Kaitlyn Harrington

Coming from someone who enjoyed Forth Wing: Iron Flame is not a good sequel. Spoilers: The first half of this book is unbearably slow and has its protagonist change from an intelligent, somewhat sassy warrior to an insufferable and insecure hypocrite. Every other chapter has Xaden and Violet fighting over some sort of misunderstanding or secret, followed by an extremely graphic make out session. The amount of s*x in this book is insane and somehow makes up a large portion of the pages where plot should have been. The second half of the book, while equally filled with s*x, is the polar opposite of the first half: chaotic and confusing. The amount of characters and places introduced, only to never be relevant is ridiculous and causes nothing but unnecessary confusion for the reader. The “Ward Plot” is so head scratching and the conclusion left me with more questions than answers. Other Topics: Andarna faces character assassination, similarly to the girl she chose to bond with. The dragon who was once my favorite characters in the first installment has been reduced to nothing more than a whiny brat who will vanish for chapters at a time until she is needed for plot convenience. Xaden and Violet are nothing but toxic. Side characters are used as nothing more than play things to progress the plot, having little to no depth. Even Xaden seems to exist purely as Violet’s love interest. The fact that I felt absolutely no fear or tension during the battles says how the author failed in getting me to care for the characters. The language and frequent cursing is lazy and immature. There is no need to drop the f-bomb in every line of dialogue. Overall, this is a disappointing story that should have been 200 pages shorter and could have been told in a far better way.