Brainfullofbooks

                I spent a lot of time thinking over this book and unfortunately, after careful consideration I have to say I was disappointed with Iron Flame. My overall impression was that it was a mixed bag.  The plot was fantastic: very engaging with plenty of twists and turns. The ending was strong too. It contained revelation after revelation and reminded me of a Sarah J Maas book with the punches it packed.  However, any good done by the plot was undone by Xaden and Violet’s relationship. I had hoped this book would see them work through their issues. . .but Yarros took the opposite route: Instead, it borders on toxic. The two of them just become more entrenched in their problems until it’s downright dysfunctional. Xaden and Violet spend most of the time they’re together arguing and though at first it seems they’re fighting about different things, at the heart of it is the same issue: honesty and trust.  They go back to the fact they can’t be honest or trust each other over and over.  It got to the point where it was more annoying than anything and more than once I found myself thinking “Are we really going back to this?” and “Can we move on now, please?”.  The annoyance of this dysfunction overshadowed whatever good was in this book for me. That’s partly why this review is so short: there was little positive for me to say.  But hopefully Yarros will learn from her mistakes and do better in the coming installment. Though obviously she hasn’t announced the next book or when we can expect it to hit store shelves, it’s only a matter of time.