Thanks to a spinal cord injury, I spend most of my time in bed at the St John's ward in Port Phillip Prison. Fortunately, I like to read because there's not much worth watching on television, and so for the last 16 months I have devoured hundreds of books (and maybe written one as well!). One of the nurses here is also a voracious reader and pushed me hard to get this book because she believed that it was the Best. Book. Ever. Initially, I was hesitant because she said it was a fantasy romance. What? I've read thousands of novels over the last fifty-odd years and not one of them was romance, but while I'm trying new things – like paraplegia and prison – I might as well add in a romance novel to my life experience.

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I purchased a copy via the canteen and a week later I received a fat, hardcover edition with a silky smooth and shiny gold slipcover. Compared to the faded, dog eared, hand me down bits of scrap from the library, the smell, feel and look of this new book was delightful. The first few pages feature some beautifully illustrated maps of a new world for your imagination, along with the following disclaimer: “Fourth Wing is a nonstop-thrilling adventure fantasy set in the brutal and competitive world of a military college for dragon riders, which includes elements regarding war, battle, hand-to-hand combat, perilous situations, blood, intense violence, brutal injuries, death, poisoning and graphic language that are shown on the page. Readers who may be sensitive to these elements, please take note, and prepare to enter Basgiath War College…”

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The tale is told through the eyes of twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail, who dodges death with every step she takes in her frail body, having been born with a connective tissue disorder. No words are wasted in establishing the enticing setting of a war college where danger, dragons and magic jump off the page to take you away from whatever you've got going on in your world. Basgiath War College is far deadlier than Hogwarts, and while she starts as a shrinking Violet, Sorrengail develops into a character that's far better than Harry Potter. Author Rebecca Yarros has very cleverly fortified the world she has created by starting each chapter with a quote that has been referenced from a textbook in the syllabus of the war college. This acts as a preview to what topic is about to be explored and helps motivate the reader to keep turning the pages. For example, at the opening of Chapter One it reads,  “A dragon without a rider is a tragedy. A rider without a dragon is dead”.

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Yarros has conjured up a story so enticing that I bought the followup novel, Iron Flame, before I'd even finished the first one. Although she has authored fifteen novels, it was Fourth Wing that put Yarros on the map as it became a number one best selling phenomenon. The world is anxiously awaiting Onyx Storm, the third book in this saga that she is calling “The Empyrean Series”, and I have no doubt that movie studios are lining up to buy the rights like they did for the Harry Potter franchise (although I hope they don't water it down for the kids...). In summation, I'm not sure if this fantasy is all that romantic, but I am damn certain that it is totally fantastic!