This post was originally published on Audible.com
For many book lovers, Rebecca Yarros popped boldly onto the scene in 2023 with the release of Fourth Wing, the first book in the Empyrean series, an incredibly compelling, incredibly readable series about a young woman enduring war college, dragons, and the stupidly handsome upperclassman whose sole job seems to be to make her life miserable. But while the Empyrean series was the breakout that introduced her writing to a large spread of readers in the era of BookTok, her contemporary romances have been beloved in certain circles for over a decade.
A mother of six, Rebecca Yarros first began writing romance when her husband was deployed in Afghanistan. Her emotional contemporary novels, starting with Full Measures in 2014, explore concepts of grief, change, and hope through the eyes of people from all walks of life. Full Measures and several of her standalones also center military heroes and their families, while other series that she’s published over the years feature extreme athletes, musicians, and first responders. Even as multiple chronic illnesses—Ehlers-Danlos and POTS, as well as ADHD—made life a struggle, Yarros managed to release multiple books in relatively short time spans, leading to a ravenous readership who followed her from one series to the next. And of course, with Fourth Wing’s success, many were glad to explore her backlist, even though there wasn’t a dragon in sight.
With such great success, it’s no surprise that the Empyrean series and several of her other books are being optioned for film and television. In fact, a Fourth Wing adaptationis currently in the works with Amazon MGM Studios through actor Michal B. Jordan’s production company, and both The Things We Leave Unfinished and In The Likely Event have been picked up for film.
Looking to start your Rebecca Yarros listening journey? There is always the option of starting at the beginning and working your way forward, but here are some highlights to consider on your way to pressing play.
The Empyrean Series
If you want to see what the hype is all about, start with Fourth Wing. In common romantasy tradition, it does not stand alone in regards to the relationship or the overarching plot, so you might feel the need to carry forward to Iron Flame and Onyx Storm, but maybe pace yourself while you wait for the others to release by interspersing some of her contemporary novels.
Fourth Wing, Narrated by Rebecca Soler and Teddy Hamilton
While this is technically a “dual” narration, the majority of the book is narrated by Violet, our central character. We meet her on her first day at Basgiath War College, which has a curriculum that begins with a dangerous trek to the college itself and only makes life even more perilous for its students. Violet had intended to be a scribe, but her mother had other ideas. Now, with a chronic ailment that isn’t the best in normal situations, Violet has to pray that she’ll match with one of the dragons that Basgiath students are bonded to, and not fall off and die in the process. Not to mention, her squadron leader hates her guts and doesn’t make anything easy for her. This is the audiobook many of the initial Fourth Wing fans listened to, with a well-acted narration by Rebecca Soler and a guest appearance from fan-fave Teddy Hamilton.
Fourth Wing Dramatized Adaptation - Full Cast Recording
Broken into two parts, the Dramatized Adaptation of Fourth Wing takes key text and dialogue and inserts sound effects, music, and other elements to make the listening experience more immersive, and includes a cast of nearly fifty different voices. The story is the same, with all the most important dialogue and pieces of information. With the added sound effects, some of the description from the original text has been taken away, so it’s not uncommon to listen to both versions of the book to get the full experience. And I’ll tell you what: you’ll never think of dragons the same way again.
Iron Flame and Onyx Storm both got the Dramatized Adaptation treatment as well, so you can choose which version you’d like to listen to, or try out all three recordings to get a full Empyrean listening experience.
Threshing Day (Wing and Claw Collection) the next upcoming book in the series, is a collection of short stories about riders and their dragons. The audio brings a full cast of performers, which bring each threshing day story to life. The full cast includes John Skelley (Thadeus Palme), Zion Jang (Brennan), Frankie Corzo (Mira), Teddy Hamilton (Xaden), Anthony Palmini (Garrick), Jake Bordeaux (Dain), Giordan Diaz (Bodhi), James Aaron Oh (Sawyer), Robb Moreira (Ridoc), Nick Mills (Liam), Laura Knight Keating (Sloane), Chase Brown (Aric), Justis Bolding (Imogen), Jasmin Walker (Rhiannon).
Flight & Glory
If you want some highly-rated, grief-centered romance with flawed characters who have a lot of growing to do in order to deserve their happy endings, the Flight & Glory series is a good place to go next. It’s like the quiet break from Empyrean, replacing the mile-a-minute plot twists with people who have to spend a lot of time sitting in their feelings. There’s plenty of plot, but these stories have a very different vibe from the fantasy-forward adventure and intrigue setting of Fourth Wing.
After Ember receives news of her father’s death on her twentieth birthday, she isn’t sure what to do. Her family is in shambles, she still has to deal with school, and her new next-door neighbor is her old high school crush, Josh. The pair latch onto each other quickly, but Ember has layers of grief to deal with, and Josh isn’t in much better shape. Told in single POV, the story explores not just Ember’s grief but that of her family and community, while juxtaposing the highs and lows of college life and flirtation. Narrator Carly Robins evokes all the angst and delight of a twenty-year-old, and offers a timeless version of the story—even if some of the dated references are a little jarring.
The other four books in the series are just as compelling, carrying a through-line of grief, self-discovery, and joyful new experiences. If you find you want to stay in the universe after Full Measures, carry on to Eyes Turned Skyward, which includes additional narration by our friend Teddy Hamilton. It centers a young woman pursuing the items on her bucket list before she succumbs to the heart condition that killed her sister and the flight school pilot who pulls her out of the ocean.
The Renegades Series
Check out the Renegades series if you want to explore the world of elite extreme sports. Wilder, narrated by Christian Fox and Lauren Sweet, gives us an adrenaline seeker with multiple X Games medals and the tutor who is off limits to his sexual pursuits during their academic year at sea. Like…on a boat. For nine months. That won’t cause problems at all.
Standalone Novels
There have been plenty of Rebecca Yarros standalones in the meantime. In this case, “standalone” means it is not intended to be part of a series, and there are no other books set in the same universe. Some of the books in other contemporary series are capable of standing alone, but were written as part of a group of related stories. Yarros’s standalones embody the same emotional payoff that the longer series take longer to build, all in one significantly smaller package.
Peculiar Stars, the next standalone novel, releases on audio this fall, and promises that same level of drama, complete with a desert island, revealed secrets, and self-realization. But while we wait for that one, here are a few of the standouts to check out. Performed by Audrey Obeyn, and Teddy Hamilton.
The Last Letter is Rebecca Yarros’s most and highest-rated contemporary romance. The level of grief is off the charts, so look for content warnings if you need to before you start to listen. Beckett’s best friend’s dying wish (sent via letter) is for him to go to Telluride and help his sister Ella, a single mom who’s lost her last support system in her brother. The love story is intense, and is leveled against layers of sadness born from not only prior loss but the potential for imminent grief. It’s probably one of Yarros’s heavier books, but Jennifer Stark and Teddy Hamilton bring all the best parts of joy and tears to life in a memorable way.
The Things We Leave Unfinished
Prepare yourself for the film by letting Tim Paige and Carly Robins destroy you with two separate stories of love, one in the present day and the other during World War II. Georgia Stanton lost everything in a big-ticket divorce, but has taken up residence in her ancestral Colorado home, where she’s been tasked with working with bestselling author Noah Harrison to complete her great-grandmother’s last book. We get to hear the evolution of their romance while also discovering the story of Scarlett, Georgia’s great-grandmother, and the real-life romance she was pursuing nearly 80 years before.
When Izzy and Nate first meet at 18, they have a short amount of time to get to know each other as seatmates before their plane crashes in the Missouri River. Over the next ten years, they cross paths, but the timing is never right for a soldier and a politician, until Nate is charged with protecting Izzy during a visit to Afghanistan. The perils of war and the burning feelings of a decade’s worth of hits and misses culminate in a soul-changing, whirlwind romance that Carly Robins and Teddy Hamilton build with their skill and familiarity with Rebecca Yarros’s work, as two of her veteran narrators.
Rebecca Yarros also participated in two different interconnected series with Sarina Bowen and Devney Perry. You can listen to A Little Too Close from the Madigan Mountain series, narrated by Callie Dalton and Jason Clarke. Rebecca’s contribution to the trilogy includes a single mother who finds herself sharing housing with the growly man who gave her a job before her daughter was born and has come back years later.
She closes out the Hush Note series with Muses and Melodies. The third member of the band Hush Note, Nixon, has just come out of rehab after acknowledging a problem with substance abuse. Zoe is the band manager’s assistant, and keeping an eye on Nixon is the last job she’ll need to do in order to get her own band to manage. Being on top of a man who still has plenty of demons isn’t particularly exciting for Zoe, but eventually the relationship evolves from contentious to something else, and the angst and agony of the narrative are nicely balanced with the hopeful discovery of a new love.
Once you’ve explored this sample of romantic stories about people from all walks of life, there will always be more Rebecca Yarros to explore. The Empyrean series continues to yield new parts of Violet’s story and more tales of the dragon riders of Navarre. And Yarros’ series and standalones (and joint series with other authors) will continue to proliferate until she decides to stop, and it doesn’t seem like that will happen anytime soon.
