Author: Rebecca Yarros
# of Pages: 498 (hardback)
Genre: Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: 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.
Review: This one lands somewhere between 2 and 3 stars.
The story is told in first person from Violet's POV, but there is a single first person POV switch that is completely unnecessary. 2 stars.
This book is the 2023 Romantasy winner, where Romantasy is a genre where the romance and fantasy are equally important. The romance seemed to be more of a focus as the fantasy world build was quite mediocre. I'm used to fantasy and sci-fi to have gaps - some "traditions" in the world the author builds sometimes don't quite make sense. There were too many instances of this in the Basigiath War College world. 2 stars.
Take a shot anytime a character raises an eyebrow. 2 stars.
Violet's character development is sloppy. Is the reader suppose to imagine she's a frail book worm? Or is she a strong, sassy woman who is somehow skilled with a knife? Yarros tries to lean into the stereotypes while also writing Violet's character in whatever way best fits the scene, even if it's inconsistent with the character's growth. 2 stars.
The romance is written like a chick-lit. The love triangle was predictable, and there's a considerable focus on how horny the characters are. Some of the lines the characters say are so cringe that I was laughing out loud to soothe the pain. 2 stars.
But I can still be a sucker for a poorly written chick lit. 3 stars.
I was actually pretty interested in what was going to happen next. Even though the reader can predict the romantic outcomes, Yarros does a good job at keeping the reader on their toes on when the romantic outcomes will finally happen. Easy romance isn't good romance, so Yarros employs plenty of challenges (even if they're problems seem a bit forces) to keep things interesting. 3 stars.
Despite being on the longer side, it's a pretty quick read (took me <1 week with mini reading session most days). When I wasn't reading it, I found myself excited to go home and pick it up again. 4 stars.
I wouldn't recommend this book in a hurry, and there's a lot of room for improvement. That being said, I might still read the second book in the series (this one ends on a cliff hanger, as many books of a planned series do).
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