Onyx Storm: DISCOVER THE FOLLOW-UP TO THE GLOBAL PHENOMENONS, FOURTH WING AND IRON FLAME! (The Empyrean)

The wait for Onyx Storm is finally over! Over a 12 month wait.In all honesty the first half of the book felt like I'd missed something. Lots of new characters, locations, information. I kinda wanted to cry. Thankfully as soon as the Quest Squad went on their mission I felt like my brain could enjoy the book instead of trying to make connections.And then I gobbled the book and it was over and what a ending. It just got good and then caput! I keep reaching for the book but it's over and it really sucks knowing the 4th book won't be until next year most likely.My only wish for the next book more dialogue with xadens dragon. I really missed her commentary.

I purposefully read this 3rd book as slow as possible as I did not want it to end. Please, let there be another one as I cannot get enough of these books!

What a book! Fantastic read, following Violet and Xaden and their friends. Heartbreaking and funny. Very well written. I can't believe the ending - amazing.

Okay… as soon as Liam was mentioned I cried not even going to lie. That Is still a sore spot. When xaden says “love” oh gawd damn I melt every single time!“I am yours and you are mine and there’s no law or rule in this world or the next that will change that” I can’t get over this there’s so many quotes I have loved during this book but this one has to be top 3 this book was worth the wait most definitely. However the cliff hangers in some of these chapters are not okay I can’t picture anything that’s going to happen because you try and then your wrong and it’s like wow okay then. No that ending is not okay Rebecca!!

(Contains minor spoilers)This third book continues to cover Violets 2nd year at Sexy Dragon Murder University, and is the weakest so far and would have benefits from 6 months more editing and polishing.The plot shows many signs of an originally planned trilogy being stretched to a flabby pentology due to customer and Streamer demand (Amazon now have the TV/Movie rights), and this leaves the series struggling with holes, inconsistencies and random ideas dressed up as plot points.Minor characters and romances are introduced as cannon fodder, and in one memorable moment a traitor is named in passing in a fairly major denouement who doesn’t - afaik - appear in the books beforehand.Dead parents become gaslighting visionaries who set events in motion 20 years ago but somehow predicted exactly the outcomes that happen. Still at least its a weak excuse for a Voyage of the Dawntreader style island hopping adventure - which on its own could have been an entire book. Oddly at one point Violet pre-poisons some people she had no warning were going to poison her.The book series continues to suffer from the problem of the adversaries being so powerful the author continually has to invent boondoggle’s and excuses as to why they haven’t just wiped everyone out already - something about wards but which only work or dont work when the plot requires them to. This starts with a massacre right at the begining - which is never repeated - the wards suddenly working again. In this instalment it’s because the magic vampire baddies want something mysterious from our heroine and her hero, something that is conveniently never said - its just stuff to be revealed in a later book. The lead villian in this book could have been a classic if they had been better characterised and fleshed out, with believable motivations - but alas all signs point to her being an end of level boss rather than the the Final Boss.Several chapters are a hot mess - reading like first drafts - including the last few in which the author suddenly decides to switch to new POV characters - for no apparent reason other than the needs of the plot, it would have been less jarring to introduce them earlier. I suspect books 4/5 are being set up as multi-POV from the start - the Coda leans heavily in this direction.Everything screams that the author is struggling to keep her work together and flowing.Criticisms aside most regular readers will enjoy this book as more of the same, dragons, magic, extreme peril that never actually kills anyone important, brooding love interests and raunchy sex scenes.The addiction plot line is probably the standout for me - driving changes in the central characters relationship.The characters remain engaging and most individual chapters are well written, except for a few that read like they came from an early draft and were never edited or revised.Series fans will love this book and ignore its many flaws - but for me I think it’s time to leap off this particular dragon as the perils of mass commercialisation have led to too many liberties with the concept and not enough editorial polish.