Rooted in the Red Thread of Fate myth, <i>The Last Dragon of the East</i> is a sweeping tale of true love, that carries heartbreak, rage, and . . . a surprisingly humorous twist.

When I first heard of <i>The Last Dragon</i>, I instantly got excited about the red thread myth. And the dragons. Of course the dragons. What this book gave me was everything I could have possibly hoped for. And so much more!

The story follows twenty-five-year-old Sai, a mama's boy in the best sense of the world. The man is devoted to his mother to the point where he crosses borders for her. I thoroughly enjoyed reading from the point of view of this twenty-five-year-old man and the humor he brought to the story. It was both an unexpected and pleasant surprise.
While Sai could definitely be a successful stand-up comedian in this universe, he could also be a poet. He had a beautiful way with words, especially when it came to descriptions of his loved ones. I was swooning at times and he wasn't even describing me!
Another thing I loved about Sai is that he was just an ordinary person. He was no great, all-powerful hero. Just a man who worked at his family's teahouse and cared for his sick mother. He was an ordinary man . . . who pushed his own boundaries, evaporated his fears, and traversed to the ends of the earth to protect his loved ones. This—an ordinary person acting extraordinarily for those he loves—is one of my favorite things to read about.

Jyn was the perfect grumpy to Sai's sunshine. She was hesitant, filled with hurt, rage, and irritation. It was so wonderful to see Sai slowly making his way past the walls she put around herself. Reading Jyn's journey as she slowly opens up was like watching a video of an abused puppy learning how to trust and love her new owner. It was painful, heartbreaking, but so fulfilling in the end.

While Sai definitely brings in the humor, there is a lot of underlying angst to break your heart if you really stop and think about the events these soulmates have had to endure in all their past lives. But I wouldn't love this book so much if I didn't thrive in angsty waters. The more angst the better.

While there was plenty of romance, there were also plenty of action scenes that really tied this story together and made for some intense speed-reading. Overall I think the romance-action balance was carried out really well, making it so that there was never a dull moment in the book. There were never any scenes I felt were redundant, which doesn't happen often for me.

If you liked the sweeping romance in <i>Daughter of the Moon Goddess</i> or enjoyed the myths and lore from <i>The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea</i>, or loved the lush landscapes from both, you will surely love <i>The Last Dragon of the East</i>.

➸ 5 stars

“We fit perfectly, made for each other in every way. Two halves of one fated whole.”

𓍢⊹ ࣪ thank you to netgalley, saga press, and katrina kwan for the arc and happy release day! i loved this book so much i immediately ordered a physical copy that i now have in my hands!! <3

⛰️ chinese mythology
🐉 dragons
☁️ red strings of fate/soulmates
🎋 reverse grumpy sunshine

“I have my Fated One and she has me, and in this moment, that’s all we need.”

i loved this book so much and i don’t think my words will ever be able to describe the feeling that this book gave me. this book has one of the most beautiful love stories i’ve ever read and brought tears to my eyes countless times. when i finished it i wanted more, yet… it was perfect, i was content and full and i wouldn’t change a single thing about it. i had the biggest smile of my face while reading this book and felt a happiness that made me feel whole. i utterly fell in love with this story and these characters and i would do anything to read this book for the first time again.

full in depth review is available on my goodreads!

The Last Dragon of the East

Romantasy, Dragons, Myth, and Destiny!

The Last Dragon of the East was a beautifully written fantasy featuring romance, duel timelines, multiple POVs, and lots of mythical elements. This story definitely gave me reverse grumpy + sunshine feels with a touch of enemies to lovers. While the beginning felt a little slow going for me, it definitely picked up and I was mesmerized by the story through the middle and the end.

The story follows Sai, who was born with the ability to see red threads of fate, and subsequently point people to their soul mates. Loved Sai but he had to grow on me. I started the story already bored with him but soon started to like him. I loved his sense of duty and how he stood up for anyone who needed help in anyway.

Jyn was just delightful in her grumpiness. My only complaint with her was the unwillingness to just come clean. It almost felt like the miscommunication trope which is not a favorite. A lot of the tension in the middle felt unnecessary due to this and I caught myself rolling my eyes instead of feeling bad for these characters I just started rooting for.

Overall, I think the book could of been shortened just bit. The beginning third of the novel felt like work to get through, and then I got to the middle and BAM, I was laser focus invested. Once the chemistry started to pick up, completely sucked in. The spice was also just enough and done so very well!

Katrina Kwan’s Last Dragon of the East has Sai, a teashop owner and seer of threads of fate, recruited by the emperor to hunt a dragon. It had a good premise, but the story wasn’t as gripping as it could have been. Maybe because Sai didn’t interact with many characters, maybe because different creatures seemed to be thrown in without purpose, of maybe because the story threads weren’t woven together so they could all be felt throughout the book.

I can’t quite pinpoint it, but whatever the reason, Last Dragon of the East was a bit of a letdown.

How the actual heck do I convey my love for this novel? There’s just no way, but I will try I suppose.

This was such a compelling emotional read. The world building was great and I loved the characters that had so much personality.

Sai, my silly little man. He was everything and more to me. I admired his strength and how he handled everything that happened in the last few chapters of the book. He was so down bad for his Fated One, it was amazing to read about. Just overall such a funny character who I will cherish forever and want to protect forever. Sai fan page over here!!

Jyn!! Oh my heart bleeds for Jyn. She’s just such a badass and the fact that she had to deal with what she had to deal with for so long is just like wow. She’s stronger than I ever could be in every way imaginable. I love protective badass FMCs and she was the embodiment of that. It was so funny seeing her interact with Sai when they first met.

Okay, so I just started crying again thinking about the ending like!!!!!! I just think that this is such a great read and everyone should read it. A beautiful fantasy first and foremost but with a love story at the heart of it. The romance was so good, I was giggling and blushing and crying and just like so interested in everything that I was reading.

There’s lots of violence, gore, blood, and just overall death in this but it was written in a way that you can feel it so heavily. I could smell and taste and see and hear everything. All my senses were attuned to this book!!!! Truly no words for how much I love it. Possibly my new favorite romantasy of all time. I love Sai and Jyn and A-Ma. I wish nothing but the best for them.

I love that some characters got what they deserved but oh my god, the swift deaths in this made my heart drop because I was not expecting them at all. My heart hurts. 11/10. I love pain, do it again!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Saga Press for the opportunity to honestly review this ARC!

The Last Dragon of the East was a sweet, easy read that I really enjoyed. As a huge fan of anything with soulmates and/or red strings of fate, I was very excited to receive this ARC! It didn’t disappoint, but it didn’t completely blow me out of the water either.

The main character, Sai, was very endearing to me, and his determination to find and protect his Fated One was sweet. Sai was blessed/cursed with the ability to see people’s fate threads, and he uses this to be a matchmaker to those who believe him… but his thread isn’t red like people with living soulmates, and it isn’t black like those with soulmates who’ve passed away, his is gray and fading and he has no idea what that might mean. Intriguing concept and it was cool to see that mystery unfold as well. I liked the “grumpy x sunshine” trope at play here, especially with him being sunshine and her being grumpy. I can’t speak much on Her without spoiling which I don’t want to do so I won’t! But I really loved the person at the other end of his thread. Her strength was inspirational!

The obstacles in their paths to find each other in this lifetime were suprisingly violent and tragic at times, so I recommend checking trigger warnings! Some of the fight scenes could get a little gory!

If you’re looking for a sweet fairytale romantasy that you’ll want to finish in a few sittings, I definitely recommend this! Especially if you’re also a fan of fated soulmates and dragons! (It even included a classic, evergreen, “Who did this to you?”)

Sai is able to see the red strings of fate that connect people but has only used this as a means of income and has not cared about where his battered thread leads. After the Emperor finds out about his powers, he is forced to go on a hunt for the last dragon. What he finds instead is his own fate. The Last Dragon of the East shows a different view on fated mates while also touching on things such as grief and loss. I was very interested in the beginning, and there were parts of the ending that were SO SATISFYING, but the pacing in the middle was a little challenging for me.

Thanks to Saga Press, OwnVoices, and NetGalley for an eARC of this book for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Saga Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

DNF 38%

There's nothing I love more than reading a fated soulmate story. Throw in dragons!? Super exciting premise, but this was not doing it for me.

My main issue was the MMC. For me, he just did not have main character vibes at all. I wasn't connecting with him at all, wasn't invested in his story or his thread of fate. The story started to get more interesting once his fated one shows up, but the characteristics I wasn't feeling really started to stand out. His vibe was feeling really forced and it was just meh.

This might also be my current reading mood. I've been reading most romantasies this past month, and so this main character was falling short.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Saga Press for the opportunity to read this one before it releases.
This story was so romantic, I found myself falling in love with the prose espeically when it came to the two love interests in the story. The way the romance between our love interests was written reminded me of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, just so beautiul it brought me to tears at times. Parts of this book felt so whimsical, then you had the juxstaposition of the action scenes. I felt this story had a great balance between romance and fantasy, it didn't feel too heavy handed on either end. As most of you know by now, I love banter in a romantasy and this one did not disappoint. I cannot wait to read more from Kwan.

3.5 ⭐️ i had a very hard time in the first 100 pages. I couldn’t get intimidated the book and considered DNF’ing but made myself keep going. The action scenes are what kept me reading. I liked them. Not the best of action scenes I have read but still exciting. The fated lovers feels so overused now but since I am not familiar with the mythology this is based on (at least i think it’s based on chinese mythology) I figured it had something to do with that. A good book it just starts out really slow

This book is perfectly fine. It's cute and it's sweet at times, but I don't really have any strong feelings about it one way or another. I did like the subversion of the dragon/shifter being a female grumpy half of this grumpy x sunshine couple. Plus their romance ended up being adorable. I just didn't feel any real pull to the story that kept me excited. I made the mistake of putting the book down for a couple days and found that I had to convince myself ~extremely~ hard to pick it back up no matter how bored of it I felt, which I feel like tainted my feelings of the second half of the book.

I would rec this to my friends that I know prefer a lighter-hearted fantasy, but still has some dark motivations.

The Last Dragon of the East begins as a story about the threads of fate. About the loves that carry us through the long nights. The hope of finding someone who would be our Fated One. And then it becomes a story about mystery, the power of love, and revenge. When the avalanche begins, it roars. The Last Dragon of the East is swoony whether it be the atmospheric setting or the action which propels readers through the story. We love good banter and this delivers!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for my eARC of this book!
If you are a reader that enjoys the fantastical elements of Chinese Mythology, I think you will enjoy this novel.
I agree with the comparison to Sue Lynn Tan, as her Celestial Kingdom Duology is a favorite of mine. I would also compare the romance to the style of Rebecca Ross', not “spicy or smutty” but tasteful. Besides some unsettling violence and war scenes, I would say this does sort of read Young Adult. Which also goes back to my Ross comparison.
Also, this read very “fairytale love story”, so if a complex fantastical world holds you up, this one is very easy to understand, but still unique.
Now, onto the things I really loved about this book.
Firstly, Sai's banter as a character, I loved his goofy humor. Even in struggles, he would try to be upbeat. I feel like that's all of us who cope with humor.
The pacing was great. I feel like the introduction was short and we were onto adventure really quick.
There are only a couple things I felt were missing, or things I wish were explained or tied up better, but I don't want to spoil so I will leave it at that. Our focus is the main couple and the magic, so some may not care, but veteran Fantasy readers might.
If any of my review fits your taste, than I hope you pick up this book! I really enjoyed reading it.

The Last Dragon of the East is such a beautiful story about soulmates, Chinese myths, and magical dragons. The author does a great job describing the scene and all of the Chinese myths…they are all very interesting! The love felt between the main characters is also beautifully written.

Willing to do anything to help his sick mom, Sai buys dragon scales from a doctor who swears this will help. Dragons are thousands of centuries extinct, so Sai is skeptical. Sai can also see Threads of Fate-strings that connect people to their soulmate. He’s put off finding his fated one to help his mom. When the fearsome emperor catches wind of the exchange of dragon scales and demands that Sai go searching for the dragon if he wants to help his mom. Sai traverses the continent encountering many challenges along the way and hoping to find his fated mate as well. Will he succeed in either task he’s set out to complete?

This was such an emotional and beautiful journey. Things do get graphic but if you've survived Game of Thrones you should be good to handle it. I felt elements of Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, GoT, and ACOTAR. I rarely cry anymore and this had me tearing up (although that might be because I was on my period). The characters are so endearing and the book expertly sprinkles in touches of funny and mysterious. Highly recommended and is definitely one of my top reads. I now feel empty and don't know how to fill the void with my next read. It has big shoes to fill.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc! It's been my favorite one so far <3

Our MMC, Sai, can see threads of fate that direct him to each persons soulmate, except his own. His thread is not glowing and beautiful like others he can see, but is instead gray and frayed.

Sai owns a tea shop with his ailing mother, and also works as a match maker. A very rare treatment for his mother's illness becomes available to him, but ends up putting his life in danger and forcing him to embark on a dangerous journey. During this quest, he discovers that he has an entire past that he has forgotten.

I don't want to give too much away by saying anymore. I really loved this book! This story is such a beautiful romantasy with a grumpy FMC and sunshine MMC. As the story progressed it got better and better. Really about 40%-50% of the way through I felt like I couldn't put it down.

Although it went by quickly, I feel like it flowed really well with a rich Chinese mythology retelling. It was heartbreaking at times but by the end I was happy and my heart felt so full.

With great tropes like:

🐉Dragons
🐉Amnesia
🐉Soulmates
🐉Chinese mythology
🐉Grumpy Sunshine
🐉Mature main characters
🐉Beautiful love story

RATING: 4.5 stars rounded up

Thank you to Katrina Kwan, @netgalley, and @sagapressbooks for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a reader who isn't a fan of the fated mates romance trope, I made a big exception for The Last Dragon of the East since the soulmate aspect derives from the Asian myth of the red string of fate. This is one of my all-time favorite myths that makes me get emotional every time I see it featured in fictional media.

The story follows Sai: a young man who works at his mother's teahouse and has a unique ability to see who a person's soulmate is by looking at their red string of fate. Through a series of circumstances, Sai finds himself entangled in an agreement with the emperor to hunt down an ancient dragon. When he realizes that the dragon and his own red string soulmate are the same individual, what transpires is an adventure that unravels forgotten memories of a distant past.

Sai and Jyn are a blueprint of what I love the most about Asian fantasy romances - a slow burn with the main pair's relationship, a build-up of angst, and having no idea if the story will have a happy ending. The quest had a healthy mix of moments that showed the progression of Sai and Jyn becoming lovers, as well as not shying away from the action and violence that one would expect for a book targeted at an adult demographic. While the gore may put off some readers who are looking for a wholesome adult fantasy romance, this book worked for me as someone who appreciates adult fantasy romance that isn't reliant on spice to carry its intended audience.

I highly recommend picking up this book, and I'll eagerly await for more books (maybe in the same world?) written by this author.

I am so glad that Kwan wrote this novel based on Chinese mythology. This story is about a humble young man who is completely devoted to his mother who owns a small tea house. This young man, Sai, goes to great lengths to save money to get a remedy for his ailing mother. The one skill that he was born with which enables him to save is that he is able to see the red threads that connect soulmates, which makes him a well-known match maker.
The medicine that he gets from his doctor are two emerald scales from a dragon. Sai, at first believes it to be a scam. At the same time the evil emperor finds out about him and his scales and threatens to hurt his mother unless he helps him find the dragon and bring it back to the emperor.

Review: 5/5

In this book you will find:
-Fated Mates
-Red threads of fate
-Touch her and die
-Angst

Also please know that there are parts of this book that are rather violent and the main characters resort to some thoughts of self harm during some harrowing scenes.

Overall, I think this was an amazing book which served as a great introduction to Chinese mythology. It was an incredibly well-rounded book, and I loved how well written the characters were. I was truly invested in Sai and his significant other ( I don’t want to give too much away) and was glad to have a satisfying HEA. I totally recommend this book!

I want to thank #netgalley and Saga Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

If you like
🐉Chinese myths, creatures and dragons
✨Reverse grumpy x sunshine
✨ Badass heroine
💓 soulmates
⚔️ action packed fast paced stories
• spicy - 🌶️🌶️ **

Sai owns a tea shop inherited from his father. He is a chatty, sunshine character who has the ability to see the threads of fate between soulmates. As he is returning after getting hold of dragon scales which could be a cure to his ailing mother, he is caught up in a bit of brawl with the Royal soldiers which leads to his capture and a meeting with the emperor himself. After seeing his rare possessions and talents, the emperor assigns him the task of finding the same dragon. There starts the story of Sai's adventures and the unraveling of centuries old secrets.
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I loved it, it was unputdownable, fast paced fantasy story and the main highlights - DRAGONS and badass heroine. I was so invested from the beginning. Sai and Jyn were the perfect reverse grumpy x sunshine pair. It was overall really entertaining. It also had a bit of h*rror and gory details of war.
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I blushed, laughed and was on the verge of tears at some points, let's just say some characters deserved better.
It was fairly easy to read and the magic system was not complex. The 180* in character development kind of gave me a whiplash and I felt some points didn't connect. Other than that I had a great time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

I’m always a huge fan of tales like these. Especially when reincarnation and lost memories are a part of it. I wasn’t sure of the characters at first. Sai was kind of dense and took too long to make connections. I suppose it makes sense, but I was frustrated while reading. I also thought Jyn was too harsh. After all the years she’s endured, I guess that makes sense as well. I am happy with the ending. It was super sweet and made me tear up. So, overall, it was a fun and quick read. I’d definitely recommend it.