Onyx Storm Book Review with a Fourth Wing and Iron Flame Recap
The third book in the phenomenon that is the Empyrean series, check out my Onyx Storm book review and Fourth Wing and Iron Flame recap below!
Book Information
Violet is back at Basgiath War College where things are slowly gearing up for something big. Xaden is still venin and Violet is doing everything in her power to find a cure while also searching for Andarna’s kind.
What follows is a huge series of violent wars, attacks, and travel to try and save everyone that Violet has ever loved from the threat that keeps getting closer and closer.
Fourth Wing Recap
Fourth Wing starts off with Violet’s mother forcing her to go to Basgiath War College even though Violet was training to be a scribe. So, this is basically a death sentence since Violet has no combat training. Mira, Violet’s older sister tries to change their mother’s mind, but can’t. We learn that Violet’s father was a scribe and both he and her older brother, Brennan, are dead.
At the entrance to the war college, Violet realizes that she must cross something called the parapet in order to enter. It’s basically a long, narrow bridge with no railings. We’re introduced to Xaden, whose father was executed because of her mother, Rhiannon, a recruit that Violet befriends, and Jack Barlowe, our mortal enemy from this point on.
After successfully crossing the parapet, Violet meets up with Dain, her childhood best friend (who she might also have a crush on). She is placed in Xaden’s squad (aptly called the fourth wing) and begins to go through her training: first meeting the dragons where people literally get incinerated in front of her; sparring with other recruits who she poisoned to give her a leg up since she’s frail and weak; and eventually facing the Gauntlet, where she loses her friend, Aurelie.
At threshing, Violet bonds with two dragons: one of the last black dragons named Tairn, and a small colorful dragon named Andarna. It’s unheard of to bond with two dragons, so Violet is instantly the center of attention. She also learns that Tairn and Xaden’s dragon are mates, so Violet will have to spend a lot of time with Xaden whether she likes it or not.
Violet tries to find a copy of fairy tales that her father once read to her by asking a scribe friend to find her the book. But the scribe has never heard of it and can’t find any mention of it anywhere.
We also learn that, once bonded, humans develop signets because of their dragon’s power. One fellow student develops the ability to hear other people’s minds, but his neck is promptly snapped because it’s an illegal ability.
After people try to kill Violet, Violet is able to stop time (a possible signet). Later, we find out that Andarna is actually a baby dragon and gave Violet the ability to stop time.
Violet and Xaden grow closer since they can speak to each other due to their mated dragons. Violet can also speak with Andarna and Tairn since they’re bonded.
Violet’s team and Xaden get to go to the outpost where Violet’s sister is stationed. There, they get attacked by gryphons and their riders, who are the enemies of Navarre. This whole outing is part of war games that the college puts on to bring students closer to graduation. Also while these war games are going on, Violet blows Jack Barlowe to bits with her new signet from Tairn (lightning powers).
Afterwards, Violet and Xaden’s relationship turns romantic and Violet finds out that Xaden really isn’t a bad guy and looks out for other orphans of the rebellion.
For the final task of the war games, Violet goes with Xaden to an out posting and learns that he’s friends with gryphon riders. He tells her that they aren’t the enemy. Venin are and her dead father knew that Navarre has been hiding their existence which is why he gave Violet the book of fables. After this, venin and wyvern swarm the posting and a colonel from the college knew this was going to happen and sent Violet and Xaden there in the hopes that they’d get killed.
After a crazy battle, they lose Liam and almost lose Violet as well. Violet wakes up some time later and finds out that her brother, Brennan, is actually alive and right in front of her.
Iron Flame Recap
Iron Flame starts when Brennan and Xaden agree that Xaden, Violet, and their team should go back to the college as if they were still participating in the war games. Brennan thinks the venin will attack Navarre soon and they need someone on the inside. Violet is given a ward stone that could potentially protect them, she just needs to learn how to use it.
We also learn that Andarna is quickly growing and must enter a deep sleep to finish the growth process.
When they arrive back at the college, it’s graduation. They accuse Colonel Aetos of sending them to die and he says Violet’s sister will be harmed if the truth gets out. Xaden is then stationed far away and Violet can only see him once a week because of their dragons’ mating bond. She is mad at Xaden, though, for keeping secrets like her brother still being alive.
Since Violet is now a second year, she becomes a squad leader for first years including Liam’s sister, Sloane, and Aaric, the son of King Tauri. There’s also a new commander at the college named Major Varrish and the dude causes major problems.
Violet gets help from her scribe friend to find out how the wards were first put up.
Violet and her team undergo crazy interrogation by Major Varrish, escape, and find out Jack Barlowe is alive. Also, he saves Violet from getting killed later during another assassination attempt.
The gang learns about a royal vault and make a plan to go in there and get journals written by the people who put the wards up first. Violet gets taken and tortured, where Dain reads her mind. She shows him the venin and he frees her. Xaden appears just in time to help her kill Varrish and escape. Then, they show the other dragons and riders the venin and many band together to form a revolution.
Because Andarna’s sleep was interrupted, she is underdeveloped and may never carry a rider.
Following a lead from the journals for the ward stone, Violet meets Xaden’s ex-fiancé. This eventually leads them to cross a mountain path with gryphon riders. After this, Xaden is revealed as an inntinnsic along with his other signet.
They hurry back to the college after discovering that the ward may be down. Jack Barlowe has turned venin and broke the wardstone. Wyvern and venin begin attacking their new post and war ensues. They learn that seven dragon types must blow fire on the stone (even though there is thought to be only six types). Andarna is the seventh type of dragon. Violet’s mother sacrifices herself to restore the stone, and we find out that Xaden has turned venin and Jack Barlowe (who nobody trusts anyway) says there’s no cure.
Onyx Storm Review | Heidi Dischler
I AM SO DISTRAUGHT. What was that ending? Like excuse me??? Rebecca Yarros says that she’s taking a break from writing after that ending????? Not fair at all. Anywayyy, let’s get into the review of the actual book, but as you can see, I am so… unwell.
So, we start this book off with Violet searching for a cure for Xaden and also looking for other dragons like Andarna. I’m gonna be honest, this whole thing kind of dragged and felt really confusing most of the time while they were going to the different islands. It felt like the book didn’t have a good sense of direction at first and we kind of just ambled on until you got to a certain point. (I’ll talk more about everything that happened in the spoilers below, but I kind of just want to review the book as a whole first).
With that being said, the first half of the book AT LEAST (it felt like more) dragged for me. I found myself thinking of other things or pausing my book to go do something else because it just didn’t feel like we were getting anywhere. Also, not to mention, this book was confusing as HECK. I felt like there were so many new people who I had no idea existed, we got new lore, we got new tidbits about venin and the ward stones. So much was going on that, with what felt like a slow pace, I was completely lost at times. I even recapped everything from the first two books to be prepared but I definitely should have done a reread because holy cow was I lost. In my defense, though, I know someone who has read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame multiple times and still felt confused by Onyx Storm. So maybe it wasn’t just me.
As far as writing goes and our wonderful characters, you all should already know that Rebecca Yarros is gonna nail it. This book was way better on the romance side of things because you get a ton of angst scenes with Violet and Xaden (there’s also a LOT of spicy scenes compared to what I remember from the first two books). Xaden and Violet do not argue the whole time like a lot of people hated from Iron Flame and more along the lines just love each other while trying to change Xaden’s fate. It was quite depressing at times.
Other than that, the ending was really crazy, but I feel like I should expect that by now from Rebecca Yarros. It does end on an INSANE cliffhanger, so if you want to wait a few months before reading this so you don’t have to wait so long for the next one… I wouldn’t blame you. Literally the ending left me with so many questions and even though a lot of my questions from Iron Flame got answered, I found even more questions for Onyx Storm. Here’s to waiting for at least another year or two until the next novel 🥲.
Spoilers ahead.
Okay, so I wanted to go over a few major points from Onyx Storm that really made me do a double take. And, of course, going over that crazy ending that still has me reeling.
First, Violet sort of “edits” the ward stone so that flyers can wield and a peace treaty is made between the flyers and the dragon riders. Not only that, but we find out that Rebecca Yarros makes Xaden a literal DUKE 😂. I kid you not. Like can this man get any more perfect???
So while they’re traipsing through these isles to find a cure or Andarna’s kind, we meet a strange little girl with white hair like Violet. THIS brings up so many questions for me that were half answered in the end. You also get to meet Xaden’s mother in this one, but not a lot about her, so I’m wondering if she’ll come back around in the next novel.
When they do find other dragons like Andarna, they are literally so rude and my heart was broken for the little dragon because they basically shunned her. A while after this, we find that the dragons were talking about Violet’s second signet (gifted by Andarna) being too powerful. We then find out a while later that she is a dream walker. Why this is too powerful, I have yet to figure out. I think it has something to do with her being able to see into people’s minds while they’re sleeping and she could do literally anything to them (I think, but it wasn’t explained much, so it’ll probably come up a ton in the next book).
Shortly after this, one of the dragons from Andarna’s kind saves them from yet another fight with the venin by powering another ward. The dragon then asks Andarna to go with him. Violet and Andarna sever their bond and Violet can still live because of Tairn.
THEN we find out why Violet has silver hair because her father tried to dedicate her to a temple or something (someone please explain this to me because I was SO confused by the idea of a dedication). It was some kind of betrayal too, although, like I said, I was so confused by this.
This is where we get into the final battle and it is… not as epic as Iron Flame in my opinion. I feel like the random chapter from Rhiannon and the random chapter from Imogen seriously threw it off for me. It felt so… unnecessary. That’s just me, though. Shortly after this final battle, Violet is dragged up to the celebration party for the war being over. Suddenly, Andarna is talking to her again… Tairn is not (but HE IS ALIVE). Xaden is nowhere to be seen, and Violet has a mother freaking wedding ring on her finger!!!!! She can’t even remember the wedding but Xaden up and left her afterwards and apparently Violet asked Imogen to make her forget. I AM NOT OKAY PEOPLE.
Overall, this book was a whirlwind of emotions and I seriously don’t know how to feel. The first half of the book dragged on and felt like an information overload. The last half of the book was absolutely insane and mind blowing. The romance is top tier for this novel and you do get quite a few spicy scenes. I think this one gets a solid 4/5 stars for me. I didn’t feel as excited reading this one as I did with the first two and that first half of the book really took a lot out of me since it was simultaneously somewhat boring and somewhat of an overburden with all the stuff happening.
Source: Audiobook from Apple Books
(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)
