Review: Onyx Storm (Empyrean #3)

Onyx Storm, Book 3 in the Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros

Published By: Piatkus
Publication Date: January 21, 2025
Date Read: January 26, 2025
Genre: Adult – Romantasy
Source: Bought
Format: E-Book
Pages: 527

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After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty.

Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.

Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.

They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth.

But a storm is coming…and not everyone can survive its wrath.

Please Note: There will be spoilers for the first two instalments of the Empyrean series (Fourth Wing and Iron Flame) present in this review. There will NOT be any spoilers for Onyx Storm.

“They lied and hid. They were the cowards! But we don’t have to be. We can choose to stand together and fight.”

Onyx Storm was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025. I absolutely loved the first two books in the Empyrean series and I was dying to find out what would happen next. I was one of the minority that absolutely loved Iron Flame, so Onyx Storm truly couldn’t come soon enough. I don’t know whether the hype and my love of the first two ended up with me going into this with too high expectations, but unfortunately this one did not hit as well as the other two did for me. I was so disappointed that this book just ended up feeling slow and laborious, in a way the other two did not.

Onyx Storm picked up where Iron Flame left off, with Xaden starting to turn Venin. Due to being left on this huge cliff-hanger, I went into this book fully expecting fast paced, action packed plot but what we got was a slow slog through a lot of additional worldbuilding. I saw a lot of people reading this book saying how they felt like too much was happening at the start and they needed it to slow down, I was the complete opposite. I felt like because there was so much worldbuilding, there didn’t really seem to be anything plot-wise happening. In my opinion, the series seems to have changed from a Romantasy basis, where the romance was the key focus to a high epic Fantasy, where the plot is the main focus. That means that there was a significant lack of epic world building in the first few books that was needed here. That’s resulted in a good 60% of Onyx Storm being a lot of world building done really quickly. I personally love a slow paced epic fantasy with lots of world building, but I don’t expect to be getting that 3 books into a series. It felt like the world building was being thrown at us, with nothing else really happening and that made me feel like the book was really slow and boring for the first half at least. If it weren’t for the fact that I was already attached to these characters and world, I probably would have DNF’d it.

In terms of pacing, the last 200 pages saved this book for me. I honestly don’t know what happened! The last 200 or so pages of this book felt like a totally different book. It was emotional. It was action packed and I truly couldn’t put it down. It felt more like the previous books in terms of pacing and this is where I started to really love it. I loved how fast paced in became, and how intense the action became. I remember sitting there and thinking THIS! THIS is what I’ve been waiting for all this time. It was truly fantastic! And it just made me even more upset that the previous pages had not been like this. I truly did enjoy this book, but for me it just took far too long to get to the action and the ‘good bits’.

One thing I did really enjoy about this book was the relationship between the characters. Not just in terms of the romance, but the friendships. I feel like the relationships seemed so much stronger in this one. Even with the issues of Xaden slowly starting to turn, he and Violet’s relationship just seemed so much more stable. It was lovely to see them finally communicating effectively after the issues they had had in the previous books. I felt like the friendships were stronger and we saw Dain finally finding himself integrated in the groups a little bit more which I really enjoyed. Honestly, nobody is more surprised by my warming to Dain than me. I hated that boy! I really feel like the relationships between all the characters really did keep me going in this one.

Onyx Storm was definitely a bit of a mixed bag for me. It really did feel like a slow slog, and I had trouble being motivated to pick it up at times. However, the ending of the book really made it worth it, and I am excited to pick up book 4, whenever it may release. I am hoping that since we had all the extreme world building in this book, that means the next books will be significantly better. Keep your fingers crossed! I do believe that I will enjoy this one more on a re-read, and I definitely will be re-reading at some point. I had such a difficult time choosing my rating for this book and while it does tend to lean more towards the 4 stars, I don’t feel like I can really give it that, so please read this review as more of a 3.75!

“I am yours and you are mine, and there’s no law or rule in this world or the next that will change that.”