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

Book: Fourth Wing
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Pages: 517

Oooh my new favourite read for 2023 has landed! I was a bit nervous to be reading this one as it has been so hyped up lately. Let me tell you friends, it soared over the sky high bar I had set for this one! I devoured this one and every time I had to put it down, all I wanted to do is pick it back up again. And that ending! All the feels! I need the next instalment of this series NOW! Bump this one to the top of your TBR if you haven't already. You can thank me later!

Now that I’ve finished this book I can DEFINITELY see the appeal. There was a lot of fun to be had here. You’ve got a dragon academy and some high stakes, you’ve got enemies to lovers and some twists/secrets too. This definitely gives Divergent vibes with dragons.

I really enjoyed how well the story built. It reminded me of laminating pastry lmao. (Ya, I’m in my bake off era rn). It just all stacked so well.. every new piece of information added to the story with ease, I understood it all and was never overwhelmed.

What didn’t work for me was the banter/dialogue, but that just comes down to personal preference.

Overall, I think this was fun. I’ll definitely read the sequel where I hope to feel more fear and dread (which sounds dark but I feel the story is just getting started and those emotions could hook a reader aka me even more).

& Congrats to Rebecca Yarros on all her success! I saw her TikTok thanking readers for selling out Fourth Wing. I’m happy for her and that this book is making readers even more hyped about dragons and the romantasy genre.

<b>Thank you so much to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for my alc of this book ☺️</b>

3.5/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me access to a free version of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I only listened to 37% of the audiobook before I decided I would enjoy it more by reading it physically. The narrator's voice didn't fit with how I pictured the FMC and MMC, although she did a great job with the dragons' voices. I love this audiobook narrator usually, so it really is a "me thing" with not thinking her voice paired well with these characters.

This book is pretty middle-of-the-road for me. It reads like every ya dystopian book of the 2000s and is extremely predictable. I can name at least 2 other series that have the exact "plot twist" at the end of it, so I saw that coming a mile away.

I wanted to love this book so badly, but the predictability, lack of world-building, and all-over-the-place plot stunted the enjoyability. By the middle of this book, I still had no idea where it was going. We kept being told about the need for dragon riders because of war. "War this" and "bad gryphon riders" that... Now riddle me this... why if there is such a need for soldiers, would you allow them to be killed off willy-nilly in training? The last 10% should have been the last 50% if that makes sense. We spent way too much time at the school completing "war games" that had absolutely no purpose. The FMC even talks about how the war games have no bearing on anything. Like... why are we spending so much time on them then?!

The romance couldn't even save it. If you're looking for a great romance, look elsewhere. The romance doesn't come in until 50% of the way through and there's such a lack of depth... It was extremely disappointing.

All this to say, I did like this book overall. While there were issues, I adored the dragon aspect and respected the disability rep. The FMC was extremely likable to me and I did root for her. I'm hoping book two will be more engaging and have a linear plot.

This was a perfect book for me - the world building left a lot to be desired but I'm very much willing to overlook that based on my pure enjoyment levels while reading this book.
This was like Skyward (by Brandon Sanderson), The Poppy War (by R.F. Kuang), A Deadly Education & His Majesty's Dragon (By Naomi Novik), and ACOMAF (by SJM) allllllllll came together, with my very favorite elements, and had a little book baby named the Fourth Wing. You've got a deadly school setting, dragon rider politics, DRAGON BANTER, enemies-to-lovers, and a protagonist who experiences a world of growth, plus slow-burn spice! Go into this one with an open mind and be ready to take a journey because this was simply amazing. It will absolutely be in my top five reads of the year and I am going to lose my mind until the second installment. I have already pushed this on my mother to read and will wax poetically to anyone who will listen.


-As a note, thank you to Net Galley and RB media for an ARC of the audiobook. I had pre-ordered a physical copy a month ago so I was excited to have the audiobook on hand to try first but I actually disliked the audiobook and I couldn't make it very far without being confused and distracted by the narrator. I did not enjoy the audiobook at all - so I was extremely happy to have my physical copy when the pre-order came in!-

Wow! Yep, it was good. I didn’t realize until I started listening to this that half the world is already crazy about it. I chose to listen to this one and Rebecca Soler andTeddy Hamilton were the narrators and they were great!
Things I loved about the book:
The writing
Enemies to lovers
The chemistry
The training to become riders
The first kiss
And the shocker at the end

If you’re looking for a talented author who knows how to write fantasy, magic, with Dragons and romance then she’s the one! I’m so excited about book 2 and I really want it right now! Anybody??
Thank you so much Recorded Books via NetGalley!

I kept seeing this book recommended to me and I am so glad I got the opportunity to listen to it prior to it being released. It’s a fantastic story in a genre close to my heart. I already bought the physical copy and look forward to rereading it and the sequel later this year.

The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros has been very much hyped up, but it is certainly a book that lives up to the hype!

I was very excited to receive access to an audiobook of this book. It’s a long audiobook, clocking in at about 20 hours worth of content. Even listening at 2.5 times the speed, I was managing only a page a minute. It took hours to listen through but it was very much worth it! I never found myself bored or uninterested; every minute held my attention.

The narrator did an excellent job infusing the character’s voices with emotion, and giving them each their own voice. The way her voice sped up to indicate panic and induce those emotions was just amazing. It fit the pacing of the writing itself very well.

The story was slow paced, especially the romance, but there was always something happening, some progression in the story to show time passing and to show Violet’s growing skills. The slow burn romance was my favorite part, as was the spice that happened later in the book. I didn’t know how much spice there was, since the first half of the book was without. Interactions were implied, but since Violet wasn’t in a relationship and she’s our narrator, I didn’t realize that the spice would be that deep.

The characters are well thought out and feel real, especially Violet, for obvious reasons. She has the equivalent of Ehlers Danlos syndrome but that’s never stopped her before, so why would it now? With wraps and the occasional healer or mender, Violet is able to push forward and learn how to work around her disability. She is annoyed by this more often than not, sometimes refusing aids, but her strength shines through. Her friends are supportive and even when Xaden seems to hate her in the beginning, he doesn’t use her weaknesses against her. They have to work together, after all.

Dain was an annoyance, first reminding me of Gale in The Hunger Games, and then of Tamlin in ACOTAR. He was supposed to be the good guy, the best friend who always supported Violet. Turns out, he saw her as too weak to be a dragon rider. While Violet was doubtful of her abilities, she was determined to try and felt she had to keep going. While he was trying to get her to sneak away to the scribe’s quarter, she was still fighting. And she told him that and he still tried to get her to quit. Even if it meant her death, he should have supported her. And that was the beginning of the dissolution of their friendship. My annoyance at Dain solidifies just how wonderful the characters are. Not a single one of them felt weak and if they did, it’s because they weren’t a main character. Would I have liked to see more of Rhiannon? Or Liam? Of course. But a book can only be so long.

The ending was delightfully twisty and I can only cross my fingers and hope that the sequel won’t be delayed past the original release date. And also hope that we get more of Xaden’s point of view in the sequel! Thought not the whole thing, please. I just love Violet so much and can’t wait to hear more!

What I also love is that Rebecca Yarros has written more books? She’s not just a debut author, though this is the first I’m hearing of her. I hope I can work my way through her other works and that they’re just as good. I recommend this book to fans of powerful women, people who like dragons, and people who like fancy special editions and are drawn in by neat covers, but who are constantly disappointed. This book is pretty and it delivers in every way!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook copy! I really love having access to audiobooks and can only hope I can have more.

<b><i>“Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities.”</b></i>

WOW WHAT A GREAT BOOK TO START A FANTASY SERIES!

Highly recommended for fantasy romance lovers who love to read;
• Enemies-to-Lovers
• Slow burn romance
• Magic and Dragons!!
• Deadly Tournament
• Hot and spicy scenes!

I love listening this audio book!
The narrator do a really good job in delivering the story and her voice really suits Violet’s character. Not to mention the surprise on the last chapter!. I wasn’t expecting that different narrator to voice Xaden’s POV and I love his voice too!

The plot is very captivating with great world building and magic system that is easy to understand. The dragons are these majestic beings with different characters – there’s the grumpy ones and the adorable ones which I find really interesting.

I love the writing style and the plot flows smoothly with from the beginning until the end, making it so hard to stop listening to this book.

The characters are also well developed, relatable and easy to connect with. Even though the story can be quite dark, I love the sense of humor these characters (and the dragons) have which really liven up the story.

As for the romance, enemies-to-lovers fans will absolutely fall for Violet and Xaden’s chemistry!
I love their bantering and I can feel the tension is so high between the two of them.

The ending is quite surprising with a cliff-hanger at the end to finish it. Now, I’m wondering when book 2 is coming out because I need answers and I need more of it!

Overall, this is a fantastic and compelling read. I can see that it definitely worth the hype it’s been getting on social media.
I’m REALLY looking forward for the second book to find out what's gonna happen nextt!!

⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: Death, violence, murder, sexual content, war, bullying and death of a parent

I received an advanced audio book through Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Huge thank you to publisher and the author!

I received an ARC audiobook in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own!

This books is absolutely addictive. I listened to the audiobook and it is SO good. The narrator's were amazing. I enjoyed the plot and high pace of this book. I usually can't listen to fantasy on audiobook however this one may have changed that for me. It was beautiful. The narrator's brought this one to life so well.

This is the story of Violet a daughter of a major leader. She is weak and considered bro a great fighter. She instead has been training to work in the archives like her father. She is called to train and be a part of a training that everyone her age goes through that gets into the war calling. They get chosen by a dragon if the dragon wants them. This story is such a underdog story. I love that Violet becomes SO strong. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book(s) 🤞

Content: f words (swearing), brutal fighting, explicit open door scenes

Read if you enjoy:
🪽Fantasy
🐲Dragons
💪🏼Fighting/action
🩷Romance

The hype about this book is incredible! And I can't lie, it doesn't have the most revolutionary plot and the plot twists are painfully predictable, but I still had a great time. I don't think every book has to be extremely creative, it can have typical tropes, twists, and ideas and still be great fun to read, just like this is. Because of this, I'm not sure it quite lives up to the hype but it's still a solid five stars for me since I had a great time. More than anything else, I love the main character and the chronic illness rep, it's so refreshing to see a heroine who isn't the best at fighting and magic and all of that. Plus, her love interest has great chemistry with her.

Overall, I had a great time. It has enemies to lovers, chronic illness rep, queer side characters, dragons, bonds, a war college, and more. If you combined Divergent with a Sarah J. Maas book and threw dragons in, then you'd get something like this. Definitely check this out if you want a spicy fantasy romance story!

Hunger Games meets How to Train Your Dragon in what I am sure is going to be one of my favorite books of the year!

This is a gritty dragon rider’s college and Violet our MC spent her life planning to work in the archives until her General mother forced her to be a rider. It’s the most dangerous option and Violet lacks in the physical strength riders are normally expected to have.

Insert Xaden, her wing leader and someone who has every reason to hate her.

This is romantasy with spice and it is done SO WELL! I loved every second of the angst, the longing, and the opportunity to watch Violet become more of a badass.

Loved it, 10/10 would recommend.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I listened on audio and read a physical copy arc and did very much enjoy the narrator!

Okay, so I did not realize this was a romance book when I requested it on Netgalley. The blurb seemed interesting and I suspected there would be some romance, just based on the age and description of the character, but the rest sounded interesting enough to overlook it. And that's mostly what happened, because this is a good book. But it's also a romance book, and what I didn't know about romance books, because I don't read them, is that they're just cringey as hell (to me).

And so while there are aspects of this book that are excellent, I can't give it a full rating, because dammit, I detested the romance in this book. I'm not even talking about the sex scenes. There are only a couple. I just think saying things like "you have extremely touchable skin" is stupid in any context. If that works for someone else, power to them. But it was lines like that I couldn't deal with.

Anyways, on to the positives. First of all, Violet is a great main character. I rooted for her the entire time and her initial belief that she was too broken to be a dragon rider, and her gradual understanding that she was not defined by her illness and that she could be a dragon rider, was very well done. I liked most of the side characters, and her relationships with them. I also realized during this book that I expected her older, accomplished sister to inherently be a bitch to her because that's how these tropes tend to go, and so I appreciated that the bond with her sister was strong and that she was supportive. I liked the depiction of her overbearing best friend/potential love interest not understanding how coddling Violet was not helpful to her, and some of the best scenes were her standing up for herself to him.

I also really liked the dragons, which were probably my favorite part. Everything involving the dragons in this book was very fun, and some of the political and war machinations going on in the background of the book were very interesting, and make me wonder how much of this outside conflict that Yarros is planning to incorporate. The magic being tied to the dragons and manifesting unique powers was fun. In general, the plot of this book was very propulsive and I always wanted to know what happened next.


Which, not to harp on it, is why the romance overpowering the narrative at the 3/4s mark was just insufferable to me. I know I'm not the target audience. I know a lot of people will love this part. I don't dislike romance for the sake of it existing. But I think if it didn't suddenly take over every thought Violet has in any situation and she wasn't super horny every minute, I could have probably tolerated a slow-burn romance here. Alas. Take all this with a huge grain of salt.

Anyway, the book was very fun. I think it deserves the hype. I probably won't read the sequel, but hey, I survived a fantasy romance book! Am I on the road to becoming a Maas stan?

8/10

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

World building felt underdeveloped, as well as the romance. Wasn't a fan of how young this read combined with the explicit scenes. This just didn't work for me at all.

Audio narration for the first 30% was full of throat noises, heavy breathing, and just way too much distracting background noise.

This was one of the worst things I’ve ever read because of hype. Marketed as a cutthroat dragon riding academy, adult fantasy, Fourth Wing read as someone’s upper middle grade draft with curse words added to appear more “edgy”. No one in this book is likable or complex. The “enemies to lovers” are snarky to each other but physically attracted from the get-go. The spice, one of the only things really earning this a spot on the adult bookshelf, was cliche and underwhelming. Alpha male, unable to get enough of her, while also being the best bedmate anyone could ever hope for.

"Oh gods."
"Which one are you calling out for?" he asks against my flesh. "Because it's just you and me in this room, Vi, and I don't share."
"You." My fingers tangle in his hair.
"I'm calling out for you."
"I appreciate the elevation to deity, but my name will do."

Like… you can’t make this crap up. Also, in that same scene, he tells her, “Whatever you do, don’t fall for me.” Which is something I never thought I’d read in 2023.

The only thing this book had going for it was the dragons and they were horny and otherwise not prominent enough for my taste. At least it’s a duology, for those that care to continue on. I will not be one of them.

Thank you to NetGalley for an audio ARC.

This book was fan-freakin'-tastic.

I can't remember the last time I had so much FUN getting completely lost and wrapped up in a story. From almost the first chapter, the reader is completely invested in Violet's predicament of being forced to join the Dragon Rider Quadrant at the command of her mother, the general.

The world that Violet enters is brutal, violent and unforgiving. It gave me How to Train Your Dragon vibes, obviously, but also a good mix of The Black Witch Chronicles and Red Rising. I loved the war college setting, the fellow cadets that we meet (and that are unceremoniously killed off - no one is safe!), and the fact the Violet learns to survive, despite her chronic pain issues.

This story has all the fantasy romance tropes that readers love - enemies to lovers (XADEN RIORSON!), a love triangle that doesn't make you want to stab your eye out, found family, training montages and more. What I loved most is that even though I probably should have seen some of the twists coming, I was having too much fun with the story to try to predict what was coming next.

This book deserves all the hype, and I cannot wait to continue this series!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Age Level: New Adult
Content: strong language, violence, 2 open-door scenes

Okay this book started off with a BANG. If you love adult fantasy, this is the PERFECT book for you. There's so much action from the start, and the author doesn't shy away from illustrating exactly how brutal the rider's quadrant is.

I loved that we got the story from Violet's perspective, because we get to see a girl that has always been told she's weak learn to find her strength. She was so freaking inspirational. And then there's Xaden. He's a very yummy reminder as to why we love morally grey men. And when the two of then get together?? It's both a spicy and sweet romance.

All in all, I completely understand why this book has taken the fantasy book community by storm. It's such a fantastic story and I'm dying for the next book.

After all the hype, I did enjoy it! This book has truly been everywhere, so I will say, I had incredibly high expectations. Which might've put it at a disadvantage. The audiobook is what saved it for me. The first twenty percent wasn't the most exciting but the narrator did a great job keeping me engaged in the story. To me, this definitely read more like a YA than an adult fantasy, but overall, was an enjoyable fast paced read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

🎧Song Pairing: Thunder - Imagine Dragons (felt appropriate)

💭What I thought would happen:

I went against every reading norm I possess and jumped outta my comfort zone. No regrets.

📖What actually happens:

Violet has been preparing to be a scribe for as long as she can remember, her father now dead was a one of the most well known and respected. But turns out she will be moving on to the dragon riders as it’s in her blood with her general mother and bad ass siblings (hello Divergent feels).

There are several challenges Violet must face before she can pass her first year as a dragon rider, almost all being life or death…one being bonding with a dragon. The biggest challenge though is the insufferable yet beautiful Xaden, son of a trader.

🗯Thoughts:

I think I loved the first half more than the second. I was obsessed right away. Hello….underestimated badass female MC who is going to prove everyone wrong.

This one uses the basic template of fantasy books (at least ones I read and enjoyed)! I’m not complaining this one was exciting. Don’t let its length fool you into thinking this can’t be a binge-able book.

I’m so glad I read this with an expanding group of fantasy loving women who all love a dark MMC. Also, the fact that I was the wild card of the group makes me LOL.

So either trust me when I say it’s totally worth picking up even if you’re not a fantasy reader or maybe not if you’re a seasoned fantasy lover and what in the hell do I know 🤷🏼‍♀️

Fun and exciting. Loved the MC and that she was an underdog. The writing could use a little improvement it was a bit juvenile but it was a fun story that probably shouldn’t be critiqued too hard. I.e once you start thinking critically about the plot, it looses some of the excitement. There were a lot of unanswered questions/worldbuilding i would expect from a fantasy but the book is far more romantasy towards the end anyway.