This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of Fourth Wing on my blog, now!
All of these characters were put through the ringer once again, and yet Iron Flame fails to make me care about any of them. Violet and Xaden's chemistry is certainly something, but with communication issues as horrendous as theirs, it is hard to become attached to their relationship. The side characters were given more development than our leading lady and my attention faded quickly - I read this book quickly not because it kept me captivated, but because I was desperate for it to be over.
Violet Sorrengail is about as perceptive as a rock, and that is giving her some grace. For a girl who is notoriously known for knowing everything and being excellent when training as a scribe, the girl cannot connect the dots to save her life unless someone is literally feeding her the information. Every revelation she had during this second installment was something so obvious and not at all shocking if you paid attention to anything in these books. Violet does not seem to understand that she actually needs to harness her signet in order to use it properly, and her throwing around lightning without a true purpose will get her nowhere except six feet under if she continues at this rate. I would ask someone to knock some sense into her, but as we all saw, people are constantly attempting that task at every turn.
Xaden's actions are arguably the most understandable out of every single character in this series. He seems to be the only one with a true purpose and actual goals set in mind - his secret keeping is literally required in order for things to play out in his favor, and with him and Violet constantly fighting the same fight months later, he still does not reveal anything to her without having her figure it out herself (or with his help). That being said, he really is great at not revealing information, whereas Violet has a mouth as big as Texas when it comes to giving up information to her squad members. I really need that girl to get her act together. Xaden and Violet's relationship feels like a nothing-ship, they basically screw each other and then fight the other 23 hours in a day.
Dain - they could never make me like you. The constant attempts to save his character and make him have a redemption arc was weak and ill-fitting of his character. It would have been much better to continue with his development as a character that Violet could channel her rage toward. He felt like a constant annoyance throughout this book, and I was begging the author to just make him disappear without explanation as it would be a mercy to my eyes to never have to read his name ever again. And yet, he continues to pop up at the most inconvenient times. Sure, he was able to explain himself to Violet at times, but boy oh boy the man is approaching levels of pick-me status that only Adam Kent from the Shatter Me series has achieved.
This book was way longer than it needed to be, and honestly a lot slower than it should have been. I have seen glaciers in Alaska move at a faster pace than the plot of this book. So many long and monologue-like paragraphs in this book, and yet it feels as though nothing of substance came out of it for the readers or for the characters. Sorry to all of my friends and coworkers that ate this book up, but I am so glad I borrowed this from the library and did not spend actual cash money to purchase this book. The actual realization that this is planned to be a five book series astounds me because what else could Yarros write about that she already did not explore in the first two books - Violet and Xaden fighting and keeping secrets? An obvious signet reveal? People thought to be dead are actually not dead? She needs to stop recycling plot points and produce some new ideas.
From someone who enjoyed Fourth Wing, this sequel was incredibly disappointing. I will likely continue on with this series to see it through as it is published, but I do not have any hopes for it to improve as the next installments are released unless Yarros does some serious improvements on her writing style and character development. With an ending that was predictable yet still a touch heartbreaking, The Empyrean series is desperate to hold onto readers at the cost of good storytelling.
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