Ok, listen. I will start with some things I enjoyed about book 3. Considering I have Iron Flame 2.5 stars… I was not expectant for this book at all, so I was pleasantly surprised by some of the things in about to name. 

I loved the scene between her squadmates joking about her and Xaden always fighting and not knowing what they’re fighting about. What a way as a writer to take that criticism and turn it into a laughable moment saying “I see what y’all mean by this, I will get more clear, but also this is something her close friends would roast her for” and they did. I genuinely laughed out loud. 

Mira. My queen. I lovvvvveee and live for the Sorrengail siblings and their dynamic. The familial connections in Iron Flame really continued to develop / moved in a new direction with her and Mira and Mira and Brennan. I would be interested to see if they grow into new comforts / continue to learn the lore behind their parents and grandparents.

I loved the world building in this book. I saw someone say that it has the potential to move it into high fantasy and I don’t think I would go that far - respectfully, the writing is too juvenile, but the world has expanded and the customs and the differences in magic and levels of existence beyond the wards and in the isles. Loved that. Very interesting. 

AARIC. Yes. This I loved too. I think I roughly remember her mentioning at Navarre was an aristocracy in FW, but for sure in Iron Flame and felt like I wanted more about that dynamic and we got it with Aaric in this book. I think he’s such a unique character and I loved that she developed him more this book. 

As always. The iron squad eats down. Sawyer. Rhiannon. RIDOC - ALSO LOVED HIS DEVELOPMENT THIS BOOK. And the flier additions :,) - Cat, Maren, and the rest. Love. 

Ok - now. Here are my thoughts / wonderings. Maybe it’s just personal preference, but I found it SO hard to stay in these story. Like - I thought the organization was wild. And I often had to backtrack because I genuinely didn’t know what was going on. This happened the most when the dynamics and politics and battle strategy were trying to be explained, so I think she should just get more specific  about who’s saying what and not try to be ominous is her writing to create curiosity amongst the reader. At the end of the day forming curiosity is a trained and continued art - sometimes concision and cohesive comprehension fair far better than possible confusion. 

Y’all. I’m REALLLYYY struggling with Violet. The Violet in Fourth Wing to Onyx Storm are not the same…and not in a good way ….  I LOVED FW Violet!! She was fierce, and loyal to her squad, and yes - falling in love with Xaden, but didn’t let that distract from her bonds with her dragons or permeate her entire decision making process and she was adamant that it wouldn’t. Fast forward to OS and every last thought is Xaden. I got tired of being in her internal dialogue every 5 seconds with Xaden needing to be mentioned. Shoot I get why Tairn was always like “stay focused” BECAUSE ME TOO. 

Halden felt unnecessary to me and Xaden’s starting to piss me off. Like they’re relationship and codependency is LITERALLY killing people. And it’s not cute. Like I’m not buying into Xaden’s “burn the world for you” attitude  like I have other MMCs… Like no. She just didn’t write nor develop him enough for me to give him that authority. And respectfully. I care far more about the side characters at this point than I i do the main ones … Get on your dragons and follow orders - yall are the most powerful riders, you can trust each other to get shit done and kiss later. GOOD. NESS. .

“And once again. Going three for threE at number one, is [the ending]”

ARE YOU TELLING ME. WHILE VIOLET WAS CATATONIC. HE FORCED MARRIAGE ONTO HER. WTF. AND WHY THE FUCK IS HE EVIL AND DOES THAT NOT IMMEDIATELY END THE BOND WITH SGAEYL!? Like HUHHHH. ALSO. IS SHE BONDED TO ANDARNA AGAIN AND WHY CAN SHE STILL ACCESS HER POWER AFTER THE SEVERED  BOND !? that don’t make sennnnssseeeeee - they keep referring to her and Xaden’s pov at the end referred to someone who also channeled and revealed Pancheck as the mole so was that the someone else or is there someone else likes!? Babes. Huh. And finally - wtfffff is going on with Theophanie and the Dunne Priestess?? Like we created the dedication process but I actually still don’t understand lol anyways. And maybe that’s the point?? But there’s too many things unsolved for me and that are leaving me hanging in an unnecessary way, rather than a come back and find out way. This feels like the same ending in iron flame … he channeled, things changed… also didn’t his happen in empire of storms. Literally. A wedding. A capturing. A kingdom at stake? Unoriginal to a T now. 

I feel slightly annoyed I spent time reading it … still undecided if I'm gonna continue to series but, I’m tired lol.