Fourth Wing

Decently written fighting sequences Worldbuilding/history of lands great, logic of how/when magic works not Enemies-to-lovers arc is Really Central Two extended hyper-explicit hetero sex sequences that feel out of place with the rest of the text, kind of written like fight sequences (consent is prominent, don't recall any non-con threats/assault in text), but as someone expecting a magic-school-but-dragon-riders fantasy....yow! Maybe a disclaimer that this is not YA on the cover?! Such a horny book. Dragons and characters outside the main pairing felt cardboard. Protagonist is too small and thus can't handle riding the dragon (who's main descriptors are 'big and black') is cringe. Of course the handsome male lead's magic power is smoke. Of course he's overwhelmingly hot to her, but he shoves down all his trauma, so its just hot trauma. Of course her power is lightning and its outside her control and she's the powerfullest. Like cell phones in horror flicks set after Year 2000 CE, telepathy works only when its needed to advance the plot, and we have to forget the option is available when the plot requires. Magical creatures are horses without agency but they do have their own lore and laws which we as humans can't know. Why are the dragons helping the humans? What's new and innovative to the lore of dragons coming from this book? Logistics of 'war-bonded-pair' dragons that are supposed to live 200 years tied to the lives of humans who have...at most 20 years of good military service...don't add up. Where's the Temeraire of dragon-kind who's letting the humans battle for 400 years and watching all their dragon-bros get killed? Breadcrumbs were more bread-loaves that telegraphed upcoming events. (that comment based on snark from my spouse, hearing me rant to her about this book). I guess we're just going to all have to agree that the only way to solve the problems in this society is through violence and a high death rate for the navy seals program. Meh. I'm not sure who the target audience is for this one. #FourthWing

This book is so hyped, which is probably why this review is a little bit unfair.

If you've managed to avoid the hype it goes like this: really compelling fantasy series, with tons of hot smutty sex scenes.

So first, to address the latter. There are a couple of sex scenes. As in... two. They are both in the last third of the book. The rest of the book is filled with the kind of yearning a 7th grader might write about in her diary (drooling over a crush's muscular abs, or his thick hair). They are not the stuff of adult desire. At least, not from my perspective. And that's what's missing, even from the sex scenes for me: desire. I was not exactly carried away on the wings of fantasy reading them. I saw another review that said "these sex scenes were so explicit". Were they?! I'm worried about that person's sex life now. They were explicit, and they were graphic, but they described pretty vanilla hetero sex? and I'm not super kinky, and I like smut as much as the next person, but this was not compelling smut for me.

But here's the thing! I think, were it not for the awkward attempt at smut, this would have been a half-way decent fantasy book. Clearly, it borrows a lot of plot and universe building from other IP (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Hunger Games). Still, it creates a mostly compelling narrative on its own (even though I guessed at every plot twist in the book since the author does some very obvious breadcrumbling). But the sex almost detracts from it: it feels completely unnecessary.

So... I will not be reading the sequels, is what I'm trying to say, unless I'm looking for something to occupy a weekend when otherwise very depressed.