Fourth Wing

The Fourth Wing is spicy fantasy, I'm not sure how high it ranks within that crowd of books (mainly because I don't usually read spicy fantasy) but it was a good read, I liked it. The premise is a crowd-pleaser, who doesn't love dragons! And the school/academy setting puts it among the rest of the heavy hitters. I enjoyed the characters and their growth, I found the dialogue charming and contemporary, if a little out of place. It's no wonder this book is topping the charts right now.

This was a book club pick so I just dove right in, the buzz about the internet was that this was the start of a great new fantasy series so I figured it'd be in my wheelhouse. I will give credit where it's due, as a fantasy story this book has an incredibly strong opening and introduction into its world. The imagery and illustration of the magic were also top-notch! This is a story about a college where new adults are transformed into dragon riders, and getting to go along for that first ride was exhilarating (Really the high point of the book for me). There's definitely a world to explore around here, and I found myself getting impatient to explore it. It was about halfway through that I realized that while this is a fantasy book, it is a romance novel first.

I did know that I was diving into something a little explicit here, but I didn't realize that the second half of the book would transform into a full-on romance. This being the first romance I've read in a while, it took me a while to catch on to the quirks of the genre. The romance is worth reading, I liked our characters and I liked how the romantic plot played out (Team Xaden for sure). I also have to say that I liked the language choice when it came to the explicit portions, I hate it when authors get too artsy or too clinical with their smut, this is how it should be done. If I had one note as far as the romantic plot was concerned it was that the main love interest seemed incapable of saying the wrong thing. I swear that guy had a line for everything, and from the brief glimpse into his perspective, it seemed like he was incredibly self-aware. There is such a thing as too perfect of a guy, and he's toeing the line.

There is a reason that I don't really gravitate to this genre, and it's primarily because of its overreliance on tropes. I think that when your story is focused on the intimate details of its characters it tends to paint the plot in broad and predictable strokes. I enjoyed the romance, a nice and steamy enemies-to-lovers romp, vanilla but not too vanilla, right in the pocket. I did not enjoy having my access to Dragons shut off just so the horny 20-somethings can get it on, especially when it's a little bit of a slow-burn romance that takes up the next 200 pages. (I totally agree that this could have used 50% less horniness and about 50% more dragons and world-building). When the big reveals happen they fall a little flat; if the author gives me half a book's worth of time to ponder the story I am going to figure it out before they want me to. I think I knew how this book would end around the halfway point, (once they get the map) and this book is totally guilty of putting its story on pause while the romance develops.

A final note: Please tell me I am not the only person who kept thinking of the slut dragons episode of Rick & Morty. I hate to bring the show up because of the negative connotation the fan base has rightfully engendered but this book is eerily close to that premise. I guess when you mix sex, soul bonding, and dragons you are already playing in the same ballpark. This book was ruined just a touch for me once I made this observation, and the episode kept ringing around my head. I would not be surprised to see some version of the soul-orgy phoenix dragon make its appearance at some point later on in the series.

TL;DR: Slut Dragons. This is a perfect book for someone, but that someone isn't me. A fairly standard dragon-focused fantasy with some excellent romance smashed at the end of it.