About the Book
-
Author:
- Rebecca Yarros
- Genres:
- Fantasy
- Man-Woman Romance
- New Adult
- Voices:
- Cis Girl
- Straight
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Smoky
BFF Charm: Yay*
Talky Talk: Tolkien-ish
Bonus Factors: Ridoc, Diaries
Factor: Bridge Book Blues?
Relationship Status: Straining the Bond
Red alert! Onyx Storm is the second book in the Empyrean series. If you have not read the first books in the series (Fourth Wing and Iron Flame), man your battle stations turn away now, as there might be spoilers in this review. If you’re caught up, however, feel free to continue below.
Cover Story: Smoky
I continue to think these covers are good-looking, but the changes from one to the next, aside from the colors, are so minor, I’m running out of things to say.
The Deal:
Everyone in Navarre now knows about the venin and their wyverns. Everyone as Basgiath now knows about Aretria. Everyone in the Sorrengail family now knows that Brennan is alive. But no one can stop to catch their breath, not when the venin are becoming a larger problem every day and tensions are still high between the dragon riders and gryphon riders. And then there’s the issue of Xaden and his slip-up …
Violet is on a quest—to find a cure for venin-ism and find Andarna’s family. A quest that will lead her to lands unknown or forgotten, and people who don’t care that the continent is falling to ruin. A quest that might see everything she holds dear fall apart at the already fraying seams.
BFF Charm: Yay*
Violet’s … fine. She’s great, really. She is a badass warrior woman with an unhealty codependency with her boyfriend, who is quite literally turning evil before her eyes, but she’s chill. She knows how to take care of herself (sometimes) and knows that she’ll triumph in the end (maybe). I truly feel for her, but I continued to forget that she’s 21 years old. An actual adult. I’m not fully Roger Murtaugh about her, but I need something to change in the next book or our friendship is gonna suffer.
Swoonworthy Scale: 5
There are only two spicy scenes in all of Onyx Storm‘s 527 pages. I don’t need spice, but it’s telling that in a series that started at a Swoonworthy Scale of 9 has fallen so low. Xaden and Violet spend much of this book apart, and when they are near, there’s often something getting in the way, from the leaders of Basgiath sticking their noses where they don’t belong to Xaden being his typical overly dramatic “You can’t come near me! But I can’t resist you.” self. Would it have made sense to have more spice? Not really, given the events of the novel, but I’m not sure I can take four more books of this unhealthy pining.
Talky Talk: Tolkien-ish
The Empyrean series is one fraught with tension, battles, and vital quests, and Onyx Storm leans much more into that than the books that have come before. Violet has to find a cure for Xaden. And therefore she has to help Andarna find her kind. This meant that she and her friends went on a not-really-sanctioned mission to places her people had long lost contact with. (Or, so she assumed.) There are still a good amount of entertaining conversation between Tairn and Violet—
“Are you all right?” I ask Tairn, my voice cracking.
“I am not deceased.” He gains his feet, his talons digging into the rocky soil.
Relief pricks at my eyes, and my vision wobbles.
“Do not dehydrate on my account,” he lectures. “It takes more than weather to fell me.” His golden gaze drops to my knee. “Wish I could say the same for you.”
“Yeah, you’re just fine,” I mutter, then turn toward Garrick, who’s already picking up one of my lost daggers.
—but much of the rest of the book feels more like the quest to Mordor than the Battle of Helm’s Deep.
Bonus Factor: Ridoc
The weight of the entire series is currently riding on Ridoc Gamlyn’s himbo-riffic shoulders.
Ridoc’s shoulders dip. “So where’s the line? At what point is he too far gone for you to defend him?”
My mouth opens then shuts. “There isn’t one. Not one he’d actually cross.”
“Really?” He lifts his brows. “What if he hurts someone you love? Will that change your mind?”
“He wouldn’t.” I shake my head. “He hasn’t in all these months. He won’t.”
He clasps my shoulders. “Not good enough. Give me a real, logical line he has to cross for you to walk away, and I’ll keep the secret. I’ll help you scour every fucking book you can find. I’m here for the I’m-going-to-save-my-man-at-all-costs mantra and will be on your side in this horrifically dangerous situation if you can just acknowledge there’s a breaking point. You can put all your faith in him as long as you leave a little logic for yourself.”
Bonus Factor: Diaries
As part of her search for answers, Violet comes across books that used to belong to her father, books that are both a help and a hindrance in her quest for answers. Who was Asher Daxton Sorrengail? And when are we going to get a series about him and his adventures?
Factor: Bridge Book Blues?
Well, I got what I wished for in my review of Iron Flame: there was much more fighting between the venin and the good guys in this book. It still felt like a bridge to what’s to come, though. But as I think about it, I wonder if I’m not just used to a more fast-paced world in which cataclysmic, world-changing events have to be wrapped up in a trilogy. There’s a lot to unpack in this series, and so many more questions than answers at this point. Maybe I’m the problem here.
Relationship Status: Straining the Bond
Did we have a good time, Book? Sure. Are there things that could have gone better? Yes. I think we’re past the honeymoon phase, but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to stick things out. We can work together to get past our hurdles and long as we’re both willing to put in the work. Things are hard right now, but we have to have hope for the future.
Literary Matchmaking
Part of me wishes that I could go back to the first book in Yarros’s Empyrean series and feel as giddy about everything as I did then. The world is a darker place, now. I long for that light.
George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is filled with battles and dragons and angst and women doing questionable things for power… and is also still unfinished, much like the Empyrean.
Mary Weber’s Storm Siren series also features elemental magic and women with silver-white hair.
FTC Full Disclosure: I purchased a copy of this book with my own money and got neither a private dance party with Tom Hiddleston nor money in exchange for this review. Onyx Storm is available now.
