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“A dragon without its rider is a tragedy.
A rider without their dragon is dead.”
Title: Fourth Wing
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Published: May 2, 2023
Genre: Fantasy, New Adult
Rating: ★★★★★ (5 Stars)
Synopsis (from goodreads):
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros
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
My thoughts
I really fucking loved this book and enjoyed every minute I was able to read it. Being a really slow reader I managed to finish this book in 2 days, showing you how much I enjoyed reading it. This was my first 5 star in a while, and I am really glad that I was able to read it. I can’t wait for the second book to come out in this series, and I am waiting patiently for the day I will be able to fly through that book as well.
The writing style was really lovely to read, especially for someone who’s native language is not English. This is something really important for me as my mother tongue is German/Slovak. It was really easy to understand and follow along, especially in the fight scenes which are sometimes a real struggle for me to understand and follow. The pacing was also really well-chosen for the book itself where it is around medium-fast paced, making you always wanting to read more and more.
The characters of this book were very well thought through, giving them each a different personality and character. I was easily falling in love with all of them as they were very well crafted and I enjoyed all the conversations between all of them. Of course I had some favorites and some that I didn’t enjoy quite as much, but that is because I didn’t like how they were handling the main character at first (which was probably intended). Making me not only attached to the main characters, but also the side characters made me really emotional from time to time as I really only wanted the best for them and rooted for each and every one of them to survive.
The romance of Violet and the main love interest was also quite believable and I didn’t feel like it was insta-love. I could see the progression and how things changed within them, making it quite believable. I really started rooting for them and was so happy once everything turned out alright for them. The tension and chemistry between them both was building up in such a well pace and I really enjoyed the romance due to that. Plus the spicy scenes were really hot.
The world building was very well crafted and easy to follow, especially when it came to all the politics, which are mostly the hardest part for me to understand and follow. I was really able to be pulled into the world and escape from everything.
The dragons in this book were phenomenal. I really enjoyed the conversations they had with their riders and also how ruthless they were. When it came to the dragons of the main characters I was able to really fall in love with them as well, wanting to protect them at every given moment (even though they can protect themselves really well on their own). You can feel how some dragons give off this dangerous aura and I would probably be too scared to even come close to some of them.
The ending took me off guard as well and I loved how fast paced everything became when it came to the last 20%-10%. I really rooted for the characters and also cried a lot in those last percentages. As always, it ended off on a cliffhanger, but I’m really excited for the next book to come out soon so I can binge it again.
All in all this is one of my most favorite reads of this year and I really hope that my review makes you want to pick it up as well!
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