Fourth Wing

by Rebecca Yarros

Publisher: Red Tower Books, an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC
Ginasbookreport Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: Fantasy 
Read This If You Love: Harry Potter series / Game of Thrones series

“A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.”

Fourth Wing has taken the fantasy and general reading worlds by storm. The first book in the Empyrean series crafts a world where dragons rule the sky. At Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail is reluctantly training to be a dragon rider. As the daughter of a ruthless general who helped to violently squash a rebellion, Violet is immediately a target for many of her mother’s enemies. She must navigate the training, which results in daily death tolls and navigate all those who want her to fail. Who are her friends and who are enemies? Those lines might not be as clear as she first thought. She has a lot to learn about herself, her family, and her world.

The world-building that Yarros accomplishes in this book is layered and so well described that the picture of the universe crystalizes in your mind’s eye. I’m big on how a book makes me feel and Fourth Wing gave me the same feels that I had when reading Game of Thrones. Is this series as complex? Absolutely not. However, it still transports you to another world and enthralls you with fantasy. I highly recommend reading a hard copy version of this book and flagging names, events, and background information. This made it a bit easier for me to keep everything straight and I wanted to retain the references for the planned additional four books in the Empyrean series. 

Now…if you are still in the haven’t read it camp, I totally get it. I was late to the bandwagon for this one because I was afraid of the “fantasy romance” label. That is NOT my thing. While there is romance in there and some spicy scenes, it isn’t all encompassing and it does actually add to the storyline. 

 “Never lie to me.”