Audio Review: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
Narrator: Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton
Series: The Empyrean #2
Published by Recorded Books, Entangled: Red Tower Books on 2023-11-07
Length: 640 pages
Length: 28 hours and 16 minutes
Listening Speed: 2.25x
Reviewing Audiobook, Hardcover from My Book Shelf
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2025 Audiobook Challenge, 2025 Beat the Backlist

“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.” —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.

The revolution begins. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros is the second novel in her series The Empyrean which follows Violet Sorrengail as she navigates her life as a dragon rider. Please note that if you have not read book one of this series, there may be spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk. This book picks up where Fourth Wing left off. Violet, Xaden, and the others are flying back to Basgiath after facing down a horde of Wyvern and Venin, creatures Violet had believed to be only myth. They are two less riders, and what they faced has to remain a secret. There are those in government that would kill them for the knowledge they possess all to keep it a secret from the public. Violet thought her first year was dangerous. Without Xaden and armed with new facts, her second year will strip everything away from her.

Violet is understandably traumatized by all that happened during the War Games. She lost her friend and his dragon. If that wasn’t bad enough, she has to lie to all her friends about what really happened. The lies are eating her alive, so she hones all that sadness into anger. That anger fuels her. She trains harder and forces Xaden to include her in his secret missions.

This book could be divided into two stories. There is SO much happening. I loved every page of it. Violet is still training at Basgiath in her second year, Xaden has graduated. With the two of them separated, they have to find time to be together, not just for themselves, but for their dragons who are mated. This affords Violet opportunities to see the front lines of the war and see her sister Mira more often. The second part of the story focuses on the Revolution. I won’t go into too many details as I don’t want to spoil anything. I will see we are introduced to a whole slew of new characters as well as see some new parts of the continent and get to know some Gryphon riders.

Overall, I loved Iron Flame. Yarros does a fantastic job of expanding the world and showing it through Violet’s eyes as she encounters things for the first time. I loved the new characters! And I also loved getting to know the squad better: Rhi, Sawyer, and Ridoc are some of my favorites as well as Imogen and Bodhi. If you are a fan of epic fantasy, romance, and adventure, I highly recommend it.

Audiobook Note: I opted to listen to this one as I followed along in my hardback and finished in two days 😂 This book is SO fast paced, which I know contradicts a lot of what others say. One of my favorite things is learning about the world and other characters, and there is a lot of that in this book. The narrator kept my attention and breathed excitement into the story. My only complaint, and it’s a small one, is that her voices for each character tend to run together. This made it hard to know who was speaking when. If I hadn’t had my hardcopy, I probably would have been more confused. Still, if you enjoy listening, I highly recommend this format.

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