I believe I probably won a copy of Katrina Kwan‘s The Last Dragon of the East.
At the spry young age of twenty-five, Sai has led a quiet life, keeping the family teahouse up and running—even if that means ignoring the past-due notices—and taking care of his ailing mother. But he has a not-so-secret gift that he’s parlayed into a side career: he was born with the ability to see the red threads of fate between soulmates, which lends itself nicely to matchmaking. Sai has thus far been content not to follow his own thread, the only one he’s ever seen that’s gray and fraying.
But Sai’s ordinary existence is about to be turned upside-down by a pair of shining dragon scales. When his mother’s doctor sells them to him, claiming them as a miracle cure, Sai is pretty sure he’s being scammed. When the medicine actually works—and the terrifying, ruthless emperor catches wind—Sai is thrust into the search for a dragon long thought extinct that will lead him into the throes of a brewing war and deep into foreign lands, facing down challenges both magical and mortal on an unexpected adventure. And for the very first time, as his own thread of fate begins to move, he may be able to solve the mystery of his Fated One on the other end of the line.
I didn’t love this. I wanted to. I mean, look at that cover! And I liked aspects of it. But that is the most I can muster to give it. I liked that it does flip some of the tropes. It’s her who survives through the ages while he is reborn. It’s her who is the supernaturally strong one. He’s the sunshine, and she’s the grump. I appreciate these things.
Unfortunately, I was bored with a lot of the book, and the writing is stilted in some places. Also, Kwan back-peddles some of their flipped scrips before the end. This left me with the impression that rather than being truly and thoughtfully transgressive, the author was instead just setting up an unsettled dynamic so that she could eventually set things right. This negated most of the meaningful impact for me. All in all, my most eloquent comment on The Last Dragon of the East is “Meh.”
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