Fourth Wing

Rebecca Yarros's dragon-rider war college fantasy — the book that turned romantasy from a niche tag into a phenomenon.

What Fourth Wing is

Fourth Wing is the first book in Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean series and the title most people credit with kicking off the current romantasy boom. The premise: Violet Sorrengail, raised to be a scribe by a mother who runs a brutal war college, is conscripted into the rider quadrant where students bond with dragons and most of them die trying. Violet's body, joints, and luck are not built for this world. She has to be smarter, faster, and more strategic than the people trying to kill her, including a fellow rider whose family her mother put on a wall.

The series moved fantasy romance from a corner of the bookstore to the front-of-house display. Red Tower Books — Entangled's adult fantasy imprint — published it in May 2023. By the time book three landed in 2025, the series had become an event: midnight releases, sprayed edges, viral TikToks, and reread guides. The audiobook narration (Rebecca Soler and Teddy Hamilton, dual POV) became a thing in its own right.

The Empyrean series in order

• Fourth Wing — book 1 (this page)
• Iron Flame — book 2
• Onyx Storm — book 3 (read our spoiler-light story)

Read it if you like

• Dragons and dragon bonds
• Enemies-to-lovers with actual stakes
• Magic school / war college pressure cookers
• Heroines who survive by strategy, not by being secretly the chosen one
• Audiobook performance you can recommend without a caveat

Frequently asked

Is Fourth Wing the first book?

Yes. Fourth Wing is book 1 of The Empyrean. Don't start with Iron Flame or Onyx Storm; the series builds on Violet's first year and the relationships established here.

Is it romantasy or fantasy?

Both. Fourth Wing is marketed as romantasy and the romance is central, but it sits squarely in fantasy too: world-building, war, bonded dragons, and a multi-book political conflict.

How long is the audiobook?

About 22 hours, dual-narrated. The audio is widely considered one of the better romantasy productions and is the format many subscribers ask us to flag deals on.