Format: e-ARC, 416 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Australia, HQ YA
Published: September 23, 2018
ISBN: 9781489267368
Genre: Sci Fi & Fantasy, Teens & YA
Back cover blurb: 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: Julie Kagawa has been a bit of a hit-or-miss author for me, but I was keen to try her take on Japanese mythology after enjoying the Talon series. The prologue was incredible, but as things went on, and each chapter became more like “the journey continues…oh, and here’s another new demon to fight” without really progressing the plot with the scroll, I began to wonder why I was continuing. There is a slow-burn romance brewing, but I’m not sure I’m keen enough to bother with book two to find out if it eventuates. The ending did redeem the middle 300 pages, especially the very last scene, so I’m glad I persevered. If only there had been more Suki and Lady Satomi throughout.
***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***
My rating: 2.5/5
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