This book was fine, but I found it very derivative - like I had read all of it some place before. It’s basically like Top Gun plus Hunger Games plus A Court of Thorns and Roses. If you like the dragons, I cannot recommend Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series enough - it’s basically the same dragon-magic system but the world makes more sense. 

Basgiath has to be the world’s worst military school - it seems like it exists simply to kill off its cadets which seems counterproductive? Call me crazy but there are stakes higher and fates worse than death. In a book written in first person POV you know from the jump that the narrator isn’t dying soooooo the tension I wanted in the first part of the book simply wasn’t there.

In the year of our lord 2024, I simply cannot get into a hero named Xaden, even though I liked him just fine in terms of his actual actions/personality. Tairn was the best character in a SEA of named characters who were interchangeable and forgettable. Violet is very much a 20 year old dystopian fantasy heroine.