- Narrator: Julia Whelan narrates a University-set fantasy with a wide supporting cast of Selkies, Lupines, and Icarals.
- Subjects: prophecy and inherited power, forbidden magic, underground resistance
- Tone: Tense and world-hungry, built for long immersive sessions
- Bottom line: A satisfying sequel for Black Witch readers already committed to Elloren's arc; not a starting point.
What happens to a rescued Selkie, a freed military dragon, and the people who saved them once the empire that owns both notices? The Iron Flower audiobook picks up that question exactly where The Black Witch left off, dropping Elloren Gardner back into the University at Verpax as Gardnerian soldiers move in under the command of Lukas Grey. Julia Whelan narrates the second book of Laurie Forest's Black Witch Chronicles, a series that critics quoted in the synopsis have already called an 'uncompromising condemnation of prejudice and injustice,' and the five reviews here largely back that assessment up, even the one written entirely in Portuguese. Elloren Gardner and her friends only meant to right a few wrongs when they freed that dragon; by this installment, they are pulled into a realm-wide resistance against the empire they were raised inside.
How The Iron Flower Holds Up
Tammy Moldovan calls this 'a stay up too late, cannot put it down' kind of book, praising the worldbuilding as 'meticulously done, woven together scene by scene, layer by layer.' Marzie, reviewing under a self-imposed spoiler ban, rates it 4.5 stars rounded down and confirms the plot resumes directly at the University in Verpax, with Elloren still sheltering the Selkie named Marina and rooming alongside Diana, Wynter, and Ariel. Becket Hampton Warren goes further, calling the original Black Witch merely 'a compelling read' by comparison and this sequel 'even better,' crediting Laurie Forest's 'intense, well-paced narrative.'
The badge on this listing reads 4.6 across five visible ratings, and working backward from that number confirms four of the five landed on a perfect five, with Marzie's four-star review the only thing keeping the total at 23 out of a possible 25 rather than a clean sweep. One of the five, from a reader in Brazil, is written entirely in Portuguese rather than English. This outlet will not translate or quote from a review it cannot verify word for word, but the five-star rating attached to it and the enthusiastic closing line, ending on the word 'certamente,' point in the same direction as everything written in English alongside it.
The prophecy at the center of this book gives listeners a clear engine to follow: a new Black Witch is destined to defeat an evil winged Icaral demon, and Elloren, granddaughter of the first Black Witch, is a logical candidate even as she insists, per her uncle's claims, that she is powerless. Becket Hampton Warren's review names Fallon Bane as the nemesis actively working to claim that title, and Lukas Grey, now commander of the military base near the University, keeps trying to bind himself to Elloren even as she tries to hold him at arm's length. Marzie adds that Elloren is also drawn to a third figure, the mysterious Yvan Guriel, without giving away exactly why.
Julia Whelan is a known quantity to audiobook listeners across a wide range of genres, narrating a University-set fantasy here with a cast large enough to include Selkies, Lupines, and Icarals alongside the human and Gardnerian characters carrying the plot. Harlequin Audio released this one in September 2018 at just over nineteen hours, a substantial runtime that matches the scope Tammy Moldovan describes, a story that review says was both devoured immediately and savored slowly at once. Whelan has to carry the political texture of the Mage Council's rulings alongside the more intimate scenes of Elloren rooming with Diana, Wynter, and Ariel, a tonal range that a single-narrator production asks a lot of.
Weak Spots in The Iron Flower
This is book two of what the synopsis lists as a five-book main sequence, running from The Black Witch through The Dryad Storm, plus two connected novellas collected separately in an anthology called The Rebel Mages. Marzie is explicit that discussing this entry without spoiling The Black Witch is 'pretty darn hard,' which means new listeners should expect the plot to assume you already know how Elloren ended up sheltering a Selkie and freeing a dragon in the first place. The synopsis also leans on three separate starred-review pull quotes, from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews, all praising the original Black Witch rather than this sequel specifically, so treat that critical praise as inherited rather than freshly earned by this installment. Anyone assembling the full series should also note the novellas are sold separately from the five main audiobooks, which complicates following the story in strict reading order.
A Portuguese-language review among these five is a reminder that this series has found readers well outside its original English-language market. A fifth review, from a reader in France, calls this the best book they had read 'since Sarah maas,' a shorthand comparison rather than a considered one, but a useful signal of the genre shelf this series gets recommended alongside even when the listing itself makes no such comparison directly.
Should You Listen to The Iron Flower?
This one belongs with listeners who finished The Black Witch already invested in Elloren's slow realization of her own power and want the underground resistance against Gardnerian rule to escalate from there. Fans who track Julia Whelan's catalog across genres will recognize a dense, multi-perspective fantasy well suited to that range of work. Skip it if you have not read The Black Witch, since Marzie's review confirms the plot offers almost no space to catch up mid-series. Readers weighing whether to commit nineteen hours should also register how these five reviews are spread out over time: three date to 2018, the year of release, one arrives from Brazil in 2023, and the most recent, from Tammy Moldovan, is dated December 2024, suggesting this series keeps finding new listeners well past its original release window rather than fading.
Common Questions
Can I start the Black Witch Chronicles series with The Iron Flower audiobook?
No. Reviewer Marzie says directly that discussing this book without spoiling The Black Witch is nearly impossible, and the plot resumes immediately at the University in Verpax with characters and relationships already established. Start with The Black Witch first, or the resistance plot and Elloren's relationships with Lukas Grey and Yvan Guriel will not make sense.
Do listener reviews compare this audiobook to other popular fantasy romance series?
At least one does directly. A reader in France name-drops a comparable bestselling fantasy author as the yardstick for how much this one landed, a comparison the listing itself never makes, since its own marketing focuses on starred trade reviews for the series opener instead.
