The Last Dragon of the East Review

The Last Dragon of the East

Review by All Things Book Wise

Rating: ✨4 stars ✨

Review Updated: 05/04/2025

The Last Dragon of the East, a fantasy and romance tale, starts off with all the elements needed to get me excited: red threads and special connections, magic, a little matchmaking, and tea! From there, all because of a few magical dragons scales, the plot and Sai's life change dramatically.

The book becomes a tale about Sai and his Fated One, dragons, old legends, evil emperors, and a kind of brash and badass huntress. In short, it was not at all the cozy read I was expecting! It took me a little bit to come to terms with the new direction the plot was taking, one that had a lot more fighting and heavy topics, and it's not that I didn't love it, its just that I wasn't expecting it at all.

The characters are probably the best part of this book! Sai is the endearing, chatty, enthusiastic main character, and Jyn is the grumpiness to Sai's sunshine, but she's also strong and loyal and just really cool. The romance between them is a lot of fun, and so are all the cute, sappy quotes in this book! They've both been through so much, and yet they still keep loving and fighting for each other. It gives "the two of them against the world" vibes and I kind of love it.

The only downside to this is that the side characters aren't as relevant, since this is definitely a story focused on the MCs. It wasn't that big a deal for me, but I did think at times that some of the other characters had more potential than they got in the book.

As the tale progresses, we learn there's a lot more to Sai than a quiet, unassuming tea shop owner just trying to care for his ailing mother. There's a lot going on that we don't know, relating to Sai's backstory, the visions he keeps getting, and the old legends he's grown up telling and hearing. Sai's discovering the significance of it all just as we are. However, while reading the book, it became a little difficult to reconcile the tea shop owner Sai with everything else that he is. Maybe its because as a reader, I only had hunches, ideas, and a slowly uncovering story, whereas Sai had actual visions and dreams :), but he seemed to adjust to everything that he learned much quicker than I did, and at times, his sudden familiarity with his past life surprised me.

Final thoughts: It isn't perfect, but The Last Dragon of the East is an engaging fantasy tale to enjoy, with strong main characters, lots of storytelling, and a beautiful cover!