Book Review: Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

Release Date: October 2nd, 2018
Read: June 30th - July 10th, 2018
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Series: Shadow of the Fox, #1
Format: ARC, 400 pages
Source: BEA 2018

Description from GoodReads:

   Once Every Thousand Years...

   Every millennium, one age ends and another age dawns...and whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers holds the power to call the great Kami Dragon from the sea and ask for any one wish. The time is near...and the missing pieces of the scroll will be sought throughout the land of Iwagoto. The holder of the first piece is a humble, unknown peasant girl with a dangerous secret.  

   Demons have burned the temple Yumeko was raised in to the ground, killing everyone within, including the master who trained her to both use and hide her kitsune shapeshifting powers. Yumeko escapes with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll. Fate thrusts her into the path of a mysterious samurai, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan. Yumeko knows he seeks what she has...and is under orders to kill anything and anyone who stands between him and the scroll.

   A wish will be granted and a new age will dawn. 

Review:

   Well, hello, little fox.

   I've loved Julie Kagawa’s work for years, her Iron Fey series was one of the first series i read and fell in love with. Years later, I’ve basically read and loved all of her work and continue to pick up her new stuff as soon as I can. Shadow of the Fox wasn’t any different, I requested the book as soon as I heard about it. 

   If you love the magic of any of her other work, then you’ll love Shadow of the Fox. It’s as magical and mythical as ever, you’ll basically feel as if you’ve entered Japan and one of its folk tales. Being a story set on Japanese mythology, the book does not let you down. If magic and adventure is what you picked up the book for, then you’ve come to the right place. 

   I usually find that books that have an adventure take place are never able to pace a story nicely and so I’m always disappointed. Kagawa manages to pace everything perfectly, and even manages to throw in the right amount of folk interruptions to keep it exciting. 

   I’m absolutely adored Shadow of the Fox, everything from the mythology to the cliffhanger that Kagawa left us with. I look extremely forward to the stories sequel, and will continue to ramble on about this book to whoever will listen. 

Rating:

Favourite Quote:

"The spider does not spin its web in a heartbeat, nor does the albatross fly across oceans with a few flaps of its wings. May would consider what they do impossible, and yet, they still complete their tasks without fail, because they simply... start."

Recommend to People Who Enjoy:

Young Adult, Fantasy, Mythology, Magic, Japanese Mythology, Kitsune, Samurai