A Guy’s Take on Dragon Warfare and Romantasy Drama

I was sucked into the fantasy and conflict in Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros so much that I had to continue The Empyrean series with Iron Flame. I don’t usually gravitate toward heavily explicit romantasy novels, but I wasn’t going to shy away from diving in.

Let me set the stage for how this went: halfway through the book, things got so intensely graphic that I actually turned to my wife and asked, “Is this really what women want to hear when a guy is talking dirty?” Thank god she said no, because I really can’t imagine myself saying those things to her! I’ll just have to accept that Xaden Riorson’s brand of romance is normal for Navarre, and not the universe I inhabit.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. I am going to spoil everything, so if you haven’t finished the book, turn back now! Talking about the spoilers is the fun part anyway. Let’s get to it.

Pacing: Two Books in One?

Iron Flame picks up exactly where we left off. Violet is coming to terms with the terrifying reality that venin are real, wyvern are not myths, and Navarre’s leadership has been hiding the truth for generations. Oh, and her supposedly dead brother Brennan is alive and leading the Aretian rebellion.

Honestly, this book felt like two books crammed together that easily could have been broken up at the midpoint. The first half focuses on the brutal survival at Basgiath under the sadistic Varrish. When Violet and her allies finally make a break from the war college and directly join the rebellion, the narrative completely shifts. The conflict evolves from surviving school to preparing for a massive, secret war. It’s a long book, and while the fetch-quest to raise the Aretian wardstones dragged slightly, the payoff during the climax was massive.

The Violet and Xaden Relationship Drama

Violet is trying to process these world-shattering revelations while dealing with some massive trust issues regarding Xaden. She resents him for keeping enormous secrets, and their relationship transitions from intensely passionate to intensely complicated.

Here is my hot take, and maybe this is just my male point of view: I was firmly Team Xaden during this drama.

Violet immediately demands no more secrets and wants full transparency. Xaden promises to answer any direct questions about himself honestly, but he draws a line at spilling rebellion secrets. This infuriates Violet, who essentially hits pause on their relationship, demanding total truth while he patiently waits for her to just admit she loves him.

I found Violet’s demand for total transparency pretty juvenile and unrealistic. People naturally want privacy about certain hang-ups or thoughts. Plus, Xaden is literally running a covert war while maintaining his cover within enemy lines. At this point, Violet is a liability to that cause, a fact pointed out to her, which she still barely accepts. As our main character, I wanted her to be a bit more mature and pragmatic. Xaden was clearly making the best decisions he could with the information and trauma he had. Am I crazy for thinking she was being unreasonable?

These revelations don’t just test her romance; they test her friendships. Rhiannon, Ridoc, Sawyer, and the others are slowly pulled into the rebellion. Violet’s internal turmoil over lying to her friends perfectly mirrors Xaden’s struggles with the secrets he kept from her. Watching the squad choose to risk everything to fight the real enemy was one of the strongest emotional arcs of the book.

The Twists: Mind Reading and Venin

The conflict eventually circles back to Basgiath. As the venin threat grows, Violet realizes the college itself is in danger. The climax gives us a massive, chaotic battle involving riders, dragons, wyvern, and venin. But the real shockers came from Xaden.

First: Xaden’s second signet. Throughout the book, characters tease the idea of a rider bonding in a direct bloodline getting a second power. I should have seen it coming, but I was still floored when it was revealed that Xaden is an inntinnsig (a mind reader). He can only read intentions, but considering Navarre executes riders for this exact power, his secrecy was entirely justified. Telling Violet was an ultimate act of trust, and it brilliantly recontextualized why he always came off so cool and collected around others.

Second: That ending. In the final fight, desperate to save Violet, Xaden channels power from the earth, the exact forbidden act that creates venin. He becomes infected by the very corruption they’ve been fighting. The book ends with Violet alive, Basgiath temporarily protected, and Xaden transformed into a massive, terrifying question mark.

Am I Buckling Up for Book Three?

In the end, I genuinely liked this book. A lot of the status quo has been completely disrupted, setting up massive stakes for book three. I will definitely be reading the next installment to see how they handle Xaden’s corruption.

Have you read Iron Flame? If so, are you reading it for the spicy Xaden drama, or are you just here for the dragons and fantasy elements? Let me know in the comments below!