Thank you Netgalley and Entangled Teen for allowing me to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"The Reaper of Sunpo does not fall... death does not die, and neither will you, Shin Lina..."

Last of the Talons is a fantastic debut by Sophie Kim and I, very much, look forward to reading the sequel.

The story is fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I adore Lina's feisty spirit and her guilt-ridden soul.

She was tricked by an opposing gang and found her entire family, besides her younger sister, dead at home by the hands of her enemy.

"You're the last of us, Lina. The last of the talons..."

When her enemy and gang leader forces Lina to steal a tapestry it begins a series of terrible events. The leader is taken by the Pied Piper to another realm. Lina's sister is threatened: if Lina doesn't retrieve the leader back from the Pied Piper, her sister will die.

The Pied Piper finds Lina, takes her to his realm and strikes a deal with Lina: kill the emperor in two weeks then you can go home safely. Every failed attempt she makes Lina will receive a punishment. Let the assassination attempts begin...

"For even a realm away I can feel it. A tug in my gut. A spark in my chest. A humming in my blood. I am the last of the Talons. My kingdom calls to me. And when I arrive... the Blackbloods will feel my wrath."

I love the progression of Lina and the Emperor's enemies to lovers relationship. It's a push and pull of emotions of not knowing what is real and when it's part of the assassination attempt or if the Emperor is tricking Lina. I love that they are actually enemies for most of the book instead of just all talk and no action. Lina honestly tries to kill the Emperor multiple times. The romance is filled with tension and I really like that their relationship is not black and white, it's unsure and not concrete.

I'm excited for more exploration of the Emperor's realm and Lina's newly made abilities. The ending paragraphs are perfect and keep me intrigued.

My only tiny negative is, I don't know if this will change in the final version but, there are chapters and moments when we get a look into Lina's past. There is not a lot of warning and it can be jarring to go back and forth between past and present if not handled well.

Overall a beautiful debut and I need that sequel as soon as possible!

4.5 stars

4.5 stars
This is a story about a young teen, Lina, who has become an assassin in order to survive and protect her younger sister, Eunbi. The main portion of the story involves Lina and an emperor, Rui, who is the Pied Piper. There is a lot of adventure, intrigue and some romance, too. The first part of the book was a little slow for me with the introduction of the characters and the story but once it got going it was hard to put down! If the story sounds interesting to you, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy! Happy reading!

3.5 stars. At some point I might decide to round up to 4.

This book took me nearly two months to read— and purely because of life circumstances. It was fast-paced and enjoyable, but I had all sorts of life craziness pop up in the last month or so that I was not anticipating.

For much of it, I likened it to an Asian Throne of Glass, because the main character is an assassin who is forced into a bargain with a king. Tonally it's quite similar, too, with lots of sarcasm/bravado, flirting, magic, creatures similar to the Fae. It's a lot of fun, and I anticipate many people really enjoying it. The writing is solid and easy to read, only three or four errors such as some text not italicized when it should be, a female horse being referred to as a stallion, and several letters of a word being italicized when they shouldn't be.

I enjoyed it overall, but the ending didn't quite work for me. Too much was left unexplained and did not feel earned— just ended up feeling like a Deus ex machina. And with a handful of other things that could be overlooked if they were isolated occurrences (SPOILER) such as Lina not asking ANY smart questions about the rando rebels she met before totally trusting them, or why the highly trained guards who took the same magic fighting potion as Jiwoon weren't able to match his strength, or why Lina convinces herself she's fine with macking on a guy who kidnaps and enslaves humans and won't apologize for it or set them free (END SPOILER) it was just a bit too much for me to accept. I'll check out the description/reviews for the second book to see what direction it might be going in before giving it a try!

Incredible, stunning, debut with swooning romance and high concept fantasy adventures, I ADORED this book

It was the cover that grabbed my attention, but then the actual story... I devoured this in a few hours! First person present tense is always the easiest to read, but the story really sucked me in.

It has really interesting themes:
- Korean mythology - The Pied Piper was a myth I knew absolutely nothing about, so it was refreshing to read something new!
- Enemies to lovers
- An assassin/morally gray main character
- "Who did this to you?"

The main character, Shin Lina, has incredible depth and realistic flaws; she is so strong and driven to reach her goals and to not fail. I love a main character that isn't overpowered.

The story has some predictable fantasy tropes that helps the plot progess, but the Korean mythology woven throughout the novel is so interesting!

Whilst it is classified YA, it is definitely more mature and deals with deep themes.

Lina is the last member of the Talons. She's a reaper and is feeling guilt over the death of her friends. She now has to work for the people who killed them. They use her young sister to keep her in line. When Lina steals a tapestry, Rui (the pied piper) comes for her. It was his tapestry. He already took the leader. He makes a deal with Lina. If she can kill him in 14 days, she'll live. If not, he'll kill her. Lina meets members of a resistance group and they try to find a way for her to kill Rei. For some reason, he lets her go anywhere she wants. He knows what she's doing and doesn't really stop her (except for smoking). Lina and Rei spend time together and he seems to like her. They have great banter. But Lina needs to put her sister above everything else. She also doesn't like that Rei controls humans that he kidnaps. The second half of the book was much better for me. The beginning was harder to get into. The story goes back in time often as Lina starts to tell the story about the day her friends were killed.

I gave this book 4 stars.

Thank you to Entangled Teen and Netgalley for my earc.

This definitely was not what I was expecting to pick up, but I absolutely am in love with this series and the sequel can't come soon enough. The enemies-to-lovers vibe was incredibly well done, and the mythological aspects made it such an enjoyable read.

Usually any mention of dragons and assassins has me excited and I am bound to read it. I heard Korean mythology being mentioned and that also intrigued me, so I had high expectations in reading this book, thinking it would be a blockbuster. It definitely missed the mark on many parts. But before I dive into the messy, wacky nature of this debut that i'm guessing will still be fun for others to read, let's go through the basics.

Short summary: Lina, an assassin with severe survivor's guilt steals a rug and rips it apart, gaining the attention of the pied piper who she hates, then falls in love with right as her sister's life is being threatened by the assassin clan that raised her.
Longer summary? A round of many BIG OOFS and OOPSIES. We start off with Shin Lina, an asassin assigned to steal a rug wth valuable jewels, challenging the Dokkaebi, the immortal fox-like spirits who steal mortals from their lands and stolen away to never be seen again. When she attracts the attention of the Pied Piper who she definitely hates, he steals her boss who she wants dead away. And while she hates her boss Kalmin, who was responsible for the deaths of all her friends, she is ordered by the order she works in to retrieve the boss from the Pied Piper's clutches or watch her younger sister, Eunbi get murdered.

So, she finds the Pied Piper who offers her a deal: He'll return Kalmin back to her ONLY if she can kill him in fourteen days. And from here, it is a pretty much predictable plot: flashbacks of the past, pretending to hate him and being obnoxious while he is condescending with her until they fall in love and then the face all their enemies and an opening for a second book appears. I wanted to enjoy this story. I really did, but you can tell it's a debut with the little tells of it being someone's first book. My main issue with this book was the overwhelming use of the "I" in this book.

SERIOUSLY. There were so many instances of "I said" "I stumbled" "I scowled" and I (and every other possible action that could be tied with the I in it) that it became a struggle to get through it. There was a lot of telling and not that much showing and the author dwelled on descriptions rather than the dialogue which led to a very stunted growth of characters that were supposed to stick with us.

Most of the men in this book are either: annoying, arrogant, or simply bound to fail and be mean in some way. Even the pied piper who is supposed to be the love interest, did not feel so memorable to me. It was also a very ridiculous plot that felt a bit outlandish to me.


It went from stealing a rug to her boss getting kidnpped to her trying to steal her sister away from getting killed. She gets herself whisked away by the Pied Piper who she already had admitted was charming and beautiful and then proceeds to pretend to hate him by using her pent up anger to try to kill him. I would have enjoyed the enemies to lovers if the characters would have been better developed.


By the end of the book, I wasn't as concerned or worried for the characters as I should be. People get killed, the two lovers fight to stay alive together, one is at the edge of death and "cool" powers appear and then BOOM it ends for a book two to be on the horizon, but as much as I usually stick to the end to see if things get better or worse, this is where it ends for me.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.**

I wanted to like this book so, so bad. From the description, to the cover, to the enemies to lovers trope I knew this book would be dripping with, I thought this book would be everything I wanted and more. Sadly, it wasn't. It fell short, it didn't hit right, it just had too many flaws for me to thoroughly and unabashedly enjoy.

My biggest gripe was Lina, the supposed Reaper of Sunpo. On almost every page I was reading and hearing about how Lina was the Reaper, she killed, she maimed, she stole, she was the best assassin around and she had nothing to prove to anyone... except the reader. Not once (except for at the very end, after she's magically enhanced) was this ever shown to me, it was merely told. There was nothing, other than her recollection, to throw me into this, to see Lina's power, to believe that she was this powerful woman who had a city in the palm of her hand.

And an addition to that, to her being a master assassin, was... was she though? Throughout the story, Lina is duped, Lina is followed, Lina is one step behind. She is this masterful, trained, skilled, talented assassin, a part of a legendary gang, and yet she can't even control her facial expressions! Multiple times she says how she couldn't, how people could see what she was thinking or feeling. And this could've been avoided by giving us one moment with her on a job, an assassination, an instance where she needed to pretend with someone other than her Love Interest. Because we all want to see professional walls come down around the LI, so we know she is taken back by him, that she doesn't normally act like this on a job. But we were told, not shown.

Another part of this disbelief that she was a great assassin was she couldn't think of a creative way to kill the Emperor. Instead, she does the worst thing a female protagonist could do in this situation. She immediately resorts to seducing him.

<i>Girl, what.</i>

You are this powerful woman, this assassin, this killer, trained in this line of work and the first instinct you have... is to seduce him? I get it, Haneul Rui is attractive, but this was before she viewed him that way, before she was attracted to him. To see a woman reduce herself to sexualizing and tossing aside her skillset was so shocking. Especially when the culture of this world was never set up to be that way. At least not from what I read. It invalidates her, reduces her, and was all around a disappointing moment. I thought that at least I'd see a few creative failed attempts.

I think also playing into this, this reducing women to their sexuality and gender is also how Lina always interacted with women, and even how other women were written. Lina did not get along with a single woman, and the two she did that weren't her sister were dead. And the interactions with those two were <i>very, very</i> limited (one flashback). Whenever women were described there was this critical eye over them, constantly overanalyzing what they did, and there was always hostility between any woman and Lina, they could never just... interact. The men were nicer than the women were, and the descriptors of them were less critical. The men (Kang, Rui, even Kalmin) were multi-faceted. The women were one note. Seductress, loyal second hand, haughty and aloof, little sister. Kind of a let down from a story where the MC is a (supposed!) master assassin. You'd expect better writing for the women than the men (at least I would).

A part of Lina's assassin background that I did like, a part that carried weight, was how her trauma followed her. Her found family were ghosts at her back, plaguing her whenever she found a moment of peace before she found her way into the Emperor's realm. These ghosts were the voices of her loss, her grief, her guilt, she carried it all. And even her own grief, when it wasn't from her family, was a ghost in her own head, keeping her awake, plaguing her. It made me feel so sorry for her, curious as to what happened, sorry for what did happen. This quickly disappeared though once we arrived in the Emperor's realm. That plaguing voice was gone and never mentioned again, same with the ghosts. The one aspect I enjoyed early on was gone too soon.

I liked Rui the entire book, he even apologized when he took away Lina's autonomy (a rare thing to see men do in a romantic novel) (spoilers) until he admitted he raised taxes because his girlfriend died??? What! C'mon man. You were snarky and fun and now you're just kind of an absolute dick. And the fact that this was so glossed over (because those that were unjustly taxed were the villains) just soured his character. I get it, you're a rich boy, but normally something like that is addressed, normally it drives a rift between the two love interests (one of which was raised poor, on the streets, and probably saw this happen to her own community). But no. Kissing!

The descriptions, however, were stunning. I was able to picture everything Sophie Kim described easily, in vibrant color, in vivid images. I think it's one of the reasons I couldn't put this book down was, despite its flaws, I was easily able to fall into the world, to imagine it and the characters making their way through the story. The way the descriptors flowed, how I was constantly and beautifully told about the surroundings was pleasant and lovely.

The dialogue between Lina and Rui was enjoyable, quick and quippy, fun and dangerous. I did want them to kiss <i>so</i> badly. The tension between them could have been cut with a (recently stolen) blade.

To finish is off... fatphobia? In 2022? Really? Please reevaluate how you describe fat bodies vs thin ones.

I want to thank #netgalley for letting me read an eArc of #LastOfTheTalons by #SophieKim

This book is absolutely phenomenal! The action from page one is great. The story telling and world building is just beautiful, I could picture so much in my mind. It was also very appreciated that some of the words not everyone knows she made sure to creatively add the definition.
Don’t get me started on Rui and Shin Lina, I love them so so much! I hope that this book will maybe get a breathtaking special edition either way though I will be adding it to my collection!

The first half of the book was very dry and it took me 2 months to get through it. The second half of the book I managed to finish in one sitting. I enjoyed it the most when Lina and Rui’s relationship were starting to shift from enemies to lovers. I really wanted to enjoy the fantasy part more than the romance, but the Talons were not interesting at all to me, not even Sang or his romance with Lina. The Talons were Lina’s found family but the writing failed to make me feel anything for the side characters. The back-and-forth flashbacks on each chapter made it hard for me to enjoy the story.

The Korean mythology about the Dokkaebi realm was really interesting and it’s a shame that the story about how they came to be wasn’t told earlier in the book because I think it would’ve made the earlier chapters much more interesting. Instead, the Dokkaebis backstories were put on the very last chapters and was poorly told. While Rui and Kang played an essential role, Chan and Hana offered nothing to the story.

Lina and Rui are your typical enemies to lovers pairing. While there isn’t anything particularly interesting about them, they have more chemistry than whatever Lina and Sang had going on. Also, the reveal about Rui’s past lover was so disappointing. There’s so much missed potential in this book that even though I’m curious about what happens next, I’m not sure I will be reading the sequels. 2.75 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Conceptually interesting, but in execution far less exciting. The book is fine but mostly reads like something the author intended for the screen and not the page. The opening scene is very dry and poorly told. When I imagined it as the opening scene of a movie, it was excellent, but that's not what I want in a book. I want that excellence to come through on the page.

The story is pretty typical. The world building and mythology is interesting, but not interesting enough to carry the shortcomings of the story. The author seems to struggle between wanting us to believe that her main characters are simultaneously badass killers with no remorse AND somehow also kind, soft-hearted creatures who wouldn't be like this if they didn't have to be. It feels wishy-washy. Lean into the villainy of your characters who are bent on revenge. I have a very hard time believing that this female lead would have survived the mean streets long enough to become the greatest assassin the city had ever seen.

This is another story that suffers from the back and forth storytelling method. It would have been served well by a prologue and the odd flashback dream here and there, but entire chapters devoted to telling the story of her past were entirely unnecessary and killed what little momentum the story had going for it.

I found nothing likeable, unique, believable or romantic about the romance in the book. I in no way believe that these two characters would find each other interesting enough to risk it all for each other.

Ultimately, I won't recommend this book to others, but I also wouldn't ever recommend it either. Rating is more like a 2.5 than a full 3 🌟

I appreciate Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with this ARC.

*Arc was sent by the publisher, this does not affect my review in any way*
Last of the Talons follows Shin Lina who is also known as the Reaper of Sunpo. When her clan, the Talons, are all brutally murdered, Lina is forced to work for a cruel and brutal man. When she's sent to retrieve a priceless tapestry, she unleashes the consequences in the form of a Dokkaebi - to whom the tapestry belonged to.
Lina is whisked away to the Dokkaebi realm and the only way to get back and keep her sister safe is to manage to kill the Dokkaebi king within 14 days - or she suffers the consequences.
I really loved this book! I was hooked very quickly and I really loved the pacing especially. I think Sophie Kim is an incredibly talented writer and I really loved the characters and the world-building. As someone with little siblings, I would do anything in my power to keep them from harm.

Rating: 4 love-is-a-battlefield stars!

Last of the Talons is the debut novel, and first book in the Talon’s series, by Sophie Kim and I absolutely adored it! The MCs were perfect, the Korean mythology was super interesting, and the writing was very descriptive and pretty.

I went back and forth so much on if this was a 4-star or 4.5-star read for me, but ultimately, the little things that could have been better added up, earning this 4 stars.

Given the unfinished business of this story, I really hope the sequel is not too far out!

What I liked about the book:
1. I love books based on mythology! When done well, they always seems to just have an extra “it” factor for me, and the worldbuilding is usually dynamite!

Although I am not familiar with the Gods and stories mentioned in this book (other than the Pied Piper, of course), I found all of the minor and major stories that played out super interesting!

2. The main characters were phenomenal!

Shin Lina was the epitome of an underdog who was forced to become a badass. She was a victim of circumstance who was left no choice but to create this incredible persona of the Reaper of Sunpo in order to keep herself and her little sister safe. The fact that she was this deadly assassin to the world, but this loving sister/de facto parent to her sister, showed how complex of a character she was.

At times, she reminded me of a lot of Quentin Tarantino’s badass females, specifically from the Kill Bill franchise. She reminded me of Gogo Yubari because she could be sadistic and arrogant, she thought of killing her enemies in a slow, painful manner and she thought she could survive any fight. She reminded me of O-Ren Ishii because of her well-renowned assassin status and her drive for revenge. Finally, she reminded me of Beatrix Kiddo because of her ability to survive and her trainings with the Talons being similar to Kiddo’s trainings with Pai Mei. I found all of these qualities to make total sense given Lina’s background and the “character flaws” made her even better in my eyes.

I also loved how the author wrote about the dark, slithering thoughts she had in her quietest moments. It was totally relatable and made you feel so sorry for this tortured, angry woman.

Haneul Rui, aka the Pied Piper, was exactly what I wanted in the emperor and Lina’s enemy-to-lover, cat vs. mouse opponent! He was mysterious, sultry, and a total risktaker. I loved watching him completely change his tune (no pun intended) when it came to Lina and how he made her fall for him. He is definitely one of those guys that produced an eerie calmness over me, frequently having sent delicious shivers and goosebumps through me.

Similar to Lina, he could be sadistic and arrogant, as well as mysterious to the point of annoyance. He best start telling us his secrets in the next one, or he’s going to start losing my favor…just kidding, boo, I love you.

3. I loved how Lina saved Rui! I honestly thought, with her basically being out of commission towards the end of the book, we were going to have Rui saving her and I was deeply upset by this. I thought it was stupid that she wasn’t going to get a say in the final fight when she had proven herself as this total boss the whole story, but luckily, Sophie Kim didn’t do us dirty!

What could have been better:
1. I felt like the mystery around SA (Rui’s former lover) was not lived up to with the couple paragraphs explanation at the very end. I was expecting much more from how much mystery was put around this and it just fell flat.

2. I really didn’t see the point of any of Rui’s counselors other than Kang. Hana offered nothing in character or in story development, and Chan wasn’t much better. With so many side characters already, I didn’t really see their value.

3. Format wise, one criticism I had was that things written as notes between characters were not clearly formatted as such, i.e. no punctuation or italicizing to make it truly feel like a note. This was confusing at times as you didn’t know it was a note from one character to another versus an internal thought until you reached the end, causing you to have to reread it.

Special thank you to NetGalley, Entangled Publishing, and Sophie Kim for the opportunity to read this book for free. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review. Make sure you add this one to your TBR and check it out on release day, September 27!

This was such a fun read I was hooked from the first read I loved the plot the main characters everything about it will definitely recommend and purchase my own copy when it releases.

Last of the Talons was an enjoyable book from start to finish. When told that this was an enemies-to-lovers book, I immediately wanted to read it. Once I got started, I couldn’t put it down.

A big thank you to Entangled Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC! I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

After two "meh" reads back to back, I was very excited to read this own voices debut by Sophie Kim. Korean mythology? A badass assassin and a cat and mouse game with a god-like immortal? Sign me up!

This book had an interesting enough premise, but the execution was weak. The main character is apparently the world's best assassin, despite only training 3-4 years under the tutelage of an old man and a pack of teenagers. Sure, okay. She's gritty, sarcastic, bitter, and jaded after a rough life. Her dubious occupation as world's best thief and assassin eventually draws the ire of an immortal, mythical emperor.

So this emperor is the most gorgeous and cruel being our main character has ever encountered. They live to hate and antagonize the other, and so, of course, the author intends for them to inexplicably fall in love. There is nothing in their relationship that this sudden love believably stems from (lust, I could understand), as both are lacking in significant character development (maybe that will be improved upon in the next book).

Aside from the romance falling completely flat, the book is riddled with continuity errors and messy world building. A horse is constantly referred to as both a stallion and a mare, a character declares that party-goers "dance until sunrise" when the kingdom is devoid of a sun, and the moonlight of a dozen or so moons is what lights the kingdom (moonlight is the light of the sun reflecting off of the moon, but sure).

There is a ridiculous amount of swearing. I'm no prude when it comes to eff-bombs, but the gratuitous amount of language reminds me of a child learning a bad word and then proudly trying to insert it into every sentence. Repetitive phrasing comes into play as the main character "vividly imagines" killing someone, digs their nails into their palms, or makes a crude gesture. It comes off as sloppy writing.

This book needs another solid round of editing and some polishing, which is still possible, as we're about two months from it's publish date. I wish the author best of luck.

4.5 stars

When I first started reading Last of the Talons, I had a feeling that this was going to be a book that I loved. And I did. I really enjoyed reading this and I finished most of the book in a day. Sophie Kim created an immersive world and her descriptions of many of the locations in the book desperately made me want to visit them.

I found Lina to be such a cool character; she was a badass assassin with the perfect amount of snark. Her concern for her younger sister Eunbi really shone through the story. The Dokkaebi Emperor, Haneul Rui, was also quite interesting and I honestly may or may not have a tiny crush on him. I can’t forget to mention that Lina and Rui’s banter is top-notch and so freaking enjoyable.

While the pacing was a little bit slow in the first few chapters, it wasn’t unbearably slow and picked up when Lina was taken to the Dokkaebi realm. There were a few plot lines that I was a little confused by because I felt that they were left unresolved but turns out this is just book 1 so I am guessing they’ll be resolved in book 2.

All in all, Last of the Talons is a fun YA fantasy inspired by Korean myth and culture, with great writing and characters that are fleshed out really well. I enjoyed reading this a lot and cannot wait to read book 2 when it comes out.

The Last of the Talons review

I received an Arc form exalted publishing on netgallery

I love this book. it was a fascinating mix of Korean mythology and pied piper story. the physicality of the writing took me deeply into the story in a sensory way.
the characters are so great. really believable and physical. I hope there will be a few sequels!!

The main character came through in a way that I really connected to emotionally so I was rooting for her!! the Emperor also, her rival in a way, was just so beautiful and I was transported by the descriptions of the spirit realm of the Dokkaebi

a great read, highly recommended

Initial Thoughts
I was super excited to receive an advanced copy of this book. The premise sounded so interesting and I love a good revenge plot.

Some Things I Liked
Grumpy / Sunshine trope. I have developed a new appreciation for this trope but I feel like I want it in every book I read. It was really well done here.
Upper YA. The themes in this book were definitely darker than what you'd find in YA books so I'd qualify this one as Upper YA for sure. But, I enjoyed that. I thought it was fitting for the rest of the plot.
Enemies to Lovers romance. I always love this but it was super well done here. I read another review that put it really well. To summarize, they said "this is the way the Darkling / Alina relationship should have felt". Rui is definitely categorized as the villain initially but the reader learns to love him much sooner than Lina does. I loved their dynamic.
Rich world building and mythological concepts used in a unique way.

Series Value
I could see this being a stand alone with an open ended ending but I'd love it if there were more books. I feel like there's more story to tell here and I'd love to know more about this world.

Final Thoughts
I'm pretty sure this was a debut and what a debut it was! I will definitely keep reading this if it becomes a series and I'd like to read more of Sophie Kim's writing. Lina and Rui are enemies to lovers goals and I can't wait to read more about them.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️