Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest (spoiler free) review. Let me say that the way I’ve consumed this entire series over the past couple of weeks is ridiculous. Julie Kagawa is masterful at weaving a tale infused with myth, the occult, and intrigue. The last book in the Shadow of the Fox series promises to be an emotional roller coaster from the very beginning and promises not to disappoint.

So first let me say that sometimes the ending to a series can be very frustrating because they don’t always turn out to be as promising as you hope. I’m happy to say that that was not the case with Night of the Dragon.

We pick up right where we left off, with the Master of Demons successfully gathering the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers and moving his army to call the Great Kami Dragon. Yumeko did succeed in saving her friends though, including Tatsumi, though he’s now half demon since they couldn’t fully exorcism the oni Hakaimono from his body. The two have instead merged into one so that they can work together to defeat the Master of Demons along with the rest of their group, Okame, Daisuke and Reika. Their mission is to now go after Lord Genno and stop him from actually summoning the Great Kami Dragon.

Okay, so I want this review to be as spoiler free as possible because I don’t want to ruin anything for anybody. Overall, I just enjoyed the way this book flowed. It was beautifully written and though we’re three books into this saga, it’s clear that the stakes are higher than ever before. Every moment and scene whether romantic or violent felt so intense that I had a hard time looking away. The entire time I was reading I felt like no one was safe. The unexpected obstacles that entered their path included demons, a swarm of undead, an ancient water demon, and a few mysterious faces from the past. We also get an even closer look at Suki (the ghost handmaiden’s) benefactor and what role she and the benefactor play in this whole debacle. I’ll admit that I could not figure out what Suki’s purpose was in Soul of the Sword, but she appears even more in this installment and it definitely helped to move the story along.

Great news ya’ll: Tatsumi is officially back. In Soul of the Sword Hakaimono is running the show so we got his perspective as opposed to our Kage demonslayer. That’s changed now that the two have fused together. While we don’t particularly get Hakaimono’s point of view, his influence on Tatsumi is very clear and he’s still dealing with inner turmoil, just a different variety this time around. Part of this inner turmoil has to do with his feelings for Yumeko. We see the same from Yumeko’s perspective, which is great, AND we get more Okame and Daisuke (my bbys). Each relationship continues to blossom before our eyes, which only makes you feel like even more is at stake as thy try to prevent the rise of the Great Kami Dragon. I think what I love about the way Julie does romance is that it feels very natural. Nothing about the romances takes away from the adventure, but only adds to the emotions of the book.

Listen….all I can say without spoiling is that prepare to feel a lot of feelings while reading this and Julie completely ruined my life. The developments, the adventures, the magic, the battles, they all lend themselves to a great book. I highly suggest that when this book releases on March 31, run don’t walk to pick it up.