This novel is a strong "wannabe" enemies-to-lovers romance with a decent fantasy world and a cast of interesting characters. I think the aspect of the book that interested me most was the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome disability rep in the main character. I didn't know much about this collection of genetic disorders, and wanting to find out more about Violet led me to read up on it. I like it when authors surprise me with interesting differences in their characters, and Violet definitely kept me intrigued.
I also quite enjoyed how Xaden pushes her to a) think out of the box and find ways to make things work despite her condition, and b) helped provide her with tools to support her in achieving what she wanted to. Unlike Dain, who spends most of the time being "overprotective" and hence smothering Violet instead of encouraging her to succeed. The difference in how the two men treat her is very much the dichotomy between the types of people we want to have in our lives; those who may show tough love but essentially do everything they can to propel us forward and champion us when we achieve our dreams; vs those we don't: the ones who keep holding us back with the claim they're protecting us, but essentially who will never cheer when we do overcome all obstacles because they're too busy having a conniption because of all the "risks" we ran.
On that note, I've seen quite a few reviews point out that the relationship between Xaden and Violet is toxic. Personally, because I could see Xaden's subtle nudges and approved of the way he was encouraging Violet even as he paid lip service to the social expectation of having to hate her, I felt the relationship unfolds this side of the border to toxic. I also found the final chapter, which is written in Xaden's point of view re-iterated a lot of the things I'd already read between the lines from Violet's POV, and that re-confirmed for me the fact he's actually a really good guy making the best of a terrible situation.
The one thing that grated on me was the unbelievable death toll at the academy, and all the focus on violence. I was barely able to brush off the extremeness of the scenario with the excuse of the dragons and that these people are training to become dragon riders. It was decent enough a reason for me to keep reading instead of rolling my eyes and shutting the book, but I can imagine dragons might not be good enough a reason for everyone. It seemed just a little too extreme for me, especially since the first few months were more focused on surviving than actually teaching. It left me questioning the society more often than not, because really, if they want strong riders, why don't all of them do weights and focus on building the muscles to stay on a dragon. I'd think that would be standard issue class-time at the beginning. But no, Violet ends up having to take private catch-up lessons after she bonds. There were several other small details like this that really pushed the believability of the scenario, and I think I would have very much preferred to read something just a little more believable in terms of the social structure. When the only argument for the reason of things is "because there are dragons", it seems like a bit of a world-building pushover.
I can see where the hype is coming from. The romance is good enough and this novel is certainly an entertaining read.
Great review and insights into this book, Astrid!