Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: A Spoiler Free Review for Romantasy Writers

UPDATED Oct. 2024 Working Title: Normally I don't like military stories—but Xaden Riorson just changed my mind❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Cover art of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

---

To be honest, I had mixed feelings about reviewing Fourth Wing. Any title that generates this much hype also provokes a fair amount of hate. I’ve seen TikToks with readers clutching their highly annotated, sprayed-edge hardbacks to their chest as they swoon. I’ve also read reviews from bloggers I trust including Smart Bitches Trashy Books who DNF’d this volume.

My experience was closer to the former than the later. I loved the story so much I bought it as an e-book and audio so I didn’t have to stop what I was doing to find out what happened next at Basgaith War College. Was the writing perfect? No. Was it entertaining? YES. And that is the thing. Writers should always aim for excellence in their craft. But at the end of the day, readers simply want a fun story.

Overview

Fourth Wing introduces readers to Violet Sorrengail when her plans to become a scribe are upended by her unfeeling bitch of a mother, the commanding general of the army in the fictional world of Navarre. Violet finds herself vying to be chosen as a dragon rider who will eventually fight on the front lines in a college setting that is just as deadly as any battlefield. Told in close, first person POV, the story present takes place over the course of the academic year. Perhaps this tried and true method of structuring the story around the academic calendar is what gives this book its YA vibe, though I would argue anyone who has learned to be as comfortable with their sexuality as these characters have matured to adulthood. Faced with imminent death on a regular basis, they are riding more than dragons.

Each chapter begins with a snippet from an in-world document created by the scribes. Who doesn’t love authors that sprinkle in a little epistolary exposition in their long form novels? There are also occasional flashbacks to moments with her scribe father prior to his death. These flashbacks set up information that is fully revealed in the the story’s climax. While the foreshadowing borders on overt, making some readers question if Violet truly is as intelligent as everyone believes, the ending is satisfying, managing one twist I did not see coming that was nothing short of masterful. I shouted “WHAT?” loud enough for my husband to think I was having trouble formatting a Word doc rather than fangirling.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Romance: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 4 out of 5 hot peppers.

⚔Enemies to lovers

🏡Boy next door

🔺 Love triangle

⚡Accidental burst of…magic

Worldbuilding/Fantasy Elements:

🐉Dragons

👿 Shadow Daddy

☯ Dark and Light magic

Trigger Warnings: Extreme violence and needless death

The Romance: Over the top fantastic

There is a reason Fourth Wing is going to win all of the romantasy reader awards for 2023. It combines a second-world fantasy dragon war college with some hot romance tropes: the boy next door, love triangles, enemies to lovers, fated/bonded mates, and accidental burst of magic during climax.

🔥🔥🔥🔥Four flames—of dragon fire. Though there are only two explicit sex scenes, Yarros opted to use real-life naughty words and anatomically correct language during the sexual acts. For everyone who laughed at how ACOTAR always uses euphuisms, here is a book for you. For anyone uncomfortable with the the word clit—well this book (and Substack) is not for you.

Kudos also to the author for writing characters who are able to express their wants in the bedroom. The sex is hot because these partners are able to help each other achieve maximum pleasure as an act of love rather than release. This is everything I personally want in on-page romantic antics. The physical descriptions of Xaden will leave anyone attracted to men drooling.

In true romantasy fashion (rather than pure romance), the love story does not reach a conclusion by the last page, setting up the conflict and sexual tension for book two. I have ZERO complaints about the romance aspects of this novel.

I also loved the fact the dragons in this world are BAD ASS. A few years ago, I read the first three books of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series. In some ways, it was an academic exercise. That was during my “I’m going to read NPR’s top 100 Fantasy and Sci-Fi books” phase of being a librarian. I’m glad I did, simply because that series originated many of the most-loved dragon tropes, including the idea of bonding and being able to communicate telepathically. Those tropes feature heavily in this series.

Fourth Wing was the book I wanted to read when I was slogging through Pern or imagining exactly what sort of naughty things Queen Glory and Deathbringer do off page in the children’s series Wings of Fire.

I repeat. Fourth Wing is the dragon book I’ve been waiting for.

The Fantasy: Flubs and Falters

In my honest opinion, the copy editor that worked on Fourth Wing did not fully understand the rules of creating a believable second-world fantasy. That, combined with some conflict that felt like a plot contrivance rather than being organic to the world, is the reason this book is good but not excellent. What a shame. With a bazillion copies now in print, that won’t be fixed unless there is a 10th anniversary edition.

On the one hand, stakes and conflict are key to a good story. The stakes for the entirely of this book are life and death. The conflicts contrived to illustrate said stakes border on ridiculous. Students have free reign to MURDER other students with impunity because only the strongest humans appeal to the dragons. Its more twisted than The Hunger Games, which is saying something since that was a novel featuring kids killing kids. After all, we knew Panem was bad. Most of these folks have signed up to fight for Navarre (minus Violet and the children of the rebellion leaders).

Ummm—if you’re not the strongest, can’t you be useful elsewhere in society? Doesn’t the army need folks at desk jobs? Or at least have the dragons doing the un-aliving by incinerating the weaklings rather than having the students trying to off each other. Yet if this was introduced, half of the plot beats would suddenly disappear, making for a much shorter read. This is one aspect of the book where you have to suspend your disbelief and simply go with it. However, typing this makes me sad because I’d like to see the current “IT” romantasy book hold up a better under a critical lens.

There were other worldbuilding slips I found less forgivable. Violet wears a size seven shoe. Judging by the description of her build, that’s a size seven American shoe. These are people that live in stone fortresses, so how the hell are they mass producing footwear? In American standard sizes no less? And the months have the same names as we do here on planet earth. Unless Navarre has a whole lot more in common with Pern than I assumed, that was a blatant copy-edit oversight. Small details like that yank the reader out of the second-world. If you’re like me, you’re trying desperately to escape the real-world via novel, and these oversights ruin the immersion.

My Favorite Steamy Quote

““I would rather lose this entire war than live without you, and if that means I have to prove myself over and over, then I'll do it. You gave me your heart, and I'm keeping it.”

Conclusion

Despite some overt flaws in the story structure, if you are writing romantasy, you must read Fourth Wing. Hell, who am I kidding? If you’re reading this Substack, you’ve likely already re-read Fourth Wing and the sequel Iron Flame. I’ve already pre-ordered Onyx Storm, which drops on January 21, 2025. If you’re not familiar with Ivy Gwendolline’s fan art for sale, check out her Fourth Wing merch.

If you enjoyed this post, please hit the subscribe now button! Would you like a more in-depth discussion of the character arcs, tropes, and worldbuilding of Fourth Wing? Let me know in the comments.

***This post was updated to the new format as a part of the one year Romantasy Realms anniversary post. ~ICD

---

---