Cailin Riley Books

Warning! This post/review is NOT spoiler-free! I will be discussing and critiquing several plot points, all which potentially include major spoilers. If you haven’t read Onyx Storm yet, you’ve been warned.

So…dang. I had this book on preorder since September of last year, so when it finally arrived, I was raring to read.

I greatly enjoyed the first two books in the series (read my review of Fourth Wing here) and I had really high hopes for this third book. However, I ended up having somewhat mixed thoughts. Let’s dig into several plot points to explain:

More worldbuilding, learning more about venin

A big part of this novel was spent on furthering the worldbuilding. We got to learn more about the venin, their powers and how they develop. We also got to learn more about other areas outside of the Continent, including the islands. (Why we didn’t get a map of them is beyond me, though.) I really enjoyed the gang’s exploration of the isles, even though they had some *rough times* on most of them, let’s be honest.

Andarna and family

We always knew that Andarna was different and probably had more like her species out there so I’m glad we finally got to explore that and meet her family…even though they were kind of awful at first. I honestly wasn’t even too sad that she made the choice to leave Violet to go learn from her kind. We know she’ll be back but from what we learn, it sounds like she chose to bond with Violet, kind of a freebie. I was more like, good for her, she gets to be a normal dragon for a little while.

Xaden and Violet’s angsty relationship/him slowly turning more venin

I hate to say it, but I probably hated the two of them the most in this book, especially Violet. It felt like she lost all common sense and sense of self-preservation and instead spent most of her time wondering if Xaden was sane enough to bang. I’m not kidding, it felt like that was all she cared about. At least Xaden, on the other hand, eventually realized that he needed to consider her role as Duke and being in charge of an entire province of people. That redeemed him for me. But Violet really grated on my nerves because she seemed less concerned about the people and her friends and more concerned for Xaden no matter the cost. When he turns asim at the end, I wasn’t even that sad because I thought, well good, maybe Violet will finally get it through her head that he’s seriously a danger now. Overall, it just doesn’t feel romantic to me, it feels delusional and destructive.

And the losses…

I felt sorry for Traeger purely because I too would have that kind of bad luck to draw the arrow card. Quinn’s death felt a little worse but I still don’t think I was much invested in her character. And I hate saying this, but I honestly think that Mira should have died. Her getting badly hurt and then healed didn’t feel as impactful as I think Yarros wanted it to be; I think it would have been more character building for Violet if her sister actually died.

Overall, I did like the book and found it easy to get through, but I do think that the main romance is feeling weird and stale. It feels like Violet is moving into a more self-destructive pattern and if Yarros is planning to play with that, cool. But I hate to see dumb choices magically turn out alright, if that makes sense.