Yes, love, I’m jealous.
Onyx Storm
Rebecca Yarros
Empyrean, book three
Hardcover, Deluxe, 544 pages
First published January 21, 2025
ISBN 9781649377159
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty.
Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.
Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.
They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth.
But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.
There are details in these Empyrean books that irk me in a way that truly isn’t worth the effort of putting onto digital paper but just know that my mental image of Violet is with her head on a constant swivel.
Be that as it may...
There are books a reader can’t bring themselves to put down. And there are books a reader must close and so very intently step away from in order to breathe again. To do so in order to think clearly enough to process the clusterfuck of emotions that drive the entire ordeal into a love-hate relationship.
I am there with Onyx Storm.
The more I read, the longer the book became.
And wtf was with Chapter 62? Why are we suddenly jumping into another character’s POV, and Rhiannon no less?! Don’t get me wrong, I like the gal, but being in her head was the last place I needed to be in that moment. Why not Ridoc? Why not Bodhi?? Why not anyone but Rhi???
"I am the second-largest dragon on the Continent and a revered warrior. My tales are legendary. My mate unparalleled. My feats unmatched-"
The unmitigated ego of Tairn... I love him so. Xaden. Andarna. Ridoc. Even Aaric and Bodhi were shining brightly in this installment. The way Ridoc tore into Violet and gave Xaden the what's what. The way Aaric showed Dain again and again how utterly worthless his presence was on their mission to find the irid. The boy was there to play fetch and I enthusiastically applaud it. Violet... She gets the most improved award.
"You don't owe me your friend's secrets."
Hallelujah, girl. Enough with arguing about secrets and the whole I-know-you-can't-tell-me-everything-but-you're-not-telling-me-everything whining. Ugh. These damn Iron Flame flashbacks.
Is it a cliffhanger ending? Yes.
Is it a damn good ending regardless of that fact? Hell. Yes. And if Yarros had stopped it at chapter sixty-five, I don't think we'd have that WTF response going viral through Tiktok. That last chapter... is much.
4.5 out of 5 stars. This series is exhausting.
