aleksandra's Reviews > Fourth Wing

1.5/5

New half-year resolution — I need to stop taking recommendations from Booktok.

I’m not gonna to lie here, if this series hadn't been raved about everywhere I looked online, I probably wouldn't have read it. I’m trying to stop reading TikTok popular books, but the rating in this book made me picked it up. Fourth Wing was my first book by Rebecca Yarros, so I didn't know what exactly to expect, but at least now I know that it will be my first and last story by this author, because it turned out not to be for me.

This review probably won't cover all the things I didn't like about it, as I started skipping pages after about sixty percent of the book. But without further ado, let's finally get to the point of my review — what exactly didn't work out for me in this story.

The story didn’t hooked me up from the beginning at all. The main reason for this is probably because the writing style didn't speak out to me. I actually dnfed it the day before, because of that reason, but decided to give it another chance because I thought it might not be my day for it or maybe I wasn't in the right mood after a whole week. At one point I was even glad about this decision, but my enthusiasm didn’t last long. I have to be honest and say that around forty percent of the book I was pretty invested in the story when the dragons finally showed up. Unfortunately, it turned out I was only interested when the dragons were involved. The rest was just boring for me.

The second thing is that I felt no connection to the characters. Literally nothing. I must admit that Violet had some great moments, but most of the time I was just embarrassed by her actions. The example.

“Glad to see our year apart hasn’t dulled your tongue, Vi.”
“Oh,” I toss over my shoulder as we walk into the hallway, “I can do quite a few things with my tongue. You’d be impressed.”

That line sounded like a horny frat boy.

Also, if you didn’t get it that she was short and tiny, the author kept reminding you of that, because that information was indeed very important.

"I’m too short."

“So she’s small.” Mom scans me up and down"

"Good gods, I don’t even reach his collarbone."

"I’m shorter than most."

“You’re pretty small for a rider, but it looks like you made it.”

"I’m at a disadvantage, that I’m too small to climb its foreleg and mount,"

“You’re tiny.” He says it like an insult"

"I’m the smallest of our squad"

“I’m too short for the ramp,” I whisper to Rhi."

“I’m too short to span the distance!” I hiss, uncaring that anyone could hear us."

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That's only from twenty-six percent of the book. I did not include the rest, because I would not have enough space for the rest of my review.

Moving to Xaden — aka, your typical fantasy hero. Seriously. He was your usual tall, black haired, with strong sharp jaw, muscled body, but this time he was riding dragons. I almost forgot, he was

"Flaming hot. Scorching hot. Gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level of hot."

you get the picture. He was also tall. I've written about it before, but we've also been reminded of it a lot. I had to mention that sentence he said here, because I was laughing my ass off at that moment.

"You have incredibly touchable skin.”

Touchable skin? What does it mean buddy?

Honestly, the dragons were more interesting than the main characters here. If the book was about Tairn, I'd probably be more eager to read it. This dragon had better personality than both of them. At least for me. Tairn was literally my favorite character here. That says a lot about how much I enjoyed this book.

The last thing is the romance between Xaden and Violet. This series is supposed to have five books and they already done the deed, are in love — probably because I didn't make it to this part, and have a strong connection — again, probably because I didn't make it to this part. I thought that at least their first meeting, which is usually quite important, will be more spectacular. But, no. They met in the fourth percent of the book and I was like "Well, that’s it? Already?". They were supposed to be enemies to lovers, the reasoning behind it made even sense, but they delivered nothing. I felt no chemistry between them, no tension, especially the sexual one, and no hatred that they should feel towards each other as enemies. Almost every time Violet saw Xaden it went like that.

"I hate him so much"

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"But he is so sexy and beautiful and sexy. And tall."

Not even their first kiss and the cute nickname the hero usually gives the heroine saved them. The first kiss happened after Violet found out that they could feel when their dragons banged. Yes, they could feel their dragons banging. This information made me feel quite uncomfortable. Extremely even. I know they could get rid of that with some magic or whatever, but just why? The nickname "Violence" that Xaden called Violet was tacky and the book could easily have survived without it. Not to mention this line.

"you’re really a violent little thing, aren’t you?”

My only thought was From Blood and Ash. It sounds damn similar. Even though I only read the first book from this series.


Moving forward to the things I liked.

The dragons.


Ending my review, all I will say is that I am pretty sad and disappointed that I didn’t end up liking this book. I wanted to start a new fantasy series that I would be obsessed with, but I guess we can't have everything we want. I’m happy for people who loved it though. Good for you guys.