Fourth Wing

Fourth Wing
By Rebecca Yarros
Red Tower Books, 2023. 498 pages. Adult Fantasy

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.

This action-packed romantic fantasy is worth the hype on social media. It checked off all of my requirements for a great read. It has dragons, steamy sex, an engaging writing style, a driving plot, and likeable characters. Violet is a relatable female who is put to the test and comes out on top despite her disability (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome?). I recognized many common tropes found in other books, but the personalities and the thrilling plot kept them from becoming tedious. 

Along with everyone else on the internet, I highly recommend this book, especially if you like sexy romantacy books like A Court of Thorns and Roses and the Dragonriders of Pern series.

JJC

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