- The Good: Romance and telepathic dragons
- The Bad: Bloated plot; weak secondary characters; unstructured magic; stalled romance
- The Literary: Chapter epigraphs from in-world history and literature
Though she’s a third year at Basgiath War College, with the enemies outside their borders gaining in power, Violet Sorrengail doesn’t have much time for lessons. The tenuous alliance between Navarre, Poromiel, and the Tyrrendor revolutionaries aren’t enough against the invading venin army, so Violet and her friends journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands.
This is the third book of the fantasy dragon romance Empyrian series, so here’s a quick recap: Originally destined to be a scribe, Violet instead became a dragon rider, though she is small and struggles with a connective tissue disorder. She surprised everyone when she bonded not one, but two dragons, Tairn and Andarna, which no one had ever done before. She manifested a signet power from Tairn and is able to wield lightning. She fell in love with Xaden Riorson, whose own dragon happens to be bonded to Tairn.
In the previous book, Xaden channeled from the Earth, channeled too much magic power, and turned venin. If anyone finds out, he’ll be immediately executed. Violet is desperate to find him a cure, and believes the answer lies with the lost seventh breed of dragons. The only reason they are known to exist is because Andarna, Violet’s second dragon, is one, but no one knows where she comes from, including herself. Violet and Xaden hide Xaden’s secret at all costs, including from their family and friends.
Also in the previous book, (spoiler-alert) Violet’s mother, General Sorrengail sacrificed herself, and because her power was to control the weather, Navree became plagued by continuous storms, complicating negotiations with Poromiel. Venin infiltrate the Basgiath keep, and during the attack, Violet encounters a silver-haired venin woman named Theophanie (Violet’s own hair is tipped with silver) who threatens Violet, and eventually becomes the primary antagonist of this novel.
Stay with me here, the plot continues. While in school, Violet and her friends play politics and form internal allies with some, while defying orders of others to do what they believe is right. Recently graduated, Xaden is instated as Duke of Tyrrendor, separating him from Violet. Violet’s father leaves her a series of puzzles and books, sending her on quests to uncover truths about the venin, the history of her lands, and the seventh dragon breed, which eventually turns into Violet and her squad exploring outlying islands to find allies for the upcoming war against the venin.
There’s a lot more that happens, and this is just the first quarter of the book, so I’ll stop there with the setup. The plot is unnecessarily complex, and the politics only serve to add drama by ensuring that Violet and her friends are always in trouble with someone, whether by threat of being court-marshalled, or imprisoned, or punished by being sent to the front lines. There are also way too many characters, so that when many die in the various confrontations and battles, their deaths only serve to remind the reader of the seriousness of the scene, without eliciting any emotion.
What readers really come to these books for is the magic, the dragons, and the romance. The worldbuilding is satisfactory, serving to keep the plot moving with some thrills along the way. Onyx Storm moves beyond the familiarity of school and replaces it with too many outlandish dangers and magical systems that don’t feel structured enough. Though, I do enjoy the search for the seventh dragon breed and Violet’s relationship with her dragons more than in the previous installment.
The romance here is also better than the previous book, though neither live up to the first in the series. Violet and Xaden are kept apart by Xaden’s condition so he doesn’t lose control, so their sexual tension continues to grow, with only small releases sprinkled throughout. Their relationship is clearly codependent, although they recognize it as so, and it makes for more steamy sex scenes. It’s just too bad that the relationship isn’t growing in depth as the series progresses.
I enjoy this series but I am not sure I’ll continue. I knew going in that this would not be challenging literature. However, the series was originally planned as a trilogy, but after it’s initial success, it’s been expanded to be five books, and you can feel it. It’s bloated, predictable, and often lazy. Recommended for fans of the romantasy young adult fiction genre.