Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros ARC Review + Playlist

Synopsis:

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.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda―because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Review:

5 Stars

If you like:

• Strong Willed FMC
• Morally Gray MMC
• Touch Her and I’ll Kill You Vibes
• Enemies to Lovers
• Dragon Bonding

Then this is the book for you!

I’m writing this review enough though I haven’t quite finished the book yet (with about 40 pages left) because I know that the ending will absolutely DESTROY ME, so I have to go ahead and write it because I feel the hangover coming on.

With this book being almost 500 pages long, it’s not enough. The story is captivating with the world building, characters, and the plot had me engaged the entire time I was reading transporting me in to the world of Navarre.

Violet is the youngest of the Sorrengail siblings, and has large shoes to fill with her mother being General, her sister Mira quickly making rake, and her brother who’s been killed on the battlefield who had the abilities as a minder. But, Violet has been trained as a scribe to record and preserve history along side her late father for the majority of her life until her mother forced her onto the path to train as a rider.

Now the time has come for Violet to survive the entrance tests so to speak to get accepted into the academy, and despite the challenges of her physical limitations she makes it thanks to her determination and Mira’s guidance before hand.

Being the General’s daughter has already put a target on Violet’s back for several reasons including the fact that her mother was the cause of the death of the rebels where all of their children of age just so happen to be in the riders academy, including the one bonded to one of the most power dragons, Xaden.

Immediately, Violet finds her childhood best friend Dain who’s now a second year, and makes a friendship and alliance with Rhiannon. Despite all odds, Violet continues to make it through it week by the knowledge that she gained through the years of studying to become a scribe and with the knowledge that the only way she’d get out is if she is killed. Each day brings new challenges with the majority of her opponents wanting to be the one to take her out especially after she is able to bond with not one but two dragons. One of which hasn’t bonded in years and is the mate of Xaden’s dragon which complicates things for them even more because if one of them dies so does the other, and the death of a dragon’s riders causes the dragon to mourn the loss.

At first Violet sees the rider academy as her only chance at life even when she knows that her body isn’t necessarily cut out for the grueling days of training, fighting, and riding dragons, but it’s better than running to join the scribes who would be more than happy to welcome her with open arms because Violet knows that her mother would only uproot her and force her to become a rider.

She and her squad make an unlikely pack and try to help strengthen their weakness and form a strong group. Violet’s mindset and changes to one where she has accepted her future as a rider, and faces each day’s challenges head on while learning how to use her own weaknesses to her advantage.

Xaden… he’s something else. That’s all I can say because who doesn’t love a little enemies to lovers when at first he wants to end Violet for being the daughter of the woman who killed his family to having to protect her because his life literally depends on it to showing his interest to Violet yet still holding back because he knows of the dangers. It just ugh… the swooning that occurred because of his constant red flags but the inability to give a care because in his unique ways, he almost always protected Violet by causing her to prepare her for sparring and riding by making her practice with some of the best as her wingleader.

He finds the loopholes to help her in a couple of instances that ended up saving her life, which is more than her childhood best friend would have done as Dain is a stickler for the rules to become wingleader in the upcoming year when the third years graduate.

This book is the explosive start the a captivating series as this book will leave you hanging onto every word with each turn of the page. With its smart mouthed characters, unlikely bonds between the riders and dragons, and the undeniable chemistry between Violet and Xaden, you won’t want to this story to end.

Playlist:

• I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift
• Carousel by 5SOS
• I Lived by OneRepublic
• Motion by Luke Hemmings
• Lover of Mine by 5SOS
• Bad Omens by 5SOS
• Electric Love by BORNS
• Do I Wanna Know by Arctic Monkeys
• Back to You by Louis Tomlinson and Bebe Rexha

Happy reading until next time,