Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general―also known as her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter―like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.
She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda―because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.
I have lost count of the number people who have gushed about this book to me and told me I HAD TO READ IT.
When I saw it was the typical kinda YA fantasy vibes I’m pretty into PLUS it had dragons, I was like “Let’s gooooooo!”
Although this is NOT a YA book by any means. Definitely the 18+ fantasy realm for sure….more on that in a minute. 😁
There is a lot of predictablity with the romantic entanglement stuff that DID remind me of YA books though.
One sided romantic feelings from the lifelong best friend, extended sexual tension with a known “enemy”…heard it before, seen it before.
Which can annoy me…but weirdly didn’t this go round.
It has to be done in JUST the right way for my eye rolls not to kick in…and this author did it somehow!
There were lots of Hunger Games-ish vibes for me throughout besides the romantic stuff….deathly compeititons to protect your home, corrupt leaders, fight and battle scenes, combat training, all that jazz…in fact, even one of the characters had a super similar name-Riddick instead of Finnick. I kept picturing that actor in my head every time the name was said lol
But again, the similarities didn’t bother me too much.
TOTES enjoyed the dragon factor of this whole book.
How cool would it be to RIDE DRAGONS, yall??
AND to be able to communicate with them!
Sign me up.
Although let’s be real…..I’d die within the first 5 minutes of the selection process. I wouldn’t even make it to Day 1 of training.🤣
Let a girl dream, okay?
Switching gears…..
Let’s talk the “intimate” scenes for a minute, shall we?
For my bookworms who love them some sex scenes, you will be happy to know there are several to be had in this story.
These were not as graphic as the Court of Thorns & Roses books (the last few books in that series I called “fairy porn” lol) but they are quite steamy in my opinion.
I get annoyed at how unrealistic sex scenes can be in books such as these…it’s just all TOO perfect and the orgasms TOO mind blowing…BUT I guess I need to lighten the eff up. This is the FANTASY genre for goodness sake and things are SUPPOSED to out there and NOT mimic real life!
I gotta say though I ALWAYS appreciate when WOMEN are the authors of these scenes…especiallly ones like this where the word clit is used LONG before the word penetration and the female orgasm (sometimes MULTIPLE) is the goal and purpose of an interlude LONG before the males OR before intercourse is even CONSIDERED.
And all the ladies out there say “YAAAAAAAAASS!”
Note to all you straight men out there: if you want some tips on what ladies want in the bedroom, STAY AWAY from mens magazines, podcasts run by frat bros, and random Internet searches….GO READ SOME BOOKS LIKE THIS. I *promise* they will help you out WAAAAYYYY MORE.
So…this was a good book.
I enjoyed my time with it but I wouldn’t say I loved it or that it was an epic adventure per se.
It felt all too familiar I think….not enough new twists on an old formula.
There was an opening ending leaving it wide open for the next book in the series.
While I do like series, sometimes I like it when books can be stand alone stories as well.
This ain’t that.
Will I read the second one?
Yeah, I will. I gotta know what happens next, ESPECIALLY after the cliffhanger on the last page.
That right there is probably exactly why authors write those open endings…so the readers come back for more.