The premise of this book was interesting to me, but I think the dialogue and the execution of the premise is very unrefined and needs some work. I would have liked to see more build up with the romance and more explanations for certain conflicts..

I really enjoyed this book. I thought Arwen was very mature for being only 20. And Drae was pretty level headed for someone with such responsibilities.

The story was pretty intriguing and I kept turning the page to see what happened next. I gave 4 out of 5 stars only because of the ending. At first, it was one scenario but then all of a sudden, it was another without the consequences of the first one. Especially with the premise of this book. I’m probably not being too clear but I don’t want to post spoilers. Anyways, it was a good read and I’ve grabbed the rest of them to continue on.

This book was so good. I thoroughly enjoyed this book way too much. Absolutely love all things PNR. So well written with amazing characters and the words just flowed on the page.

I love losing myself in a Leia Stone world, and The Last Dragon King: Kings of Avalier is no exception.

This read has a slight Cinderella reimagining feel to it. The king must find a new wife at once, and he sets out to visit each village in his kingdom. Coming upon Cinder Village, he chances upon a young hunter, a woman, carrying her kill upon her shoulders back to her home. He is instantly intrigued.

That young woman, Arwen, is blissfully unaware of the interest in her. She wants for nothing more than to care and provide for her mother and sister, kiss the boy in the village who has captured her interest, settle down and perhaps have a family, and happiness, of her own.

Theur meeting leads us to a tale of secrets. Long ago battles and wars. Tragedy and loss, duty and honor before self. It's a much deeper and darker story than finding the right person. It's very much a story of self discovery and sacrifice for both Arwen and Drae.

As with all of Ms Stone's stories, the world building is imaginative, detailed and interesting, with a mix of old and new technologies, and the ancient powers that battle them.

As this is the first in a series, the next kings are named. Their heroine's are not. But bread crumbs give us some indication of the men we'll be reading about in upcoming books.

For me, this is a 4.5 star read. Top notch world building, interesting characters, attraction but no real steam except for the wedding night. Overall, an excellent read, and one I recommend for the romantasy fan.

This is a relaunch with Bloom Books, and I was given a copy to read by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is one of my favorite series!!! This book got me into Leia Stone's books so quick! This was such a good first book in a series. I loved the whole book!

"The Last Dragon King" by Leia Stone is the first book in the Kings of Avalier series, a captivating tale of love, magic, and epic battles. The story follows Arwen Novakson, an eighteen-year-old with magical abilities. While her magic is not particularly strong, she is shocked when the magic sniffers select her as a potential wife for the Dragon King, who is seeking a partner with enough dragon magic to produce a powerful heir.

Despite the unexpected opportunity, Arwen discovers a terrifying secret about the strength of her magic that could put her life in danger if the king were to learn the truth. As she navigates the challenges of court life and witnesses the king courting other women, Arwen finds herself falling for the charismatic Dragon King. However, the risks of their relationship become apparent as a magical war looms, forcing Arwen to decide how much she's willing to sacrifice for love.

This fantasy romance, perfect for fans of authors like Holly Black, Sarah J. Maas, and Rebecca Yarros, promises an engaging and unputdownable read with elements of dragons, magic, and a forbidden love story.

Quick, easy romantasy read. Completely predictable but fun nonetheless.

Even though the book is quite tropey, it was a good read. The characters are fun and stay true to themselves. Arwen is quite sarky, which I always like.

I would have liked to see more of the actual "contest" I think. Would have been cool to see this developed further.

3.5 stars.

Really enjoyed! The dynamics and relationships was what kept me hooked. Wish there was more! I did find there could have been things added to make the story better.. I’m fine with lighter/ not deep reads so that’s not what I found it was lacking. Although it seemed like things where a bit all over the place at times

I decided to give this book a try based on its blurb, and it didn't disappoint. The story was short and fast-paced and it left me wanting for more. I am now fully committed to reading the entire series, it is that enjoyable.

The story follows the last (would it be the last?) dragon king and his quest to keep his empire and citizens safe. It has dragon shifters, magic, romance, what more can you ask?

I received the ARC via NetGalley and I'm giving my honest feedback.

This book started off well, and I was honestly enjoying it. Unfortunately, that changed after the first several chapters.

Plot development became rushed, with the author often telling us things had happened without showing us via characters and scenes. This caused the relationship that rapidly developed between the two main characters to feel unnatural.

Things went even more downhill from there with random, undeveloped turns in the story, an insistence on the virtues of female sexual purity, sexist double standards, incredibly cringeworthy choices and reasons for those choices, a painful attempt at a sex scene, and a volley of contrived attempts to create tension.

I was really disappointed with how this book progressed, because I actually really enjoyed the author’s writing style. Her prose is easy to read and grabbed my attention from the first page. The initial concept was good, but the story development fell flat and left a lot to be desired.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for the advance digital review copy of this book!

I had a hard time reading the book. There was a lot of parts that felt so rushed and unorganic. You can definitely tell that this book got its ideas from A Court of Thorns and Roses. I did have to stop reading this book as an adult. However, as a young adult it may be worth the read if you're in to shapeshifters and rushed ideas.

Cinderella meets the Hunger Games meets dating shows.
A girl from a small village finds herself unexpectedly a candidate to become queen when she finds out that she may have a more magical heritage than she'd always believed.

Arwen is the older sister in a family who lost their father. She takes up hunting to support her family in a small town with few extra resources. After a successful hunt, she returns for a festival but instead has her world turned upside down.
 
I'm very split on this book. In one case, I was hooked and finished it in a few hours. On the other, I have some issues with a few parts of it.

I love the beginning of this book. Yes, it has parallels to other stories, but it also has an amazing FMC. I immediately loved Arwen, and Drae was intriguing. I got nervous when all the queen candidates got together and expected the book to go into the usual catty girl competition stuff. It was pleasantly surprising when that was not the case. Female characters supporting each other, cheering each other on and accepting differences was a nice change.

Some of the book did feel a bit rushed, and I wish certain aspects had been flushed out more. That being said, sometimes it's nice to just enjoy a quick read! It also had an odd mix of purity until marriage and other views of having families. Neither of those things are bad, and it takes all kinds of people and relationships to make the world the place it is. I do look forward to reading more of this series in the future and exploring the other characters that were introduced or mentioned!

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

It was a quick and easy read. Interesting at times, slightly slow and boring at other times. It wasn’t my favorite book. I feel like it was studied and not fully developed.

<b>3.5 stars</b>

The Last Dragon King by Leia Stone is my first book by the author. It's a fantasy shifter romance with lots of drama, angst and twits and some interesting characters.

It's a cross over between Cinderella and Bachelors. The Dragon King needs to get married soon to save his kingdom and he has just lost his wife after three stillbirth. So a kingdom wide hunt is on for eligible woman with enough magical power to carry the heir. Arwen thought it has nothing to do with her as she is a simple mixed blood but her mother discloses that she is actually highborn. Not just any highborn. She is the last surviving queen from the enemy Eclipse Dragon clan. She gets picked up by the sniffers and now she has to survive hiding the truth and definitely not fall for the King.

The FMC and MMC are quite young. 18 and 21 respectively. I liked Arwen. She is strong and sassy and sometimes impulsive. She protected and helped her family to survive through poverty and hunger with her hunting skills. She didn't like the idea of getting uprooted from her family and to be thrown into a contest because she isn't a normal girl. Being a royal guard is more enticing to her. But the King's tragedies intrigued her soft heart. He can very well be her death but the heart wants what it wants. I feel her heartbreak and misery through the story as she had to make some really difficult decisions. She showed her courage and stubbornness very well.


But I am so confused about King Drae. He is nothing like the alpha I expected him to be. He is all over the places with his emotions and his decisions. He wanted to choose Arwen because of her bravery and her fierceness but he never did. He chose another woman because his counsel thought she is better suited for carrying the heir. Only after that option wasn't there...he confessed his love. And again and again, Arwen made sacrifices. I really wanted to like him. But Arwen totally eclipsed him.

I reviewed an early copy voluntarily

I loved this book so much! I finished this book in a day. The romance was amazing. The world building was very well done. I can’t wait to finish the series!

This story was nothing like I was expecting. Before reading this 200 page-turner. I read the reviews. I saw people rated this book 4 out of 5 stars or more. All agreed that this book read like a Wattpad story. I'm here to put that idea to rest. Though there are so many Wattpad traits, there were so many instances where this was just a short novel. This could be read as a stand-alone or a collection. This author did a wonderful job conveying a captivating story. I personally couldn't put it down, and, when I got up the next, I couldn't wait to start reading it again. Hands down this was an awesome read. Round of applause to the author for coming up with this masterpiece. If you love a nice Syfy romance with a dark twist, this is the book for you. It is a quick read with some errors in the text, but the book is so darn good you won't even notice it.

This book and a decent premise, but it was not well written. I struggled to even finish it at times. It felt like a teenager wrote it and there could have been a lot of improvements. The hero and heroine were decent, but the plot was just weak. The ideas held potential, but it just didn't;t follow through. It felt pieced together from other fantasy series. I really think it could get there with some help.

2 stars

This was very underwhelming. The start of this book felt really promising and the writing was easy to consume quickly but everything went downhill very quickly because of the following:

- "I'm not like other girls' FMC. How dare young women like pretty things like dresses!
- A weird focus on purity which read very judgemental and very random, followed by far too many references to wombs.
- The one sex scene was just... awful. I don't think the FMC even got to orgasm and pretty sure she was crying..
- Hated everything about the 'agreement' - just made me angry rather then sympathetic to the main characters.
- Don't get me started on how quick these people move on after a death..

The storyline was just so convenient, rushed and half the decisions being made by the main characters made no sense. I am disappointed I did not like this book and makes me unsure if I would continue the series...

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Just wow! I love her writing style! It’s a constant high. You never have to “make it to the next chapter”. The Last Dragon King is no exception! I’m not sure if it’s a thing but I call it “An Exciting Style of Writing!” I’m so excited to move on to the next book in this series!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I think that the premise of the book had a lot of potential but wasn’t very well executed. The plot was very rushed and seemed to jump from one thing to the next to the point I was having to reread pages to make sure I didn’t skip one. The magic system and world that the book took place in had a lot of interesting pieces but weren’t expanded on enough for you to truly understand them. Also, the emphasis that was put on the “royal womb” of the FMC was reiterated so many times, we get the point, he’s gotta knock you or one of the other girls up to produce and heir.

This book had a lot of potential to be set up similarly to the “Selection” series or the “Artifacts of Ouranos” series with a selection of women being pulled from their homes to compete to be the next queen but there was no competing in this books. They literally touched a rock were sniffed for magic and whoever had the most was set to be the new queen.

In all it was a very underwhelming book and I wish the author had taken a little more time to flesh out the details because I think it could’ve been a really great book.