Iron Flame was a mess, but it was a mess I enjoyed

In the wake of Yarros’ total domination over the fantasy genre, and after devouring her first fantasy debut “Fourth Wing”, I, of course, wanted to read the sequel as soon as it was released. My boyfriend kindly ordered me a copy and it came the following day, and I wasted no time diving back into the dynamic and deadly world that exists within the pages of The Empyrean Series.

Thankfully for me, Iron Flame opened up right where we left off in Fourth Wing. I think this was probably for the best, considering the world is so dense and lore-heavy that I even forgot who some characters were. Particularly across this book, I completely forgot the names of characters, especially dragon names. What I think Yarros could have done is include a comprehensive list at the start of the novel — many authors do this with large and complex stories, and I think it would have been incredibly useful with Iron Flame, especially since this sequel runs for 623 pages.

As I was reading, I wrote down things that immediately stood out for me, which will stand as the structure for this review.

Why does the King of Scars duology exist?

This review contains spoilers for the entire King of Scars duology, as well as references to the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. You have been warned!

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Completing an era of reading, I finally concluded the Grishaverse with the second book in the King of Scars duology. I so distinctly remember purchasing the Collector’s Edition of “Shadow and Bone” because I saw how pretty it was online, and that was before I had developed any meaningful interest in the series since watching the Netflix show. But, after “Shadow and Bone” left me with an insatiable hunger for more Grishaverse content, I was happy to indulge in the rest of the universe’s additions — including the Six of Crows duology and furthermore this duology, as well.

I’ve had my fair share of highs and lows with Leigh Bardugo’s works; “Shadow and Bone” was fabulously exciting, but I felt that “Siege and Storm” and “Ruin and Rising” didn’t follow the level of excitement as the first book. Then, I had a triumph of a time reading “Six of Crows”; I thought it was a book of entertaining, comedic, action-packed genius, but then “Crooked Kingdom” didn’t deliver on the same level as I expected, either, despite having thoroughly enjoyed myself with the first in that duology. Already, you can see a pattern developing here, a pattern that unfortunately followed through and increased when I arrived at the King of Scars duology.

Why I liked Fourth Wing

I think that a lot of people select books to read based on the general hype built around it, which is exactly what I decided to do with Fourth Wing in June 2023 (which was when the bulk of this review was written). This is, apparently, the first fantasy novel from the author Rebecca Yarros, who I suppose is a pretty well established author already, although I had never heard of her until the hype around her fantasy debut reached my ears.

The hype was quite literally impossible to ignore, particularly if you’re part of a book community online. On almost every platform of social media, I heard the cries about Fourth Wing, hailed as the new best fantasy book, the best fantasy release of the year. It was pitched as a sexy fantasy about dragons, which is pretty much enough to get me hooked on a book — just say the word “dragons”, and I’m there. 

So, after a few weeks of putting it off, I caved and went into Waterstones, splurged close to £20 on the big, hefty hardback book hidden in the new releases (likely stored there by some other bookworm, and found coincidentally by myself) and sat down to read this already well loved book.

The Darke Academy series is pure 2009 supernatural goodness

Occasionally, I am at a loss for what to read next. Considering my TBR is piling higher and higher with each passing day, I still seem to ummm and ahhhh over what to pick up next. When that happened at the start of January (while I was waiting for a bookcase to be assembled and for my books to be released from their hostage at my sister’s house), I decided to wander into my mum’s bedroom and read something from her shelf.

My mum has always been into dark, supernatural books. I would say that she was the blueprint for broody romance books, and back in 2009 or around that era, my mum was an avid collector of books from websites like bookswithbite back when they were active. Back when The Vampire Diaries was serving its pilot and Twilight was already leaving its imprint in the world, my mum was there, devouring all types of supernatural media and curating her collection. I often just get overwhelmed looking at her shelves. There’s so much to offer!

So, I, at random, picked a series from her shelf to entertain myself with, which is how I ended up reading Darke Academy by Gabriella Poole. Without this series being on my mum’s shelf, I can’t say I would have ever picked it up myself. Perhaps if I had been my age but back in 2010 when this series was “relevant”, but I have never retained any interest in this series at all. But, there’s a first time for everything, and I decided to try something new for the new year. 

The Darke Academy series was not a series I had any sort of high expectations for. On the contrary, I had low hopes for this being an interesting read for me, but on the whole, I ended up being genuinely surprised by how much I found I enjoyed this series. While I wasn’t rushing to give it any five star reviews, and it was a far cry away from joining any other series in my favourites for the year, I still had a good time with them.

Charlotte Higgins’ New Retellings was a beautiful treat

Aside from its gorgeous aesthetics screaming to me from the display at Waterstones, I knew that Higgins’ retellings were essential readings for me as a newcomer to the Greek retelling genre. There are scores of excellent retellings that I had my eye on, but I decided to listen to Higgins first and take a step into her world and words.

Powerless was my first read of 2024, and I’m actually kinda disappointed…

It is refreshing when I come across a modern fantasy novel that doesn’t have pages and pages dedicated to characters having sex, and I was very excited to dip into Powerless by Lauren Roberts for this reason. Sex isn’t always a bad thing in a book, and sometimes it can turn out to be the best thing, but after a slew of books with lengthy passages on how hard one male character is and how helplessly desirable a female one is, it was nice to head into the world of Powerless without the fear of a fantasy penis hiding behind the next page.

That was about all I knew about Powerless – it was a modern fantasy novel with magic and death and no sex and had reached its fame online in book communities on virtually every platform. I had seen countless five star reviews for Powerless, and so, imagine my disappointment when the hype did not live up to expectation.