Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for providing me with this e-book ARC to review.

In this debut fantasy inspired by Chinese myths, we meet 25-year-old Sai. Since his father’s death, Sai has spent his days caring for his mother and keeping the family teahouse afloat. But as the emperor’s war drags on, the number of customers is quickly dwindling. So, Sai has turned his gift into a side hustle to bring in extra money. He has the ability to see the red threads of fate that connect soulmates and he’ll take clients to meet their soulmate - for a price. But there’s something wrong with his own thread - it’s gray and fraying.

Ignoring his thread, Sai focuses on his mother’s ailing health instead. He purchases a pair of dragon scales from his mother’s doctor who claims they’re a miracle cure, but Sai isn’t so sure. He gives the dragon scales to his mother and watches her health improve right before his eyes, but the brutal emperor has learned of the cure and sends Sai on a dangerous mission to find the dragon he’d always believed to be extinct.

This fast-paced adventure had me sucked into the story immediately! I kept turning the pages, rooting for Sai and his Fated One. There was so much action as they encountered many new foes on their journey. Sai’s resilience is tested many times and he has to learn to step into his power if he wants to repair his fraying Thread of Fate.

I also enjoyed the mini-chapters that wove in the dragon mythology and piqued my curiosity about where the story was heading. The only complaint I have is about the way the dialogue for one of the characters from a southern territory was written - it was a bit off-putting. But I’m definitely excited to see what’s coming next from this author!

✨️ Review: The Last Dragon of the East by Katrina Kwan ✨️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars
🌶/5 spice
😭😭😭😭/5 feels

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this book to review.

When I finished The Last Dragon of the East, I believe the words that flew out of my mouth were "INSTANT 5 STARS" - which I promptly took to my stories and shared with the world. Annnnd, I haven't shut up about it since.

Sai lives a quiet life: keeping his family's tea shop running while tending to his ailing mother. He has a gift of being able to see the red threads of fate that connect soulmates together - which he uses as a side hustle of sorts to earn extra money to buy medicine for his mother. His own thread of fate, however, is gray and fraying - a fact he ignores for most of his life. Sai is unwillingly forced by the Emperor to hunt down the last dragon of the east when it is discovered that he procured a green dragon scale as medicine for his mother. What he discovers on his journey changes his life.

I loved Sai as the main character! It was so refreshing to read a story from the MMC pov and to have an "unwilling hero" type of main character. Guys, he just wanted to stay home! He misses the teashop, okay? Someone roll him up in a blanket and tell him everything will be okay 🥲

There are so many parts of this story that I'm dying to talk about, but I need to keep this review spoiler free. So I'll just say that as the plot unraveled, I found myself drawn into the story and needing to learn more. This is definitely a "just one more chapter" book. As a mom, certain parts of this story broke my heart. My heart was broken multiple times throughout this book, but rest assured it was lovingly put back together by the time I finished it. I loved how the concept of fated ones was written, and I loved how the plot was executed. All in all, this book is a fantastic addition to the adult fantasy romance genre.

Even though I've already read it, I'm definitely going to purchase a physical book when it comes out *cough, cough OCTOBER 8TH! cough, cough* so that my husband can read it too. I hope beyond hope that this can become a series

When I was granted an arc copy of this book, I was simply over the moon; the cover art caught my attention within seconds of opening NetGalley, and once I read the description, I knew I needed to read it. However, upon starting the book, I soon realized that perhaps this book was not written for me. As a reviewer, I come across many different types of books to recommend: five star reads that shape my entire world, all around good books that I want readers to give a try, and, most frustratingly, books that I didn't enjoy but that would still recommend. Unfortunately, The Last Dragon of the East was one of the unlucky ones...

While I found the charming storytelling and whimsical folklore influences to be deeply captivating, this book was written in a way that simply did not resonate with me. I found our characters to be rather bland and two dimensional, the story itself nonsensical at times in a way that irked me, and overall there was not much I found rewarding about reading it.

With that being said, while reading I saw a great potential within it that made me think twice (or maybe ten times) about my review. As I didn't resonate with it myself, I would not recommend this book to everybody. However, I think that there is a market for this novel and in spite of my lack of a spark with its prose, I am confident that there are readers out there who would eat this book up. Again, the magical folklore inspired world is breathtaking at times, and the imagery within the story itself was undeniably good, it just didn't resonate with me specifically. Still, I am glad to have read it and I wouldn't say no to recommending it from time to time.

Kwan weaves a solid quest fantasy, drawing from Chinese mythology and classic storytelling. The owner of a humble tea house possesses an inexplicable magical ability and a strong sense of justice but goes about his ordinary life in the midst of a country at war until he is caught with the illegal dragon scales he acquired to heal his ailing mother, it feels like a classic tale yet it’s quite different from current romantasies. There’s also a role reversal here, the protagonist is a weak (but snarky) man with no training and only (seemingly) non-offensive magic sight, and his love interest is a strong, beautiful, powerful, and immortal woman who comes to his rescue many times. However, despite not being the usual kind of male protagonist that’s popular in this genre, Sai’s character has a brave spirit and a golden heart that readers will warm to. This was also a lot more intense and darker than I expected. My heart was in my throat at certain scenes. Action-packed, a little dark, and yet quite whimsical; it’s a feast for the mythological fantasy lovers! It certainly was for me, especially since I love the legend of the red string of fate and adore dragons. Content warnings: graphic violence, gruesome depictions, only two very short open door scenes. Thank you Simon and Schuster for the eARC.

Chock full of Chinese mythology, the storytelling, writing and world building was so well done.

Sai inherits his father's struggling teahouse after he dies unexpectedly. As a side gig, he plays a matchmaker, claiming he can see the red threads of fate connecting two soul mates. Sai also looks after his ailing mother. Desperate to find any medication to help her ease her aches and pains, he meets the village doctor who gives him dragon scales as a possible cure.

On his way back to the teahouse Sai has a run in with some soldiers who are pissed he wasn't conscripted to join the war. The emperor is not pleased and finds out he has coveted dragon scales. He's tasked with finding and killing the dragon it comes from. Poor Sai is such a sweet momma's boy, who's never left home and definitely can't fight. Whilst on his journey to find the dragon, he finds his own fated one.

I loved Sai's character arc, his genuine infatuation with his mooncake soulmate. He's so far from being strong and macho, he has such a sweet vulnerability. The intertwining storyline reads like a fairy tale and it adds to the mystery and plot twists throughout. I highly recommend this book if you like dragons, chinese mythology, romance and epic adventure. There's so much lore that add to the story.

It features some of my favourite tropes and themes:
🌞 reverse grumpy sunshine
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 fated mates
🩹she takes care of him
🐲 Dragons
🤕 Touch her and die

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
You know I'm stingy with the stars, but I really liked this one. Looking forward to reading more from Katrina Kwan and I'm genuinely happy to have been able to read and review this arc from Netgalley. I looked up the author on Goodreads and am surprised that this is one of the two books she's published it's so well done.

4.5 (rounded up)

The Last Dragon of the East is an evocative and lush adult romantasy following Sai, who has been able see the red threads of fate all his life, suddenly finds himself forced to go on a journey in order to save his ailing mother from the hands of The Emperor and finally solves the mystery of his Fated One along the way. Full of Chinese mythology, witty banter and prose that will captivate you from start to finish, Kwan weaves together an emotional story about fate, destiny and love through multiple lifetimes.

I absolutely adored Sai’s humour and his character right from the start, and I loved the way his character arc played out. Further, I adored the use of the red threads of fate mythology and how it was incorporated throughout the story. While I don’t tend to be a huge romantasy reader, I found myself enjoying this one from start to finish. Kwan’s prose is particularly captivating and the emotions of both Sai and Jyn are wonderfully captured on the page. The only thing I will say is that the pacing in the last third of the book felt a bit rushed compared to the rest of the book, which made it feel a little imbalanced but not a noticeable detractor from the story.

All in all, I laughed, I cried, and I found myself immersed in Sai and Jyn’s story and I’m so excited to see what the author comes up with next!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for providing this eArc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this review are my own.

With so many books out there, sometimes you have to make a choice. To my dismay, I had to DNF after 50%.  

I always try my hardest not to DNF a book, but I couldn’t get in this one, no matter how hard I tried.

It’s unfortunate since the premise caught my attention and I was excited to have been chosen for this ARC. First, the red thread of fate magic is something unique I haven’t seen before and I couldn’t wait to see how it would pan out. Unfortunately, it was secondary in the book. There’s a boy who can see the red threads of fate and that was it. Second, he’s tasked to find the last living dragon. He does so a bit too easily, and afterward, the other plot twists were too predictable for me. I could see all of them coming.

I can’t help but wonder if it’s because of pacing issues that it doesn't go deeper into the story. I usually like fast-paced books, but in this instance, the fast pacing meant we glossed over everything. We didn’t have the chance to go into it so much, meaning I didn’t feel invested.  

My lack of investment might also be related to the fact that I didn’t connect with any character. Before I dwell on the specifics, I want to mention that it's only my opinion. Since I know a lot of characters in books are derived from the author or someone they know, I want to make sure I don’t offend anyone with what I’m about to say.  

The MMC, Sai, felt flat to me. He doesn’t have a lot of personality traits except for his misplaced overconfidence in his abilities. In the half I have read, he put himself in danger and was saved by someone else four times. It doesn’t show a lot of skills. And even though he knows that about himself, he doesn’t try to be more careful or to learn some survival skills and he still feels pretty good about himself afterwards. Even more so, his Fated one insinuates many times that they have already met, but he never picks up on it. Then again, she isn't any better as she keeps referring to it before dismissing it and refusing to answer Sai's questions. If it was an attempt to raise suspense, it only raised my annoyance with the character.

That being said, the love interest, Jyn, Sai’s Fated one, isn’t much more developed. We only see her through the eyes of Sai, the MMC, so except for being the most beautiful girl in the world, we don’t know much else about her. It's still enough for Sai to fall in love with her. Granted, they're soulmates, but it still felt like instant love to me.
 
All of these could have been redeemed if the writing had been amazing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. It wasn’t bad either, it just wasn’t good enough to overpower the other flaws. The same thing can be said about the world-building. Since it takes place in China, pretty much as is, there isn’t really any world-building per se. Plus, if you don’t know about China, you might feel lost, just as I did. It’s explained so quickly that knowing it beforehand is necessary. Or having a map of China in hand. 

All in all, this wasn’t a bad book; it just wasn’t enough to keep me invested. If I had been able to keep reading, some of the flaws might have been less significant; I would've learned more about Jyn, Sai might have grown out of his overconfidence and, maybe the plot twists are better as we go along. That’s why I really tried to keep reading as much as I could.

♾️✨

🐉 DRAGONS
🐉 Chinese mythology
🐉 Reverse grumpy/sunshine (He is sunshine and she is grumpy)
🐉 MC’s magic makes him see soulmates through threads
🐉 >25yo characters
🐉 Fated mates
🐉 Beautiful romance

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!
I was completely blown away by this story. I love Chinese mythology more than any other mythologies out there and combined with this author’s writing? Pure perfection. This started as a 4✨ but quickly turned into a 5✨ read.
The characters, the world building, the enchanting tale, the prose… the last time I felt this passionately about a book was back in February.
The soulmates threads was such a beautiful thing to read about. The romance was to die for. I cried a few times. This was an incredibly well written tale and I highly recommend it. I’m jealous of everyone who gets to read this for the first time 🥺

I have a feeling TikTok will go crazy about this book and it’ll be rightfully so. This book has made its way to my favourite ever reads.
I will definitely buy this beautiful book when it comes out and hope Owlcrate picks it up for special edition 🥹

I loved how well thoughtout this book was, the mythology was amazing and it fit the story line perfectly.
This was one of my most anticipated books this year and it truly lived up to everything I thought it would!

"I'm whole and complete and home."

Thank you to NetGalley, Katrina Kwan, and Simon & Schuster Canada for the E-ARC!

The Last Dragon of the East was one of my most anticipated books of 2024, so when I got the notice telling me I got approved for the E-ARC, I was overjoyed! I'm so happy to say that this book was incredible and somehow so much more than I thought it was.

I'm going to be very careful in this review, as I don't want to spoil anything. I think one of the greatest things about this story is the mystery of it. I loved discovering the world and it's magic and myths with Sai. The author did an amazing job of giving the reader information little by little, allowing the reader to get glimpses of what was happening, without ever needing to info-dump. It felt like the story was unraveling around me, and every time I discovered something new, I was enthralled.

I loved the character voices used as well, and how different everyone was. We have Sai, our main character who runs a teahouse, who speaks very eloquently, with a charm and charisma that doesn't usually work in his favour. We have a character from the South who has an accent and is brash, and isn't afraid to speak their mind. We have another (who I won't give a name to), who is secretive and enticing. Even every side character was very unique and I loved finding out more about them.

Without saying much, the romance in this book was so perfectly done. You were able to feel Sai's emotions so well throughout the entire story. The author does such a good job with it, and I won't say more, you'll just have to see for yourself.

I can't wait for this book to come out, so more people can experience it (and so I can have it for my shelf)! I'm really so grateful that I had the chance to read it early.

Sai has a gift of seeing the red threads of fate between soulmates. His mom purchases a pair of dragon scales that actually cure. He is forced by the emperor to search for the dragon and he finally sees his own thread.

I love the chinese mythology. It is fascinating. The plot is interesting. The characters are great. Truly enjoy it.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.