“Fourth Wing” is a romance fantasy book. It is the first book in the Empyrean series. It was written by Rebecca Yarros who is a New York Times Bestselling author. “Fourth Wing” is not a type of book I would normally read, but it pleasantly surprised me. It mainly follows Violet and Xaden in the fictional world of Basgiath. Basgiath is a war college where Violet is a first year, trying to learn all the things that she needs to learn, and Xaden is a third year and a wingleader, he has the highest ranking possible for the students of Basgiath. The book is filled with action from the very beginning, things happen that put you on the edge of your seat, in every other chapter. While the story is primarily a fantasy, the romance aspect is not lost here either. Violet and Xaden’s dragons are mates, which is why oftentimes, especially at the beginning of Violet and Xaden’s partnership, emotions and feelings get muddled, to the point where a romance starts blooming between the two. Violet is a very fragile girl physically, she has a chronic disorder that causes her joints to dislocate, constantly, the tasks at the college do not help matters in any way either 😊 Xaden is a very broody character, he’s grumpy and even mean sometimes, but he never treats Violet as breakable, he always allows her to make her own decisions and even encourages her to choose a different viewpoint on things than the one she’s always been taught. The main trope of this book is enemies to lovers. The whole book is written only from Violet’s perspective, and I found that fairly sad because I prefer books with dual points of view, but this detail absolutely did not impact or have any negative outcome whether I liked the book or not. And I promise, I absolutely loved it.
P. S. Once you’ve read this book, the next one, “Iron Flame” - is waiting for you.
Trigger warnings: Ableism, bullying, anxiety, emesis (vomiting), heart failure (mentioned), blood depiction, death of a friend, death of an animal, death of a parent (recounted), murder & attempted murder, poisoning (mentioned), war themes, graphic intimate scenes.
Dedication rating: 3 stars. The first part of it is a very sweet dedication to the author's husband and the second part is simply inspiring to any reader in the artistic world which is just adorable.
Favorite quotes: “A dragon without its rider is a tragedy, a rider without their dragon, is dead“ (p.10); “There‘s nowhere in existence you could go, where I wouldn‘t find you, Violence“ (p. 427); “Going for blood today, are we, Violence?", "My name is Violet.", "I think my version fits you better.” (p. 128); “And you know what? You might not trust me anymore, but you still love me” (p. 547); “You can hate me all you want when you wake up. You can scream, hit, throw you f****** daggers at me for all I care, but you have to live. You can’t make me fall for you and then die. None of this is worth it without you” (p. 536).
Overall rating: 5 stars. This book genuinely surprised me and showed me that it is possible to venture out into different book genres, even if they are still mostly connected to romance 😊I‘ll never abandon the romance genre.
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