Fourth Wing (The Empyrean Book 1)

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail expected to join the Scribes Quadrant and spend her life studying books and ancient histories. Instead, her mother—the commanding general of Navarre—orders her to enter Basgiath War College and train to become a dragon rider, joining hundreds of candidates competing for a place among the kingdom's elite. Violet faces extraordinary danger. She is smaller and more physically fragile than her peers, and dragons do not bond with weak humans—they incinerate them. Most cadets would kill her to improve their own chances of success. Xaden Riorson, the ruthless wingleader, would murder her simply for being the commanding general's daughter. Meanwhile, war outside the college grows deadlier, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and casualties mount. Violet suspects the leadership is concealing a critical secret. To survive Basgiath War College, she must use her intelligence strategically. There are only two ways out: graduate or die.