The Empyrean, #2
by Rebecca Yarros
narrated by Rebecca Soler with Teddy Hamilton
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Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros is a fantasy romance and the second book in The Empyrean series.
Violet Sorrengail survived her first year at Basgiath War College, which even she didn’t expect. Year two brings grueling and maliciously brutal training, especially from the new vice commandant who seems to hold a personal grudge against Violet.
This one was a bit chonkier than the first book in the series, and the pacing in the beginning felt a little off to me in part one. But part two felt a lot more like Fourth Wing in being fast-paced and highly consumable. Yarros really does have a gift for writing the ends of chapters in tantalizing ways to make you keep going into the next one.
We get a lot more into the political fantasy of it all in this installment. We also get more dragon lore, especially regarding adolescent dragons. It was quite clever how Yarros figured out an in-universe way to keep the squishy teenage dragon semi-safe, especially with the repercussions for Violet when one of her professors has it out for her.
As someone who is neurodiverse, I feel very seen when Violet starts to recite information to help keep her brain from panicking. An unexpected thing that I found I was loving was the super horny dragons.
I definitely had a cry near the end. I was slightly surprised by the final twist, but it didn’t seem to be as jarring of a twist as bookstagram made it seem. I’m very looking forward to book three.
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