I was able to listen to this audiobook for free so I jumped at the chance. I really enjoyed the series that I had read so far and wanted to continue. Ember is still badass and one of my favorite characters that Julie Kagawa has come up with. She is smart and strong, and a dragon!!! Too bad she is literally born for someone else's gain. I was surprised by my interest in other characters that I may not have appreciated as much in the previous books. They were supposed to be the bad guys, but you learn not all is what it seems. I'm so glad the book took the turn it did. I faded in and out while listening, but I captured enough to want to read Inferno next! Fans of this series will really love the action in this book!

Shadow of the Fox is amazing! I love Yumeko-san the Kitsune. Kitsune is a Fox with magic abilities that mostly trick people into seeing things that aren't there. They are demon like but Yumeko isn't a bad kitsune, she doesn't use her powers to harm anyone. She is useful.
The books intrigue begins and ends on a mysterious note surrounding a very young and seemingly ordinary servant girl named Suki, who lived and died in the royal palace chambers of Lady Sitome, the king's concubine, who is also a powerful blood witch. In fact, she kills Suki for insubordination. Now Suki is a ghost aka a Yurei, who sticks around for reasons unknown, probably because she wasn't ready to die, and she wants vengeance on Lady Sitome. It appears the ghost succeeds when the very same handsome flute player she meets, in the beginning, ends up stabbing Lady Sitome in the heart. I thought Shadow of the Fox was so well written, I never saw that coming.

The story takes us on a journey of sorts with Yumeko-sans being entrusted with a piece of a Dragon's Prayer in the form of a small scroll. It is an important piece of paper because Legend has it, that every one thousand years, a mortal is given the opportunity to summon the Dragon and ask to grant 3(?) wishes for good or bad, only the person's heart has to be pure, otherwise the dragon will tear its soul to shreds. Or something like that lol.
There are evil beings who are trying to find the 3 parts of the Dragons Prayer for themselves as well.

Anyway, Yumeko is given specific instructions by her Monk Master to find a certain man in the feather temple in a city far away. He will give her what information she needs, and where to take the scroll. I can't remember the exact names and places off the top of my head, so you just have to bear with me :)

Yumeko encounters lots of trouble with weird creatures who would kill and destroy her. She knows she is being followed. She also meets a couple of travelling companions, who unbeknownst to each other have their own agenda for accompanying Yumeko along her way. Her companions are quite remarkable and if I am not mistaken one of them is the flute player guy that Suki met? I could be wrong. I haven't checked but I am almost certain he is.

Julie Kagawa is a great author. I've had Shadow of the Fox on my kindle that I received from Netgalley as an e-arc for awhile. Recently it has been made available on Audiobooksync for FREE, so if you are looking for a fantasy title you can listen to, I'd get it there while you can. I love the story so far as I am only at 22% but the protagonist is quite impressionable.

Description
by Julie Kagawa | Narrated by Joy Osmanski, Brian Nishii, Emily Woo Zeller
Published by HarperAudio
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.

When I heard about this book and finding out that there was going to be an assassin in it and a mysterious scroll(sorry if I spelled the word wrong,) in it. I thought it would be my type of book, boy even my friend that I was buddy reading it with, though I was going to love it. My friend didn't even finish it, and the only reason I didn't dnf it is because I was also reading it for a readathon I was participating in. 

My main problem was I think the author was trying to give you a lot of information at one time. The problem is that so much stuff was going on and my mind couldn't process it all. So I was very confused on what was going on.  I thought the characters were ok, my favorite character was Kage who was the assassin and also had a sword that had a demon inside of it. I forgot what the main girl character name was. She was an okay character, but not a favorite character. 

I did love the different places we got to visit and some of the characters we meet on the way.

After saying all of that, I do think I will try and read the second book, because I really loved how it ended. But I wouldn't have it on my must have books list.