I saw readers rave about this book on Instagram and TikTok and so I checked it out and it was wonderful. I don’t often read fantasies but I was quickly immersed into this fantasy world and couldn’t put the book down. There are dragons, romance, friends and enemies.

Violet Sorrengail is twenty years old and has been preparing her whole life to be a scribe, following in her father’s footsteps. But his heart gave out a year ago and now that he’s gone, her mother tells her she must learn to be a dragon rider following in the footsteps of her mother, older brother, and older sister. The action starts right away when she arrives at school to train with hundreds of cadets competing to become part of the elite dragon riders of Navarre to protect their country from gryphons, wyverns and other dangers. The training is very dangerous and many cadets do not survive. She has an unnamed chronic illness which affects her joints and ligaments and makes her more prone to injury. But she is very smart, resourceful and excellent at throwing daggers. To succeed, the cadets must bond with a dragon and they don’t usually choose riders who are fragile, but instead incinerate those seen as weak links.

Dain Aetos is a wing leader and Violet’s childhood best friend. He worries about how Violet will survive and checks in with her often in a way that quickly becomes suffocating. Dain is handsome but Violet finds herself instead drawn to Xaden Riorson, the most powerful, ruthless and beautiful wing leader of the rider squadron. He is the son of a rebel leader that tried to overthrow the government and Violet’s mother, a general, was responsible for his death. This is an enemies to lovers story with spice. Xaden finds himself attracted to Violet’s her courage, kindness and cleverness. And Xaden has more layers to him as we see he isn’t the ruthless killer everyone thinks he is. She ended up in his squadron and I loved how he believed in her and encouraged her to leverage her strengths to survive. The tension heats up between them and their chemistry sizzles.

One of the things I appreciated was that Violet was not naturally the best at everything. In a school that valued physical strength, she’s able to compete with her peers using her knowledge along with a diary left behind by her brother that gave her tips on how to succeed. And while many of the cadets were ruthless there was camaraderie in Violet’s group and they helped each other and became a sort of family, like when they were all trying to get through an obstacle course that at first looked impossible.

As Violet survives and thrives at school she starts to wonder if there is more going on that their leaders aren’t telling them about the war outside of their borders and I was on the edge of my seat.

My favorite part was reading about the dragons. I was captivated by them, especially the golden one. The dragons communicate with each other and with their riders telepathically and this part was fun, especially when they get snarky with each other. When dragons bond with humans, their riders have special powers that can be anything from controlling shadows to reading minds to a host of other impressive magic which I don’t want to spoil. There are also some wonderful friends like Rhiannon, Gerrit, Deign and Liam. I really liked Violet and she has a lot of personal growth in the story with the help of her friends. One thing that was sad was how brutal the training is. A lot of cadets die in training or battles. The story is emotional and heartfelt.

I read in an Amazon interview that the author was excited to write about a heroine with a chronic illness based on Ehlers-Danlos, which she has and she hoped readers with chronic illnesses would be inspired by her.

I recommend this story to anyone who enjoys fantasy, romance and dragons. I thought it was a real page turner and it would make a fun beach read. It has a great plot twist and surprise at the end and I think it lives up to all the hype. I look forward to the second book in the series, Iron Flame, that is coming out November 7th.