Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
- The Wicked Reader
- Jan 25, 2019
- 3 min read
Author: Julie Kagawa
Publisher: Harlequin
Date: October 2, 2018
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: ⭐⭐1/2
Purchase Links: [Chapters/Indigo]
Goodreads Synopsis:
One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish—and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos. Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn. Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll. There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart. With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko’s secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.
My Review:
*Thank you Indigo Books & Music Inc for sending me an Hardcover of Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa for an honest review.*
Shadow of the Fox was such a hyped book and because of that, I had hopes that I would thoroughly enjoy it. Sadly, this was not the case.
Shadow of the Fox was a predictable, slow and boring story. The plot seems to drift and focuses on little sub-adventures. Don’t get me wrong I found the Japanese mythology to be fascinating but it seems Julie Kagawa was just using all of them to prolong the story and try to strengthen her weak plot.
We follow the perspective of Yumeko a half kitsune and Tatsumi a samurai for the Shadow Clan. Both journey together but have different objectives, while Yumeko’s mission is to protect and deliver the dragon scroll to another temple while Tatsumi’s mission is to retrieve this scroll.
I enjoyed the character growth of Yukemi from being sheltered to learning and accepting herself more. But she also annoyed me with her optimism and automatically trusting strangers, it made her look so naïve.
Tatsumi was my favourite character. I really liked the bits and pieces we got about him being a samurai for the shadow clan and what his life is all about. I would have loved to learn more of his past but I think that might be coming in the sequel.
The romance between Yumeko and Tatsumi took up the entire book. It was the slowest burning romance ever, and I don’t mean this in a good way. I didn’t feel any connection to them and honestly could not care less where their relationship goes.
Right after finishing this book I’m struggling to remember what even happened. Nothing happened in Shadows of the Fox that had my heart racing or looking forward to the future events. If this weren’t the book for my book club, Wicked Readers, I would have DNFed.
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