Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2)
4.7 | 398,492 ratings
Price: 14.99
Last update: 02-02-2026
Product details
- ASIN : B0C4JMJBNX
- Publisher : Entangled: Red Tower Books
- Accessibility :
- Publication date : November 7, 2023
- Language : English
- File size : 6.0 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 886 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1649375858
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Book 2 of 3 : The Empyrean
- Best Sellers Rank:#58 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Sword & Sorcery Fantasy (Books)
- Epic Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- Epic Fantasy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:4.74.7 out of 5 stars(385,210)
Top reviews from the United States
- Literary LureFire and blood: a love story of epic proportions.???? Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
★★★★★
In the hollow aftermath of turning the final page, I sit with the beautiful wreckage of what Rebecca Yarros has done to my soul. Iron Flame doesn't merely continue a story—it carves itself into your bones, leaving echoes that reverberate long after you've set the book down.
The evolution of Violet Sorrengail haunts me still. No longer just surviving, she now chooses her path with a fierce intentionality that transforms her fragility into something formidable. Her journey isn't just about physical strength but emotional fortitude—the kind that blooms in darkness, that knows pain intimately and chooses to stand anyway. Through her eyes, we witness the cost of becoming, and it is gloriously, devastatingly human.
And Xaden. Oh, Xaden. His complexity deepens like a shadow at dusk, revealing layers that both terrify and captivate. When he says, "I'm not sweet or soft or kind, and you fell anyway. This is what you get, Violet—me. The good, the bad, the unforgivable. All of it. I am yours," it resonates not as romantic fantasy but as raw confession. Their relationship breathes with authenticity—messy, magnetic, maddening in its truth.
What makes Iron Flame transcendent is how it refuses simple morality. The lines between right and wrong blur into watercolors of gray, asking us not who is good or evil, but what price we're willing to pay for what we believe. Every character stands at this precipice, making choices that ripple through the narrative like stones cast into still water.
Andarna emerges as a brilliant counterpoint to the darkness, her cleverness and heart providing moments of light when the shadows threaten to consume. She isn't just Violet's dragon but a character coming into her own power, reminding us that strength wears many faces.
If there's a flaw in this diamond, it's that the relentless pace occasionally steals moments that deserve more breath, more space to fully absorb their weight. Some revelations come so quickly that their emotional impact doesn't fully land before we're swept into the next storm.
Yet even this feels intentional—a mirror of Violet's world, where pause means vulnerability, where reflection is a luxury rarely afforded. The book demands you keep up or be left behind, much like Basgiath itself.
Iron Flame doesn't just continue a story, it elevates it. It transforms what could have been simply entertainment into something that feels necessary, vital. It leaves you hollow not from emptiness but from having been filled to breaking with something too vast to contain.
???? What to Expect
✨ Epic Fantasy
???? Slow Burn Romance
???? Grumpy/Sunshine Dynamic
???? Complex Politics & Power Struggles
???? Deep Emotional Growth
???? Magical Beasts or Sentient Magic
⚔️ A Lead Who Fights for More Than Survival
???? Book Tags
Keywords: Dark Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Political Intrigue, Found Family, Survival, War
Tropes: Grumpy/Sunshine, Enemies to Reluctant Allies, Found Family, Mentor/Protegé, Slow Burn, Power Couple
Triggers: Slavery, Violence, War Themes, Grooming (discussed), Sexual Assault (mentioned, not shown), Emotional Abuse, PTSD
???? Final Thoughts
Some books entertain. Some books transport. Iron Flame transforms. It asks not just what you would die for, but what you would live for—broken, scarred, and still standing. This isn't just fantasy; it's poetry written in fire and blood. - Diana The Book NerdA fantastic story with masterful use of technique, an intricate plot, and fascinating characters!Iron Flame (The Empyrean Book 2) Kindle Edition
by Rebecca Yarros (Author)
I blame Anne McCaffrey for my love of dragons and their riders. Rebecca Yarros, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons had a lot to live up to, in fact, the entirety of Pern! And Ms. Yarros does live up to Ms. McCaffrey.
Where, at times, the first book in the Empyrean felt like a young adult book that had spice added in to move it from the young adult shelf, Iron Flame is fully rooted in adult fantasy, with just the right amount of spice and the perfect measure of angst and pathos.
The relationship between Violet and Xaden sits in the center of the story, but there is so much more. We have siblings with a reason for vengeance, a hidden royal heir, jealous love rivals, and a race for a magical solution. It's all in there. All of the feels and all of the tension. The only issue I had was that about ¼ of the book could have been shaved. In the realm of fantasy and fantasy romance, many authors seem to be in a race to see who can write the longest book. Yes, SJM, JLA, and now Ms. Yarros, I am looking at all of you. Apparently, they are all racing to take the tile of the biggest book away from the Giga Codex.
That said, I am in love with the world that Ms. Yarros has created. It feels very concrete, as if I could smell the dust on the trails that the dragons and the griffins climb, the sweat under the flight leathers, and the spice of the lust that seems to be in the air. It is a real world, tangible, and fascinating.
Ms. Yarros is the new queen of the Shadow Daddy (if you don't know, go look it up). Xaden is not morally grey, so much as he is morally flexible. He is willing to burn the world... heck, he'd burn the universe for Violet, but he is also full of honor and strength.
Violet is not the paragon of virtue or the slightly insane fantasy heroine we are used to. She is very clearly, a fighter – not only of her very real enemies, but also the illness that she must overcome every day to be a rider.
One of the stand out part of Iron Flame is the dialogue. Ms. Yarros is a master of using dialogue to move the story along and to further character development effortlessly. Unless the reader takes a step back from the story (which is as difficult as climbing Everest barefoot!), it isn't easy to see the masterful techniques she utitlizes.
The plot,which at times (as I said before), is a bit overloaded, moves along as fast is possible in this height of book!
To be completely honest, I received this book as a gift (the hardback) from the husband, and also borrowed it from KU when it was available, because I needed them both to finish.
If Fourth Wing lived up to the hype, Iron Flame went beyond the hype into a completely different universe!
Complete with a masterful use of technique, a beautifully built world, and an intricate woven plot, Iron Flame, in fact the entire Empyrean series, is a modern classic that will go down in literary history with the Lord of the Rings, the Dragon Riders of Pern, and the Witchworld stories.
4.75 stars out of 5 (a .25 deduction because some of the book could have been shaved) rounded up to 4 stars out of 5 - Elle ZenaAn addictive sequelIron Flame picks up right where Fourth Wing left off, and it wastes no time putting you right back in. The pacing is slower in some sections, but there is a lot more world-building and political maneuvering compared to Fourth Wing. We get to see the characters deeper and their loyalty. I liked the fact that we get to see more of Violet’s mental strength as she deals with everything she has been through.
The romance is still there, but there are more war, betrayal, and strategy scenes instead. When I was reading the action parts, it was intense and worth the buildup. I also appreciated that more side characters got page time, adding layers to the story outside of just Violet and Xaden.
This book feels darker and heavier than the first, but it kept me engaged and left me eager to see where the series goes next. If you like Fourth Wing, you will want to read Iron Flame.