Night of the Dragon (Shadow of the Fox, 3)

I really loved the first 2 books. I loved all the characters and the unique story. I enjoyed watching them on their journey.The last book, however, was very disappointing. I rarely write negative reviews but I was looking forward to this one and do not feel I got what the readers deserved. DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS.The never-ending additional tasks, each of which is more impossible to comprehend accomplishing, on top of preventing the Wish, is ridiculous.The death of everyone is bad enough, but then having to say goodbye a second time to everyone?! Please, spare us. Lets say goodbye once and do it right the first time. Don't wring us out twice for no reason.And if everyone is going to die, fine. But the way the author tried to make it ok in the end is just insulting to the reader. It would have been better if Yumeko had just died and gone to meet her friends in the afterlife. The promise of a return of the soul someday and the epilogue that spanned a lifetime to get to that soul returning is too far fetched and too predictable all at the same time to be any sort of closure for the reader.Well, at least I will know not to invest myself in a series with this author again.

I loved this book and the conclusion of the trilogy! It was seriously a wild ride from start to finish, and boy! did the tears flow more than once. It was a great conclusion to Yumeko, Tatsumi, Okame, Daisuke, Reika and Chu, and Suki’s story. I cannot say enough how thrilled I was that Julie Kagawa did not shy away from certain plot developments and natural story flow like a lot of authors do in order to get that perfect happy ending, either. And that ending!!! Seriously that last little paragraph made my heart skip a beat. I need a whole other three books about everyone’s reunions, especially Yumeko and Tatsumi’s. I really enjoyed this series so much. I’d really like to know how JK managed to take an incredibly evil and monstrous character like Hakaimono and make him a sarcastic smart mouth that I actually kind of liked, too. And it was so nice to see Tatsumi actually have a personality this time around, which was something I struggled with throughout this series, given he spent the first being being an emotionless tin soldier and the second book possessed by a demon. Yumeko had it right: “When did you learn sarcasm?” Plus he was a total warrior this time around, kicking butt left and right. I mean, I know he was a demonslayer, but I didn’t ever feel like it really lived up to the title that much until this book. Yumeko is still a bright and shining light and purity, and I really respected her choice at the end.Overall this book was a great conclusion to the story. I felt like the characters were way more fleshed out and I really enjoyed the fact there didn’t seem to be any slow moments in this book. Everything mattered, and there was no unnecessary filler. I loved the ending, even if I wish it were just a bit longer haha.

Night of the Dragon is Julie Kagawa’s conclusion to the Shadow of the Fox trilogy and brings Yumeko’s story to a close. If you’ve been having fun so far in this series, then you are in for a wild ride with this one as Yumeko and her friends race to stop the demon, Genno, from reciting the prayer to summon the dragon and get his wish for untold destruction. This is a read that will have you turning the pages as fast as you can to see who will win this epic race.Yumeko and her motley crew have had it rough the past few days, weeks, as they’ve been striving to stop Genno from calling the dragon forth to receive the wish. They’re not done yet battling it out with enemies from left and right and all over the place. This book pretty much had them going from one battle to another, big and small, until the time comes when they will be at the final battle.This book. What do I say about this book? I’ll admit that this series has been challenging for me. Reading this particular series on my kindle probably wasn’t the best idea ever since I did not have access to the glossary in back. I was left fumbling over words and having no clue what they were and I didn’t always have access to the internet to check as well. It would basically be too time consuming to stop, get to the internet, refer back and forth between my book and the browser for spelling to get the word’s definition on the screen and then re-read the sentence for clarity. For the most part I was able to infer what the word was, demon, food, weapon, some holy object or some such thing. So it wasn’t terrible, but when you get bombarded with several words in a handful of paragraphs back to back, it’s overwhelming.As far as pacing goes this one was pretty good! I mean, I think Yumeko started with two days until the Genno could summon the dragon, so already we have a time crunch since Genno has a huge lead on Yumeko and her friends and has left them several surprises along the path. There were quite a few battles that led up to the grand battle and even that one was stretched out into mini battles! This conclusion was INTENSE!If the action isn’t enough to keep you going, know that there are several jaw-dropping surprises to happen along the way too! Ones I didn’t really see coming and left me shell shocked! And if you’ve read any Julie Kagawa books, you know she doesn’t hold back the punches, so…be prepared.One thing I’ve loved the most about this series was the budding relationship between Yumeko and Tatsumi. It was a tenuous one at best in the beginning and was definitely one that started out as something like partners to eventual friendship, and then the something more. It’s definitely one of those slow-burning romances that I secretly love!As far as endings go, this one will shock you! There were so many surprises to this one that I didn’t really see coming and left me in a mess of emotions. This book will tear you apart, but as is Julie’s way, she doesn’t leave you disappointed before those final two words appear on the page. Despite my personal challenges with this series, I still did enjoy it to some extent! It’s been a series that challenged me, frustrated me, but still managed to keep me coming back again and again! Needless to say, I am a Julie Kagawa fan for life!Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars

I really love all of Julie Kagawa's books and I'm happy to own this one! I'm a little sad that this book marks the end of this trilogy but I'm looking forward to reading it.

good ending to the story, net perfect but more than enought