This story is the first of a series but it can be read as a standalone as it has an ending. The story itself was interesting and kept me entertained. There were some parts of the book that were a little frustrating to me, especially the MMC's (main male character) decisions and the reason for those decisions. I think some parts could have been better developed and fleshed out more but overall it wasn't a bad story. Just FYI, I received an ARC via NetGalley and this is my honest review of the book.

The Last Dragon King by Leia Stone

Romantasy | Dragons | Shapeshifters

•Arwen has magic that makes her eligible to become a childbearing wife to the Dragon King. Moments before leaving for Jade City, her mother tells er a secret that could get her killed.
•I was shocked to read all the negative reviews about this book. I actually enjoyed reading it and appreciated the fast pace and lack of world building. But I could understand how a true Fantasy reader would have many issues with the plot of this book. I think if you want a light fantasy book and you commit to not over thinking the plot then this could be a good read for you. I’m keen to get my hands on the second book.

★★★★ 4/5

“If it looks like he is going to find out about your powers, make him fall in love with you.”

What happens when the Dragon King comes to Cinder Village to find a wife with enough dragon magic to bear an heir, and finds Awren as a possible prospect?

Awren’s determined to protect a terrifying secret or risk death by the King’s hands. Will Awren be able to protect her growing magic or will the King discover the truth?

"Marry me, Arwen. Not because I need an heir, but because somehow I've fallen in love with you, and now I'm not sure that I can live without you."


“The Last Dragon King” is perfect for fans who enjoy Sarah J. Maas and Holly Black!




⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s truly been a while since a novel has pulled at my heart strings and this novel takes the cake!

“The Last Dragon King” left me in so many emotional rollercoasters that I couldn’t put the book down. I was teary eyed when the novel came to an end and was craving to know what will come for the Nightfall Queen?

I enjoyed the chemistry and the heart clenching scenes between Awren and Drae. I also couldn’t handle the excitement I had to them confessing their undying love for one another.
I was so excited to see strong female protagonist as Awren and how dedicated she was to protecting her family, her people, and Drae, the one who captured her heart!

Thank you to NetGalley, Leia Stone, and Bloom books for an arc of “The Last Dragon King” in exchange for an honest review! ❤️

I devoured this book! It's such a great fantasy world. I loved the characters and their plight. The story moved very quickly. If I was going to mark down anything, it would be that I wanted more of it! One smutty scene.

Think Cinderella with Dragons! Thats what you get with this read. Great story, great characters. It was a bit of Shadow and Bone with a mix of magic and dragons. So much action, sword fighting and shape shifting. Loved it!

The Last Dragon King by Leia Stone is a beautiful book.

This book got a little bit of family secret, angst, action packed, arranged marriage, suspense, shifter, heart breaking moments and tears. I love how deeply in love Drae with Arwen. I love how strong Arwen's characters which fit to be a queen.

I'll definitely be waiting for Leia Stone and the next book.

Arrrgh so conflicted about this book. I did enjoy the first 2/3 of it. Going into it knowing it held a lot of purity culture in it helped me to kind of tune that part out and just enjoy the story.
Overall I think if you go into it knowing that it is definitely NOT spicy and that’s the FMC is basically every cliche of every pick me girl in the world you can still enjoy the book. Overall I would say 2.6 but I rounded up to a 3.

This was a very unique story, but it was just okay for me.

This story features "dragon folk," which was a first for me! I was super intrigued by how this book would play out. In this story, the dragon king is looking for a queen. This book had character art throughout, and I loved the visuals; they were done so well.

When I say the setup for this story was FANTASTIC, I mean it! I was so excited about it. Unfortunately, It just fell flat in the last 3/4 of the book for me. I think it would have been great if there was more chemistry between the characters, and it wasn't so rushed. I wish it were longer, and we could have really gotten to see the characters and plot develop.

Thank you, NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Started off promising, but I couldn’t stand the main character. She’s a pick me. I will not be continuing this series unfortunately due to her character I do not like the whole “I’m not like other girls” thing. The magic system seemed really interesting and I liked the world building but at times the language was just too immature for my tastes.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, Leia Stone, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3/5

This was a great start for a new series, giving potential for future storylines while paying attention to the main characters, Arwen and Drae, as they navigate their journey as individuals and as a couple. Now, I want to start off by saying I absolutely LOVED the premise of the books—I’m most definitely in my dragon era, and the main plot line of this book just drew me in. And while I loved both the main and side characters, I do think that there could have been more done with their stories. In all honesty, I could’ve read 2-3 books that were more in-depth about the plot lines that happened in just this one because I was genuinely invested in the story. I felt like important plot points were rushed and some very crucial interactions were not drawn out enough—it sometimes felt more like a stop-and-go of information rather than an intricate dialogue between complex characters. I also do think that the world-building was done in a manner that was more like a “lore dump,” and while I think it was important to build the story and the universe, it could sometimes feel like a lot at once. There was also a sort of “not like other girls” narrative, which is more than fine, but I just think it’s a very fine line to write about, and the character of Arwen could’ve been perceived as that without explicitly saying so continuously throughout the book. And again, while I am critiquing the book, I’d really like to emphasise that I did read this book in one sitting and genuinely liked it, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with some of the stylistic choices! :) I think there’s great potential with the series, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

This an absolutely amazing and hard to put down! I want more! I want a longer Drae and Arwen (ok, I admit not so great name choice there) story and a longer romance! I want an evil schemer determined to become the Queen and take down her rivals even if she doesn’t have enough magic! Most of all I just want more!

I mostly enjoyed this book, but the language read a little bit too young for the story. Even though it is a YA I feel the story looses a lot of impact because of this.

The pacing also seems a bit off. Parts where I would have loved to see the development is rushed. I honestly would have preferred the book to be longer so that the story could develop at a better pace.

As for our MC:
Arwens “I’m not like other girls” doesn’t sit well with me, but that might be expected from an 18 year old. I do appreciate how she doesn’t actually talk other girls down though.

All in all a good start to a series. I will be continuing in hopes that the language and phrasing develops with the story.

The Last Dragon King by Leia Stone

If you gravitate towards a strong female main character, magic, elves, and a mysterious dragon lord—go read this book now! Leia Stone always delivers a fun read. This particular book is a mild enemies to lovers romantasy (imo).

Arwen is an 18 year old living in Cinder Village, a city on the outskirts of the kingdom of Embergate, which is full of hardworking residents of mixed breed descent. We’re talking fairies, elves, dragonfolk, wolven, and humans. One day, the city receives notice that the king is searching for women of childbearing age with magic for the sole purpose of being strong enough to bear him an heir. Every woman tested and found to have enough magic will be sent to the capital city where they will get to know the king, and he them, and undergo a process of elimination. Arwen has basically zero magic so, no biggie right? Enter Drae, Dragon King of Embergate. I won’t spoil how he and Arwen first meet (it’s hilarious lol). The book goes on to chronicle this journey and process of choosing which of the women found will bear the king his heir. There is drama. There is angst. There is fighting! My personal favorite character trait of Arwen’s is how she skillfully needles the king and provokes him. HA!

What I liked about the book:
The plot—come on, romantasy for the win here!
I ADORE a strong female main character! Arwen is no wilting lady, waiting on others to help her. She chose to become a hunter to provide for her family (is actually one of the only recognized female hunters in Cinder Village), and doesn’t act oblivious about the signals men send like weaker fmcs—ie if he’s kissing someone else, she acknowledges that and works to move on.
I loved all the secrets that came out and her desire to be a soldier (haha)

What I didn’t like about the book (and why I only rated it 4 stars):
There were several points in the story that I felt could have been fleshed out much better. I won’t detail the exact spots because spoilers, but it really seemed to move too quickly, and that made some of the relationship movement feel fake. This book could have easily had 100+ more pages to provide for more development between characters, more plot development, and more time to develop tension. O.M.G. there is so much potential in this book for there to be a crazy amount of TENSION. So really, my only complaint is that I wanted more of this story—more fleshed out bits, more tension, more time with Arwen and Drae. Would not have been mad to have more time witnessing Arwen by herself too—you know those scenes where the FMC just SHOWS UP and is FIERCE and independent and GETS. IT. DONE?!?! IYKYK.

Overall I would DEFINITELY read this book again! Go get it. No regrets.

This started off so promising but it seemed to go downhill rapidly to the point I was only finishing it because I hate DNFing.

I loved Arwen’s character at the beginning. Was the opening very reminiscent of the hunger games? Yes. Did it hinder my enjoyment? No. I loved that Arwen had learnt to hunt to take care of her family and I felt like we were getting to know a strong willed and capable FMC. Unfortunately as the book went on I feel like we lost this Arwen completely. Once we get to the capital Arwen just seemed to blurt out whatever she wants and is just irritating. The big reveal about Arwen’s powers was disappointingly skipped over. We’re told it’s a huge deal and yet there’s barely any explanation around this? It’s just skipped over and at one point we’re told that a huge chunk of time has passed and suddenly she can do all this cool stuff - umm what?? Also she becomes such a ‘pick me’ girl which just doesn’t feel necessary.

The king, Drae, started off seriously promising but he quickly became boring. All the side characters are just blah and barely have any substance other than to push along the weird plot.

Basically, all the characters are painfully one dimensional and don’t really have any depth to them at all. There wasn’t a single character I actually bought into or felt like I knew anything about.

I did not enjoy the purity culture being pushed here. I don’t know there being purity culture in fantasy worlds, I can absolutely see how that can factor into world building etc. etc. but this felt like the author had her own agenda and was making it clear so that really didn’t sit well with me. Also the whole section on sleeping with other people to have an heir - WHAT? There was so little explanation around why an heir even matters, and this was just gross and unnecessary. Again it really felt like the author had their own views they were pushing here?

In short, the concept is one I love despite it being overplayed and cliche, but the execution was poor. Characters are one dimensional. There’s no real world building. Plot is boring and predictable (when it even exists). There’s clearly going to be more books in this series looking at different couples but this definitely isn’t going to be a series I’ll be picking up again.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-ARC

The concept of this book was very fun but the execution was poor. The story was very rushed and lacked any real world or character building. The mc is a very much a “pick-me” girl. She is not like other girls because she wears pants and hunts.

Very quick read. I will say I definitely thought there would be more spice given the plot is needing an heir but I still managed to like it. It kind of game me the selection combined with fourth wing and a hint of acotar and the hunger games vibes. Overall it was a good read and I will read the next book in the series.

I was so excited to get this eARC. Unfortunately, my head isn’t in a place for navigating the content warnings right now, and I’m so grateful they are there.

I did read chapter 1 (8%) and the writing is definitely on the narrative side and slightly slow. I’d expect three stars for the target market, four to five for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC.

I thought this book had a lot of potential. The world building was interesting and the relationship between the different kingdoms is a smart way to set up a series with multiple couples. This book was very bingeable and I read it in one setting. I was immediately sucked into the world. The writing was well done and easy to read.

However, I had a hard time understanding the actions/behaviour of the two main characters. I felt that the way Arwen justified Drae’s often cruel actions didn’t make sense with who her character was set up to be - someone independent, fierce, and strong. I really didn’t enjoy the use of her as a backup, nor did I enjoy the arrangement she and Drae came to regarding mistresses. For this to be the main plot line felt disappointing given the more interesting political aspects of the plot that could have been further explored. I love a breeding trope but felt this wasn’t executed in a way that made me as a reader love Drae as a male lead. I think the breeding conflict could have been done differently to built tension between the characters that didn’t diminish Arwen and make her appear naive.

Overall I still am interested in the rest of the series, but this wasn’t written for my taste.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This had an interesting premise but fell flat for me. Basically the selection but dragons. Too immature. Sometimes YA romantasy is still good but here it just wasn’t enough.

I got lost in this story really nicely. It was intriguing and I read the series to get out of a slump from TOG and it was perfect.