Onyx Storm

After the way Iron Flame ended, I went into Onyx Storm wanting answers. I still had my theories from the last two books, and this book finally had some answers to my questions. Other questions, though, still remain unanswered, and apparently I wasn’t questioning things nearly enough because this book gave me entirely new ones.

Violet has changed quite a bit by this point, which makes sense after everything she has been through. She isn’t simply trying to survive another day at Basgiath anymore. Her decisions affect far more people now, and she is learning that there isn’t always going to be a choice where everyone walks away happy. She is still stubborn and determined, but she is carrying much more responsibility than she was when this series began.

I especially liked that Violet’s intelligence continues to matter just as much as her power. There are plenty of situations in Onyx Storm she cannot solve by being the strongest person in the room. She has to research, negotiate, question what she knows, and connect pieces of information that don’t seem related at first. Her years of preparing to become a scribe continue to be one of her greatest strengths, and I love that becoming a rider never erased that part of her.

Xaden is obviously a huge concern for Violet after what happened at the end of Iron Flame, and I was very curious to see where Rebecca Yarros was going to take his story. I’m not saying anything about what happens because readers need to experience that for themselves, but his situation gave me a lot more to think about when it comes to venin. After Iron Flame, I wondered whether becoming venin automatically determined who someone became afterward, or whether the power, the hunger for more of it, and the choices someone makes were more complicated than that. Onyx Storm definitely gives us more to think about, and I came away believing there is much more to venin than I originally understood.

That uncertainty also changes Violet and Xaden’s relationship, and I actually enjoyed them more here than I did through parts of Iron Flame. We aren’t spending nearly as much time circling the same argument about honesty. They still have problems to work through, but there is much more fear underneath their relationship now. Violet is determined to find answers while Xaden is dealing with something neither of them completely understands, and both are trying to protect the other in their own way.

Violet’s determination makes complete sense because there was never any chance she was simply going to give up on someone she loves. At the same time, she is beginning to face the fact that sheer stubbornness cannot fix everything. She has a habit of taking responsibility for the people she loves, and loving someone doesn’t always mean you can solve their problems for them. Their chemistry is still very much there, but their relationship carries more emotional weight now. Love, fear, trust, control, and the possibility of losing each other are tangled together, which made their relationship feel like it was actually moving forward instead of repeating the same conflict from the previous book.

One of my favorite things about Onyx Storm was finally getting to see more of the world outside Navarre and Aretia. Violet and the others need allies and information they simply don’t have, which takes them into unfamiliar places with their own cultures, politics, histories, and beliefs. The search gives this book more of an adventure feel, and I appreciated that people don’t simply agree to help because Violet tells them they should. They have their own problems, loyalties, and reasons for staying out of Navarre’s war, and Violet has to understand that before she can expect them to risk anything for her.

I also liked seeing more of the other characters without everything revolving entirely around Violet. Rhiannon and Imogen get more room here, and we even get to see pieces of the story from perspectives outside Violet’s. Dain continues to surprise me too. I was definitely not his biggest fan after Fourth Wing, but the growth that started in Iron Flame continues here. The story hasn’t asked me to forget what he did or pretend it didn’t matter. Instead, his actions show what he chooses to do after discovering that people he trusted and beliefs he built his life around were wrong. I can appreciate that kind of growth, and I like him a whole lot more now than I ever expected to.

Andarna was another character I was desperate to know more about, and Onyx Storm gives us more of her story. I’m being especially careful here because the discoveries surrounding her are much better experienced without knowing they are coming. What I can say is that learning more about Andarna becomes very personal for her, and I really liked seeing her deal with questions about who she is and where she belongs.

It also confirms that I was right to keep questioning how much the dragons know and how much they have chosen not to tell the humans. Those dragons have even more secrets than I gave them credit for.  The more we learn, the clearer it becomes that humans have been working with a very incomplete understanding of dragon history, and I still don’t think we know everything they are keeping to themselves.

Some of the questions I carried into this book about Violet finally start making more sense too. I’m not going into what those answers are because figuring them out is part of the fun. What I really liked was being able to look back at things from the earlier books and recognize clues I hadn’t completely understood at the time. I would much rather have a reveal make me think, How did I miss that? than feel like it appeared out of nowhere simply because the story needed a surprise.

Violet’s father is also still firmly attached to my imaginary conspiracy board. I went into Onyx Storm wondering how much Papa Sorrengail actually knew before he died and whether his research connected to some of the secrets Violet has been uncovering. This book gives me more reasons to believe his work matters, but still not enough to prove my larger theory about his death. I’m becoming more convinced that we don’t know everything he discovered, though, and until Rebecca Yarros proves otherwise, he is keeping his place on that board.

Something I wasn’t watching nearly closely enough before this book was the religious side of this world. The gods have always been part of the series, but Onyx Storm made me wonder whether I had been treating some of that as background when I should have been paying much more attention. I’m not going into why because that gets too close to spoilers, but I finished this book with entirely new questions about the gods, their history, and how some of it may connect to the larger story.

As much as I enjoyed seeing the world grow, that expansion was also one of the things that kept Onyx Storm from being a five-star read for me. There are a lot of new places, people, cultures, histories, politics, alliances, and pieces of information packed into this book. I wouldn’t necessarily want any of it taken out because I enjoyed discovering more of this world, but there were times when we moved on to something new before I felt like I had fully absorbed the last thing.

That made parts of the book feel crowded rather than slow. I was never bored, but occasionally I felt like I needed to start taking notes just to keep everything straight. I would have liked a little more room to absorb some of the bigger discoveries before being handed another one.

And then there’s that ending. I’m not touching the details because everyone deserves to reach that WTF moment without knowing what is coming, but I finished the book and just sat there trying to process what I had read. I was so confused that I immediately went back a few chapters because I honestly thought I had missed something. Nope. So then I went searching for any information about Book 4 because surely Rebecca wouldn’t leave us hanging like this unless the next book was already somewhere on the horizon. But nope again. There isn’t even a release date. Like… W.T. actual F., Rebecca? Woman, why would you do this to me? 😣

It isn’t that I thought the ending was bad. Actually, it’s quite the opposite, because clearly it did its job if I immediately needed the next book, right? Besides, I love a little mystery and suspense in my romantasy, especially when I can piece together clues and come up with my own theories along the way. It’s just that I have even more questions now than I feel like I should have after reading three books, and some of those answers I really thought I would find in Onyx Storm. Unfortunately, I ended up with even more questions instead, and apparently those are going to torment me for quite a while.

Overall, Onyx Storm lands at ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 stars for me. I really enjoyed it, and there honestly wasn’t much I disliked. What kept it from that fifth star was how crowded it became at times and the fact that, after three books, I was hoping to walk away with more answers than I did. I love the mysteries and trying to piece everything together, but at this point I have enough strings on my conspiracy board to crochet me a king-size blanket. Okay, maybe a queen, but still, you get the point. Neither issue ruined the book for me, but together they were frustrating enough to keep it just shy of five stars.

For spice, I’m giving Onyx Storm 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3/5 Peppers. Violet and Xaden still have explicit on-page scenes and plenty of chemistry, but their relationship carries much heavier emotional weight in this book. The romance remains important without taking over the larger story involving the war, the politics, and all those freakin’ secrets Rebecca Yarros still refuses to explain.

Review By: SASSY
Owner • Creator • Queen of the Chaos
SassyReviews.com
Read, Reviewed, & BookDragon Approved… or Not.