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*MILD SPOILERS AHEAD*
This may have been my most anticipated read of 2023. Reading Fourth Wing earlier this year while on a family vacation certainly made it easier to jump right into this sequel. And wow wow wow, this series is addictive. I don't know if it's the writing style, the actual concept, or the execution of the actual concept (which has the potential to be cliche or over the top), but both Fourth Wing and Iron Flame have simultaneously gotten me out of and put me into reading slumps (however that works). I'll gripe about some of the things I wasn't the biggest fan of to get it out of the way. This book is significantly longer than the first, and I think a hundred or so pages could probably have been pared down or revised. I understand this is more of a war book than Fourth Wing, so more politics and world building related to the multiple sides of the war were necessary for the plot. But I got lost a few times and sort of zoned out. I never reached a point of confusion I couldn't come back from, but some character names were definitely jumbled and forgotten along with specific details concerning the location of venin and all that jazz. I also thought the development of Jack Barlowe's character was a little too vague. The plot twist discovery of him being alive was actual insanity, but then we don't really see him impact the plot again until the very end. I'm trying to remember that this series is supposed to eventually be five full books. Maybe the full impact of Jack's presence will show itself. Anyways, on to some things I adored. For starters: Violet Sorrengail. She is one of my favorite main female heroines for so many reasons, chief among them being her awareness of her weaknesses. Rather than letting the limitations of her body keep her from the badass things she does, she embraces those limitations and uses her crazy cleverness to excel. I also adore her because she is genuinely so smart; several characters remind her time and again that she has the mind of a scribe and the heart of a rider for a reason. And she also differs from other heroines in her ability to say, "Yeah, I am hot" when dark-and-scary-with-a-soft-spot kinds of guys show interest in her (#loveXaden). A good chunk of the novel sees Violet and Xaden realize they both have to open themselves up to vulnerability even when a war is on the brink of beginning if they want their relationship to survive, and I think the new things we learn about each of them, mainly Xaden, makes the novel that much more interesting. The ending had my jaw on the floor (Yarros really knows how to write a cliffhanger, I'll give her that), and what the hell it means for all the work Violet and Xaden put in for the sake of their love and the lives of the Empyrean is what I'll be wildly wondering until we get the third installment of this series. 

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Some of my favorite quotes from Iron Flame:

"Violence, remember it's only the body that's fragile. You are unbreakable."

"You’re my gravity. Nothing in my world works without you."

"I think I liked you better before you decided that feelings were something we need to discuss."

"Love doesn’t even have the decency to die. It just transforms into abject misery."

"I can handle pain.” I turn toward her. “I live in pain. I practically built a house there and set up a whole economy. I can take whatever they dish out." 

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