Onyx Storm (The Empyrean #3) by Rebecca Yarros

Amy       

Lynnie    

romantasy 

Amy’s Review

Picking up where Book 2 left off, there were not enough clues to remind me who everyone was in Onyx Storm. There should have been more reminders about the Gryphon Fliers, especially. Even ¾ of the way into the book, people’s names were brought up of whom I have no recollection. I’m all for not belaboring a sequel with information that previous readers should remember but, when there are this many characters, this book really needed some more hints for the ongoing readers.

I ended up liking the novel, but I was worried during the first third that this novel would be a replica of Book 2 where Rebecca Yarros just plugged in new variables to her existing formula because:

• Evil villain who is needlessly and extremely cruel – CHECK
• Some stupid reason why Violet and Xaden can’t be together – CHECK
• Complicated political intrigue which isn’t clearly explained – CHECK
• Violet going offsite into danger zones to fight against the enemy without proper authority and/or backup – CHECK 
• Some miracle that saves Violet while she’s off being a hero – CHECK 
• Extremely spicy sex scenes – CHECK 

Blah blah blah, Violet gets injured and has to be put back together again, blah blah blah, Violet is on a quest with her trusted friends because the professors can’t be expected to understand the situation, blah blah blah.

Thankfully, the story eventually changed gears and improved immensely!  It became a fun adventure! There were new places and new people and new dragons. Some mysteries had, at least, partial resolution. And I was even crying during a couple particularly heartbreaking parts of the novel. But it also still irritated me several times when Yarros’ story manipulations were showing. For the sake of no spoilers, I’ll only mention the unnecessary cliffhanger at the end. Yes, I’ll just tell you that it’s one of those sequel endings. Sigh. I don’t appreciate it when series books create big, unnecessary questions at the very end. I really feel like Xaden’s last scene was unclear and open-ended enough to get the audience to read the next book. I would’ve preferred to not have the last chapter, personally.

Onyx Storm was a good ride but with too many bumps along the way. I can’t give it higher than an average rating.

The audiobook was, again, narrated by Rebecca Soler who is terrific with this material. However, there were a few other narrators taking some brief sections to shake things up a little. Even though it jarred me at first, I appreciated the other characters’ points of view and narrators.  Jasmin Walker voicing Rhi was not my favorite. She sounded way too non-urgent and blasé for that chapter. Justis Bolding as Imogen was spot on, though, with her snarky voice. Teddy Hamilton again voiced Xaden and did a good job. But none of these tertiary narrators spent enough time reading to deserve a grade from me. I’ll give Soler an A for another job well done.

Lynnie’s Review

I was looking forward to being back in the world of the Empyrean series and while I enjoyed Onyx Storm overall, it's impossible not to notice that it suffers from middle book syndrome. Did it advance the plot? Yes. Could it have been done in a third as many pages? Absolutely. Much of this book felt like Yarros had committed to five books and now had to figure out how to fill the pages so she resorted to my least favorite middle book plot device which I always sum up as, "they wandered."

And wander they did, even going so far as creating a "quest squad." I liked the squad, but generally thought the quest itself was a waste of time with a predictable outcome, though the quest had one of the best scenes in the book AND one of the worst, which was interesting.

Violet and Xaden seemed slightly less toxic to one another in this book, but I suspect that's only because they got to spend time together, but rarely alone because no one wants to leave Violet alone with her venin boyfriend - who can blame them? I also thought the two of them did a much better job of communicating in this book so I was less frustrated with them.

As usual, I love the side characters more than Violet and Xaden. I love the interactions between the Sorrengail siblings, and the entire Fourth Wing, Flame Squad - their camaraderie continues to make me smile. Imogen is still my favorite and I was thrilled to get a chapter from her perspective. I hope there are more chapters from different perspectives in the next book, whenever it's released. Frankly, I don't see how it can be avoided. I'm looking forward to more from Aaric in the next book- I think he's one of the most interesting characters outside of the original group.

Also as usual, I found a lot of the plot points predictable and the cliffhanger ending obnoxious, especially since I've heard that Yarros hasn't even started work on the next book in the series. I just don't know how much story there is left to tell, though I guess we'll find out.

Once again I both read the book and listened to the audiobook. Rebecca Soler is a solid narrator and her voice has grown on me over the course of this series. I also still like Teddy Hamilton in his ONE Xaden chapter - I still wish he would get to read more chapters. Jasmin Walker and Justis Bolding also stepped in to narrate a chapter each, one from Rhiannon's perspective and the other for Imogen's though I don't know who was who. I liked both, but I would have preferred Rebecca Soler have read Imogen's chapter because her interpretation of Imogen's voice is one of my favorite things about the character.

Still, I enjoyed the book for the escapist fantasy I knew it would be. I still love this magical world that Yarros built, even if I'm sometimes frustrated by the story.