Was unable to finish this novel. Though a fan of Kagawa's Iron Fey and her Blood of Eden series, the writing style of Shadow of the Fox was hard to fall into. The plot sounds promising, but will unfortunately have to pass on continuing the story.

I read an excerpt of this book and requested it via Netgalley. I received the galley and meant to get around to reading it asap. Then I received a signed finished copy from Owlcrate and started it finally in October of 2018 (in the month it was released). However, I have found I cannot read heavily atmospheric fantasy books at night anymore because my tired brain cannot keep up. It took me a long while to get about 40% through the book. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, it's just that I couldn't concentrate enough to read it. I decided to request the audiobook from my local library to see if I could digest it better - although I was a little nervous because I sometimes struggle to listen to fantasy audiobooks - they can be so detailed. Especially new worlds and magic systems can be hard for me to grasp in audiobook format.

However, after all is said and done, Kagawa delivered once again. I am not sure any book will be able to top it this year. It was incredible and it was easy to listen to with my somewhat alright knowledge on some things Japanese because of Naruto. I wasn't questioning what everything was and was able to immerse myself fully into this world.

I absolutely adored the cast of characters - I love Yumeko, who is one of the POVs, who is half kitsune (fox yokai) half human. I am obsessed with Okame, the ronin, that Yumeko and Tatsumi run into on their travels. I was sucked into the plot and I don't think I'll have any trouble recalling everything when it comes time to pick up the second book. It was such a rich story. I felt I was with Yumeko and her travel companions. I had many moments of giggling and jaw dropping. Kagawa is a master storyteller. No one can tell me any different.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! Full of magic, adventure, and it was incredibly unique (to me, at least). I absolutely loved the heorine, Yumeko, is a breath of new life. She is strong and resilient, and in the face of so much carnage and destruction and heartbreak, she stands brave and unyielding. Her adventure left me breathless, and I was on the edge of my seat every single page. I cared about what happened to her and I rooted for her victory every single time she faced an obstacle.
Her story, along with the other characters, Kage and Suki, slowly gained my trust and then my heart with their tragic backstories and interesting personalities.
I was really excited to read a own-voices Japanese story and Kagawa's beautiful writing and incredible story building did this story justice.
It was absolutely breathtaking, beautiful, and heartbreaking too.
5/5 Stars

This book was just ok. For whatever reason it just did not hold my attention. Not sure if it was because I am not as familiar with Japanese mythology or something else. Those that enjoy this genre and are fans of Kagawa will probably like the book and because of this, I have purchased this for our YA collection.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book for an honest opinion.

Shadow of the Fox is unlike anything I have read before. One has to take a piece of a scroll to someone and the other is looking for the piece of the scroll. Good and evil traveling together and having no idea about each other. I love how this has some Japanese mythology. My favorite part of the book was when they were in the village that is being killed by ghosts of their family members all because they weren’t kind to someone in the past. I thoroughly enjoyed this and definitely want to read the sequel. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to review this.

Julie Kagawa brings the reader into a Japanese themed high fantasy full of blood witches, demons, clans manuvering for power and influence, ghosts, and kitsume. The tale opens with Suki becoming a maid in the Imperial palace and being sacrificed by her mistress to oni demons so she could acquire the Dragon's scroll. Yumeko, a half-kitsune/half-human, is living in an isolated monastery that is targeted by the oni demons and she is tasked with taking part of the Dragon Scroll to the Steel Feather Temple. Kage is a member of the Shadow Clan ordered to acquire the Dragon Scroll by his clan leader. After they run into each other in the woods, they engage in an intricate dance where everyone is lying, yet not lying about who they are, where they are going and why. Along the way, they acquire a ronin, a Imperial noble swordsman, a temple maiden and temple master accompanied by temple guardians as companions. And then there is the cursed sword that Kage carries. Plenty of action, plenty of fighting and plenty of snarky conversations that keep the book moving quickly to its climax. Cannot wait for the 2nd volume to be available.

P.S. for fun, listen to the audiobook version since it has three main characters voiced by different folks.

The story of collecting items to summon a magical creature and grant a wish is a trope that has been used throughout history. The incredibly popular manga/anime ‘Dragonball’ uses it to great success. Even the movie ‘The Fifth Element’ uses a variation of the trope.

Shadow of the Fox can be added to the list. Based heavily on Japanese mythology, culture, and traditions, it is a version set in what to some will be a familiar land.

Kagawa has done an admirable job creating a world that is both familiar and unique. She has taken known Japanese folklore and twisted it just so. In the characters she has created, readers will recognize the physical and personality type traits that are seen so often in modern Japanese storytelling.

While the book is aimed towards almost all readers, I personally think those who have at least some knowledge of Japan and it’s stories will enjoy Shadow of the Fox more. As someone who is a very big manga/anime fan, I enjoyed seeing the mixture. Not everyone will like it though and some might even find it confusing.

Manga and anime fans – especially those who enjoyed titles like ‘Naruto’ or ‘Dragonball’ – will likely devour this book. Personally, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Review: This was a good read. Downloaded from Netgalley in exchange for a free review. Apologies for the smallness of this review. I'm dealing with bronchitis AGAIN.

I really wanted to like this book but the whole thing fell a little short of the mark for me. I have a hard time with books bouncing around to different characters each chapter (i.e., Game of Thrones series) and never felt like I connected with any of the characters enough to care about them.

Interesting characters!
Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for the opportunity to read and review Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa! Suki has been sent to the Palace of the Sun to work as a maid. Suki has been helping in her father’s flute shop but he sent her to the Palace to have a secure living so she'll be taken care of when he passes away. She becomes a maid of the Emperor’s concubine, Lady Satomi; a beautiful but cruel lady. The concubine’s maids seem to keep running away or disappearing and we quickly find out why; she’s sacrificing her maids to a demon as pay for a favor that she wants in return. Next, we meet Yumeko, the prankster fox-girl that lives with monks as they guard a secret, part of the Dragon prayer. The third chapter introduces a Shadow Clan warrior that guards and yields an important weapon that houses a demon. This warrior has been sent to destroy two monsters. Chapter by chapter, characters are introduced and the stakes rise. Everyone wants the Dragon Scroll and death doesn’t seem to be a deterrent. The Fox girl and warrior are working together to find information about the scroll. Little does the warrior know that Yumeko has the scroll the entire time. If he knew, he wouldn’t think twice about killing her. The two of them keep saving each other and are now in each other’s debt. Along their travels, the two of them meet interesting characters, a rogue and a demon warrior, among others. Shadow of the Fox is beautifully told in the style of Japanese mythology. Intriguing characters kept me reading to the end and the epilogue made me anxious for the next book in the series, 5 stars!

I struggled quite a bit with this one. I never made it past the halfway point after several attempts. I wanted to like this story so much, but sadly it just wasn't for me.

This was interesting, entertaining read with a good story line and solid characters. It is most definitely targeted to a younger demographic and mine. The interaction between the two main characters was written well with much thought put into the characters and their story. I would recommend this book to someone less than 25.

In a land where magic is as abundant as water, there lives a girl. Yumeko is half-human half-kitsune, a creature of magic. Having been raised by monks she has spent her life being afraid of her power. She has the power of manipulation and must struggle to stay in contact with her humanity. Upon the destruction of her home, the Silent Wind temple, Yumeko discovers the greatest secret of her life. There is someone who will stop at nothing to summon the great dragon kami. The last time he was summoned the land of Iwogoto was plunged into darkness and despair. Whoever holds the scroll of a thousand prayers has the power to complete the spell that will once again bring the darkness. With his dying breath, the monk who has been safe guarding a part of the scroll these many years, hands the weapon of power off to the young kitsune. He tells her that she must keep this safe at all costs.

The Shadow of The Fox was a fast paced fantasy action packed book. Not my typical reading genre, however I appreciated the mystical creatures and battles. Thank you NetGalley for the copy for my review, all opinions are my own.

It always makes me incredibly sad when I find that I don't like a book featuring, in a large way, a fox. Honestly, had it not been for the fact that a main character was half-fox and the word was used in the title, I probably would not have read as much of this book as I did. I would have DNFed a long time ago. You see, I really wanted to like <i>Shadow of the Fox</i> by Julie Kagawa. I wanted to like it so much so that I continued reading even despite the utterly flat brooding character of Tatsumi and despite the frustrating naivete of Yumeko. And then I still read, despite the fact that I couldn't stomach the writing, a frustrating bit of unfortunate first person point of view problems. And then, I literally could not bring myself to care about a single character other than that of the unfortunate Suki who was murdered in the first damn chapter. I suppose you could say everything went downhill once the book strayed away from her.

I think a large piece of my frustration with this lies in the flatness of the characters. There never really seemed to be a whole lot to them other than some stereotypical archetypes that they would fit into. Which, if you like that sort of thing, is fine. Me? I've been over the brooding arse of a protector who randomly somehow falls for the weakling girl for absolutely <i>no reason whatsoever </i>for a long time now. And I just did not buy in with the ridiculousness of the supposed comic relief character also existing as a reason for the broody butthead to a) realize his feelings and b) get all jealous.

And for all of you guys who think jealousy is cute, it can actually pretty unhealthy and has been portrayed unhealthily in a large number of YA novels.

The writing was hard for me to get into and while I did appreciate the variety of interesting characters from Japanese mythology, at the end of the day it wasn't enough to save the book. The first person point of view was frustrating in that I didn't like the characters as well as the fact that it sometimes became confusing as the characters' voices weren't distinct enough to consistently be able to tell them apart. The plot was an unfortunate mismatch of random adventures in the same manner that I would expect from an incredibly long and complicated video game like <i>The Witcher</i> rather than an actual plot for a novel. This, ultimately, was incredibly distracting.

So, I'm left feeling rather disappointed and disheartened by <i>Shadow of the Fox. </i>I truly do wish that I had been able to look past all it's flaws to simply enjoy the book, but I suppose it just wasn't to be. I didn't like the characters, I didn't like the romance, I didn't like the plot, and I didn't like the writing. The best thing in the whole novel, for me, were the Kamaitachi Sickle Weasels. Them, I enjoyed reading about.

<i>I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. </i>

A really solid start to a wonderful new series. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the mythology of the creatures and monsters within, and the rich world that Julie Kagawa has built.

I would’ve liked a little bit more resolution for the end of this first book but ultimately I really enjoyed Shadow of the Fox immensely.

As a small note: it did take me a bit to really get into it and the characters but once I did, I was hooked.

My download stopped working halfway through reading it but from what I read so far, it seemed like a good book.
The world building and character development were rich, and the plot was engaging .

Admittedly, it’s been too long since I’ve read a new book by Julie Kagawa, but as soon as I discovered Shadow of the Fox, I knew I HAD to read the book, and as soon as I possibly could! The summary for the book sounded really great, and I couldn’t wait to check out the story! It was, as with all of Julie’s books, an AMAZING read!!

Let me get started by saying that there are SO many things that I love about this book, and the number one thing being the characters! There are a lot of characters in this book, and I seriously loved them all. We get to read a few different viewpoints throughout the story, including that of two of the main characters, Yumeko, who is half kitsune, and Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai. Yumeko and Tatsumi have to work together throughout the story to reach the same goal, but each for different reasons. I loved watching their relationship grow as the story went along, and I really loved both of these characters. And it’s not just these characters, there are also quite a few awesome secondary characters in the story as well, and I loved ‘meeting’ them all! I can’t want to see what’s in store for them in the next book.

I also really enjoyed the storyline for the book. Not only was the story of the ancient scroll interesting, but the adventure that the characters took along the way was completely fascinating as well. I was so engrossed in this story, that I breezed through it, and now I desperately need the next book in my hands ASAP! (The second book, I should add, is named Soul of the Sword, and is currently expected to release June 2019!)

Though I have a finished copy of this book, I opted to listen to the audiobook version of the story, and it was absolutely fantastic!! The narrators for the story were Joy Osmanski, Brian Nishii, and Emily Woo Zeller, and they did an excellent job reading this story to me. I loved all the voices for the characters and those for the actual story as well. It was very easy to follow along with their narration. I hope they will be narrating the rest of the books in this series as well!

Overall; I loved SO much about Shadow of the Fox, and I’m so glad that I had the book on my TBR this month! I definitely can’t wait to get my hands on the second book next year, and while I wait for that book to release, I’m totally going to make time to read the Talon series, also by Julie, and I will probably kick myself for not having read it sooner!! Fans of Julie Kagawa, or just fans of fantasy stories in general, do check out Shadow of the Fox! I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did.

Happy Reading!!

I absolutely loved this book! This book did not disappoint ❤️ I cannot wait for the next book to see what happens next. Julia Kagawa is an amazing author.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was incredible. One of my top fantasy books for 2018. I’m already buzzing for the next instalment