Rebecca Yarros has been known for her new adult and romance novels which are often emotional rollercoasters. Recently, she also published several adult novels such as The Last Letter and Reason To Believe as well as historical fiction, The Things We Leave Unfinished. Now, she decided to take on a different approach and published a fantasy novel, Fourth Wing. This is the first book in the “Empyrean” series.. I’ve read most of this author’s work so I was a little surprised. Furthermore, with me being so out of the loop when it comes to new releases, I only knew of this book’s publication just before release date. However, that didn’t get me less excited to read it as soon as I could. Did Yarros manage to deliver within the fantasy genre?
- Title: Fourth Wing
- Author: Rebecca Yarros
- Series: The Empyrean #1
- Publication date: May 2, 2023
- Publisher: Entagled Publishing
- ISBN: 9781649374042
- Number of pages: 512
- Genre: New Adult, Fantasy
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.
Let me get something straight, this is probably the first time this year i devoured a fantasy novel. Well, not counting my rereads for The Kingdom of Copper and These Violent Delights. I mean, a proper, new-to-me fantasy novel. This book has everything I want in a fantasy. A fierce main character, an interesting yet not extremely complicated world, a love interest, romance, action and some treason here and there. The story sucked me right in from the beginning. I could have finished this one sooner than I did, but that’s life’s doing and not the book’s.
To be quite honest, I had no idea what to expect once I opened this book on my Kindle app. I knew it contains dragons and an elite academy, but what else I was not aware of. In the first few chapters we get to meet Violet who has a chronic illness. Despite her chronic illness, she is forced to become a dragon rider. However, she really wants to be a scribe, in honor of her dead father. Her mother however, is the academy’s commander and she decides else. So, Violet trained herselff within a span of six months to pass the test to get into the rider’s quadrant. Still, she doesn’t feel like she belongs there, she sees herself as fragile and a weak link to her wing. Others see her like this as well, they either want to protect or kill her. Still, she fights for her place in the quadrant and slowly accepts that she actually wants to be a rider instead of a scribe.
I cannot judge the chronical illness rep, but for me it’s the first time – if I remember correctly – I read a fantasy story with a chronical illness being represented. Although it plays a part in the story, Violet and her adventures at the academy are more important. Also the dragons. There are several dragons and they all are interesting. I can’t say more for the sake of spoilers though. However, if you’re not a fan of dragons, this is probably not the right book for you. The bonds between humans and dragons play a vital role here.
And can we talk about the rivalry? There is a lot of that going on, which makes this story interesting as well. Violet gets her fair share of it and finds inventive ways to deal with it. She doesn’t let both her chronic illenss and rivals get in the way of what she wants. And what she wants is one certain boy who she has been warned for most of her life. His name is Xaden Ryerson. Throughout the book, they have to see eachother a lot and their chemistry is undeniable. Again, I can’t share more because of spoilers.
The plot and characters are both equally awesome. The writing sucked me in from the start and I was completely intrigued by Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. The ending leaves room for questions and thankfully the sequel will be out in November already. I partially listend to this story on audiobook and Rebecca Soler did a great job on the narration. Xaden gets his own POV for the final chapter and fair enough, I’m not the biggest fan of his narrator. Anyway, I truly understand the hype for this book (that has been a very long time though) and I cannot wait for the next installment in this series.
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