Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Overall Rating: 6.3/10

Entertainment Value: 8/10

A easy to read, entertaining, palate cleanser. Nothing like a fantasy book about dragons and a hint of cheesy romance with the tall brooding man who only has eyes for her. The book is essentially about a dragon riding academy and the protagonist (Violet Sorrengail) is forced by her mom into the riding branch of the college, though she’d prefer being a scribe (more like a historian and recording information?). Her mom was the general in the squashing of the uprising from a area in the country and was responsible for the execution of the leaders of the uprising, leaving behind the children of the rebels whom are conscripted into the riders academy as punishment. The tall brooding man is called Xaden, his dad lead the rebellion, and is out for Violet to avenge his father. Long story short, she’s very powerful, bonds to two dragon, one of whom is the mate of Xaden’s dragon, hence essentially bonding them together as a result. Obviously, they fall in love. One issue I had with this book is the internal dialogue, or telepathy, between Violet and her dragons. One would expect a thousand year old mythical beast to have a more formal, overly serious vocabulary set, but somehow these dragons seemed like they were teenagers based on the way they conversed. It just irked me because it doesn’t seem very compelling in painting a picture of a dragon. It’s no literary masterpiece. Overall, it was very entertaining, so I guess job well done!