Rebecca Yarros skyrocketed to book stardom with the release of her 2023 book “Fourth Wing.” While the experience was “surreal,” Yarros says she was initially unsure how to handle the newfound fame.
So, she phoned a friend.
“Fourth Wing” is the first novel in Yarros’ “Empyrean” series. The third book, “Onyx Storm,” hit shelves in January. Amid the latest book’s release, Yarros sat down with Jenna Bush Hager to discuss her career, her love of the fantasy genre and her life on “Open Book with Jenna.”
Yarros told Jenna that her team predicted “Fourth Wing” would be a hit, but she didn’t anticipate what that would mean. Plus, she was too busy writing “Iron Flame” — the second book in the “Empyrean” series — to really put too much thought into it, she said.
After it published, readers devoured “Fourth Wing.” As of March 13, “Fourth Wing” is No. 3 on the New York Times bestsellers list and has spent 85 weeks on the combined print & e-book fiction list. (“Onyx Storm” comes in at No. 1 after seven weeks on the list.)
“Your meteoric rise has been — I don’t know that there’s ever been anything like this,” Jenna told Yarros.
“I think maybe Colleen Hoover,” Yarros said, referring to the author of hits like “It Ends With Us” and “Verity.”
“I love her, and she’s who I called, honestly, before ‘Iron Flame,'” Yarros added. “I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this. This is a lot. There’s a lot of people. There’s a lot of media.’ And she was someone I called that really helped me, help me get through it.”
Reflecting on her own success, Yarros said it feels like “it’s happening to somebody else.”
“When I look up, it’s like it’s somebody else’s life. Because my real life is inside my house with my kids,” she said.
But the attention came with some drawbacks, Yarros revealed. Yarros told Jenna that her six kids are “more public” than she had anticipated.
“People found our house and we had to move,” Yarros said. “I think once we realized this was the level it was going to get, it’s really just putting up the boundaries.”
Some of those boundaries include getting off social media when she needs to and making sure she is “whole and happy and healthy” for the sake of her family.
