A perfect series for new and experienced fantasy readers alike – the Empyrean Series is a fabulous introduction to a world of dragons and humans navigating a war threatening to destroy their population entirely.

I typically shy away from novels that have dragons as a main focal point. I don’t normally feel a strong pull towards their personalities or contributions to novels. Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, however, depicted the dragons and their bonded riders in a delightfully entertaining manner. I absolutely loved it, and greatly enjoyed the relationships and bonds between the foursome of Violet, Tairn, Sgaeyl and Xaden.

The premise of the series centers around a “university” type school for young adults entering the age to train for war. Think of a more deadly Hogwarts atmosphere. There are several different quadrants to pick from (to name a few: scribe, healer, dragon rider). All quadrants are ultimately trained to protect the realm of Basgiath against potential enemies.

Violet, our main protagonist, lived her entire life training as a scribe. Her intellect, attention to detail and ability to deduce solutions were guiding her to become the world’s most adept scribe. However, after the unexpected death of her father, Violet’s mother (the General of the entire military) forces Violet into the Rider quadrant instead of the Scribes. Seemingly sentencing her to an unavoidable death.

As Violet enters into the riders quadrant, she begins to learn and train a part of herself she never knew existed. As Violet survives challenge after challenge, she begins to wonder if she truly could excel as a rider. She begins to wonder if perhaps, she was meant to fly rather than bury herself in books.

As Violet progresses through the quadrant, she ultimately bonds with one of the most powerful dragons in existence, Tairn – who happens to be mated with the second most powerful dragon, Sgaeyl. This mating also bonds Violet to Sygael’s rider, Xaden.

As Violet and Xaden’s relationship grows, Violet soon begins to unravel a truth that was hidden from her for the entirety of her life. She discovers that every history book and fact she studied in her youth, was a masquerade that has been covering up the truth for decades, if not longer. This truth is slowly becoming a stark reality that will ultimately change the world forever, if the world survives.

Fourth Wing and Iron Flame are to be part of a larger series – The Empyrean Series. I’m all in. The next novel is not going to be released until the end of 2024, so we do have quite a wait. And Iron Flame ended on QUITE the cliff hanger. My heart broke, shattered actually, at the end of the novel.

Through the first two novels, I grew to LOVE Xaden and his team of “marked” individuals. They are all heartwarming in their relationships with each other, and soon, with Violet. Their bond is strengthened from tragedy, love and determination to save the world.

Most novels have a strong set of secondary characters, but I didn’t find that in Iron Flame. I loved the main set of characters, but there were few side characters that I truly connected to in the novel. The marked ones are all great contributors, but we did not learn enough about them to truly build a relationship with them. I think the strongest character outside of the core foursome is Adarnya, but I would probably include her in the primary set of characters and protagonists, given her relationship to Violet. Adarnya added a level of humor and lightness to the novel that made a better balance to the dark, violent world.

The Empyrean Series has such promise to be the new “Harry Potter” of its time (albeit a little more sexually expletive for it to reach too young of an audience). I loved every chapter and absolutely will be investing in the next novel, after its release.

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