Wow, continuation of this buddy fantasy adventure to deliver a piece of a sacred scroll to a legendary temple. If you are familiar with Japanese manga or anime, you might be familiar with the various Japanese references to mythology, weapons and rulers.
Some surprising developments happen in #2 of this trilogy.
Can't wait to read the conclusion! ( )

3.5* rounded up for this audiobook edition due to the excellent narration.

This 2nd book in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy was engrossing but I didn't much care for the ending. I guess that I will have to read the final book to see how it all turns out! ( )

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Soul of the Sword

The demon Hakaimono has escaped the sword Kamigoroshi. Possessing the body of its owner, Kage Tasumi. Pushed into the back of his own mind, Tasumi must witness the atrocities Hakaimono commits with his body. Yumeko is torn between bringing the sacred scroll to the steel feather temple and freeing Tasumi. Until she and her companions receive a summons from the Shadow Clan. One they cannot refuse. Yumeko is ordered to exorcise Hakaimono or die trying.

Hakaimono emerges as a main character, taking over Tasumi’s point of view chapters. He is a vicious demon and waits for the right moment to re-emerge into the world. He is also confident in his ability to defeat any foe. However, Hakaimono’s current body isn’t impervious to harm. While he may heal quickly, the weakness of a mortal body hampers him quite a bit as the story progresses. This was a great balance to add to the story and kept his reign of power in check. It also created great moments of tension. However, Hakaimono’s taunts at Tasumi were repetitive. Any time Tasumi made his presence known, Hakaimono threatened Yumeko. Once or twice would have been sufficient to make the point. There should have been some variation in the way Tasumi was tormented. Admittedly he did not have ties to friends or family but doubting his abilities as a warrior would have been just as wounding.

Yumeko has a wonderful arc of character development in Soul of the Sword. Originally taught to hide her kitsune powers, in this novel she’s told to embrace them. Witnessing her quick thinking and use of foxfire brought much enjoyment to the story. She’s also seeing more of the world, and learning how to build relationships with her companions. I was happy to see her come out of her shell and take greater risks.

Soul of the Sword brings more culture and lore into the world. The various demons and supernatural creatures that make an appearance will keep readers invested till the end. The brightness Yumeko brings to the page is wonderfully contrasted by the darker tone Hakaimono provides. There is also a mystery surrounding a new key character. One who is watching both Yumeko and Hakaimono. Manipulating them as if they were chess pieces. As this second novel draws to an end, it promises an exciting final novel. ( )

DNF @ 104 pages. I'd put this down with no desire to pick it back up and it's been sitting in my "Currently Reading" category for nearly 4 months, while I've read 8 other books and avoiding going back to this. I just didn't care at all about the characters or where this story was going. This might have been better had it been condensed into one book rather than a trilogy, but YA authors can't seem to help themselves, and because it's been stretched thin, there's just a lot of filler and more characters than necessary. The first book was enjoyable and interesting, as I've never read anything focusing on Japanese culture and folk tales before, but the two main characters in this story are unrelatable and, against all odds, boring.

After the dramatic finale of the first book, which chronicled kitsune Yumeko’s journey to deliver a piece of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers to a temple that could adequately protect it, we knew that book two was going to kick off with another bang. With Kage Tatsumi possessed by the demon who used to be in the sword he wielded, Yumeko has lost her main ally and a dear friend and gained another active foe who is after the scroll. The demon Hakaimono isn’t actually after the scroll, though, which is revealed through his added viewpoint, and is more concerned with regaining an independent body and not returning to being trapped inside a sword. Previously Kagawa based the story around dual perspectives from Yumeko and Tatsumi, but with the demon now playing a leading role we get an even more unique side of the story. Unlike Yumeko and Tatsumi, who are both young adults with slightly naive views of the world, Hakaimono is an ancient demon with eons of experience, lore, and connections with both the human and magical worlds, so he brings a certain panache and depth to the story (albeit bloody) that grounds Yumeko’s more youthful outlook. In this story Yumeko and her companions journey to the Kage homeland to meet with the leader of the Shadow Clan, as Hakaimono journeys to a dangerous forest populated with yokai, with both parties making deals to hopefully secure their futures and inevitably putting themselves in conflict with the other. At the final showdown, Yumeko showcases the full extent of her kitsune magic (no longer the little fox girl hidden away in a remote temple with repressed magic) in an effort to save Kage Tatsumi, but her efforts don’t work out quite like she planned - isn’t that the way with magic, and especially kitsune magic? And yet, these complications set the group up nicely for the final story arc, which should take them to the very mouth of the dragon that they’ve been trying to avoid. I don’t want to make any predictions yet, since Kagawa seems to revel in turning the expected upside down, but I can bet that we’re going to have an interesting conclusion none the less! ( )