger as being similar to one that her mother has, and Xaden says her mother probably has one for the same reasons.

Xaden says that he’s risking everything by telling her this now, since he knows if Dain were ever to access her memories of this or find out, they both know Dain would simply follow the rules and turn them in. Xaden says that his father was executed trying to help these people. Violet thinks about how there were no copies of the wyvern folktales book in the archives apart from the copy that her father gave her.

When they arrive at Athebyne, it looks completely deserted and they sense something is wrong that has nothing to do with the war games. Xaden then remembers how Dain had insisted that Violet would die if she went with Xaden, and he realizes that he’s been secretly reading her memories without her knowing. Xaden had told her about Athebyne in the past, so he must’ve known about this location and planned accordingly.

They find an envelope with a note written in Colonel Aetos’s handwriting that merely says their mission is to survive if that can, and that’s it. Xaden realizes they’ve been sent here to die.

They quickly assess the situation and realize they have a decision to by made. Nearby, the trading post of Resson is being attacked by venin. They can try to save them. Or, they head to the new location for the Fourth Wing to carry out the War Games and let the trading post be destroyed.

Seven gryphon fliers join them, but tell them to leave. They say that four venin are too powerful, and they it would be a death sentence for them all, especially since none of them have even seen combat. She tells them that dragon fire won’t kill the venin. Instead, only the black weapons will work, so they have to killed in hand-to-hand combat.

The fliers thank them for their assistance, and they head towards the trading post knowing that their deaths likely await them. Xaden and the others talk it over and they all agree they can’t run from this fight. One by one they agree to fight. Finally, Violet joins in as well. She tells Andarna to stay hidden and fly away if the battle is lost.

They head towards the trading post. The plan is to evacuate the townspeople and then take out the venin. In the sky, they see a two-legged dragon and Violet realizes that it’s not a dragon at all, but a wyvern. Venin channel their powers into wyverns to create these monstrosities in order to go up against dragons. On a rooftop, Violet and Tairn see the leader of the venin who is wielding a staff.

As they work on evacuating people through the entrance of the mine, Soleil attacks, but as the venin is channeling it creates a dead zone that sucks the life out of everything around it — including Soleil. Soon, more wyvern appear. Violet asks Tairn how to kill them. He says it’s the same way you kill a dragon, you can use a crossbolt into their heart or you can use lightning for the same purpose.

To get the attention of the wyvern to stop them from attacking the others, Violet lets loose a few bolts of lightning. She then concentrates on her aim and trying to take them out. She’s able to take a few more out, but her aim still needs work. As the battle continues, Liam’s dragon is defeated by a wyvern, which means Liam won’t be able to survive. In his last few minutes, he asks Violet to take care of his younger sister, Sloane , when she arrives at the school next year.

Soon, dozens more wyvern appear in the sky and there’s not time to mourn. Instead, Violet and Tairn take to the skies to hunt the wyvern. She confidently lets loose her lightning until Tairn screams with pain.

Violet sees that a venin has gotten on Tairn and shoved a sword into Tairn’s back. Violet unseats herself against Tairn’s orders and proceeds to engage them in hand-to-hand combat. However, the venin is too fast, and their daggers are tipped with poison. Still, Violet manages to kill the venin. Just like that, all the wyvern created from that venin fall out of the sky. Andarna senses what is happening and comes to their aid, though Violet tells her to stay away.

Violet then tells Xaden to drop the shadows so they can identify the leader and take them out. Tairn is able to spot their leader. Violet then draws on the power she has left and Andarna’s power. She pauses time as the venin rushes towards them, then she grabs for power to grab the lightning to attack the venin.

Violet watches as the venin topples over. In the next moment, half the monsters fall out of the sky. Then, Tairn banks left to avoid being hit and Violet feels herself slip and fall.

As she falls, Violet feels time pause and realizes Andarna has used the last of her strength to stop her fall. Violet then starts to feel the effects of the poison-tipped dagger and slips into unconsciousness.

As she drifts in and out consciousness, she hears the others talk about what to do with her now that she’s poisoned and if they should bring her back to Basgiath. Xaden says that it’s a 12-hour flight, and that Violet has a broken arm. Instead, Xaden says there’s somewhere closer they can go.

Violet fights to stay alive as pain courses through her. Then, she hears a familiar voice.

(The last chapter switches to Xaden’s point of view.)

Three days later, Violet still hasn’t awoken. Xaden is also grieving Liam’s death. Suddenly, Violet awakes. While she was unconscious Andarna matured and became much larger, though her gift is gone now, but there’ll be time to tell Violet about that later.

Outside the window is the remains of the city of Aretia, now just a small town. Xaden says they’re in the process of rebuilding the city. Violet wonders how the leadership of Navarre don’t know about it, and then she understands what Xaden meant when he said that their rebellion relic was both a gift and a curse. When more than three people with rebellion relics are together, it stops General Melgren’s gift of foresight from working.

From the trading post, they ended up finding a small iron box with the help of Garrick’s dragon, Chradh, who is drawn to runes. They think it’s what the venin were after, but they stil don’t know what the box is for. Xaden gives Garrick and Bodhi and update on Violet’s status and return to her bedside.

Violet and Xaden are talks about their feelings for one another when there’s a knock at the door. The book ends with Violet seeing Brennan there, who welcomes her to the revolution.

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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.

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Book Review

Fourth wing by rebecca yarros.

by Elyse · Oct 16, 2023 at 4:00 am · View all 34 comments

Fourth Wing

by Rebecca Yarros

May 2, 2023 · Entangled: Red Tower Books

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Genre: New Adult , Romance , Science Fiction/Fantasy

Theme: Dragons

If you are even remotely on bookish social media, then you are aware of Fourth Wing . It’s been much-hyped and sold out and everywhere I look online there are rave reviews for this YA-fantasy-romance.

I am not here to yuck anyone’s yum. If you read Fourth Wing and you loved it, I am totally happy for you. I want people to love what they read.

This was not a book that worked for me, though, and I suspect I’m probably not the only one who didn’t love it. I made it about 45% of the way though before I finally decided this was just going to be a slog for me and I gave up.

There were two main reasons I could not get interested in this book 

• The fantasy archetypes and tropes at work in the plot, and  

Fourth Wing is set in a fantasy world where the country of Navarre protects its borders with an elite army of dragon riders. When they are approximately of real-world college age, the young people of Navarre enter one of four quadrants in order to serve their country. Violet Sorrengail is small and accident prone, and by all accounts should enter the Scribe Quadrant. Instead, Violet’s mother, a general, sends her to the Rider’s Quadrant where she’ll probably be killed before graduation (side note: Violet’s mom is not great).

If Violet survives her time at the War College she will hopefully be selected by a dragon to be its bonded rider. 

I don’t fully understand why the War College is so invested in killing off its cadets (or having them kill each other). Fratricide is openly welcomed in order to weed out the “weak” recruits. At the same time we’re reminded frequently that there are fewer riders and fewer dragons every year, and I believe this is definitely a case of causation, not correlation. Also don’t they need people for other jobs? Who makes lunch? 

Violet shouldn’t be in the Rider Quadrant. She’s very academic and would have excelled as a scribe, like her father. It would appear that everyone in the Rider Quadrant knows this, and multiple people offer to help her find a way to get out and get over to the Scribe’s where, frankly, things sound a lot better. Violet refuses on the grounds that her mom would find a way to send her back (why?) and because she stubbornly wants to prove She Can Do It ( why ?).

Sometimes, in the real world, you cannot do the thing even though you really believe in yourself. I have a friend who convinced herself she could accomplish a Tough Mudder through the power of belief and positive thinking, and then she broke some ribs. 

Cadet training involves something like the balance beam from hell as well as a Ninja Warrior course, all while the other cadets are trying to murder you. Somehow Violet makes it through, mostly because she’s clearly The Chosen One.

The Chosen One is a trope seen often in YA fantasy and it doesn’t really work for me. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with it; it’s just not a trope I particularly enjoy and this book relies heavily on it. For me The Chosen One trope allows the reader to accept that the heroine is somehow more special than her peers without actually doing much to prove it. In Violet’s case she’s clever and brave (if foolishly so IMO) but so are a lot of the other cadets. Violet even has the special hair (the ends are always silver regardless of how short she cuts it) that indicates a The Chosen One heroine. She won’t give up, she has fun hair, and two hot guys like her so she must be our heroine, I guess. 

The first half of the book is a boarding school book meets Hunger Games where alliances are formed, Violet injures herself a lot, and well meaning people worry after her, but she is determined to prove her mother wrong even though she hates it and will probably die anyway. It really crawled for me, probably because the stakes seemed so ridiculous that I didn’t care that much anyway. I mean, her first day of school is walking the balance beam of death while the guy behind her tries to stab her, and that’s a level of intensity I’m just not here for. 

Also…why? Why is this entire society’s military founded on twenty-year-old’s killing each other? If the weak have to be weeded out, why not put them in a job somewhere else? Wouldn’t you just have a ton of sociopathic dragon riders at the end?

To be fair, some of this could have been answered if I had finished the book, but I didn’t.

It takes almost half the book for Violet to survive Dragon Basic Training and finally meet and bond to a dragon. It was at that point I gave up. If I wasn’t invested when the talking dragons showed up, I wasn’t going to be invested, period.

There’s also a romance element here between Violet and her Wing Leader Xaden, who is the meanest and scariest of the wing leaders, and also her mom got his family killed. So that’s going to make the holidays real awkward. Violet is so attracted to him he makes her scalp tingle. Like Head and Shoulders, I guess. The tingling means the romance is working?

Anyway, if Fourth Wing is your jam I am genuinely happy for you. For me it was too much about someone in a crappy situation insisting on staying in that crappy situation for reasons that didn’t make a lot of sense, alongside slow plot development, mixed with some tropes I don’t love. There were far too many times where I questioned why something was happening, and the text never revealed nor hinted at a satisfactory reason beyond “because reasons,” so I moved on.

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> If Violet survives her time at the War College she will hopefully be selected by a dragon to be its bonded rider.

That’s straight out of Anne McCaffrey, no?

It’s like those Knight tournaments when they fight to the death. Surely they need as many Knights as possible to fight the big bad at the end?

Anyway, two of my pet hates in this: academy setting and everyone has it in for the heroine, I’ll think I’ll skip this one.

I suggest Moniquill Blackgoose’s To Shape a Dragon’s Breath as an alternative (and possibly a palate cleanser), though to @Kit’s point, it is set in a school for dragon riders, and there is hostility toward the heroine. It hasn’t gotten much attention, which I think is a real shame.

@LisaM: I also recommend TO SHAPE A DRAGON’S BREATH, although I will say there is a reason (a hateful one) prompting the hostility toward the heroine. And the dragon already chose her, so the school has limited (still hateful) options. Unlike FOURTH WING, we’re meant to learn from and understand what transpired, how we got here, imo. The audio book is fabulous because we’re able to hear how the native names are pronounced.

The questions are not answered, though of course there’s a revelation at the end that Everything Is Not As It Seems, which the reader picked up on around page two, probably because they’re (hopefully) not a sociopath with inconsistent character traits. Also I’m not sure why everyone continues to call the heroine weak after she’s shown she’s clearly not, but it’s annoying. This book bothered me so much for all the reasons in the post and I wish that like Elyse I had DNF’d it. I slogged through the whole thing to see where the romance would go and it went both exactly where you’d expect and was fairly boring/unbelievable…plus the sex, while explicit was pretty standard (and I found it boring since I didn’t like either romantic lead). Also the dialogue (inner and outer) was…not to my taste. If you read the first chapter, that tone continues for the entire book. There was also a vague attempt to show what living with chronic pain was like, and I found it ineffective; basically our heroine was fine unless the plot required her not to be. Anyway, I should have known better than to continue reading as soon as I read about the **super special** hair but alas, lesson learned hopefully.

I flew through this book and enjoyed it, which surprised me as I thought the Hunger Games books were too violent (still do). This seemed a bit like Hunger Games meets Hogwarts to me. I agree with all the points made in the review. Why encourage the candidates to kill each other? Surely some extras will be needed to replace those that get killed or injured in training? But I liked the main characters, wanted Violet to survive, and, of course, was mainly in the mood for some talking dragons. If you like talking dragons, check out HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON by Naomi Novik.

After a year of bullying from friends I finally read Fourth Wing last month and it was a very *shrug emoji* experience. It was fine, but not groundbreaking, and I was honestly expecting way more.

(even ACOTAR was better imho)

This keeps getting recommended to me because talking dragons, and I keep rejecting it because YA. I didn’t know about the super special hair, tho. I am a sucker for indicators of superiority of the amethyst eye type. No joke. That whole initial pulp novel/eugenics moment in pop culture, which is obviously terrible and troublesome makes for some weirdly soothing literature to me, probably because of its obviousness. I think sometimes I get nervous when I can’t spot the biases? And sometimes I feel gaslit when a pseudo-historical retcons reality, like what Florida is up to. So sometimes when right out of the gate it’s like, oh ok this is that garbage trope and oh hey there’s the Prussian military ideology, oh wow still with the anti-Semetic goblins ok, it’s like a relief, because the cautionary warnings are built in? Idk how to explain it. Anyway. I find a protagonist with magical hair entertaining and hilarious. I can’t however extend that attitude all the way to The Chosen One, which is such a non-starter for me I basically can’t read YA.

So glad it’s not just me! I’m not a fantasy fan but I really enjoy this author. So I tried. DNF. Your thoughts reflect mine perfectly. Yarros has some great books but not this one.

I have to mention the SHEER NUMBER of F bombs in the book! I never met a situation that couldn’t be improved by a well placed profanity, but this was lazy writing. The world was interesting, I hope the dragons kill everyone and do their own thing, and I 10000% agree that To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is the superior dragon bonding special relationship book.

As someone who always goes looking for contrary reviews when I don’t like a book that got a lot of positive press or has really good ratings on Goodreads, I find this thread fascinating.

Personally, I really enjoyed it, wasn’t bothered by the plot gaps/questions, and am looking forward to reading the sequel. (The hero is a bit too perfect, but it’s manageable.)

I’m with Fashionably Evil on this one. Was I entertained? Yes, I was. But then I don’t mind Chosen One narratives. They’re not something I seek out but honestly I feel like every MC is a Chosen One because there’s a story about them that I’m reading.

I don’t understand why they want to kill all the 20-year-old fighters except the most horrible. Maybe the most horrible are also the most easily manipulated? Get rid of the smart ones hence the insistence on the necessity of getting rid of Violet?

On any case, I will likely read book two.

I agree Yarros has written better books, but this is a fine example of the thing it is. Pop books are like pop music.

I agree, just reading the first few pages on Amazon and I was totally turned off by the carefully constructed conflict and set up, that even in that short amount of time was filled with contradictions. The world building felt like cardboard, and the characters YA caricatures of real people. My impression of course is colored by decades of fantasy reading, and I suppose what are tired tropes and weak character building to me will be new and intriguing to someone who has experienced less of the great fantasy genre.

I am with FashionablyEvil, didn’t mind this book at all. I think it showed up in my library at a point where I just wanted something as unlike real life as possible, and this fit the bill. Looking forward to the sequel. While the heroine is just okay, I really liked the hero.

Someone was recommending this to me a while back in exactly the way that would lead me to never read the thing they were recommending (a. didn’t say WHY they liked it and b. were so aggressively insistent that I would love it that it twanged my ornery gene hard).

This review is like, whooo, nope. Not my jam even in the slightest.

Lol. I JUST read this one. Slog is a very accurate description here. It’s not poorly written or have simplistic dialogue as a detractor. Just glacial pacing and heroine who is always “right place, right time” to save the day or be pivotal to something major. It reads pretty YA and tries hard to be more crossover ala COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES. I did finish it hoping for some resolution but I won’t try the next due to pacing issues.

I read this book months ago, pretty much as soon as I started seeing the hype. I enjoyed it and found it compelling while reading it, but at the end realized there was nothing special about it: the romantic arc is almost exactly like JLA’s From Blood and Ash series, except extended for a painful amount of time. Which is not to say that that series isn’t good, but again, it’s nothing ground breaking, just the same old bananas plots and problematic men/governments. Fun to read, but nothing special.

@kkw, If you like magical hair, I highly recommend Hex and the City by Kate Johnson. It’s the second book in a series but you can jump in with this one without feeling lost. The heroine, Poppy, is a witch who doesn’t seem to have any witchy qualities except that unwitting chaos follows her AND, she has magical, sentient hair (this was discovered early on when her decidedly normal mom tried to cut it and the hair grabbed the scissors and threw them across the room LOL). The book itself has somewhat mixed reviews. I loved it, but the plot is a bit bonkers and it leans more toward witchy chick lit than romance.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the book: – after she breaks up with the MMC: “She wore his t-shirt with a picture of Gandalf on it and her hair was quietly eating Doritos crumbs.”

I read this AND ‘To Shape A Dragon’s Breath’ in the same week, because DragonSchool was what my brain needed.

I describe this one as the author writing Temeraire/Scolomance fanfic. Half the royalties should have been sent to Novik.

The author took all the Pern tropes she liked–teenagers/young adults as the Chosen Ones, telepathic dragons that choose their riders, said telepathy extending to transmitted lust at times–and threw them into a giant vat of tropes and military jargon. I was split between being fascinated by the dragons, and trying to parse how a military force with a 25% deadly attrition rate (even before they’re deemed ready to fight!) is worth it for the kingdom. Oh, and keeping tally marks of how many times the MMC’s “gold-flecked onyx eyes” were mentioned.

It’s not great literature, but sometimes I want trash, and this is fantasy trash with dragons and The Smooching of the Nemesis, so I’m at least interested in book 2.

I enjoyed “The Fourth Wing”, until it got to the last few chapters and switched from being Violet’s POV to another character’s. I felt that that choice undermined the impact of the cliffhanger ending and I seriously could not care less about what this character thinks about anything.

I liked FW enough to be willing to try the next book, but I’m not going to any release parties or buying a copy – I found it in the library catalog and got my hold in early, so I won’t have to wait long for it.

What I am glad about is that this has helped kind of revive some bookish excitement and let people who love a thing gather together for it – something I’ve missed since RT ended.

If we’re gonna go for dragon fantasy romance books, I definitely liked “To Shape A Dragon’s Breath” by Moniquill Blackgoose MUCH more because the heroine is Indigenous, she loves her family and culture, and she’s pushing back against colonialism and colonialist attitudes while her dragon grows. There is some romance, but because the heroine is all of 15, it doesn’t take over the book.

I was the exact opposite. I liked the heroine and didn’t give two figs about the hero. LOL I read books for the heroines, tbh – it’s part of my post-2016 “I’m sick of hearing what men think about everything” general refusal to read books by or about men (with occasional exceptions made if they are otherwise part of a marginalized community).

This sounds like Divergent with dragons which is not a compliment.

I absolutely adored and loved this book, but some of the plot revolving around the weak being weeded out and not sent elsewhere in the army where soldiers seemed desperately needed? Yes, that did not make sense. I loved the book so much I am sure I am just making excuses, but I kind of chalked it up to “there are a lot of traditions in our world that don’t make any sense and would not hold up to close scrutiny either”).

Also the author (and I believe some of her children) has the same condition as Violet and I think she very deliberately wrote the character to be at a severe physical disadvantage but try to overcome it by out thinking her fellow cadets and bending but not breaking the rules. I am not disagreeing with Elyse’s quote from the review “Sometimes, in the real world, you cannot do the thing even though you really believe in yourself.” but I don’t think that is the narrative the author wanted to tell here. I totally get why it might not work for some readers, though.

And the hero, total swoon for me. I don’t think it is too much of a spoiler to say partway through the book Violet decides she wants to stay and compete and gets tired of the people who want to help her get out rather than help her stay. The hero sees clearly how to help and how to support what she wants

Needless to say, I am eagerly awaiting the release of book 2 (already pre-ordered)!!!

I’ve read exactly none of the dragon books in this thread, just popping in to say if you’re sick of the Chosen One trope, check out THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE by Patrick Ness. It’s focused on the regular kids trying to get through senior year while the Chosen Ones are mentioned in chapter headings like “In which they blow up the high school, again.” CW for mental health struggles and bittersweet coming of age stuff if you’re not in the mood for that emotional wringer. Maybe just read the chapter headings, they’re snarktastic.

I’m sad to see that many people totally hate this book! Oh well, I loved it. I borrowed the audio book from the library and listened while I worked, I was sucked in right away as I was not looking for anything too deep. I finished the audio book and went and bought a copy of it for myself and am reading it. Pre ordered part 2. It was exactly what I needed and the right time for me. Also on book 3 of ACoTaR and am really slogging with it‍♀️.

This was such a good review – I agree with all of these points even though I finished the book and ended up liking it. I seldom enjoy YA/NA but this one was actually pretty fun once I started reading it as getting between a series of milestones rather than one long narrative. I was also in the right mood for it. At an important point in the story I did pause and think, “normally I wouldn’t be on board for this but………hell yeah :D” Ymmv tho, I’m not always in the mood for it myself. The characters do all sound exactly the same and you do have to handwave pretty much all of the extremely inefficient cadet training and never wonder why an entire kingdom of people doesn’t mind flinging their young loved ones at near certain and terrible death. If it helps, some of it makes a bit more sense if you think of the people/riders as side characters in the conflict. The dragons are the main actors in the war, the people are just tools (it’s the same amount of people vying for less dragons, not less people and less dragons, and given later revelations I’m holding out for dragon politics accounting for the disparity). The kingdom is only able to maintain its borders because they happen to live near the dragons’ sacred hatching grounds, etc etc. Jack was nearly inexplicable . If anything he was a liability, I don’t know why everyone didn’t just agree to boot him off a cliff. I thought it was slow in the beginning too, although not because of the pacing, more because the writing is a little dry. I thought it was actually pretty well paced…or it might be because I felt clever for spotting all the timers she was setting: 2 weeks until Challenges, 2 months until Threshing and some others. I’m looking forward to book two, I am number 86 in the holds wait list haha xD I think I will get it before the year is out.

I thought of it more as Scholomance-lite (Mother: I won’t be able to talk to you for two years! Reader: But you’re right there, why not?) with added Hunger Games/HP/Twilight vibes. I did finish, but I did also try to make someone else read it so I could whinge about how stupid the world-building was. I suspect one of the seemingly stupid decisions is going to be a big twist further down the series, but mostly the school makes no sense. And a lot of stuff is heavily telegraphed – the only point at which I was genuinely unsure what would happen is where they are going through the dragons the riders could bond with, and it’s all ‘This dragon, that dragon, Supercool Dragon that probably won’t bond with anyone, this dragon, that dragon, Very Mysterious Dragon that no-one has bonded with ever.’ I could not work out whether she would bond with the Supercool or the Very Mysterious dragon, in the unlikely event she survived that long.

I probably will read the next one, but I expect to be annoyed by it.

MMcA – yes! that was the one part that confused me in the book, which super special dragon was she going to get…and then it turned out to be a non-issue because she pulled a Menolly from DragonSinger

I was surprised, towards the end of the book, where the hero mentions he’s in his early 20s. I’d thought all of these students were about 12. Based on the way they talk and act, they certainly seem much more immature than their stated ages.

Your post made me LOL.

Reading the book now. Not something I would usually choose but picked it up because of all the hype. It is a bit strange.

I finished this book and my reaction is definitely “meh” to it. I will probably continue to read the series because I personally found it an “easy read” (which is more of where I’m aiming instead of genuine fixation in the storylines/quality of storytelling) but I also found a lot of the tropes are very ACOTAR-esque. Like if ACOTAR was set in dragon land and there was a school involved and we just remove Tamlin from the equation altogether. Dark broody love interest who takes a personal sacrifice for his “inner circle”, magical “wards” and mind-speak and putting up “shields” all felt very reminiscent of ACOTAR. I also didn’t like the fact that they make it out like Xaden and Violet are mortal enemies for an extremely brief time and then there is no smooth transition to leaving that plot point behind, they’re suddenly both just sexually teasing eachother for the majority of the book. Again, easy read, but the plotline felt really juvenile and paired with the *arguably* explicit sex scenes it has me a bit confused who this book is meant to be read by.

I am so glad to find this review. I was starting to think there was something seriously wrong with me, I could not get into the book. I barely finished it for a book club and hated almost every minute of it. Everybody I know loves and raves about this book and I just couldn’t see why, my sister finished it in less than 2 days and my other one has re-read it 3 or 4 times. Usually we are pretty similar in our reading but not this time. There is nothing new or unique about this story, and everything was projected so far out. It might as well have been painted in neon.

Thanks for putting these thoughts into words! I try to like all books and this one is just missing the mark for me; enough for me to try to find other people who also thought the same because all I’ve been seeing are rave reviews for the most part. I’m close to the end of the book, and I’ll finish it, but definitely think the book is simplistic, unrealistic, and not rooted in human *actual* behavior (ex you’re at the front lines of a WAR and your sneaking off to visit a friends family, AND your war hero sister catches you and decides to join you? That part was the unraveling for me). I love “dragon books” as I call them, and do enjoy the dragon part of this book, but I’ll keep searching for richer worlds, plots, and characters. I welcome suggestions:)

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Fourth wing tv series gets major progress update after beginning development in october 2023.

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10 Books To Read If You Love Fourth Wing

Cobra kai is setting up the perfect ending for johnny lawrence, recasting star trek: enterprise for a movie reboot.

• Emmy-winning Breaking Bad writer Moira Walley-Beckett is set to be showrunner on Amazon's Fourth Wing TV show.
• The series is based on the Empyrean novel series by Rebecca Yarros, following Violet Sorrengail as she learns to become a dragon rider.
• With five books planned in the series, Fourth Wing could be the beginning of a much larger series developed by the studio.

The Fourth Wing TV show has tapped an Emmy-winning Breaking Bad writer as showrunner, a good sign for the ongoing development of the upcoming fantasy adventure. The show will be based on Rebecca Yarros' Empyrean series, with the title of the TV series deriving from the first book in the series. Fourth Wing follows Violet Sorrengail , a twenty-year-old woman whose mother forces her to attempt to become a Navarre, or dragon rider, within her fantasy world. The series grew in popularity on TikTok, and has since become a critical hit.

Now, Variety reports that Moira Walley-Beckett has been tapped as showrunner on Amazon's Fourth Wing TV series . Walley-Beckett is best known for her work on Anne With an E and Breaking Bad , the latter of which she won three Emmys for. This includes one in Outstanding Writing for A Drama Series, which she received for her work on the critically-acclaimed episode "Ozymandias."

The Fourth Wing is in development with Michael B. Jordan's production company Outlier Society.

Everything To Expect From The Fourth Wing TV Series

Fourth Wing is the first of five planned books in Yarros' Empyrean series , the third of which, titled Onyx Storm , set to be released onto shelves in January 2025. The early pickup for a TV series despite the books themselves not yet being fully written shows how much faith there is in the upcoming adaptation. Given Walley-Beckett's proven talent as a TV writer, the show seems like it will be a memorable addition to Amazon's fantasy-based productions. With the author serving as an executive producer, it seems the series will be faithful to the original as well.

Fourth Wing is hard to follow because of its well-balanced fantasy and romance elements, but there are a few great books that share similar themes.

The fantasy book series has been praised for its characters and world, blended together in a dark story that leaves room for a wider world to be explored in future installments. This was touched upon in the sequel, Iron Flame , with the final three books in the series likely to continue this trend as Violet and Xaden's story unfolds. With the first book serving as the basis for this story, the TV adaptation can slowly introduce viewers to the fantasy world , alongside the plethora of important Fourth Wing characters involved in its development.

While not much is known about the production of the TV show, Walley-Beckett's role as showrunner is a good sign given her award-winning writing in the industry. Working with Yarros to bring Fourth Wing to life onscreen, it seems like the book series has plenty of potential on Amazon. With plenty of information left to uncover as development continues, this latest news is a strong indication that production will begin in earnest sooner rather than later.

Source: Variety

Fourth Wing

Based on the novel series by Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing is an action-adventure fantasy series in development for Prime Video. Announced in 2024, Fourth Wing will follow the adventures of a young woman named Violet Sorrengail, who has been taken from her peaceful book-reading life and thrust into a world of danger when she is forced by her mother to join an elite group of dragon-riding warriors.

• The Empyrean Series

Books similar to 'Fourth Wing': What to read if you loved the dragon-filled romantasy

Are you in a major reading slump after finishing “ Fourth Wing ” by Rebecca Yarros? The novel won Goodreads’ “Best Romantasy” in 2023 and was No. 4 on Amazon’s “Best Books of 2023” for a reason: Readers just can’t get enough of the dragon-filled fantasy. 

Reading hangovers are real, though. It can feel daunting to pick up another book after you’ve read one you couldn’t put down. These books may be the perfect next read if you’re struggling to fill a dragon-shaped “Fourth Wing” void. 

What is ‘Fourth Wing’ about?

“Fourth Wing” is “Game of Thrones” meets “Hunger Games” with a splash of “Harry Potter.” The novel follows Violet Sorrengail, whose commanding mother denies her entry to the safe Scribe Quadrant and forces her into Basgiath War College, where hundreds fight to become elite dragon riders. At Basgiath, she is forged into a deadly fighter and discovers a secret so massive that it changes everything she thinks she knows.

Books like Fourth Wing

An obvious follow-up to “Fourth Wing” is its sequel, “ Iron Flame .” And if you’re a fan of “The Empyrean” series, you’ve probably heard of other BookTok favorites like “ A Court of Thorns and Roses ” and “ Throne of Glass ,” both by Sarah J. Maas. These series are uber-popular among romantasy readers, making them a good contender for your next read.

‘The Priory of the Orange Tree’ by Samantha Shannon

This queer fantasy novel opens with a ruling house at risk of losing its power and standing. To protect the realm and the long-ruling House of Berethnet, the unmarried Queen Sabran the Ninth must birth a daughter as heir. Ead, a lady-in-waiting and secretly a mage, will have to use forbidden magic to protect Sabran as assassins converge. All the while, there are whispers about the resurgence of an ancient, long-vanquished enemy: dragons. 

‘Dragonfall’ by L.R. Lam

In "Dragonfall," long-banished dragons are worshipped as unforgiving gods. When a young thief, Arcady, steals a powerful artifact, it drags the last male dragon back to the mortal realm to save his kind. Disguised as human, the dragon Everen must regain magical powers to fulfill his destiny by getting Arcady to trust and bond with him before he kills them. But they grow unexpectedly close, risking the fate of both their worlds.

‘To Shape a Dragon’s Breath’ by Moniquill Blackgoose

When 15-year-old Anequs finds and bonds with a dragon hatchling, she’s revered by her Indigenous community, who hasn’t seen a dragon in generations. But the Anglish conquerors of her land have different ideas about how to raise a dragon – ideas that don’t involve Anequs at all. Reluctantly, they let her enroll in Anglish dragon school, but with high stakes. If she doesn’t succeed, they’ll kill her dragon.

“To Shape a Dragon’s Breath” is a coming-of-age story about a girl at odds with colonizers who believe their way is the right and only way.

‘So Let Them Burn’ by Kamilah Cole

At only 17, Faron is a legend to her people – she can channel the power of gods. She used that power to liberate her island from its enemies five years before. But in her teenage years, there is peace and no use for her power. It’s not until her sister bonds with an enemy dragon that she’ll have to use her magic once again. The only way to break her sister's bond is to kill her, the gods say. Now, this heroine is forced to choose between saving her sister or her homeland.

‘The Serpent and the Wings of Night’ by Carissa Broadbent

“The Serpent and the Wings of Night” follows Oraya, the adopted human daughter of a Nightborn vampire king who enters a tournament hosted by the goddess of death. She'll have to face vicious vampire warriors and make an alliance with a ruthless, mysterious enemy to survive. Unexpectedly, she feels drawn to rival vampire killer Raihn. 

But in a world where war looms and love means danger, Oraya must wrestle with what she thought she knew about her home and what she really wants out of life.

‘Legendborn’ by Tracy Deonn

Sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews is looking to escape the grief and painful memories in her hometown while at a residential program for gifted high schoolers. But when she witnesses a magical attack on her first night – a flying demon and a secret society of students hunting the creatures down – it triggers her own unique, buried magic. By infiltrating the secret Legendborn society, Bree will be forced to face the truth about her mother’s death and her own powers.

‘Six Crimson Cranes’ by Elizabeth Lim

Princess Shiori'anma is living with secret and forbidden magical powers. When she accidentally loses control and shows her powers, she derails the wedding she never wanted but faces the wrath of her stepmother, who banishes her and turns her brothers into cranes. Her stepmother swears her to silence – with every word she speaks, one of her brothers dies. 

Shiori, alongside her would-be-husband, embarks on a quest to save her brothers and uncover a dark conspiracy. To do so, she must embrace the magic that got her in this dangerous predicament in the first place.

‘Divine Rivals’ by Rebecca Ross

“Divine Rivals” is an epic enemies-to-lovers story set against the backdrop of a war among gods. After young Iris Winnow's brother disappears from the front lines, the most important thing is supporting her family. She soothes her worries by writing letters to her missing brother, but they accidentally fall into the hands of her rival at her newspaper job. When he replies anonymously, it sparks a connection that follows Iris to the front lines of the battle.

‘One Dark Window’ by Rachel Gillig

This romantasy novel follows Elspeth Spindle, who survived a childhood illness that left her with magical abilities. A secret monster trapped inside her head both controls and protects her. Her life changes when she meets a mysterious highwayman – the king’s wanted nephew, no less – and joins a quest to save the kingdom from dark magic.

‘Trial of the Sun Queen’ by Nisha J. Tuli

In this first of the "Artefacts of Ouranos" series, protagonist Lor finds herself competing against nine other women to be the Sun King’s queen. After she is released from twelve brutal years of torment under the rival Aurora King, becoming the Sun King's wife will earn her freedom and revenge. But unlike her competitors, she isn’t a citizen of the Sun King’s court, which paints a target on her back.

Lor must win the Sun Queen Trials, lest she face death or a return to the evil Aurora King.

Just Curious for more? We've got you covered.

USA TODAY is exploring the questions you and others ask every day. From "Where to donate books" to "Where to buy cheap books?" to "How many 'Harry Potter' books are there?" – we're striving to find answers to the most common questions you ask every day. Head to our Just Curious section to see what else we can answer for you. 

Contributing: Jennifer McClellan

Amazon’s ‘Fourth Wing’ TV Series Sets ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Anne With an E’ Vet Moira Walley-Beckett as Showrunner (EXCLUSIVE)

By Jennifer Maas

Jennifer Maas

TV Business Writer

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Amazon has tapped “Anne With an E” creator and “Breaking Bad” writer Moira Walley-Beckett as the showrunner of its “ Fourth Wing ” TV adaptation, which is produced by Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society.

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Yarros’ “The Empyrean” book series began with the May 2023 release of “Fourth Wing,” which recently crossed 1 full year on the New York Times-bestseller list. The sequel, “Iron Flame,” hit shelves November 2023, and “Onyx Storm,” the third book in the ongoing series (currently planned as five books), is slated to arrive in January 2025.

Walley-Beckett spent six years as a writer and co-executive producer on AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” and won three Emmy Awards for her work on the show, including the Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series accolade for penning the Season 5 episode, “Ozymandias.” She went on to create and showrun Netflix and CBC’s “Anne With an E” and Starz’s “Flesh and Bone” limited series.

Currently under a first-look film deal and exclusive TV deal at Amazon, Outlier Society’s most notable project thus far is “Creed III.” Jordan’s prodco is developing TV projects “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “The Greatest,” “Victories Greater Than Death” and “T-Minus,” as well as a film adaptation of “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6” at Paramount Pictures with director Chad Stahelski.

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Fourth Wing : What We Know So Far About the Television Adaptation

A former Breaking Bad writer has been tapped as showrunner for the series.

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If you aren’t yet all too familiar with the adventures of Violet Sorrengail and her angry-and-ripped boyfriend Xaden, then here’s a quick overview of what will be at stake in the TV show: In Yarros’ universe, there are dragons, and those dragons meet their riders at an elite school known as Basgiath War College. There, Violet—small, underestimated, and with a chronic condition similar to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome—eschews what she thought would be a quiet life as a scribe for a chance to spar alongside other riders and bond with not one but two dragons. She also meets the traitorous (read: hot) Xaden Riorson, a wingleader already bonded to the dragon Sgaeyl, as he helps train Violet for dragonback—and for the war threatening their homeland, Navarre.

But just how closely Bezos and Co. will stick to the beloved (or hated , depending on whom you’re asking) source material remains to be seen. The most pressing question, in yours truly’s opinion: Who will voice my favorite character, Violet’s sassy dragon Tairn? (And yes, the dragons talk! Sort of!)

Here’s what we know so far.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

When will fourth wing come out.

Prime Video has yet to announce a filming date, nor a release date. But with the latest news that a showrunner is officially attached, it seems Amazon is investing resources to ensure the series is made expeditiously. They don’t want to lose out on the hype any more than Yarros does.

Who is behind the camera on Fourth Wing ?

Fourth Wing will be a venture shared between Amazon MGM Studios and Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society, according to Variety . So far, the producers have only made one crew announcement: Breaking Bad and Anne With an E writer and creator Moira Walley-Beckett will serve as Fourth Wing ’s showrunner.

Who will be in the Fourth Wing cast?

We don’t have any idea just yet. But Yarros has made one promise so far: Xaden will be played by a person of color.

When asked about her casting dreams—and her thoughts on fan art depicting Xaden as white, despite Yarros describing him as having “warm tawny skin” in the books—the author told Variety in November 2023, “We’re just going to say he’s POC; we’re just going to leave it at that. I didn’t rise to the bait of a lot of those posts, which I think probably got me some flack, but I knew we were already in development for TV, and I want to make sure that role is open to as much diversity as possible. So I was never going to give the readers my vision because I know that once you give the readers your vision, that’s what they’re gonna stick to. And I wanted to make sure we left it open to as much diversity as possible.”

In the same interview, she added, “Outlier is such a great production company and they have a wonderful diversity and inclusion rider, one of the first companies to have them, which is why I was so joyful, because I knew they would respect the diversity of cast.”

This story will be updated.

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Amazon’s ‘Fourth Wing’ Series Just Found Its Showrunner

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The Big Picture

• Moira Walley-Beckett joins Fourth Wing as showrunner, bringing her impressive resume to the table for this high-stakes series adaptation.
• Fourth Wing follows Violet at Basgiath War College, where passing means survival and failure could mean death in this unique dystopian setting.
• Amazon MGM Studios has picked up Fourth Wing for adaptation, promising another hit for Prime Video with a strong backing from fans of Yarros' books.

Finally, there’s an update on the series adaptation of Rebecca Yarros ’ romantasy novel, Fourth Wing , as Variety reveals that Moira Walley-Beckett has been added to the creative team as its showrunner. Perhaps best known as the creator of Netflix and CBC’s Anne With an E , Walley-Beckett’s list of credits is an incredibly impressive one that puts her as an excellent choice to take on the daunting task of winning over so many book lovers. Also in her repertoire, Walley-Beckett worked with Starz as the creator and showrunner of the network’s limited series Flesh and Bone , and also stepped into the writers’ room and as a co-executive producer for six years on AMC’s Breaking Bad , the latter of which made her a three-time Emmy Award winner.

Pulling its story straight from the pages of Yarros’ bestselling books known as The Empyrean series, Fourth Wing centers around students at the Basgiath War College, where there are no report cards handed out at the end of each semester. Instead, students will know whether they passed or failed when they either walk away unscathed or are dead and buried six feet under. It’s here that audiences will meet 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail, a quiet girl who, unlike her military General mother, never had much of a passion for all things war. Putting the classic trope of parental expectations to death-defying heights, everything shifts for Violet after she’s ordered by her mother to join the others vying for a spot as a dragon rider known as the Navarre.

Fourth Wing was on shelves for less than half a year before Amazon MGM Studios snatched up the rights to turn it into their latest book-to-series adaptation. The studio was joined by Outlier Society , the production company belonging to bookworm and fan-favorite actor Michael B. Jordan , who is also attached to executive produce alongside Outlier’s president, Elizabeth Raposo , Walley-Beckett, Yarros, and Liz Pelletier .

Amazon’s Latest Book Adaptation Is A Sure-Fire Hit

From Reacher to Daisy Jones & The Six , Amazon has been hitting audiences with some of the highest praised book-to-series adaptations in recent years. And, with the following behind Yarros’ Empyrean series, Fourth Wing will be no different. Around the time Outlier and Amazon MGM Studios were announcing the books would be turned into a show, the second of the author’s titles in the collection, Iron Flame , dropped on shelves. Next, readers can look forward to the arrival of Onyx Storm in January 2025. With five titles expected, Prime Video will have plenty of content to pull from.

As of right now, Fourth Wing doesn’t have a release date but stay tuned to Collider for more information.

• Amazon Prime