Breath of the Dragon is a gripping YA fantasy that blends martial arts, magic, and a coming-of-age journey, all wrapped in a story inspired by the philosophy of Bruce Lee. Written by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee, this novel delivers intense action, rich worldbuilding, and an emotional depth that makes it stand out in the genre.

The story follows Li Jun, a determined sixteen-year-old who dreams of winning the Guardian’s Tournament to restore his family’s honor. The catch? He’s not breathmarked—meaning he lacks the magical abilities that give others an edge in battle. Defying his father’s wishes, Jun embarks on a journey to prove himself, only to discover that the tournament is just the beginning of a much larger fight.

What I Loved:
The incredible fight sequences. Fonda Lee’s signature skill in writing action shines here. The tournament battles are fast-paced, cinematic, and full of tension, making every fight feel like it could be Jun’s last.
The world building is very engaging. The setting is immersive, blending martial arts traditions with a unique magical system tied to dragon scales and breathmarks. The political intrigue woven into the story adds another layer of complexity.
The themes are compelling. Family, honour, resilience, and the question of what’s truly worth fighting for give the novel emotional weight. Jun’s relationship with his father and twin brother adds depth to his motivations.
The side characters are well-developed. Ren and Chang, the traveling performers who help Jun, add warmth and humor to the story. The rivalries and friendships Jun forms in the tournament keep the stakes high.

What Could Have Been Stronger:
The pacing had some issues in the first half of the book. The story takes a bit of time to fully get going, with early chapters focusing heavily on setup. Once the tournament begins, the pace picks up significantly.
Some of the twists were a bit predictable. While the plot is engaging, a few twists felt a little expected, particularly for seasoned fantasy readers. However, the strong character dynamics make up for it.

Final Thoughts:
Breath of the Dragon is a thrilling and heartfelt fantasy novel that delivers both action and depth. Fans of martial arts stories, competition-based plots, and morally complex protagonists will find plenty to love here. While the setup takes time, the payoff is worth it, and the emotional stakes keep the journey compelling. I can’t wait to see how the story continues in the sequel!

Verdict: A must-read for fantasy fans who love action-packed storytelling with heart.

A quick-paced and engaging book that deftly blends a coming-of-age story with a magical martial arts tournament, all set against the backdrop of political machinations and growing unrest. It's easy to see the fingerprints of classic wuxia films in this story, from the headstrong young protagonist to the wise old mentor, but the voice is fresh and the fantastical and political elements bear Fonda Lee's unmistakable ingenuity. Any fan of kung fu movies or the Green Bone Saga will enjoy this book immensely.

Martial arts + Dragons = I’m in!

Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee is the first book in the Breathmarked Duology and is so freaking good! I couldn’t put this book down.

I love that this is rooted in Bruce Lee! It’s his ideas, teachings, and styles all formatted into this amazing story. There’s so many aspects of this that stand out to me and really drive the story home. A divided country where one side thinks fighting is bad and the other thrives in it.

Another thing I enjoyed was that it was intense from the start and came off like an old school martial arts movie. This can easily be adapted to a feature film and I hope to see it on screen one day soon. There’s also a great tone from the start and the build up of the twins, their dynamic and drastic differences, plus the splitting of the family takes everything to a whole other level again!

It brought back my childhood, watching older martial arts movies and that journey of self discovery as well as proving yourself to others. This will easily be in my top five for the year.

If you love the essence of Bruce Lee, martial arts, action, coming of age, fantasy, dragons, deep inner work, and familial themes then this is for you! I highly recommend this to everyone. It’d be a good book for middle and high school as well as adults. Enjoy the ride!

*This was an honest review for a complimentary copy of Breath of the Dragon from Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee via NetGalley

I think this one was just fine for me mostly just because of the writing style. It’s more of a detached kind of style that had a very slow pace. It’s not necessarily what I like, but I do appreciate how good the story is and how well the author explained the motivations of the characters. I think this had a ton of potential and I know a lot of people are going to love this, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I fear Fonda Lee can do no wrong. Partnering with Shannon Lee we get an incredible book. I could not put this one down. While it took me a second to fully get invested, once I was I was sucked it and never wanted it to end. It may be the year of the snake, but I think Lee squared said, nah, it's the year of the dragon. If you're looking to get immersed in a new fantasy, I'd highly recommend this one!

I actually delayed reading this because I wasn't sure how I'd feel reading a non-Greenbone book by Fonda Lee. I'm so glad I came back to it!

The writing has a lot of similarities, but is its own story with high stakes, political intrigue, and intensity.

This was a really compelling read, and I devoured it.

This book was a lot more fun than I was expecting! After doing a little bit of research about this novel, I was intriged that it was co-written by Bruce Lee's daughter and it was based on some of Bruce's writings! I know a bit too much about Bruce Lee so it was super interesting to see his influence on this story. While I wouldn't say I loved this book, I still had a really great time reading it! I had a hard time actually picking it up but when I did, I couldn't stop reading. The magic system in this book was also super interesting! I just wish it was flushed out a bit more. I left the book not really understanding why it exists or how it works. The fighting scenes were also super well written and fun to follow! My biggest complaint is that I think this book suffers a bit from being a YA book. The main character is a bit unsufferable and cocky, but it's simply because he's a teenage boy. The ending did make me super interested in continuing in this series, which doesn't happen very often for me!

Fonda Lee's writing hits again with her writing, and Shannon Lee is great. I love Fonda Lee, and this was definitely a hit!

Breath of the Dragon was just okay for me. It was a bit slow and a bit dense. I was interested though once I got into it.

Breath of the Dragon was a strong book by Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee. It had a very interesting world, with both magic and culture. It provided an interesting insight into the mind and skill of a martial artist. It also had a good set-up for a sequel.

Plot: East and West Longan are divided by the Snake Wall. Jun’s twin brother Sai, is born breathmarked and taken by the East’s government to be trained. Meanwhile Jun and his father are exiled from the East for practicing martial arts, and are separated from his mother and twin brother. He grows up in the West, and wants to enter in the Guardian Tournament; a tournament to determine the top martial artist, who will become the Guardian of a sacred Dragon Scroll. On the way he gets a ride from Blindman Chang and his daughter Ren…

Magic: In Longan, some people are breathmarked, which means that they are granted an ability, from something minor (like summoning butterflies) to major (like being able to “copy” an ability). Since East and West have become divided, less people have been born breathmarked.

Characters:
Jun - wants to prove himself because his brother has a breathmark and he doesn’t. He is reckless and a bit self centered.

Ren - very skilled at dancing, acting, etc. She is much smarter, and more in touch with the world than Jun

This book had very strong development, and had a good setup for book two. This book honestly felt a bit middle grade instead of YA. I would recommend this book to people who like Middle Grade or Lower YA books.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this eARC

3.5 stars.
Sixteen-year-old Jun has one dream: to win the elite Guardian's Tournament so that he can become the new Guardian, or protector, of the Eastern part of Longhan. Jun wants this not just for himself, but also so that his father's name and honour can be restored. A mistake by Jun's father many years earlier, cost the family: he had been training his twin boys in martial arts, something the non-breathmarked are not allowed to learn. Breathmarked individuals have a patch of dragon scales on them, as well as powerful abilities. Jun's identical twin Sai is breathmarked, and when a pair of Aspects (elite government servants) arrive one day at the family home, they take Sai, and the boys' mother, away with them so that Sai may train and hone his abilities. Jun and his father lose not only half their family, but their father is censured, and now works at an opera house as a labourer and performing in bit parts, after he and Jun were forcibly sent to the West.

Jun is determined to change his and his father's fortunes, and has joined the Iron Core school of martial arts, working tremendously hard to qualify as the House’s representative in the upcoming competition for the new Guardian. There is one boy who is a little better than he is, Yin Yue, who will be entering the upcoming Guardian competition. Ever determined, Jun hides on the wagon of the flautist Chang and his actor adopted daughter Ren, who have worked at the opera house, and are headed for the city set for the competition. Along the way, he comes to learn there is much more to Chang, and Ren.

Once at the competition, everyone is caught unaware when the head General of the East has decided to change the rules, endangering all the contestants. The General wants to take war to the West, and hopes to use the new Guardian in his plans, which, the more Jun thinks on things, he comes to realize just how conflicted he is about his loyalties, and how against war he is.

The plot moves along well, with many instances of well-conceived depictions hand-to-hand combat. I expected no less from these two authors, considering their knowledge of martial arts, and Fonda Lee's Green Bone Saga. What was actually more interesting in this story was Jun's evolution from totally self-absorbed, selfish young person, to someone who, through the multiple setbacks and betrayals, comes to realize that there are more important things than winning a competition. Bigotry-fueled war is on the horizon, with much suffering. Jun matures to the point that he begins to appreciate others, and thinking of their welfare. He also finally makes friends with people who previous saw solely as rivals, another positive development for the very talented martial artist.

I mostly listened to this book, and liked voice actor Eric Yang's work. Jun's arrogance was apparent, while Chang's humour comes through nicely. I liked his interpretations of Yin Yue and Ren, Jun's friends.

I am interested to see where Jun and his allies go next, and how they tackle the seemingly insurmountable odds against them.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for these ARCs in exchange for my review.

“The abilities that matter the most don’t come from Dragon’s blood. They’re gained day by day, through sweat and tears.”

3.5 out of 5 stars (3.5 / 5) When young, Jun and his twin are separated and each given to one parent. All Jun wants is to be reunited with his brother and mother that are now on opposing sides of the country. The only joy he finds is warrior training but his father forbids it as that was the reason they were split. His brother is also breathmarked which means a small spot of dragon scales are on the skin of these chosen ones and they are given special abilities.

A competition happens every six years where people fight for the right to be Guardian and in charge of sacred scrolls. Even without being breathmarked, Jun runs away and enters but learns quickly he is in over his head. What he once thought was most important isn’t even relevant in hindsight.

While the story and characters were interesting, the lack of connection to them made me feel detached. The fighting scenes dominated the pages which was interesting, but became less so as the story moved on. I did love the fighting, how can you not when Bruce Lee helps to write them? And I think many will agree. The world building was unique and found so many aspects I liked but I believe more POV and possibly more info on the brother and mom would have kept me interested more.

This is a great story if you love Asian Literature with striving warriors and lots of fight scenes!

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the copy!

The book releases January 7, 2025.

First, I'd like to say thank you to the authors, publisher, and Net Galley for the review copy of this book.

I think the book had great promise, and it is a pretty solid YA book. Younger readers and readers not familiar with some classic fantasy tropes will love this.

Ultimately though, this book was not for me. I found it predictable from the start. Every single event and plot point seemed like they were there to just check off a list, if that makes sense. Not a single thing surprised me. I also really strongly feel that the book should have ended several chapters sooner than it did. Those last several chapters seemed to drag on a good bit, and while necessary to the story, I think they would have been better suited at the beginning of book 2, instead of the ending of book 1. (For the sake of pacing)

Again though, I think it had great promise, and that younger readers not familiar with classic fantasy tropes might really enjoy this.

Solid YA perfect for younger readers who love martial arts and a tournament setting. Filled with found family.
the worldbuilding is easily the strongest aspect of this book - it's a fully realized world,
if you enjoy Fonda Lee's work or are interested in a new martial arts fantasy series, this is a good option

Book review: 3.75/5 ⭐️
Genre: YA fiction
Themes: martial arts, chi, government control
📖 Read if you like: The Legendary Mo Seto

Born to a land ripped into two, Jun is separated from his other half in a tragic event of childish showmanship. In the East, only those breathmarked by the dragon with scales of power can practice martial arts. Sai is one such child and was taken for it. In the West, anyone may study, but this utopia is riddled with corruption and fear. It is here Jun and his father are abandoned to after that fateful day.

In the shadow of his gifted twin Sai, 16-year old Jun is determined to enter and win the Guardian’s tournament and finally prove his worth. Disobeying his loving father, he hides away in the cart of a travelling blind man and his performing daughter Ren. Yet this blind man is himself a skillful fighter with the ability to harness and use breath. Taking the long way to the capitol, Jun discovers that Ren and Sifu Chang have abilities and perhaps motives beyond performing.

As Jun finally makes it to the tournament, he begins to realize he is fighting for more than just the honours of becoming Guardian of the Scroll of Heaven. With the East and West on the brink of war and a vengeful general at the helm, tensions in the city are running high. When some last minute changes are made to the tournament, it turns into a savage bloodbath where more than pride can be lost. Add in a rebel group advocating for peaceful reunification and things finally boil over.

A story of finding purpose, strength and honour in the face of adversity, it reminded me of classic anime. Jun may be a braggart and overly brash, but his heart is in the right place and he shows up when it matters most. Forced into early maturity, he truly learns what it means to be a Guardian when all hope it lost. An eventful coming of age story amidst a brewing civil war with magic, martial arts, and politics. It definitely reads YA with a youthful perspective, but I enjoyed this high octane tournament of skills and intrigue.

Will be keeping my eyes peeled for part two of this duology! Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy of this book.

I requested this book for Fonda Lee and just as expected, it was great!
This world is divided in two, the East and West. The West thrives on martial arts while the East bans it for its normal citizens. There are people who are born with “Dragon’s Breath”, a mark from their Dragon that gives them a talent or power. When a family in the East with twins doesn’t register the children to the government, the child who has a mark is taken while the other child is banned to the West because he participates in martial arts. The twin in the west, Jun, wishes to participate in a tournament that makes the champion the Guardian of the Dragon Scroll. The story goes from there.
I really like the characters in this book, the magic is very interesting as well as the politics. I feel my only gripe is the pacing. Some places it dragged, some were too short. I do like how the ending sets up the next book, I hope it continues strong.

Although, I did not feel Bruce Lee in this story. But I did love it in its entirety. The story of a boy who knows he is the one, destine to be better, to be something, yet loosing everything in a process and humbling him big time. The story had something form hero's journey and I think, at the end, this is what made this so good. Delivery was a little clunky at times - I didn't like change of language at the last part of the book. It was quite jarring to see how vulgarisms were introduced pout of nowhere. The consistency with this was broken. Yet, at the same time, I had grand time and I'll recommend this book to anyone who likes the vibe of martial arts, Dragon Ball, and Naruto all in one.

Li Jun dreams of entering the prestigious Guardian’s Tournament, which is held once every six years to choose a new Guardian to protect the magical Scroll of Earth. Though only sixteen, Jun is eager to prove himself against the best fighters in the kingdom and restore his family’s honour, correcting a mistake that caused him and his father to be banished from their home, separated from his mother and brother. But his father forbids him to participate – as he is not breathmarked like his twin and blessed with any special ability, there would be no use in him training to be a warrior. Jun is determined nonetheless and runs away to compete, but this year’s Tournament is more deadly than ever and there is much more at stake than he realizes.

First review of 2025! Breath of the Dragon wasn’t on my radar initially, but I looked it up when I was offered the arc and I knew I had to read it. I had never read a martial arts based fantasy novel before and this sounded absolutely fascinating.

Books set around competitions or tournaments is a trope I’m really coming to enjoy as it has a way of making the plot way more engaging and focused. I loved that this was set against a more complex backdrop politics and war – it added another layer to the plot and made things less straightforward for the protagonist.

I know literally nothing about martial arts of any kind, but I still found this to be such an intriguing read, especially the training and fighting scenes. It was written in a way that I could make some sense of it despite having no background knowledge.

I did have to suspend disbelief a little to let myself enjoy this book – it was hard to believe that a sixteen year old boy was better than all the seasoned fighters in the country, but I guess since he was the protagonist of the story it had to work out this way.

I found the pacing to be a little uneven. The first half of the book dragged a lot in my opinion and there was too much time spent on explaining Jun’s life in Cheon and then his journey to the capital (and all the training montages within). A couple of chapters really would have been sufficient to cover all this, allowing more time for the tournament itself. Once the tournament began, the pacing was perfect and it was a thoroughly engaging read.

The other thing I noticed about this narrative is while the target audience would seem to be YA based on the writing style and characters, other aspects felt more fitting to an older audience – particularly the tournament matches which featured a level of violence I’ve rarely come across in YA before.

Jun was a typical teen protagonist, impulsive, self centered, and quite naive on top of it all – but his character arc was really well done, and that made him likeable. As the plot progressed, he learned to stop and think about the consequences of his actions, and take in what was happening around him.

The secondary characters of Ren, Yin Yue and Sifu Chang were excellent. Despite them not having POV chapters, we got to hear a lot of their backstories and motivations which made their characters memorable.

I was wondering if Jun’s brother would make an appearance in this book at all, and he didn’t, but it does seem like he will in the sequel. It’ll be fun if a second POV is added for him.

Maybe I’m just getting too accustomed to YA writing, because though that ending was a shocking one, I wasn’t personally that surprised at all. The twist was something I was waiting for – though the last minute reveal of some characters was definitely unexpected. That said, the authors did a wonderful job of building up the tension throughout the tournament and through the plot twist, setting the stage for what should be a very interesting sequel.

Overall, this was a fun read with a unique concept. I really enjoyed Breath of the Dragon, and I would recommend it to YA fans. Myself, I’m not 100% sure if I’ll be picking up the sequel – it was a great read, but some parts just read like younger YA and a little predictable at times too, so I’ll probably wait to look at reviews whenever it’s out.

Breath of the Dragon is a fantastic start to the duology by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee. For me, the world-building in this story was the highlight. Although I don't know much about martial arts or have a great desire to learn more, I still found the storyline fascinating and can’t wait to read the second book.

Jun is exiled with his father after the Aspects come to recruit his twin brother, Sai, because he is breathmarked, which makes him special. During the Aspects' visit, Jun makes a terrible mistake, resulting in both him and his father being exiled from the country. At 16, he aspires to compete in the Guardian's Tournament to become the best martial artist in the country. Defying his father’s wishes, he sets out for the tournament with Mr. Chang and Ren. He soon discovers that this tournament is about more than just achieving martial arts excellence. Can he win it all and help avert the impending war?

I enjoyed the tournament aspect of the book, even though some matches felt rushed and were quite graphic. My favorite part of the story was definitely the theme of found family, and I can’t wait to read more about them.

I wanted to like this more than I did cause the concept was interesting and the world-building was very well thought out. I just didn’t connect to the characters and I think this was a case of the right book wrong time for me personally.