Fourth Wing cover art for the paperback version, with gold text on a black background.
(Little, Brown Book Group)

Is ‘Fourth Wing’ spicy? explained

Dragons aren't the only thing they're riding.

Is Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing spicy, you ask? Do dragons breathe fire? The answer to both is “yes.”

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What’s Fourth Wing about?

Fourth Wing is about young, hot dragon riders sweating and grunting around a fantasy world. The action is set in college (where else does spicy stuff happen?), but unlike regular college, this college is for WAR. In the real world, people went to college to avoid going to war, but this fantastical regime didn’t get the memo. The story centers on Violet Sorrengail, a 20-year-old Basgiath War College student who wants to play it safe and enter the school’s Scribe Quadrant. Which pretty much means all she’ll be piloting is a desk. Instead, her mother forces her to join the dangerous and sexy Rider Quadrant, where she will pilot fire-breathing, flying reptiles.

Violet has a lot to deal with in the Rider Quadrant. She’s got a full schedule like most college students, but much of her time is occupied by trying not to die. Again, typical dorm life. She also has to focus on bonding with her dragon(s) and proving that she can handle the rigors of dragon rider life. Her comrades aren’t so sure. Violet is described as having a “small frame”, which makes other riders think that she’s too weak to get her wyvern flying license, so to speak. One of her ops, Jack Barlowe, will do anything he can to bring our girl down. Meanwhile, she has to prove herself to her squad leader Xaden Riorson. The only sticky wicket is that Violet’s mom killed Xaden’s dad in an ill-fated rebellion long ago, but that’s nothing a little slow-burn love can’t fix.

Is Fourth Wing spicy?

If you didn’t get the hint, yes. Fourth Wing is spicy. How spicy is Fourth Wing? Tabasco sauce? Ghost pepper? Allow me to explain. Fourth Wing is like eating any spicy meal. The spice starts slow. A kiss here, a tender embrace there. As you keep going, the heat ramps up. Towards the tail end of the book, the spice gets pretty outrageous. You’ll start sweating and your lips will go numb. And just when you think it’s over, the plot goes back for seconds. But the real spice of this dish is the tension between the characters. Readers expecting smut 20 pages in will be disappointed. Perhaps that’s the wrong word … they’ll be edged? Their patience shall be rewarded. Dragons aren’t the only thing these characters are riding, know what I mean?

The spice starts over 20 chapters in with a kiss between enemies turned lovers. Not some peck on the lips, a real steamy make-out sesh. Less than a dozen chapters later, readers are rewarded with a full-on hookup between our two former foes. And if you thought it was over, you’d be wrong. The spice reaches feverish degrees when the pair seek each other out for a second round. If you want specific chapters, take a look at this article which describes exactly where things get hot.

What do the fans think?

TLDR: they’re into it. This reader on Reddit gushed about Fourth Wing, writing “A reader without this book is a tragedy.” And they didn’t even know it would be spicy until halfway through when they were pleasantly surprised. Meanwhile, readers on TikTok reading for the spice from the beginning were rewarded for their patience. Others pointed out their favorite swoon-worthy quotes, writing “Be still my poor heart.”

So does Fourth Wing have spice? Hell yeah, it does. For that matter, so does its sequel, Iron Flame, and we have no doubt Rebecca Yarros’ upcoming threequel, Onyx Storm, will have spice aplenty too.


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