Fourth Wing (The Empyrean Book 1) by Rebecca Yarros

"Violet Sorrengail has made it into the Riders Quadrant at Basgiath, a war College, that trains the young people of Navarre to serve their King and Country. She trains to ride a Dragon, hold her own in combat, and in other matters of a military nature. She's, of course, attracted to the tall, dark, and dangerous Xander Riorson, son of the infamous traitor who led a rebellion against Navarre...and the book ended up being as cliché and overdone as it sounds. I should have DNFed this book 500 pages earlier. This was a massive disappointment, and I really don't understand all the hype." 

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Pros: An interesting premise/Some of the challenges were fun/Tairn & Violet's repartee was charming at first, but after 400 pages it became obnoxious.    

Cons: All clichés and tropes in existence lived in this book/ There was no reasoning behind why Jack Barlowe was so intent on killing Violet/ Everyone Violet sees is jaw-droppingly gorgeous/I honestly thought about DNFing this book after the first 100ish pages, and I should have gone with my gut/The "big secret" was only hinted at throughout the first 500 pages and then when it became real, I was lost and, honestly, didn't care. 

Full Review: 

Violet Sorrengail is the youngest daughter of the General of Navarre's army. Though Violet had hoped to enter the Scribe Quadrant, her mother insists otherwise. She’ll enter the Riders Quadrant, where if she survives the physical challenges and cutthroat competition, she’ll become a Dragon Rider. 

Her mother’s a Rider, her sister as well, and her brother was one too, before his untimely death. Violet must work twice as hard as everyone else because of her small size, and she must do it all with the reputation of her family name intact. 

She passes the first test, much to everyone's surprise. And so, begins her journey as a Rider. It’s just as fierce, deadly, and unpredictable as she feared, yet Violet passes each challenge and moves through the ranks. 

Of course, other riders are baying for her blood, and there's continued unrest at the borders. But Violet grows, adapts, and actually starts to feel like she belongs with the Riders. 

There are complications, of course,  when she bonds with not just one dragon but two. This alone is unheard of. There's also the fact that the largest, most powerful dragon in generations chose her, so it's all astonishing and unheard of; she's making quite a name for herself.  

To be honest though, the tropes and clichés that ran rampant through this book were tiresome from the beginning. When I was halfway through, I continued reading, simply to see what would happen, but I was very tired of the predictable and overdone, bristling sexual tension, constant arguments, and just immaturity of it all. I liked Violet and was rooting for her, but her stubbornness and hair-trigger temper got very old, very quickly. Also, the fact that every boy she saw was stunningly gorgeous, especially the one boy she should stay away from, was disappointing in its lack of originality. 

I should have DNFed this book when I first had the feeling, but at that point, Violet was kind of growing on me. I kept reading in hopes that it would get better, and it just became more and more predictable and eye-roll-inducing. This was a major disappointment.