Iron Flame

Hi guys! It’s been forever, I know. Life has been busy with graduation and moving and all of that stuff. That aside, I’m super excited to get into this review because I have a lot of thoughts.

Falling in Love - Tropes, Fights, and Relationships

From Fourth Wing, we already got our enemies to lovers, slow-burn, forced proximity, etc tropes. Iron Flame didn’t introduce any new couples for the reader to get excited about it. Instead, we read through the ups and downs of Violet and Xaden’s relationship.

Reading this book as someone who is 23 (acknowledging that Xaden is 21/22 I believe), the problems that they had in their relationship felt very high school - I got annoyed of Violet complaining that Xaden doesn’t tell her every single thing and of Xaden refusing to have important conversations that literally any sane person would have with their partner who they are literally bonded to for life. I still really like that the author wrote in that they have fights, it makes them seem like a normal couple, but as the reader, I would have appreciated reading something that wasn’t the same fight over and over again.

Of course, there’s always the idea that this theme repeating so much is foreshadowing to something that will happen later in the series.

Words I never thought that I would write.. I got tired of reading the steamy scenes in this book so fast. It felt repetitive and didn’t seem to add emotional depth to our characters, but rather seemed like something forcibly written to appeal to the reader. This series is good enough that the reader doesn’t need multiple repeated steamy scenes - especially when it doesn’t show us anything new about Violet and Xaden.

Let’s Talk Dragons

Warning you now - spoilers!!! Skip the next paragraph if you don’t want them.

The foreshadowing with Andarna was beautiful. Fourth Wing set us up to feel that she was already special, and then Iron Flame ran with that idea. At the end of the book, the reader finds out that Andarna isn’t growing up to be just like Tairn - she’s actually an entirely different breed of dragon. This makes sense with all of the examples we’ve been given where she doesn’t follow the “traditional” adolescent dragon journey: being golden when she’s young, choosing to bond to Violet after Tairn did, being able to stop time, her long “sleep”, the changing colors of her scales, etc. I am very excited to see what direction she takes in the next book and have a hunch that she will become as powerful, if not more powerful, than Tairn.

Okay, no more spoilers if you skipped that paragraph!

I love reading about Tairn and Sgaeyl’s relationship as well, and in Iron Flame, you get to see more in depth to their relationship. That’s something that I hope we continue to get in the upcoming books.

In Iron Flame, we also get to see a lot more of the relationships between dragons. They start to become their own characters rather than supporting characters. This makes sense with how the dragons were written, and it feels like we’re getting to know more about the dragons partly due to whatever additional plot lines are coming with Andarna and partly because we’re going to have heartbreaking death in the next book.

Character Development

Iron Flame had some solid character development. One of the things that made me happy as a reader is seeing that Violet and Rhi reconnect and establish a strong friendship again. This is so so important because Rhi is the only character that isn’t blood or rebellion related that hasn’t hurt her. Rhi also stands up to Xaden in one part of the book, which shows such strength and courage. Love her.

We get a mini female “villian” in the series as well, and her character shows us a whole new side of Violet. It’s super relatable and keeps it very real, despite living in a magical land with fantasy creatures. By the end of the book, Violet and Cat have formed an alliance, which goes a long way in showing the strength of not only relying on your partner and moving past difficult situations (when you read this book, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about).

One character who absolutely blows us away in Iron Flame is Dain Aetos.

He goes from being probably one of the most hated characters in Fourth Wing to becoming an absolute badass in Iron Flame. Dain’s redemption arc is almost too good to be true- it leaves me wondering what’s going to happen next. Is he really committed to everything he says is? Is he keeping any secrets? Does he still love Violet?

Finally, the last major piece of character development ironically comes in the form of a death. If you don’t want spoilers, skip this paragraph! In the last few chapters, when Violet suddenly realizes the missing piece and understands that she can save the land, she almost burns herself out. Instead of standing by and letting that happen, General Sorrengail sacrifices herself to save Violet (Mira and Brannon too, technically). In her last words, she tells Violet that it’s okay because she gets to be with her late husband finally. Even as sad as that is, it doesn’t hit hard until Violet collapses in Rhi’s arms sobbing as she tells her what happened. This part made me tear up.

Secrets - spoilers!!!

Let’s talk about how Xaden has a secret, second signet! Who would’ve thought, right? It’s crazy, and when we learn what it is, it’s even crazier. This is definitely something that is NOT going to just be an extra signet manifestation. I have a strong feeling that this is going to have a significant role to play in the upcoming books.

Conclusion

I would rate Iron Flame as a 3/5 in comparison to Fourth Wing. With Fourth Wing, I couldn’t get enough of it - I always wanted to read it and was thinking about it even when I wasn’t reading. Iron Flame didn’t compel me in the same way, to the extent that I had to force myself to read some chapters. That being said, I still will pre-order the next book when it comes out because I do love the characters.

Talk soon,

Mary