Hi everyone! I’ve been trying to catch up on my to-read bookshelf this past little while. I managed to finish, not one, but two books. This first book is titled “Onyx Storm”by Rebecca Yarros!
Date started: March 20, 2026
Date finished: April 27, 2026
To be honest, I am still not sure what to rate this book. There are parts I love about this book (and series), and parts I don’t. I figure it’s easier for me to list the things I love and hate instead of a more generic book review.
This book came out in January of 2025, but just in case you haven’t read this book yet, this post is going to contain spoilers! If you don’t want to know, don’t read below!
I’m going to start by telling you the things I love about this book. As I’ve mentioned in past reviews of this series, I enjoy the characters—especially the dragons. I love how they’re like a weird, dysfunctional family. This same dysfunction continues on in this book. But now there’s the added strain between Xaden and his dragon, Sgaeyl. She is giving him the silent treatment, since he saved Violet’s life by becoming a dark wielder or venin. She hates what he’s become. She’s not happy, and holds this against Violet too, so Tairn is caught right in the middle. Then there’s Andarna, who’s like a teenage dragon. She’s getting more and more rebellious.
The bond conversations between Andarna, Violet and Tairn still make me laugh. I can totally picture Tairn yelling at young kids to get off his lawn. I do love how they’re there for each other, but don’t mince words.
One of the parts in this book I love the most is when they’re searching the islands for Andarna’s family. At the end of the previous book, we found out she’s a member of the seventh breed of dragon, whose special powers include being able to camouflage themselves. They want to reunite Andarna to her kind, as well as see if they’ll help in their fight against the venin, and light the ward-stone in Aretia. They had to go through an awful lot of needless red tape to be able to do this first. This book spent way too much time on this red tape.
They travel from island to island. Along the way we’re introduced to new characters and new civilizations and traditions. Most, had never seen dragons before. For every good experience, there are bad. It was like a Vacation movie, but with a fantasy twist, and definitely not as funny.
One of the characters we meet is Xaden’s own mother. It appears that she left him as soon as her legal obligations with his father would allow. She has since returned home to where she came from, remarried and had two more sons. Xaden’s stepfather is one of the leaders, and invites them to his house in order to meet some other leaders. Somehow, Violet suspects they’re trying to poison them, and tells everyone not to eat anything. She then reveals she returned the favour first, except it’s too late for their hosts. Excuse me, what? I feel like a number of pages were ripped out of the book because Violet gave no indication beforehand. I still don’t know when Violet had the opportunity to poison the food.
Eventually, Andarna’s family finds them, instead of the other way around. They are disappointed in Andarna for so many things, but especially for bonding with a human. Irids (their breed name) don’t bond with humans. They are peaceful and think humans are savages who are essentially toe scum. Andarna was supposed to come home only when humans have learned not to use dragons as weapons of war. Needless to say, this part made me cry. I literally balled like a baby! How dare they reject Andarna, when they don’t even know her! Needless to say, Andarna isn’t welcome. And they won’t join in the battle or light the ward-stone in Aretia either.
That entire trip was for nothing. But I still enjoyed it because it was better than the status quo back in Aretia and Basgiath War College, which was wash, rinse and repeat. It revolved around Violet and Xaden’s love story, and Violet’s training and squad mates. I think we’re at the point in the series where we need more action and less about love and friendship, unless something major happens like a break up between Xaden and Violet, because it was very boring for the most part. Xaden and Violet are pretty toxic together too. Violet comes across as being pathetic at times. She’s fighting way too hard for someone who could become a real danger to her. Girl, have some dignity!
Things get even sadder when, Andarna’s family has a change of heart. They light the ward-stone in Aretia and Andarna is invited back into her family, but she has to break her bond with Violet first. It’s even sadder than when they first rejected her. Violet takes it really hard. Since Tairn bonded with Violet first, she doesn’t die, like the lore normally dictates. In case you’re confused.
At the end of the book, Xaden used his dark magic to save the day. Violet, and co. survive and Xaden disappears. But not before marrying Violet. She doesn’t remember this though. She just has the family ring on her ring finger to speculate about. Expect this to take up half of book four, and the other half, Xaden will be explaining himself.
Not everyone survives in this book. We say goodbye to characters we’ve grown to care about. Some are more shocking than others.
I actually liked the subplot about the two princes, Halden and Aaric (Cam). Two brothers who couldn’t be any more opposite from each other. I’m surprised they actually seem to care for one another. I’m calling it now. Somehow…some way, Aaric is going to become the King of Navarre, not Halden. 🤭
Violet meets and fights against the venin who fought her at the end of the first book. We find out her name is Theophanie. We think she’s a lightning wielder at first, like Violet, but it turns out she’s like Violet’s deceased mother and controls weather. Magic contains both dark and light magic and is balanced. Therefore the venin have similar signets but don’t use dragons to channel.
The author, Rebecca Yarros has revealed this series is going to be five books long. This book makes so much more sense now because of that reveal. This book is basically filler. Everything moves slowly and nothing really changes. Some questions are answered, but other questions are raised. But I also feel that if you don’t read this book, the next ones might not make sense.
All in all, I have to rate this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Out of the first three, it’s my least favourite. I’m only giving it four stars because I know it’s basically filler and there were some plot lines that I enjoyed overall. I wish this series had been three books instead. Four is pushing it. We definitely don’t need to have five.
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Until the next time… ✌🏻
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