The dying request of the monk who raised her is that she deliver part of an important scroll to another temple, which also holds a part of the scroll. The beginning sees the destruction of the temple where half-kitsune Yumeko has lived her whole life. We move between the two perspectives of Yumeko and Tatsumi. Though the setting and supernatural creatures are atypical of YA, the story and characters are formulaic. I'm not sure if Kagawa's style changed or if I did, but I do know that this book is a long, boring journey, fuelled by a weak plot that doesn't mask the fact everything is about the inevitable developing romance between Yumeko and Tatsumi. I absolutely loved Kagawa's The Immortal Rules trilogy and also enjoyed her The Iron King series, but after Talon and Shadow of The Fox, I think I have to admit that we're growing apart. The monks at the temple would often train or meditate bare-chested, so I was used to seeing male upper bodies, but they'd all been so familiar I'd never given any of them a second thought. They are the key to the fate of the world itself. 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. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll…at any cost.

There are many who would claim the dragon’s wish for their own. 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.

Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. 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.

Julie kagawa shadow of the fox series