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.… (mer)