The Last Dragon of the East somehow manages to be a fun read while also being awfully brutal, and breaking you emotionally.
The story moves quickly right from the beginning, and is full of excellent world-building that is fluid and never feels like a slog. The main characters are extremely loveable. Sai is sweet and genuine, and I loved that the book was from his point of view. Jyn, on the other hand, is intense and fierce. She has teeth, and is all the better for it.
This book was bloody and full of action, but also very soft when it came to the relationship between Sai and Jyn. The pacing of the story was great, with equal parts action and character building.
I enjoyed this book immensely and I can't wait to see what Katrina Kwan does next!

Thank you to Saga Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

I haven’t felt this immersed in a story in a very long time. The writing was captivating and the lore of the dragons and the red fate line was amazing. There were twists and turns I wasn’t expecting and when I thought I figured it out, something else would happen. I’ve always loved the idea of fated mates and reincarnation and I got my fill with this book. This is the first book I’ve read from this author and it won’t be the last!

A sweet and entertaining read with an enjoyable twist on the soul mates and “in every lifetime” tropes. It took me only a day to finish, and the hope and joy for the characters that I was left with at the end is something I’m going to be thinking about for a while.

This was a wonderful bit of Chinese mythology and a solid addition to the fantasy genre! Plus, I'm always a sucker for a sunshine/grumpy dynamic - especially when it's the girl who's the grump hehe

I genuinely enjoyed it! I’m always eager to explore books with a fated soulmates theme, especially those inspired by East Asian mythology, so I was excited about this one. Having a male protagonist was fascinating for me, as I usually read female-led stories. Sai’s intense feelings for Jyn really drew me in, and I loved experiencing their dynamic up close. I can't wait to read more!

Final Score: 3.5, rounded up to 4

I found a lot about this story to love, but there was a general niggling feeling in the back of my mind that kept me from enjoying The Last Dragon of the East to the fullest. What I liked: the world building, the various folk tales and legends, the conflict between the emperor and the dragons, Jyn, and of course dragons.

What I didn't like: Feng felt more like a plot device than a real character, only present to move Sai along or introduce conflict. The pacing over the course of the entire book felt....off. I can't explain it, but the story's progression felt almost formulaic or forced on some level. I found Sai kind of confusing as a character; he was described as slim and untrained for combat, then somehow can carry another adult for hours despite his own weakness and injuries, as well as fight off trained soldiers with blind anger. Yes, he is described as getting hurt while fighting, but the fact that he can successfully kill even ONE soldier is hard to believe, let alone when he is covered in wounds (and has broken legs??). I also felt like he had a lot of mood swings, and while in some cases it made sense, it didn't in others.

I also found that while I usually love the Soulmates/Fated Mates trope, this story presented a version that I couldn't quite get behind wholeheartedly. I prefer setups where the pair find out they are connected AFTER they have already met and fallen in love at least a little bit, but these two meet already knowing they are connected. It makes the romance feel a little forced, like their feelings are more of a compulsion than genuine. I'm also not a fan of the pairing where one character is immensely old while the other one has lived a normal, mortal existence. This is balanced out a little as Sai gradually regains his memories, but he never seems to completely remember? Or if he does it isn't clearly communicated to the reader. The ending also feels just a little rushed after all the time spent traveling around.

I still enjoyed the book enough to stay interested in what Kwan writes in the future though! If her writing and execution improves I am sure that would cover any misgivings I had about this book.

There's not really much to say about this. It's a cute romantasy with some life and death (ish) situations to make things slightly more exciting than your usual low stakes cozy romantasy.

Ultimately, this definitely wasn't for me. I'm not into reading about finding "The One" when it comes to romance, or anything hardcore heteronormative, so I was put off by those themes.

But readers looking for something quick and easy to read might like this. The plot isn't highly complicated and there are only a handful of characters to keep track of. It reads very YA too, if you're into adult books that read like YA.

Thank you to S&S/Saga Press and NetGalley for this arc.

4.5 Stars! This was a beautifully written fantasy inspired by Chinese mythology. I loved the characters and their tragic love story. Gosh. Fated love and reincarnations get me every time. This is a book I will definitely go back to and re-read in the future.

This was filled with all the emotions!

It was a sweet story about Fated Ones coming together. However, it also had more darker elements than I was anticipating and that made me absolutely hooked to find out what had happened.

Sei was definitely different than most of the MMCs in books I read, so he took me a little bit to warm up to, but I loved how much character growth he had throughout the book. Jyn was such a strong and capable woman who had been through so many hurts. I just wanted them to be happy.

There was a romance scene, but it was very tastefully done and not explicit, in my opinion.

Read if you love:
-Dragons
-Chinese Mythology
-Grumpy x sunshine

Thank you to NetGalley, author Katrina Kwan, and Saga Press/Simon & Schuster for this eARC. My thoughts are entirely my own.

Thank you Simon & Schuster + NetGalley for the ARC.

WOW this was delightful. I haven’t read a standalone fantasy novel in so long and I am so glad to have had the opportunity to read this. The world building and story telling was mesmerizing and I love how everything wrapped up so well at the end. There were definitely moments where this was rushed but for 300 some odd pages, I am so impressed.

A legend tells that thousands of years ago a family of three dragons existed. The three of them live together until one day the blue dragon, the prince and son of the green and red dragons, left with a stranger. Since that day nobody knows what happened with the dragons, and the world has forgotten about them. Since he remembers, Sai can see the red thread of destine that binds soulmates. That's why he decides to reunite soulmates to gain money. He's live wasn't easy, but after he saves a young woman, it gets more complicated. Sai is taken to the emperor who compels him to find the last living dragon. However, when Sai finds the dragon, he could not hurt it because it is his fated one.

The beginning of the book was slow and almost made me drop it. However, once Sai crosses the frontiers to the south kingdom and meets Jyn, everything becomes better. The narration is intriguing because it develops two parallel stories. While Sai is discovering who he is and a new world with Jyn, some other chapters explain the story of the blue dragon. I must be sincere and tell you that what made me continue the story was because I was confused. At the beginning I didn't know if the love interest of the main lead was the huntress or the dragon. Then, when the blue dragon was introduced, the confusion increased. That's when I started to think that maybe Sai was the blue dragon and the stranger his love interest. Imagine my surprise when the plot gets to the point where everything unravels, and it was more complicated than I thought.

Another point that I wanted to highlight is that the book talks about the legend of the red thread. In her book, Katrina Kwan talks about the version we all know. Humans are born with a red thread around their finger and the other side of the thread is tied to them fated one. However, she introduces a new plot twist. According to the legend, the thread could be stretched, but never broken. The only way it can be broken is when one of the soulmates dies. That's where the thread becomes gray and then it fades away. However, in this book we learned that there's a way to severe the connection voluntarily and it's when one of the soulmates rejects the other one. That rejection comes in the form of murder.

The Last Dragon of the East Sea is a short book in which every detail is essential to enjoy the story. That's why I didn't give many details because I don't want to ruin the story. The fun part of this book is that the reader must break his mind to guess what is happening and which characters are connected. The writer did an excellent job with the intrigue and fulfilled the expectations of what the ending should be. I like that the main lead was not soft and gave a cruel punishment to the villain. Also, it was good to know that love always wins, and that destiny always fulfills itself.

We’ll say this is a 3.5

Personally I’m not a fan of the fated mates/soulmates trope and I’ll explain why in the context of this book. Other than some witty banter, we use the red thread to skip the building of trust / getting-to-know-you / initial bloom of attraction. Like the immediate “love at first sight” vibe just because they’re fated always feels like an excuse to skip the foundation of a relationship (again, this is a personal preference).

Things I liked: Jyn‘s character and the way she holds Sai and hope and the world in general at a distance (she does kind of flip very dramatically but I would say that fits with her character in the context of the story); I always love when stories are woven throughout a book and this one was no exception (even better when Jyn gets to correct the legends with the facts); the whole section of the book when they’re in the Wastelands was solid.

Things I didn’t like: the pacing was weird (the whole book took place over the course of a month??); injuries were totally shrugged off / magicked away (the man was fighting an army while walking on two shattered legs??); I would have liked the villain to be present more than as a framing device (like sure, we see some minions but that’s a different ball game); and I wanted a bit more resolution to the huntress’s story (why didn’t they go back to her village at the end??).

Overall, a solid debut with a lot to like

This was a cute book I guess? I honestly have so little feeling about this book despite having read all of it. It was cute. Very romantic, personally I didn’t find that the romance was all that intriguing though.

Interesting in concept, particularly with the idea of reincarnation and the way the story spanned over so many lifetimes. But I found the relationship between the main characters underdeveloped. It felt like they were together because they were fated to be, so there was no sense of whether they actually grew to know each other, why they were in love, why they were together. In fact, Jyn seemed very uninterested in his current entire lifetime, shrugging off his mother possibly dying or him dying again. For a book completely centering around an epic romance, I would have preferred more in the why they should be together rather than all another the how they can be together.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed Katrina Kwan’s recent contemporary romance, and was excited to hear she was also releasing a fantasy, especially when I saw the comps to Sue Lynn Tan and Hannah Whitten. And while The Last Dragon of the East wasn’t quite what I expected, with those comps in mind, I still more or less enjoyed it.
It’s fairly light on the world building, but the influence from Chinese folklore is prominent from the first pages. It has an almost fairytale-like feel, and I liked the themes, particularly the red string of fate, which I had previously seen explored in a Chinese contemporary romance, so it was cool to see a new take on the concept.
I liked the choice of Sai as a protagonist, particularly to subvert expectations slightly that most fantasy written by women follows a female protagonist. Sai intrigued me in how he had a bit of a mundane life with his mother in their teahouse, but he also had a gift for matchmaking and finding people’s soul mates (again, a stereotypically female vocation). But he also has his own fate he’s been avoiding following, as is often the case for adventure narratives. I enjoyed watching his growth throughout the book, and the fun spin on the reluctant hero.
There’s a fairly solid balance between the adventure narrative and the romance with Jyn. He and Jyn have a fun dynamic, particularly with him being more soft and sunshine-y, and Jyn being more mysterious and prickly.
Pacing wise, the first half was the most engaging and immersive, with a lot going on. However, the second half dragged a bit in places, especially as the main quest plot got a little lost. And towards the end, things did feel a little rushed trying to wrap things up.
However, in spite of these minor shortcomings, I enjoyed it, and it’s a solid first foray into the fantasy genre, with hopefully more to come. While experienced fantasy readers, particularly those who require detailed world building might not enjoy this, this makes for a great intro to the romantic fantasy genre to readers interested in trying it.

The Last Dragon of the East is such a fun debut. I went in not really knowing what to expect, but was quickly drawn into the world Katrina Kwan has created. The balance of mythology, fate, and romance worked beautifully throughout the book. The use of Chinese mythology and the threads of fate was captivating and added a rich layer to the story.

I found the MC Sai’s character charming and relatable, and his humor kept things light even when the story took some darker turns. The twists in the plot kept me engaged, and even though there were some darker elements, they didn’t take away from the overall cozy feel of the romance and adventure. The pacing picked up quite a bit in the final third of the book, but the ending was incredibly sweet and really hit home for me.

This was a fantastic read, and I’m definitely excited to see what Katrina Kwan comes up with next. If you enjoy lush mythology, a bit of romance, and unique characters, this one is definitely worth picking up!

Thank you NetGalley and S&S/Saga Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This went by faster than I thought and was less memorable than I'd hoped. And I think the main problem is that it aspired to be more than it could be.
(Full review in link.)

*dragons 🐉
*Chinese mythology - red string of fate
*a romance for the ages

Those three things - that’s all it took for me to want to read this.

***********

Vivid, beautiful, and an absolute recommendation from me.



Thank you to S&S/Saga Press and NetGalley for the DRC

I was very excited to get this book and I ended up enjoying it even more than I expected to. It’s very sweet and surprisingly emotional towards the end. The first part felt slow to me because I’m not the biggest fan of first person, present tense POV, and I always have to adjust my mindset when I read it. That’s just a personal preference though, and doesn’t affect my rating. Sai definitely is a bit of a mama's boy at first, but this just means his character had good growth later in the story, and I ended up really liking him. Everything really picked up for me after part one, and then I was absolutely hooked from the oasis on. Jyn was a wonderful character with her prickliness and overprotective nature. Plus, she’s just a total BA. I also really liked the chapters in which we followed the tale of the three dragons because it broke up the journey, and also ended up being quite relevant. It made it more exciting as everything was revealed and you made the conmections. All in all, I think this is a very strong fantasy debut and I look forward to seeing more from Kwan.

Sai's life is turned upside down when his mother's doctor sells him a pair of dragon scales as a miracle cure. Because of their success, the emperor recruits him on a hunt for a long lost dragon. What ensues is an incredible tale of fated mates and the risks we take to follow our own thread of fate! I adore stories that seamlessly weave in mythology. They're my favorites and this one is just insanely good!