Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollinsUk for the ARC.

Unfortunately I had to DNF the book after 40%.
I first requested it due to it being Romantasy and a sapphic romance but it just couldn’t hold my attention, the world building was confusing and I was avoiding continuing it.

Maybe I’ll give it another chance further down the road.

I have to admit that my main reason to request a review copy through Netgalley was the cover. I loved the atmosphere, I loved how curious it made me. And since Magpie granted me a copy and the release date was getting closer, it was time to dive in.

It's clear that this book and I didn't click. Something about the book just didn't work for me and I can't completely put into words what. I'm gonna give it a try though. The main issue was that I was confused throughout the entire book. I had a hard time understanding the world, the characters and their goals and motivations and the kind of story I was actually reading. I couldn't grasp the direction, I couldn't understand why this story was told.

I think it's the writing that just didn't work for me. Maybe it's because I don't see anything while reading. I just feel. And while reading this book I didn't really feel anything. I also had issues connecting with the characters. Even after finishing the book it still feels like I don't really know them. Everyone is hiding so much, everyone is keeping so many secrets. I don't know much about their desires and wants and their unique personality traits.

Maybe I should have not finished this book at some point, but there was also enough to keep me reading. I liked the concept of the magic. I liked the hidden identity of the heroine of the story. I liked the political banter. At times I didn't understand what was going on, but I kept on hoping that at some moment things would just click and everything I read before that would make sense. However, it didn't happen. Even after finishing the book, I still don't really get what I've been reading.

However, I'm sure a lot of people will like this book a lot better than me! I'm pretty sure that this review says more about me than about the objective quality of the book. If you think you'll like it, give it a go! After all, I did keep on reading, didn't I?

Thank you HarperCollins and Netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review of this book.

The Last Soldier of Nava has all the ingredients of a powerful fantasy with rich worldbuilding, a unique magic system and a badass female warrior lead. The story hints at deep emotional undercurrents and complex character relationships, especially in the slow-burn romance, which was a highlight for me - it's hard to get wrong. Shadow and Scarlet's chemistry felt satisfying and well-matched, even if I didn't fully connect with them on a deeper level.

I do feel like much of the emotional weight and world complexity felt implied rather than fully explained on paper. Another 50–100 more pages to flesh out the world and the characters would have helped this story so much. Especially Shadow, who had a lot of potential but left me wanting more. Key concepts like “remade” weren’t clearly explained, which made it hard to fully immerse myself in the world, despite enjoying the mythology-inspired roots.

The ending also left me confused, as if the story wrapped up before it was ready. I generally enjoy Asian mythology reads, but this one didn’t deliver emotionally the way I'd hoped.

3.5 The setting for the book was a really unique landscape and the worldbuilding was complex. However a little too complex at times for the first 25% I did find myself having to flick back and remind myself who people were or what terms meant. However once the story got going it was exciting and fun, I loved the dynamic between Shadow and the Keeper. The ending as well still has me thinking, Overall a good read but does take a bit of time to understand and get into.

Thank you netgalley for the e ARC.

I was drawn in by the premise of this book being a sapphic fantasy inspired by Korean mythology. I do think at times that the pacing of this book did struggle, especially near the end. I did love the romance in this though, it really helped me stay invested. I would definitely recommend this book to fantasy lovers though, bonus points if they want something queer.

Unfortunately this was a dnf at 50% in for me. I didn’t really enjoy the writing style or the plot however I’m sure others may love it if transitions from YA upwards

I am very sad to say that I cannot rate this any higher than a 2 / 5 stars. When I originally came across this book on goodreads and saw «Korean mythology inspired sapphic fantasy», I was sold already. I love stories inspired by real-world mythologies, and having it also be sapphic is nothing short of a dream come true. So, you can imagine my excitement when I saw this book up on Netgalley, requested it, and got approved.

Let’s start with the two selling points that first got me interested in this book; I don’t know anything about Korean mythology, so I won’t comment on that, but I will talk about the sapphic aspect of the book. ‘The Last Soldier of Nava’ is essentially an enemies-to-lovers romance between Shadow, who is also the protagonist and POV character, and Scarlet. Shadow kinda accidentally killed Scarlet’s sister - Scarlet knows it was ‘the soldier’ who killed her sister, but does nit know that the soldier and Shadow are the same person. But even without that knowledge, Scarlet spends the first half of the book hating Shadow.
The issue with this romance storyline, however, is that there is almost 0 indication that any kind of attraction between these two characters exists. I get that with an enemies-to-lovers setup you have to slowly build up that relationship for either end of the trope to be believable. And while the enemies part was fine, the lovers aspect never really reached that believability threshold. It is around 55% through the book, when Shadow first begins to show signs of any kind of romantic interest in Scarlet. I mean, it was clear from the beginning that Scarlet was going to be the love interest, based on the blurb and the simple fact that this is not the first romance story I’ve read, but that was the first instance where the text itself indicated that this was in fact the case. Only introducing the romantic attraction halfway through the book on its own is not an issue though. The issue is that it was combined with a very slow and clumsy build-up that never once felt organic or believable, and never managed to get me emotionally invested in the story. There is a big love confession moment at one point, where Scarlet tells Shadow «I’ve never met anyone else like you, in all my life», and it left me completely cold.

This is part of a larger issue of unearned moments that show up time and again throughout this book. Repeatedly, the reader is told things about a character, a setting, a relationship, etc. that was in no way set up by the writing up until that point. In one instance Scarlet is told by a side character that she is «incapable of love» and «a weak imitation of [her sister]» whose memory she dishonours every day. The way it is written makes it clear that this moment is supposed to have an emotional impact on the reader, but it doesn’t because up til that point we were never shown that this is even remotely true or something Scarlet struggles with.
In another instance Scarlet describes the landscape around them as choking and suffocating everything underneath, and gardens as «bare imitations of real nature». And again, if this was in anyway implied or shown previously, it might have hit emotionally. But none of the previous descriptions of the cities and countryside around them ever evoked a picture like that, so it just ends up feeling hollow.
There’s also the fact that Shadow originally lived in a city called Nava that was destroyed a long time ago, which is kinda implied to have been almost a utopian society. Shadow repeatedly mentions Nava, and that it was somehow better than what the present-day can offer, and yet we never actually learn much of anything about the place. Nostalgia, especially the kind that ignores all of the bad things about the past so that you can enjoy thinking of ‘the good old times’, is a great topic to include in a fantasy book. But the readers actually needs to know stuff - however distorted by time it may be - about the place in order for this to work. Just saying ‘this place used to exist and it was better than now’ doesn’t cut it.

Additionally, there are a bunch of weird style choices that didn’t much help improve the story either. There are so many instances of direct speech being interrupted by non-speech halfway through for no apparent reason. I’m not doing a good job of describing this so I’ll just insert an example: «‘Then what do you want? I had thought you came here,’ the Emperor said, ‘to ask about your sister.’» Why is «the Emperor said» inserted in the middle of the speech bubble, completely disrupting the flow of the text?
I was also frequently re-reading paragraphs because I thought I’d missed a sentence, only to realise that no, the passage was just written really weirdly, so that it felt as if a sentence was missing.

There’s more I could talk about, from the final battle being so low-key and underwhelming that I didn’t even realise it had happened until like 2 pages later, to the incredibly weirdly pace at which essential world-building elements were introduced, but this review is already way too long.
There are interesting elements in this book, and theoretically the story sounds really interesting, but the execution is just… not great. I will be keeping my eyes open for future works from this author, because this is her debut novel and I have high hopes that she will improve, given time.

I really wanted to love this, I’ve been on the hunt for more and more sapphic fantasy (especially mythology inspired!), but unfortunately it just didn’t quite hit the mark for me! I don’t think I followed the story and the world building all that well. The bits I understood, I really did enjoy and generally I liked the overall plot but there was too much where I was so lost! I also thought the romance kind of came out of nowhere. I knew it was going to happen as this had been pitched as sapphic and by a certain point there was no other character that could be a romantic interest for Shadow, but I didn’t see any romantic development and it just didn’t seem real for me. There was much more to the plot than the characters which is probably why I felt like this!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

While this was certainly a beautifully written book inspired by Korean mythology, and started off extremely strong, I feel almost as if it could have done with a few more things fleshing out.

I really enjoyed the characters of Shadow and Scarlet, and liked the slow burn romance aspect. It definitely felt natural as the story progressed and I have no complaints at all!

The thing that fell slightly flat for me was a lack of explanation for some elements of the story - I'd love to have known more about remades and deadzones, more about the back story, more about some of the side characters so the reader might care about them properly. Essentially, more detail, more description, more showing us why to care about certain situations and characters.

Other than that one complaint, a pretty solid book with a unique and intriguing world.

The story and setting was really enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed the second half of the book.
The first half was quite slow and the writing style unlike anything I've ever read which took me a while to get used to. I much prefer more upfront descriptive writing styles while this left more for the reader to fill the "gaps".
If you like translated fiction writing style then you might enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! I rated this 2.5 stars (rounded up here).

In The Last Soldier of Nava, we follow Shadow, a magically gifted warrior, as she awakens after a long time, only to find the world she left behind full of secrets, shifting loyalties, and buried histories. having been captures, Shadow is pulled into a conflict that threatens both her people and her understanding of who she is. As she navigates political tension, old rivalries, and mysterious powers, it becomes clear that the fate of the whole kingdom may now be at stake.

The premise really drew me in: a fractured world, a soldier with a heavy past, and a magic system rooted in legacy and mythology. The opening was intriguing, with promising characters and glimpses of a unique magical world. But while the foundation was solid, the delivery didn’t quite land.

Much of the story felt rushed or underexplained. Shadow’s relationships, especially those at the Stronghold, were described rather than developed, so the emotional payoffs didn’t feel earned. Important elements from the past were referenced without enough clarity, and several in-world terms were introduced with little explanation. The magic system was compelling but underutilised, leaving too many questions unanswered.

The romance subplot also fell flat for me. Scarlett was simply mean to Shadow for most of the book, and then the shift toward romance happened so abruptly that I had to double-check if I’d missed something. There was very little buildup or emotional progression to make the development feel believable.

I genuinely think this would have worked better as a duology. There’s a lot of potential in the world-building and themes, but the story needed more room to breathe. With more space, the relationships, lore, and emotional arcs could have landed with much more impact.

DNF at 25%

I really loved the premise of the book but unfortunately this book was not for me.
I feel like it was too slow paced (up to 25% and that the world wasn’t explained very well, it was like the book just expected you to know things that had never been mentioned,

Enemies to lovers is one of my fav tropes. A really great read. I loved the story and the world building. The characters I really connected with. Thank you so much for giving me the chance to read this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the e-arc in exchange for a honest review.

I feel like the story and world building were well written and the plot sounded promising, but it wasn't perfect in my opinion.
I think the author should have taken more time to develop and edit because the story itself is great.

I rated this 3.5 stars. This book had a strong start. We were plunged into action from the very beginning and i was enjoying it a lot. The city of Nava (known as Iksong in the present day) once flourished under the rule of the moonbearer and the dawnbringer until the moon bearer became power-hungry. He used someone known as the soldier to bring havoc and gain control. The soldier, now known as shadow lives with Sae until she is captured and taken to the stronghold. In there she finds corruption and her father's plans for the future of Iksong. She realizes that she may be the key to restoring the land but she must trust the one who captured her to win.

While the storyline seemed promising i feel like it wasn't executed as well as it could have been. The descriptions were lacking in areas and i struggled to picture characters or scenes at times. I feel like everything was moving quite fast and it was a bit strange that friendships were made without many scenes of them actually doing things to build up that connection. I don't want to give anything away but you'll know what i mean if you pick this book up.

The action and beginning was strong which is why i boosted the rating up. Like i said, that i did enjoy it at the start but it grew weaker as the story went on. I didn't find myself having a favourite character so i couldn't connect with any of them. The ending was a bit messy and rushed and i have plenty of questions as there was a lot that could have been explained. Maybe if the book was longer, we could have gotten the character development we needed and more about the backstory to past events or places.

While this story didn't grip me as much as i wished it would, it may be to your liking. This book will be out on 19th June in the UK.

Thank you so much Rachel Quinn, HarperCollins & Netgalley for allowing me to read and e-arc for an honest review.

The Soldier was a weapon created by her father to destroy those in power to grab on to it. She died brutally and was put to sleep after her last battle facing the Desert Rose, a warrior who was anti-thesis to her.

When Soldier awakened again, her memories were fragmented but she remembered killing Desert Rose. She went by her new name Shadow. By some twist of fate, her path crossed with Scarlet, who was Desert Rose’s twin sister, with similar power. Scarlet was set on avenging her sister’s death by killing the Soldier but she had no clue the Soldier was right by her side.

Despite the guilt eating her, Shadow was forced to follow Scarlet, to the Stronghold, to find any clues that could lead to finding the Soldier.

While this was all happening, Shadow was expecting to meet the Moonbearer, the source of all her problems-her creator. He was nowhere in the Stronghold and the crown prince was also unaware of his whereabouts.


After Shadow and Scarlet entered the court, the plot was ripe with greed, manipulation, court politics, and power-mongering legend. It was a good example to illustrate how power in the wrong hands could destroy nations with little regard for their own subjects.

My main concern with the book was I was lost a few times because of the changing pace of the events which made me lose track of the plotline. The remade part of the plotline was not that clear to me. It was mentioned a few times but wasn't really shown how it was important for the story. However, the climax was gritty and rounded up the story pretty neatly for me. The remade part of the plotline was not that clear to me. It was mentioned a few times but wasn’t really shown how it was important for the story.

The Last Soldier of Nava is a story of Shadow who was honed to be a weapon, in her previous life, to bring down empires overcomes her true nature. So, if you are starving for a Korean sapphic fantasy, I'd recommend this book!

Thank you HarperCollins for

Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for the DRC of the book!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for approving me to read this, I’m rating it 3.75 - 4.0 stars.

God the main character deserved better and that’s not to say the character is a victim, I love an imperfect character. Our FMC is complex and has a dark kind of aura and mystery surrounding her, she thrives in survival mode it seems. Things start unravelling quickly for the FMC with bargains and war on the horizon with her at the centre of it all, but feeling like a pawn.

I would like to see what happens next because of where this book leaves off, I feel like there’s still a lot to go wrong and our FMC still despite everything remains at the centre.

I went into this with high expectations and was disappointed with how bland it became. A shame because this had huge potential

This is a fantastic read. It is a thrilling, adventurous, atmospheric enemies to lovers read. I loved Shadow and seeing her relationship with Scarlet develop throughout the book. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

3⭐️

I feel like the world wasn’t explained very well, it was like the book just expected you to know things about the world that had never been mentioned, the writing overall is also off, it jumps from one thing to another nothing really connects a lot of the sentences together. Some parts of the plot are only briefly touch upon never going in to much detail and the the parts that where more detailed didn’t really need to be and led the book to being boring. The magic system could have been interesting if I was more explored but as it wasn’t it just felt like I’d seen it many times in other books.

The second half of the book was better it was a lot more fast paced but it was still lacking in a lot of ways. I saw where the book was going from the beginning it was quite obvious so it wasn’t overly exciting.

I feel like the characters weren’t very well described I had no real idea what any of their personalities where, I feel like the descriptions of rooms and locations where over described while literally everything to do with the story was under described

I liked the relationship between Scarlett and shadow I think the pacing of their relationship was done well and u could see the progression of the relationship very well through out the book

Overall if u don’t mind slow paced books I would recommend this book it was nothing extraordinary or never done before but it was okay.

Thank you Netgalley and Hapercollins UK for the digital arc