Beth

As someone raised in the Mormon religion and who studied the BoM religiously (heh heh), I can attest that this book is a complete work of fiction. The great battles mentioned have zero historical proof anywhere, the author was a known con who also loved to marry multiple young girls. As for the book itself, it's comical to think that people rode tapirs into battle. If you're into mind numbing nonsense, this is the book for you.

I dove in head-first into the dark "romance" category, it would seem. I had no clue what kind of story I was getting myself into, but this one was... certainly something. The author seems to prefer shock value to an actual story line. The characters are insufferable and have a very toxic relationship that doesn't make any sense. The filler in between SA scenes is an odd, poorly written ghost story. I ended up not finishing this one after the post glow worm cave shower scene. Would not recommend.

I figured this novel would be similar to the ACOTAR series, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that close at all. It reminded me more of Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games plus dragons. It reads quick and definitely keeps you entertained. There are a few small shocks here and there, but I feel like it was pretty easy to guess what was going to happen. I wish Rebecca Yarros was a bit more descriptive when it comes to the characters because I couldn't really tell you what anyone looked like, besides Xaden being handsome with dark hair and a scar (not exactly unique when it comes to romantasy) and Violet having silver hair and being frail. It also felt like some of the characters were thrown in haphazardly, like Professor Carr (who has almost no real involvement minus a couple paragraphs at best) and basically all of the staff. As entertaining as it was, a lot of it felt redundant--Dain trying to get Violet to quit for safety, the descriptions for the rebel branding, how everyone is trying to kill the same person the entire novel, how hot Violet thinks Xaden is, how Violet's mom is a cold/heartless mother, etc.

Bonus points for having more inclusive characters (using sign language, being non-binary, LGBTQ friendly).

Ultimately I am excited to start book two, Iron Flame.

This series gets worse as it goes on. The writing feels sloppy, lazy, and left me constantly asking "who is that?" and "what happened to this part of the storyline?" It's easily the worst of the three books currently published.

Rebecca Yarros spends more time on the details of the sex scenes (which are written better than other romantasy books I've read) than the details of the actual characters. Most of what I know about characters like Imogen is that she has a relic and pink hair and helps train Violet. There's a non-binary character mentioned every so often and the ONLY thing about them is that their hair is always changing; that's literally it. Her writing style feels lazy to me because the only way she seems to be able to describe people smiling IN THE ENTIRE SERIES is something along the lines of "the corners of his mouth tugged up" or "a slow smile curves my lips". It's always about little tugs and it's maddening. Same with the "arches a scarred eyebrow" every other sentence. It's all repetitive--down to how Violet holds her daggers and how every description of Xaden is how he carries two swords across his back and has his lips held firmly in a line or that he is so stunning that Violet can't breathe. Oh, and every unit of time is measured in freaking heartbeats. If I took a highlighter to each time those words/phrases are used, the entire trilogy would be lit up like a yard with a firefly infestation over the Fourth of July.

Never once in this book was I on the edge of my seat. It took me longer to get through Onyx Storm because it genuinely isn't interesting. After three books, you're left with no answers to any questions in any of the other books. I want to know more about Aaric! Shouldn't the runaway son of the king be important rather than haphazardly thrown in every once in a while? What about more in depth information on the Empyrean itself? There's still not a ton of information on the dragons. The irids were such a big deal to find and then they're basically not in the novel anymore after that. They spent so much time trying to find them and when they do, it lasts a chapter and a half at best. The battle scene with Theophanie felt very Game of Thrones Season 8 (which is not a compliment). Don't get me started on the random perspective changes. Imogen's chapter was sad, but what was the need for that part of the book? If anyone, add more to Xaden's thoughts. His perspectives are boring and basic as well, though.

I wish there was more depth to this series. The ideas are fantastic, it just needs to be written by someone else.

I got about halfway through, but any time I would go to reach for a book to read, it wasn't this one.

The story started off pretty strong--funny, raw, honest, and--as someone who has worked in the restaurant industry--well described. I ended up losing interest when it was more of the same drama over and over and over again.