“Fly … or die.”
With these words, the Empyrean world of “Fourth Wing” that author Rebecca Yarros created catapulted her to No. 1 on just about every bestseller’s list — creating a fan frenzy in the process.
“I did not expect this and I’m just so immensely grateful for it all. It’s also very surreal and overwhelming,” Yarros, an Army spouse, told Military Families Magazine during an interview.
The hashtags for her name and books have been viewed more than 1 billion times on TikTok alone. When “Iron Flame” (book 2 in the series) shattered pre-order records — and the books were picked up for television — Yarros knew nothing would be the same again.
Yarros’ other novels have earned critical acclaim and commercial success on their own. From heart-wrenching military romances to gripping contemporary dramas, the stories offer something for every reader.
“I was always an avid reader and always loved the romance genre. I was reading Jude Deveraux in middle school and though it probably wasn’t the most appropriate, it definitely gave me a healthy view of relationships and sex,” she laughed. “It was also my therapy through the hard seasons of solo parenting and worrying while Jason [her husband] was deployed.”
Yarros comes from a long line of family service, with her grandfather retiring as a general and her parents serving as officers. While she was attending the University of Colorado, she met a young Army private in a karaoke bar. They eloped not long after and got married on Sept. 10, 2001.
“The next day, everything changed. I’d never been a wartime kid while my parents were in, yet I was immediately a wartime spouse. I remember wishing my grandmothers were still alive so I could talk to them since both of their husbands were sent into World War II,” she explained.
In 2003, her husband was wounded on an anti-tank landmine while patrolling the Syrian border during a combat deployment to Iraq.
“They called me and told me that half of his face had been blown off. It was the kind of injury that they would have sent someone in uniform to your door today,” Yarros said. “They didn’t know what to do with him during those early days of the war and it was getting infected.”
Her parents flew Jason home commercially, she says, adding that he had been “seriously wounded with shrapnel all over his body, face and one of his eyes — basically everywhere that hadn’t been covered by Kevlar had been hit with it. After he got home, he had to heal from his loss of vision to that eye.”
When his eyesight returned, he immediately volunteered to go back to finish his deployment.
“I’d never loved and hated him so much all in the same breath,” Yarros admitted.
Once he left, she couldn’t sleep anymore and started reading a book a night. By the time her husband completed flight school to become an Apache pilot, she began penning one of the most popular military blogs at the time.
Though she still loved reading, Yarros said she wasn’t finding the books she really wanted to read. When he left for his third combat deployment, this time to Afghanistan, she decided to write her own.
“I had finally graduated from college that fall, after constantly having to transfer and lose credits. I remember thinking everyone is walking on a stage and I’m here washing out sippy cups,” she laughed. “But I started writing a page every single night once I put the kids to bed, no matter how tired I was. When he got home, I told him I wrote a book.”
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Stationed at Fort Drum, New York, the couple drove into Watertown and purchased “Book Publishing for Dummies.” In true military spouse fashion, a fellow spouse shared that her mother-in-law was an author and might be able to help. The author’s name? Robyn Carr, whose 20-book “Virgin River” series alone has sold more than 13 million copies and was made into a popular Netflix series.
She encouraged Yarros to attend a writers’ conference in New York City.
“It’s funny that people talk about me moving into romantasy but fantasy was always my first love. The book I wrote while he was gone was fantasy and although it got me an agent, it didn’t sell to publishers. It is absolutely normal to write your first book — or any book — and have it not sell because it’s a really competitive industry,” Yarros said.
“Jason was prepping for his fourth deployment, and I kept thinking about what I would have done if my dad had been killed. Those thoughts led to ‘Full Measures,’ and I got what’s called ‘branded.’”
What followed was almost a decade of successful military-inspired novels and awards. Her husband retired in 2019, after 22 years of service and five deployments. When her publisher came to her for a fantasy pitch in 2022, she was intrigued.
“She asked for five pitches, and I gave them to her in the order of what I wanted to write. They picked No. 3, which had dragons and a military unit. She suggested a military war college instead of just having it be a unit. ‘Fourth Wing’ was born from there,” she shared. “I always like to write about war from a perspective that makes you question why it’s happening, and how it affects the people serving in it. It felt like a natural way to continue that theme.”
Her son was receiving treatment in the hospital for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (a condition she and four of their six children all battle) when she was told her book would be the one to launch the line. She wrote furiously and finished “Fourth Wing” in two months.
With her signature blend of heart-stopping romance and authentic military detail, the new book series has resonated deeply with readers, offering a captivating glimpse into the tumultuous world of military life and the enduring power of love in the face of adversity. As the fans eagerly wait for the next book, she feels the pressure to get it right.
“I’m in the middle of writing the third book, and I will tell you it’s a very different atmosphere writing this one,” she admitted. “When I think about what I’d want people to know about military spouses, it’s that we aren’t defined by our service member’s career. We are unique individuals and people who deserve to have our dreams and our own goals that do not exist within the military.
“Unfortunately, our spouse’s career put us in the position where we have to struggle to carve that out for ourselves. But we can absolutely accomplish it and we deserve to have the chance.”
Visit Rebecca Yarros for more on her published works.
