Fourth Wing

Rebecca Yarros

May 2023 · The Empyrean Book 1 · Sold by Entangled: Red Tower Books

About this ebook

A #1 New York Times bestseller • Optioned for TV by Amazon Studios • Amazon Best Books of the Year, #4 • Apple Best Books of the Year 2023 • Barnes & Noble Best Fantasy Book of 2023 • NPR “Books We Love” 2023 • Audible Best Books of 2023 • Hudson Book of the Year • Google Play Best Books of 2023 • Indigo Best Books of 2023 • Waterstones Book of the Year finalist • Goodreads Choice Award, semi-finalist • Newsweek Staffers’ Favorite Books of 2023 • Paste Magazine's Best Books of 2023

"Suspenseful, sexy, and with incredibly entertaining storytelling, the first in Yarros' Empyrean series will delight fans of romantic, adventure-filled fantasy." —Booklist, starred review

"Fourth Wing will have your heart pounding from beginning to end... A fantasy like you've never read before." ―#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout


Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

The Empyrean series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 Fourth Wing
Book #2 Iron Flame

Ratings and reviews

Girlfriend saw on a large cardboard advertisement for this book in Barnes and Noble that it would leave me with "a hangover". Truly I've no one to blame but myself for not heeding the warning. About 10% of my way through I recall trying to be charitable, but realize now that the lazily shaken cocktail of poorly done tropes, one-dimensional characters, and embarrassingly bad exposition dumping was just making me tipsy. To be clear, this is a badly written book. But I never want to begrudge anyone their fun, and want to acknowledge that if these specific tropes are your jam, then by all means cover yourselves head to toe in the jammy goodness of enemies-to-lovers and magic school hijinks. Otherwise I find so little redeeming this except for the hilariously anachronistic description of a medieval "Wipeout!" obstacle course and extremely suspect (read: incorrect) use of Gaelic and Gaelic-sounding words.

This book was recommended to me by my Physical therapist who was reading it for her book club. It kinda felt like a much darker take on the dragon books I loved growing up from authors like Ann McCaffrey. I did enjoy the darker tone of this book. The constant looming threat of death around every corner, that could take any character at any time when you are least expecting it, added a sense of seriousness and weight to everything that was going on both with the characters and the world as a whole. it's a much more mature edge to the genre then I'm used to, and I made the mistake of reading it while at work, before I fully understood what kind of story this was going to be. I had to hold back tears when a customer came in right after I read a scene near the start of the book where a character i'd grown attached to dyed in a way that was unexpected, sudden and jarring. but that's the whole reason we read non-fiction, to feel things, and this book will definitely make you feel things.

I read probably to much fantasy and YA fantasy. There are a few times where I don't finish books because the writing loses me, this is one of those times. The premise of the book was so good, and the world building was so promising... But then I started to struggle, I wanted to skiped parts but stuck with it. For me the writing was all over the place and character growth was not there for me... Unfortunately this is one of those books that I didn't finish. It was hard to listen to descriptions and actions of beings that are supposed to be so intelligent, majestic and emotionally aware... I was frustrated that they didn't have any more depth than the children characters she was portraying. I'm glad many people enjoy this book. Writing is truely a challenging endeavor. Not every writer is for everyone.

About the author

Rebecca Yarros is the New York Times bestselling author of more than fifteen novels, with multiple starred Publishers Weekly reviews and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. A second-generation army brat, Rebecca loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for more than twenty years. She’s the mother of six children, and she and her family live in Colorado with their stubborn English bulldogs, two feisty chinchillas, and a cat named Artemis, who rules them all.

Having fostered, then adopted their youngest daughter, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October, which she cofounded with her husband in 2019. To learn more about their mission, visit oneoctober.org.

To catch up on Rebecca’s latest releases and upcoming novels, visit RebeccaYarros.com.