The Dragon Wakes with Thunder (The Dragon Spirit Duology)

I just finished The Dragon Wakes with Thunder by K.X. Song, and I’m honestly still sitting between 3.5 and 4 stars. This sequel is much more interested in consequences than fulfillment, and I think that’s ultimately why I feel so torn on it. What made The Night Ends with Fire work so well for me was that it felt sharp, emotionally satisfying, and totally committed to Meilin’s ambition. It gave me the darker Mulan-inspired fantasy I wanted: a heroine hungry for power, a compelling emotional entanglement, strong banter, and prose that felt rich and introspective. It was a story about wanting more and refusing to apologize for it. This sequel clearly wants to interrogate that desire rather than celebrate it. And I do think it’s important to say that this series is not really a romance or even a romantasy in the way that label might make people expect. Yes, there is a love triangle element, but the romance is not the central force of the story. This feels much closer to historical fantasy—a story rooted in dynasty, power, chi, legacy, social hierarchy, and the way wealth and control are distributed, especially across gender. It is very much about men in power, women in service, and what it means for a woman who is “out of place” to want more than the role assigned to her. That, to me, is where the book is strongest. So much of this sequel revolves around power, corruption, control, and self-authorship. Meilin is constantly pushing against the structures meant to define her, and the novel seems deeply invested in asking what happens when that ambition hardens under pressure. What does it mean for a woman to reach for power in a world that wants her obedient? What happens when the thing that gives her agency also begins to consume her? On a thematic level, I actually think that’s a strong and interesting direction. My problem is that while I could see what the book was doing intellectually, I didn’t always feel it emotionally. The biggest example of that is the love triangle—or maybe more accurately, the emotional dynamic surrounding Meilin. I still call it a love triangle because love does find her, even if she herself never seems fully interested in belonging to anyone. That tension is interesting in theory: Meilin is not a heroine whose story is driven by the desire to be chosen or paired off. But in execution, the shifts in both male leads felt too abrupt for me. Sky’s change from caring and thoughtful to controlling and cruel felt less like a tragic evolution and more like a narrative hard pivot. I understand the logic behind portraying devotion as possessive or warped by fear, but the transition did not feel sufficiently earned for me. Instead of deepening the emotional conflict, it broke it. Lei worked better for me overall, but even then, his development felt too quiet and too sidelined to fully land. His presence makes sense within the story, but because he spends so much of the novel on the margins, his emotional weight never hit as strongly as I wanted it to. So while I think both men are meant to reflect different forms of attachment, control, and desire around Meilin, neither dynamic fully satisfied me by the end. And that’s really where my dissatisfaction comes from: this sequel often feels more committed to its themes than to making every emotional beat land with the same strength. Meilin is still the strongest part of the book for me. She remains compelling because she is not easy, not passive, and not built around romance as her primary goal. Her hunger—for power, for agency, for a life beyond the one chosen for her—is still what makes her so interesting. Which is exactly why the ending frustrated me so much. I understand the reasoning behind taking away her power, especially if the point is that power had become parasitic, corruptive, or unsustainable. But emotionally, I wanted something more layered than forfeiture. I kept waiting for an ending where Meilin’s relationship to power became one of mastery, negotiation, or transformation—something that preserved the force of who she is while still acknowledging the cost. Instead, the conclusion felt more limiting than cathartic. So for me, The Dragon Wakes with Thunder is a book I can admire more than I can fully love. K.X. Song’s writing is still beautiful. The atmosphere is strong, the thematic ambition is clear, and Meilin remains a fascinating heroine. But the abrupt character shifts and the emotional shape of the ending kept this from feeling as satisfying as the first book. Final rating: 3.5–4 stars. Beautifully written, thematically rich, but not as emotionally satisfying as book one.

* I was given the ARC through Netgalley * Book one was a larger fantasy twist to the story of Mulan, and book two throws in the attitude of Iron Widow! I was invested enough for several shocked-out-loud moments, but at times the plot got a bit confusing. I wasn't sure if we were trying to save the world, stop a war, find a pond, control a dragon... This book probably could have been a longer series to dive into each subplot in more detail. I still enjoyed it (so many tabs were used!) and was surprised at how much I agreed and disagreed with the protagonist. None of this was predictable, this book kept me on my toes!