The Empyrean Series Book 3

Matcha & Motifs Rating: 2.5/5 

The growing threats within and outside the wards drive Violet Sorrengail to journey beyond safety to find the seventh breed of dragons – the potential key to saving everyone. However, with a secret agenda of her own, is she asking for too much? 

***INCLUDES SPOILERS!!!***

Initial thoughts on Onyx Storm? What the actual fuck.

Plot/Writing 

I need to get the hate off my chest; first, the pacing was so slow.

The plot points themselves weren’t bad; it just felt lost in the sauce of poor connection and writing. If we were to make a plot-point timeline, there would be a lot of important things: allowing the griffin riders to stay at Basgaith, securing new allies, deciphering Violet’s dad’s journal, discovering Adarna’s kind, and the overall quest to discover how to defeat the venin, or should I say, cure the venin. Overall, it still follows the original trajectory of trying to save the world. It just feels stretched thin and very muddled, giving us little reason to care. 

The introduction of new things that we weren’t privy to before is now the forefront of the reason why “we” can’t. We’re suddenly so concerned with working with the Sernarium, a council of nobility, when politics and nobility were briefly introduced and barely relevant in books one and two. There’s a war going on, and our one shot to save people and win is being “facilitated”? It feels frustrating that a large portion of this book is about them working around these “leaders”. One minute we’re trying to fall back under Basgaith’s rules, and when we do, it bites us in the butt. And! I want to point out that there feels to be little repercussions anyways, so what was the point of the whole back and forth of “we can’t break the rules, we’re breaking the rules anyways”.  

That’s not to say I completely hated it; I think the growing love and investment in this series made this one fall short. It feels like a transition book.

One of the arcs that I enjoyed was the OG squad quest’s mission to discover Andarna’s kind, breaking the rules, and working as a unit. The world-building was integrated nicely here; it was relevant to visit the Southern Isles, and we learned about the various little nations and their customs. We even get Violet back, whom I love and adore so much, conniving and poisoning people! Yes, this quest does end in failure, but it feels like failure with a purpose!

On the note of writing, everyone did say that the writing was bad in this book, but I don’t think it was horrible. I forget how often they swear in this universe. I think some of the writing was confusing. I had to re-read a couple of the passages to understand where everyone stood, what orientation the world was facing, and what the combat looked like. I was also confused about who was who and which place we were talking about. There was an expansion of world-building that felt hard to follow. 

It also feels like the author dropped a bunch of hints in this book, and we’re supposed to use these as the starting points to connect the dots for the rest of the series. Personally, I feel like this book was a huge filler episode. With all the important things that move our story forward, I feel like it could’ve been half its size. 

Romance 

Maybe too much time had passed between me reading this book and the last one, because why does it feel like the romance is a bit dull? Like the smut feels a bit unnecessary now, and overall it feels bland. I kind of forgot why they fell for each other in the first place? 

There were some sweet moments: 

“Xaden tilts his head, studying the king. “Violet.” My heart skips into double time. “My loyalty is to Violet first above everything, everyone else,”

“I live by you. When have I ever given a fuck about the Codex or the Code of Conduct?” He cradles my face and leans down, resting his forehead against mine. “I am yours and you are mine, and there’s no law or rule in this world or the next that will change that.”

I enjoyed Xaden being jealous and so openly devoted to Violet. Something about this book in general didn’t completely do it for me; maybe I’m in need of a re-read. I miss being on the Xaden train. 

Characters

I enjoyed the dive into Violet’s past. The integration of her dad’s history was good because it felt connected to the Scribe-ness of her identity. It’s mysterious but revealing and it moves the plot nicely along. Additionally, while exploring the islands, we discover the temple with the silver-haired girls; this opens up connections to who Violet is, but also to who Theophanie was. It’s this detail that Violet was able to defeat Theophanie, which was epically written. 

In general, I felt that many of the characters fell flat in this book. First, the sheer amount of characters made it so hard to keep track of everyone. Second, I get that this is war and we need a lot of soldiers, but I felt it was hard for Yarros to develop her characters since there were so many. Like, my favorite part of the book was Roric. He felt genuine, funny, and likable. Might be one of the saving graces of this series. But characters like Cat and even Rhiannon felt like they took a bit of a back seat. 

Hated Haldan; he’s whiny and pompous and spoiled and stupid. His character was only relevant for an ex moment and making Xaden jealous, but it felt spur-of-the-moment and short-lived. I was glad to get rid of his character. See, even though I hated Cat, her character at least grows on me a bit. But Haldan just makes me want to roll my eyes. 

Personally, I don’t like defeating villains quickly. I really enjoyed the introduction of Theophanie. I felt like her character opened a lot of pathways to character and world-building. The silver hair connection, learning of her signet as a storm wielder, and discovering the balance of magic. I personally wish her character wasn’t killed off; now she feels like a filler character. 

Speaking of killing off characters, are we just killing characters now? 

Characters are pushed to the forefront from the past (which I do like), but they try to be the new antagonists and then just end up dying. Like their whole relevance was to die? 

First, Aura Beinhaven is a prick and gets put on the original squad quest group just to toast the leader and ends up getting herself killed. Next, Trager, who I don’t really remember or isn’t that memorable, joins Violet’s squad quest, has a thing for Cat, and when things were going well, gets killed? Like why? To add some kills in the book? To add more mental stress on Violet? And plus, I was really rooting for Cat’s happiness; why did we have to steal that away? I have many questions. 

Final thoughts: with how slow this book reads, I feel like this series does not need to be a five-book series, but prove me wrong? Is book four going to be like this? Slow pacing, muddled events, a confusing plotline? 

Overall, I think there is still this attachment to the series. The cliffhanger definitely got me on the edge of my seat. I still enjoyed this book, and I feel that urge to keep reading, though not as much as with the last two books. This book wasn’t bad; overall, it felt a little disappointing and unsatisfying. What are your thoughts on how the Empyrean Series is going?