Iron Flame

Iron FlameThe EmpyreanRebecca Yarros

Mar 18

Written By Ally Talley

The Empyrean #2

By Rebecca Yarros

TheStory

The group from Athebyne decides to return to Basgiath and pretend that everything is normal. Xaden is sent off to the front lines of battle after graduation. While Xaden and Violet are still able to visit each other, Violet’s trust in Xaden has been shattered and their relationship is broken. This lasts throughout a large portion of the book.

Due to the secrets revealed in the previous book, Violet is now keeping secrets from her friends which causes her to struggle to maintain those friendships. Additionally, after Dain’s betrayal in the last book, Violet refuses to even speak to him.

As the group is now aware of leadership’s lies, there are multiple attempts on their lives to try to maintain the secrets on which the entire foundation of Navarre is built upon. But they will not take it lying down. Violet digs into old records and recruits Jessinia to help find the information they need.

When the secrets, lies, and rebellion all come to a head, everything culminates in one big battle that will change the world forever.

TheReview

I love when a sequel starts off right where the previous book ended. The beginning is a bit slow but it’s still good reading. Since Fourth Wing ended in betrayal, Violet and Xaden are now back in the “slow burn” of their relationship.

To be honest, I feel like Violet is kind of a whiner when Xaden is doing his best to be honest but refuses to just be a wide open book. She doesn’t have the ability to keep the secrets from minds like Dain, so she can’t know everything, and she just HATES that. But it’s not Xaden’s fault. He has an entire rebellion to think about!

But the physical attraction and the chemistry is still there, so we just want them to do it already.

I was doing the read with a friend and we had a whole set up for reading each week, but by week two, we finished the entire thing in like 4 days. We couldn’t stop reading because it got SO GOOD!

And once Part II comes, holy crap. It’s even better than Part I. The action ramps way up. It still ebbs and flows but there is so much happening, I just had to keep turning the page. Yarros has a knack for blending action and romance but also has a hilarious sense of humor.

The ending is just full of twists and turns and plays with the reader’s emotions. Ugh! There is so much to love about the book but the ending slayed me. I threw my book at a wall and dented my hardcover. Just the mother of all bombshells dropped right at the end.

The whole read was so fantastic. I loved the first one so there were a lot of expectations for book two. But it totally lived up to every single one of them.