“The Empyrean” series by Rebecca Yarros is a book series that has taken the internet by storm. The series follows a girl named Violet Sorrengail who goes to Basgiath War College to become a dragon rider.
The first installment, “Fourth Wing,” caught the attention of many people. I will admit I loved this first book. It has all the components that people love about fantasy. There is magic, action romance and in my opinion an amazing plot.
The relationship between Violet and Xaden had me hooked from the very beginning. Their chemistry was so captivating I could barely put the book down. Each book ends in a cliffhanger so I was so excited to dive into the second book “Iron Flame.” This one was not as good and I found myself getting bored. However, the ending made me so shocked that I couldn’t help but get excited about book three.
Before I start the review, I am going to try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible, but if you want to go in completely blind, then I would not recommend continuing. I am also not trying to hate on Rebecca Yarros and her books. That being said, if I told you “Onyx Storm” was disappointing it would be a major understatement. I was so excited about this book and could not wait to get my hands on it. After I bought it I started reading right away.
As soon as it starts, a bunch of random names of people and places get thrown at the reader. Most of these names have never been mentioned before. If they have, they were mentioned very briefly in a past novel. At first, I thought it was because it had been quite a bit of time since I read “Iron Flame” and I must keep reading to spark my memory. However, I never really stopped being confused. There were constantly new people and places being added to the story.
On top of that, the plot kind of fell flat for me. It felt like nothing relevant was happening until the last 75 pages. Keep in mind this book is over 500 pages and the font is pretty small. I struggled to get through it. I can read pretty fast and if I really enjoy a book I can easily read 100 pages a day. It should have taken me less than a week to finish this book and instead, it took me over a month.
I kept telling myself that it would get better if I pushed through and it never did. I found myself caring more about the dragons than the actual characters. I was almost hoping something crazy would happen to the characters just to see if I still felt connected to them.
The romance in “Onyx Storm” was also not the best. It was only slightly better than “Iron Flame” because Xaden and Violet were not fighting the whole time. It is not as exciting as the first book. Their love is borderline toxic and it is honestly getting concerning. The ending was another cliffhanger. Even though it was interesting, I am seriously debating whether or not it is even worth reading the next one.
I am a mood reader, so maybe I just was not in the mood for a fantasy. Many others do share a similar opinion. Some have been comparing the series to “Twilight” and say “Onyx Storm” gives the same vibes as “New Moon.” Overall I gave the book a two out of five on my Goodreads app.
I hear that this is supposed to be a five-book series. If Rebecca Yarros continues to put out books like this one, I might have to give up on “The Empyrean” and the world she has created. I hope this is not the case and it was just the calm before the storm.