The Empyrean Series: Book 1
Publication Date: May 2, 2023
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros
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.
Fourth Wing by New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros is a must-read for fantasy lovers. Yarros sweeps readers into a world of grueling power, magic, forbidden love, and my favorite, dragons.
Fourth Wing takes place in Navarre at Basgiath War College, known most popularly for molding some of the most powerful dragon riders in the land. Our heroine, Violet Sorrengail, having been a star pupil all her life, had planned on entering the Scribe Quadrant, a life of quiet study awaiting her. Violet’s mother, a severe and powerful war general, had other plans for her daughter and forced her to join the Riders Quadrant instead. Wary and unequipped, Violet enters the Riders Quadrant to a life of danger, violence, and chaos.
While not the life she would have chosen, Violet quickly makes allies, learns to protect herself, and realizes things and people are not always what they seem. We read as Violet navigates this new world and relies on the strength from her past life and advice from someone lost long ago.
As I’ve mentioned in some of my previous reviews, one of the things I rate books on is how easily I can immerse myself in the story. When I started reading Fourth Wing, I was fully engrossed in the story from Chapter One. I could see the War College, feel the surroundings, and envision the characters thanks to Yarros’s descriptive writing.
Unlike other novels I’ve read, Yarros didn’t start slow and build up to something exciting at the end. The entire book was a thrill. She showed early on how all her characters were prone to rash, heroic, and sometimes dangerous decisions. This is another reason for my 5-star rating: all the actions, reactions, missions, and feelings of the characters made sense. She didn’t lull you into thinking a character was one way and then flip the switch. She prepares the reader throughout the novel so the readers aren’t left shocked but ready to greet it when a big reveal happens.
To my chagrin, I know magic, dragons, and Basgiath War College are not real, but I still found myself easily relating to the characters. I understood them, felt for them, and was rooting for them. When I’m able to do that, a 5-star rating is a no-brainer.
Fourth Wing is the novel fantasy lovers have been waiting for. Our heroine, Violet, goes from quiet scribe to fierce rider, weakest link to strongest asset, and sworn enemy to passionate lover. It is a tale of strength, passion, and unyielding power. 
Rebecca Yarros is the New York Times bestselling author of more than fifteen novels, with multiple starred Publishers Weekly reviews and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. A second-generation army brat, Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for more than twenty years. She’s the mother of six children, and she and her family live in Colorado with their stubborn English bulldogs, two feisty chinchillas, and a cat named Artemis, who rules them all.
Having fostered, then adopted their youngest daughter, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October, which she cofounded with her husband in 2019.
