A review by hannahsophialin
Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa

5.0

Reread in 2021 in audiobook. Review for eARC below.

The author/publisher provided a free copy of the book for review purposes - thank you! Receiving a review copy does not guarantee a positive review and therefore do not affect the opinion or content of the review.

I think I’ve been completely ruined once again by Julie Kagawa, so I had to nurse my soul for about a week before I could muster up the courage to write a review.* With Night of the Dragon, the third and final book of her Shadow of the Fox trilogy, Kagawa has taken my heart and chucked it straight into another galaxy. I don’t know the rest of my current reads; what are they?

I’m… not sure when my heart will return this time.

Night of the Dragon is a continuation of Soul of the Sword.
We continue to follow Yumeko and her friends as they race against time to stop Genno from the summoning the Dragon and destroying Iwagoto. Safe to assume eventually it will be the world. And not just the short time they have: they have a challenging journey ahead because Genno will stop at nothing to prevent them from ruining his plans. Like the first two books, Kagawa introduces us to new yokai from Japanese mythology: each of them just as cruel, vicious and caring for nothing but spilling the blood of anything that stands in their way.

Tatsumi has a bit of an identity crisis here. He’s not sure if he’s Haikaimono now that they’ve merged their souls or if he’s still Tatsumi. But over the course of his journey from Shadow of the Fox when he first meets Yumeko through the third book, he’s changed drastically. He’s not the only one who’s changed either; his literal resident demon inside of him has changed too, but he’s still the same badass Kage from the first book. He’s just more bloodthirsty.

I’m here for all the slow burns! My heart is all mushy with the ships being sailed. Finally! Inside my heart cried because at this point in the series, I’m cheering the group on to success. All the odds are against them, but I want my favorite cinnamons to conquer.

My heart still cries from wherever it landed. I’m not surprised with the ending, but it doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less than it did. Either way, it was beautiful and perfect, and I couldn’t ask for anything less. (But I mean, it’s Julie Kagawa! I should know at reading 90% of her works that endings to a series are going to be *chef’s kiss*.)

Soul of the Sword was a struggle for me to get through, but it is so worth going through for Night of the Dragon. All the questions I had from the very beginning of the series get answered as everything comes together for an ending that made me want to cry and question my life choices.

*How do I bring justice to such perfection?! All the words have flown out the window. What even is a review?

This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts.