Julie Kagawa

A half-kitsune (fox) girl and a ninja with a demon-infused sword that wants to possess him, working together to find a magical scroll so a dragon can grant a wish??? This sounds amazing, right?

Unfortunately, I didn’t mesh with the storytelling. It was so DRY, man. At times, it felt info-dumpy or just bland. I don’t think this is any fault on the author, but this bare-bones-telling style is not for me. I didn’t connect with the characters emotionally. I was even skipping paragraphs because my interest kept waning. I also don’t see why this needed a dual pov. Yumeko’s pov was never all that interesting; it could’ve been relegated to a prologue. At least, Tatsumi’s struggle with darkness and his ruthless upbringing was better.

But I think the story took a turn in the right direction when Okame appeared. “Rough characters who are secretly decent deep down” are always endearing to me. This dude brought a little style to this blandness, but he did get annoying with his constant “filthy ronin dog” drivel. Like, sir shut up.

This started terribly slow and unseasoned to me but ended fine. While it is tempting to see how Yumeko and Tatsumi’s slow burn connection ends or Okame’s tragic backstory, I don’t know if I’ll continue with this series. My reading experience was too lackluster.… (més)

I had a huge problem with the romance in this book. It went the (unfortunate) Twilight route with the 'dying unless I'm with him' route, plus added the 'my best guy friend is also in love with me but..." avenue as well. BLECH!
I wouldn't have minded so much, but also wouldn't have even started the series, if the first book had even hinted at this. And I'm really sorry, Julie Kagawa is a good writer and this world that she's created really could do and deserves better.
I'll sample the next book, but for now, this series is off my automatic buy list.… (més)

Before I start my mini-rant, let me say that OVERALL I liked the book. The story move along, and by the end, everything was wrapped up neatly. I really only had a few issues and I'm willing to concede one.

Meghan- At one point, I made a note that this girl must be a complete idiot-because she has to be pointed directly at what to do on every issue AND it has to be explained to her. For goodness sake, can she not use her brain? I clearly remember being 17, and although I may have made some bone-headed decisions, I did actually think them out. (My second note was to go back and see if she was a complete dumdum in school because I couldn't remember). This was my biggest issue, and I don't think it can be excused just because this is a YA.

Ending-there were a few things at the end of the book which weren't explained fully and the ending as a whole felt a bit rushed. I won't go into them in detail to avoid spoiler. Not sure if it was because the book was meant to be a certain length or whether it was the editing. Either way, I hope the get clarified in the next book. One good thing, it wasn't a cliffhanger ending--thank goodness, I am really sick of that trend in fantasy.

Romance-(SPOILER WARNING) Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't think a 17 year-old should be having sex in a YA book? I might be missing something here, but isn't that a no-no? If it's not these days, then I'll concede this one, but it certainly surprised me.

All in all, it was a solid addition to the series, and I'm looking forward to the next one which I understand will be released later this year.

… (més)