This gets too much hate. It was a fine book and about the same as the first. Iron Flame reads slightly less YA than the first book, but there are still a lot of YA elements present.

I won't be continuing this series. However, if you enjoyed the first book for the actual plot (and not the attempt at romance), then this will still be an enjoyable read. ( )

Violet Sorrengail is now a 2nd year and waiting for her second signet from Andarna to manifest itself. She is still unable to control her lightening strikes. She now has a durable relationship with Xaden, a 24-year old lieutenant. He will protect her at any cost, including keeping secrets from her which she finds intolerable. In addition, their dragons, Tarin and Sgaeyl are a pair and cannot be separated for long, throwing Violet and Xaden together almost every weekend. Enter Major Varrish, a mean, vindictive man who relishes torture and does bring Violet almost to burnout when she will not order Andarna to the flying field. Andarna is undergoing her sleep and growth period in the Vale. Dain Aetos takes over as the Fourth Wing's leader and tells his father about something he "saw" in Violet's mind that caused the battle in Resson in the first book. Violet has discovered that the leaders have kept the existence of the wyvern and venin a secret from the people. Eventually, she is tortured when she is found with an original journal of the original six riders, but she is rescued by Xaden and Dain. She and half the company leave for Xaden's home, Riorson House located above Aretia, the capital of Tyrrendor and set up a flying school there. Quickly, they include the gryphons and their riders. Unfortunately, the wyvern and venin are coming for Basgiath, Navarre. How will Violet, Xaden, and their friends and colleagues save Basgiath? This is a riveting story, but I could do with very much less explicit sexual scenes. ( )

The plot absolutely drew me in and didn’t let me put the book down.
That said, this book is huge. 30 hours on audio and over 600 pages. It could have been edited down a bit, especially all the arguments between Violet and Xaden. They were the same thing over and over again.

4 Stars

Content: much the same as the first with way too much language, some *scenes* (easy to skip) and lots of violence ( )

Half this boon could have been cut out. I almost DNF’d it. Violet is one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever read and Xanden only personality trait is being sexy. Authors like Pierce Brown can make you emotionally attached to ancillary characters that are only in 10% of the book. This books was 600 pages and I discovered I hate the main characters and was bored the majority of the time. This was definitely stretched to fit a certain amount of pages. ( )

2024 read. Still good writing, and the dedication "To my fellow zebras.Not all strength is physical." won my heart ( because I'm one of those fellow zebras). ( )