Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

GoodReads Summary:
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.
Review:
Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa is a book that I received from Net Galley as an ARC to read and review. This book is scheduled for release later this year in the beginning of October. Julie Kagawa has become an auto-buy author for me, so when I heard about this book I was wicked excited for its release. I was even more excited after I read the synopsis. This book was different from her others. When Net Galley approved me I definitely squealed more than I’m willing to admit.
Our story starts with a girl, Yumeko, who is part human and part kitsune. I loved getting to see the world through her eyes as she went on the adventure in this book. She’s been raised by monks in an isolated part of the world that Kagawa has created. She has learned everything she knows about the world from the monks that raised her. So when everything falls apart and she needs to flee the only place that she’s ever known as home and essentially go and save the world. A lot of responsibility for a girl who’s never been out into the real world, so it was funny and interesting to see the world through her fresh eyes, to learn things as she embarks on her journey. She sees the best in everyone and looks on the bright side of everything.
This brings us to our second perspective, Tatsumi. He’s the complete opposite of Yumeko. He thinks the worst of everyone. He’s been all over the world doing his samurai duty. He’s seen the worst of the worst of people and other sorts of things. He is mostly pessimistic until he starts to travel with Yumeko. She starts to break down his walls, which may not be the best thing for him.
I so loved seeing them interact. These two characters were so opposite and it made for a funny and interesting story. The story itself was fabulous. I loved the Japanese mythology aspect of it. It’s something that I haven’t really read much about so it was new and unique to me. Because of this, I had to take my time with the book. It’s not a book that could binge because there’s so much information that I needed to read slowly and make sure I didn’t miss anything. Shadow of the Fox was a fascinating story and I don’t know when the second book comes out which makes me so sad.
Kagawa has done it again with a wonderfully written and extremely entertaining story that left me wanting so much more. She built an incredible world filled with characters that made me laugh and shake my head. I took like two weeks to read this book because I just did not want it to be over. For the readers out there that like mythology, this is for sure a book to keep your eye out for when it’s released this upcoming October.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

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