Fourth Wing

The Book in 1 Sentence

Twilight's Bella learns to ride a dragon with some 50 Shades of Grey level smut being forced onto characters being called "love."

Brief Review

An interesting book that I enjoyed reading and was a nice change to the magic of dragons and how humans interact with them. The layers of character building and expectation does have a bit of "Girls rule the world" and the protagonist has a large case of Deus Ex Machina which if you have read previous reviews know that I can't stand when that is the plot them.

Why I Read this book

My wife and I have a friend that is currently deployed and we sent this book (As it is a popular book right now) to them. When I was asking about it she gave me a synopsis that I sounded good. She also said she was going to read it so I thought it would be nice to read together.

In-Depth Review

So this book has a great section of world building to present the world in which it is at. However, there are some really bad sign post that point toward the events that are going to happen next. Even the main character, Violet, seems to know exactly what is going to happen next and before the introduction of power's that added more to this precognition.

I did really enjoy this book. The characters were believable in their stances on the framing of science, politics, and the somewhat discussed religion. What I will say the author did a great job was their presenting the backstory of the ruling classes and civil war. This was the one part of the story that I was never really sure of other than that the story we were told in the beginning was not 100% accurate. There was a great line early in the book that hinted at strong corruption and hidden truths that Violet wasn't aware of. I won't give up the line, but it is decent early.

I feel I need to speak about the line in my "Book in 1 Sentence" section. From the onset of Violet meeting Ryderson (I listen to the book so I am unsure of the spelling) there is this "My body is weak and burning for him," in fact there is a common line where she says "He is like a drug" which I swear is stolen from the book/movie of Twilight. That constant conversation in her head of "I need him", "My body quivers", etc. etc. etc. are constant throughout the book and only gets worse as the book continues. Also, the sex scenes are relatively graphic as someone who has never read a fantasy smut book so it for sure caught me by surprise when an entire chapter or 2 are straight sex. The author does note that in the beginning of the book so I guess I should have listened.

The last thing that really has set this book down is the writing forcing a sequel. Granted the book is set in year one of a three year school so that makes sense, but where they left it doesn't really set forth the end of the year. It just seems like a sales tactic that I think is pointless in books. If the writing is good, you don't need to force a cliff hanger that doesn't sum up what the beginning of the book/the entire book has talked about.

The magic and dragon fighting is really interesting. I am actually really happy with the way it is presented because it was something VERY new. Tattoos and marks and powers that are specific to the riders is a great way to introduce a wide powerset. I was really happy with it.

Rating

Overall, I enjoyed the book. When I saw how long it was, I expected the biggest issue was going to be pacing, but in reality that was well done. I never felt the book was too long, or a scene was too long. The characters are enjoyable, the fight scenes are detailed, and the story is really good. I was happy with the book. What kills it is the predictability and eye rolling infatuation/lustfulness of characters. It is overwhelming. I will read the next book in the series (at this time there are 2 books, supposedly a third is being written) as I enjoy the story and want to see how it ends. It is a 7.5 and I hate to give it a half point, but it isn't an 8 and a 7 seems low for how much I enjoyed the world, but it I was going to choose a single value it would be a 7.