Fourth Wing
(Review, Book Summary & Spoilers)

Chapters 1 - 3. Violet Sorrengail is a new conscript at Basgiath War College who is being forced by her mother to join the Riders Quadrant where she'll train to become an elite dragon rider, assuming she survives the competitive and brutal process. Growing up, Violet's training was to be a scribe like her father, but her mother, General Sorrengail, is a high-ranking officer in the Kingdom of Navarre and insists otherwise.

Violet's older sister Mira is an active dragon rider and warns her to stay away from Xaden Riorson, whose father Fen Fiorson was executed by their mother five years ago for leading a rebellion, since he likely wants her dead. The children of all the rebellion leaders were marked with a "rebellion relic" (a magical tattoo denoting their status) and were forced to conscribe in the college. Violet and Mira's older brother Brennan, a healer, died fighting against rebellion forces.

Enrollment at the college begins by crossing a narrow and dangerous parapet into the Riders Quadrant where many first-years die before they even arrive, since the training and challenges of becoming a dragon rider are designed to root out the weak. Violet manages to survive and makes a friend, Rhiannon. Once on the other side, she finds Dain Aetos, a childhood friend whose father is her mother's trusted advisor. Dain is a second-year cadet and a squad leader.

Violet and Rhiannon join Dain's squad. The Riders Quadrant is divided into four wings, which has three sections each and three squads within each section. Xaden, a 3rd year, is the wingleader of the Fourth Wing. After he meets Violet, he instructs that Dain's squad be moved into a section within his wing.

Chapters 4 - 12. Violet and her fellow cadets take classes in battle strategy and undergo a number of challenges as part of their training. In the battle strategy classes, they discuss recent attacks on their borders to keep everyone up to date in case they need to be shipped out early. However, Violet knows from doing library duty that there are also attacks that they are not being told about. The nearby kindgom of Poromiel has ramped up their invasion attempts and are sending out gryphon fliers to raid their supplies.

In training, Violet has never had combat training, so instead Violet uses her knowledge of foraging and herbs to poison her opponents to get through sparring matches. Next, they have to master The Gauntlet, a dangerous climbing challenge, consisting of five ascents. Violet uses her ingenuity to get through the last two ascents to survive the Gauntlet.

Meanwhile, Violet is relieved when Xaden does not attempt to kill her outright. One night, she learns that he's been leading meetings with other "marked" children, which is technically treason since it's impermissible for three or more people with rebellion relics to assemble. However, Violet sees that he's merely giving the younger ones advice and guidance on getting through the trainings and challenges, and she agrees to keep that knowledge secret.

The training and challenges all leads up to the Threshing, the day when the cadets will be taken to a field to approach and hopefully be selected by a dragon. The bond between a dragon and its rider is what makes someone a dragon rider. It imbues the rider with minor magic powers and more significantly a signet power, which is a powerful and unique magical ability. The stronger the bond and the dragon, the stronger their signet powers will be. Dain's signet power is the ability to see someone's recent memories. Xaden is able to control shadows.

Chapters 13 - 20. During their threshing, there are roughly 100 dragons available to bond and around 160 cadets, which means a bond is far from a guarantee. One of the dragons is a smaller weaker golden dragon. Three of the cadets decide they should kill the golden dragon because it's not fit for combat and is a liability. Violet ends up fighting off the other three in order to defend the golden dragon. When she does, a large black dragon -- one of only two black dragons and one of the strongest dragons on the continent -- descends and chooses her as its rider. The dragon, Tairn, tells her he has chosen her for her intelligence, courage and character. Then, the small golden dragon, Andarna, chooses her as well.

There has never been an instance of two dragons bonding with one rider, but the Empyrean (the dragon leadership) meets and decides that it is permissible, so the humans have no choice but to accept their decision. Violet soon learns that Tairn's mate is Sgaeyl, a vicious blue dragon who is bonded with Xaden. Once bonded, a rider will die if their dragon dies, though the same is not necessarily true for the dragon. However, Tairn nearly died when its previous rider died, which in turn nearly killed his mate Sgaeyl. In other words, Xaden now needs Violet to survive since her death could weaken or kill both Tairn and Sgaeyl which could also kill him in the process.

After the Threshing, Dain who Violet once had feelings for, finally kisses her, but Violet feels nothing. Dain has been trying to protect her, but has never believed in her or encouraged her. Instead, Xaden begins to take an intense interest in protecting and training Violet, and he believes in her in a way that Dain does not. One night, a group of unbonded cadets attempt to attack Violet in the hopes of getting a chance to win the respect of her dragon and bond with it instead. Violet is able to survive with the help of Andarna (who turns out to be a adolescent dragon with the power of freezing time, though it's a gift that will likely go away as she matures), and Xaden believes Violet when she tells him who was involved, while Dain doubts her.

Chapters 21 - 32. Xaden soon assigns his foster brother, Liam, who is the strongest and fastest of the first-year cadets, to watch over Violet. Liam tells her how they were taken from their homes after the rebellion and raised by loyalists instead, and Xaden trained him as kids. Xaden and Violet's desire for each other begin to grow, and one day they kiss.

Violet's squad soon participates in a squad battle, from which they emerge victorious. The prize is a trip to an outpost to learn from experienced dragon riders, and it happens to be where Mira is stationed. Xaden also joins them because Tairn and Sgaeyl cannot be separated for long due to being a mated pair.

Soon, the squads must participate in a series of battles as part of the War Games leading up to graduation. In the first battle, they're assigned to capture an egg that the First Wing is defending and to defend their own Fourth Wing flag. There is a near-death encounter for Liam, which Violet manages to prevent by using Andarna's time-freezing gift. Violet then kills Liam's attacker, Jack Barlowe, when she discovers and subsequently unleashes her own signet power as a lightning wielder. Xaden and Violet soon sleep together, but he isn't able to acknowledge his feelings for her, and Violet tells him she can't be with him until he's able to do so. Xaden eventually relents, saying that he's tired of fighting his feelings.

Chapters 33 - 38. The last War Game involves a mission that each squad must complete that takes place at outposts across the kindgom. Xaden is assigned to the Fourth Wing headquarters at Athebyne an outpost that sits outside Navarre's protective wards. He brings with him a cadre of people he trusts, and he instructs Violet and Liam to join him. When they arrive, it is completely abandoned, and Xaden realizes they've been sent there to die. He figures out that Dain has been secretly using his signet power -- to see recent memories -- on Violet, which is how he learned that Xaden has been visiting this outpost.

They're joined by gryphon fliers, and Xaden admits to Violet that he and his friends have been giving them weapons. He tells her that despite what Navarrian authorities are saying, Poromiel is not simply attacking them out of greed. They need the materials that Navarre uses to power their wards in order to fight off venin. Violet has only heard of venin as being referred to in folktales and myths -- they are men whose souls have been corrupted by channeling dark magic from the earth to perform magic and conjure wyverns. In doing so, they destroy the life force and any magic from surrounding areas. Xaden tells her that venin are real and that they've been attacking Poromiel.

Nearby, there is a trading post under attack by venin, and Xaden and the others wants to stay and defend it. Violet decides to join them as well. Xaden gives her two black blades which are capable of fighting off venin. The ensuing fight is vicious, and Liam's dragon is killed, which kills him, too. During the fight, Violet realizes she's able to use her lightning strikes to kill wyvern as well as venin. Once a venin dies, any wyvern conjured by it die as well. Violet is poisoned, but survives the fight. She's taken somewhere nearby to be mended.

Chapter 39. The book ends with Violet being greeted by Brennan, who is apparently alive and well. He welcomes her to the revolutionary cause.

For more detail, see the full Chapter-by-Chapter Summary.

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