I wasn’t sure what to expect why reading and listening and it definitely wasn’t this! It was so good. I immediately connected with Lina because that has been a nick name for me so I just fell into the story and can’t wait to start book 2!

"Last of the Talons" was an unputdownable read! I went into this book really intrigued by the premise and ended up forfeiting a full night's sleep so I could read it in one session.

I thought the author did a great job taking a well-known story the Pied Piper and blending it with mythology to create something new and unique.

If you enjoy reading YA Fantasy, re-tellings, enemies to lovers , romance and storylines with well developed characters I think you should definitely add this book to your TBR.

Thank you Sophie Kim, Net Galley and Entangled Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book all opinions in this review are my own.

I've read a few YA fantasy recently and this by far was the one I enjoyed the most. I think every book you read should leave you having felt that you learned something. I 've always been a mythology lover and love learning about all the similarities between myths the world over and this book gave me a grounding in Korean Mythology.

Who knew that Korean myths would merge seamlessly with the story of the Pied Piper! Having been to Hamelin, I know pretty much all the version of the tale and this story really gave it a new spin.

Lina is mourning the loss of her own gang the Talons, dealing with separation from her baby sister and having to carry out heists for the kingpin who killed her gang. She is a trained assassin and now she's been sent to steal an ancient relic. But when she dismantles it she earns the wrath of the Emperor of the Dokkaebi.

Lina is soon whisked to another realm and given the take of killing the Emperor - by the Emperor himself. If not he kills her. And if he does that who will save her baby sister?

I loved learning about the myths and different gods in the Korean pantheon. Lina is a determined FMC and one who has to overcome an unwelcome and ill-timed attraction. There is Hate/Love, enemies to lovers, a serious age gap, power shifting dynamics and a rebellion! There is a lot in this book and I would heartily enjoy continue reading this adventure.

This was a really engaging story, many layers of emotional complexity between Lina and Rui. Enemies to lovers, but something deeper too. I read this as part of an Entangled Insiders reading party in advance of Book 2 coming out. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy.

I loved this book! It was very intriguing and at times had me on the edge of my seat wanting to find out what happened next.

I enjoyed the combination of Korean myths that brought this story to life. It was well written and had some wonderful world building.

I liked following along with Lina's journey. And seeing how her complex relationships changed and evolved as the story went on.

I can't wait to dive into the next book and see where Lina's journey takes her.

If you're a fan of YA fantasy then this book is for you. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a classic enemies to lovers story with a Korean twist. I loved the story and loved the fact that it had a lot of Korean mythology written into it, however I wish there was an index of some sort with all of the Korean words used (because yes there are A LOT) that you could easily flip to to look up the meaning. Because looking up the words which definitely helped to understand not only the story but helped understand the Korean mythology took up a lot of my time instead of actually reading the book making the reading very disjointed and choppy.

I did however love Lina and Rui's banter and playfulness even while thier "bargain" was going on and she was trying to kill him. I cannot wait to see what the future books have in store for them!

Thanks Entangled publishing and NetGalley for the eARC!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, Entangled Teen for this book.

I became totally invested in this book. I found myself struggling between my desire for Lina to kill Rui and to kiss him.

At times I wanted to end him myself and at others he was so kind, living and thoughtful.

The book was full of danger, mystery and adventure and just the right amount if romance.

I am so excited to see what happens in Lina's life in book two.

<b>Death does not die, and neither will you, Shin Lina.</b>

Though this is labeled a teen fantasy, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was excited to read a fantasy involving Korean mythology and it did not disappoint. This is a debut series for this author and I feel it was very well done. I am a girl for tension over just spice, and this book has tension ten fold. It’s a true enemies to lovers trope done right.

This book started off a bit slow but then really picked up, so if you’re doubting it, just hang in there! I believe it needed the world building and flashbacks to drive the story now that I’ve finished it and am awaiting the next book.

The FMC, Lina, is strong because she has to be, but has a lot to learn about herself in order to be her best. Throughout the book we get flashbacks of her prior life with family and friends and can feel her journey with grief. Guilt fuels her to make some brash decisions and the book details her entrapment in the guilt and her attempts to overcome it.

The MMC, Rui, is mysterious, dark and intriguing…everything we could ever want, am I right? He’s playful, witty and charming.

Lina, burdened by the loss of her friends and family is working for a bad guy, Kalmin, in order to protect the one person left alive that she loves, her sister. Kalmin and his Blackbloods only guarantee her sister is left alone if she obliges to meet their needs. When Kalmin is captured by Dokkaebi, Lina is given the choice to lose her sister or go fight to return Kalmin. She obviously chooses to fight because her sister’s survival hinges on her being alive.

Lina meets the Dokkaebi emperor (Rui) responsible for kidnapping Kalmin, and he makes her a deal that if she can kill him in 14 days time, she may keep her life and return Kalmin to the Blackbloods and guarantee her sister’s safety. Seems easy enough for a trained assassin such as Lina, right? Well, deception and lust seem to barter for her time, time she doesn’t have.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for providing this ARC for me to join the Entangled Insiders Read-A-Long. I enjoyed it and cannot wait to follow up with the next book in the series.

Last of the Talons is a new YA fantasy series with a Piped Piper Retelling twist. I really enjoyed the world building author Sophie Kim put into the Dokkaebi's realm. Our female heroin Lina is an assassin who's mission is to take down the Piped Piper or risk the life of her sister. I really felt for Lina throughout most of the book and found myself being engrossed in her back story. There is an enemies to lovers twist with her love interest Rui, which I felt was a good choice for the direction of the story.

This is only book one in the series and there is a lot to unpack in the next book after the ending took a twist I didn't see coming. I'm excited to read on in the series.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing for the gifted copy to review.

This is my first delve into Korean mythology. This book kept me intrigued from start to finish. I loved the dynamic between Lina and Riu. Who doesn't love a good enemies to lovers book? I can't wait to read book 2.

Lina is in an impossible situation - forced to rescue the employer after she was caught stealing from a Dokkaebi emperor. He's made a bargain with her. She has two weeks to kill him, and they will both go free, able to save her sister. But fail, and he will kill her instead. As she spends time there plotting his demise, things start to slowly change and they Lina realizes that she and Rui are not as different as she once believed.

This was a really interesting angle on the Pied Piper, and I liked the focus on Lina and realizing who she was, what she was, and that she can continue on without the Talons.

Review: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

This book was on my radar but it wouldn't have come into my radar if it wasn't that dang bookstagram reel my fellow bookstagrammer, Andreea shared.

It's so wonderful to see more exposure to Korean myth retellings especially after reading Axie Oh's The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea. I do adore anything related to Asian mythology and also a note of the Pied Piper retelling.

This story begins with Shin Lina, an assassin who is forced to work for the rival gang that butchered her gang, Talon and fellow friends and family. As such, she has been living with the guilt and hatred of oneself as she goes through the motions every day. The only thing keeping her going is her baby sister who lives in the school by the mountains which the gang holds as collateral. One day, she was asked to steal a tapestry from a Dokkaebi temple (immortal goblins) which brought upon the wrath of the Dokkaebi Emperor and getting ferried away to the immortal realm and competing for her very survival and freedom.

I have mixed feelings about this book:
The good: The slow-burn between the badass heroine and the sneaky hero - Yummm! The intricate world building and the Korean elements thrown into it.
The so-so: I'm not too familiar with Korean gods and myths and there were so many God names and Korean related aspects thrown in the mix that I lost track of what is what, who is who and so. It would be nice if there were some footnotes to help. I felt like this novel dumbed some things down. I wish there were more Korean related aspects used like Korean hyperboles or a play on Korean sayings and words to add more elements to it.
The not so good: There is a shift between the past and present as we learn more of Lina's past and how she came into her current predicament. I do enjoy getting to understand and know her character more. My only issue with this is the choppiness and the abrupt shift in time at times that I get so confused. I would suggest making it clear there is a break or a change in scene.

I also have trouble relating to Lina as a character. While she has spunk and is a feisty heroine, I feel that the other characters made her to be someone freaking amazing at what she does when there has not been much to show on her assassin skills. She is always wallowing in guilt, depression and feeling sorry for herself and at times the pitiful party is just frustrating to read.

The world building itself is wonderfully done. I do like the glimpses we see. While the writer lacks the lyrical and whimsical language that is often found in Asian mythologies, the depictions of the world were still clear and imaginative.

Read if you are interested in:
-Feisty heroine
-Sly and sneaky hero (Mr Emperor himself)
-Forbidden love
-Enemies to lovers
-The sarcastic and touch me and die banter
-Forced proximity
-Asian mythologies

I would still say this book is worth the read especially for YA fiction.

What a great book! The Korean mythology is really interesting and I really enjoyed the world building. I cannot wait for book 2.

I haven't loved an assassin book this much in ages. Sophie Kim is a debut author to watch and I look forward to everything she does next!

I really, truly wanted to love this one. I was so excited to read it when I got my copy! I wanted something a la Iron Widow but maybe not as dark, but certainly just as thrilling. This has the right basics but it just didn't spark that excitement to keep reading. I ended up DNFing it at 51% (start of Chapter 25).

The world is cool and easy enough to understand. I got lost with all the characters though and remembering who was who and their importance to the story.

Shin is exactly what I imagined her to be: an angsty "me against the world" heroine. However, I didn't find her to be very exciting to listen to (her inner monologue often felt repetitive) and she didn't impress me with some of her choices. I wanted her to be sneaking around more, not doing the dishes in the kitchen.

I think the potential romance between her and Rui was the aspect I was looking forward to the most. Which is probably why it was the deciding factor in me DNFing this book. I didn't see any chemistry or tension between them at all. I felt like it took them a long time to even interact in the first place. Rui would just pop up here and there so he felt rather absent than as an integral factor of this plot.

Overall, this book was just a lot of me waiting for something big to happen next. It's a slow build and I could see the potential for future novels to be more thrilling once the reader is familiar with the world. But for me, it took too long to get there which was ultimately why I stopped reading.

A fantasy romance where the characters make a rough plot land strongly. A ferocious heroine commanded to assassinate and a playful, mysterious emperor who wants to be killed, in a mystical realm inspired by Korean mythology. There's a fun chemistry between these two that isn't as intense as a typical enemies to lovers connection but the consistent knife-to-throat attempts are enticing.

Assassin Shin Lina has been the hostage of a crime boss for the year since the rest of her gang died. Her sister's safety is used as a bludgeon to keep her in line, and Lina is not well in any sense. PTSD and survivor's guilt haunt her, keeping her up at night. A leg injury flares up and torments her, and poor living conditions have left her underfed and with no space for any type of self-care. Her latest assignment is a heist-- stealing from the Pied Piper, the Emperor of the Dokkaebi realm. Though his temple sits abandoned, no one would trifle with his power, that of a flute that can compel any listener to do his bidding. But Lina is desperate and cornered, so into the temple she slips, coming out with a beautiful tapestry as a prize, one her boss intends to dismantle to sell the otherworldly gems sewn into its design.

Imagine being so bored of immortality and the responsibility of ruling a kingdom that you bargain with an assassin. She can escape deathly punishment for her theft if she can kill you within two weeks. A fun game! The spice of life! The Pied Piper aka Rui's friends are naturally concerned with this turn of events (although I think they've been concerned for a while given his persistent and far-reaching apathy). And that's the basis of a burgeoning romance between Rui and Lina. Both have loved and lost, and both lack the will to seek joy, feeling they're undeserving. The story follows a common central premise: under-estimated angsty girl (but for very reasonable reasons) meets over-powerful, brooding, hot boy. There's tension with cat and mouse energy. In this case, I think it works well because of the deeper undercurrent of empathy that develops between them. The constant assassination attempts are just the icing on top.

There are dark themes in the book. Obviously, there's the matter of PTSD and grief. We also see Lina struggle with addiction on the page, including the painful back-and-forth between withdrawal and compulsion for another smoke. For me, Lina's fixation on comparing her appearance to other women also sucked. And it's not addressed in the same way the previous two issues are. It's a taken-for-granted aspect of the background noise that makes me think it's not intentional.

Another thing that doesn't get the space I think it deserves is Lina's relationships with her former gang, the Talons. All dead, they are the source of her few happy memories (along with those of her sister). Meanwhile, I was honestly just struck with sympathy that this girl was taken off the streets as an orphan to be trained as an assassin, something she was grateful for as an alternative to desperate thieving. It brought her found family, belonging, and a purpose. But it also asked her to twist herself into a weapon and to earn her place. The sharp edges of her grief only go to show all she feels she owes them. She has no space to consider that her former gang would be relieved to know she survived. She only considers their assumed disappointment that she hasn't avenged them. That's not love when it has strings attached, especially when a kid's involved. And yet that was the golden age of her life. They sent her sister away to keep her safe, but who would separate orphan siblings as a favor, a kindness? It didn't stop Lina's enemies from finding and using her sister against her, anyway. While the book eventually addresses Lina's grief, it doesn't get into the unfair imbalance of these relationships she so treasures. Maybe that's coming in the sequel, but with no hint that readers should question her love for her gang, I'm suspicious it won't be addressed at all.

This is an intense ya fantasy read with some lovely world-building and a convincing central romance. I'm not sure the dark, toxic underbelly of the plot is going to be poked in quite the way I need it to, and that's the part that gives me pause. Thanks to Entangled Teen for my copy to read and review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Teen for a copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

What to even say about this book? It is a beautiful, magical, addictive book with Korean mythology at its core, while being a completely unique experience that was so incredibly enjoyable to read. It was a little difficult for me to get into, but once I got hooked, I was hooked. I loved getting to learn what the rules were for this world, watch the characters develop, and try to figure out what would happen next. The fierce loyalty of Shin Lina, the games of the Dokkaebi, and the evil of man were all a powerful combination to make me fall in love with this book. I cannot wait for book two, and I cannot recommend this book enough if you are trying to diversify your readings.

After her entire talon gang met their demise, Shin found herself burdened with overwhelming guilt as the sole survivor. In an attempt to move forward, she embraced a fresh start as the reaper in Sunpo. Unfortunately, her new employer left much to be desired. In order to shield her younger sister from the clutches of Kalmin, a notorious crime lord, Shin was compelled to carry out his every command, which included taking lives and stealing whatever he desired. However, when Shin purloined a priceless tapestry from a Dokkaebi temple, her actions led her into the immortal realm, where she would confront Haneul Rui, the emperor who yearned for his own demise.

the book was well written. The story was pretty cool, and we got several things I really liked, including mythology, a bit of magic, many secrets and twists, and of course - a dash of romance. I would certainly love to continue the series and see where they all go in the next installments, especially since we got quite some teasers to keep me interested.