By Samantha Pak
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The God and the Gumiho
By Sophie Kim
Del Rey, 2024
Kim Hani has retired from a lifetime of devouring souls. She’s simply too full. Now, the infamous Scarlet Fox spends her days working in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating, and unfairly handsome, trickster god, whenever he stops by for a caffeine fix.
Seokga the Fallen, the god in question, has been exiled from the heavenly kingdom after a failed coup and is currently working to redeem himself to be let back into Okhwang. All the while, he’s forced to suffer through interactions with a particularly infuriating, but charming, gumiho barista at his favorite cafe.
When a powerful demon escapes the underworld and starts killing supernatural creatures and threatening all of humanity, Seokga’s brother—and emperor of Okhwang—offers him a bargain: Kill the demon, as well as the Scarlet Fox, and he will be reinstated as a god. Hani, of course, has no plans of being caught, so she teams up with Seokga as his assistant in the hopes of steering him away from herself, as well as catching the demon that threatens them all.
As the bickering partners work on the case, they come to realize that there’s more to the other than meets the eye. And of course, they start to get closer and develop feelings for each other. As a reader, I’m a sucker for great banter, and this antagonists-to-lovers story has that in spades. Hani and Seokga’s witty banter is a delight to read, and Kim skillfully develops their relationship so that even as it evolves, they continue to exchange sharp remarks—just with a different tone.
In addition to the romance, this is also a murder mystery—a genre I’m also a fan of. As Hani and Seokga dive deeper into the case, trying to find and kill the demon, thus saving the world from an apocalypse, Kim keeps readers guessing about who’s behind the murders.
Five Broken Blades
By Mai Corland
Entangled: Red Tower Books, 2024
The king of Yusan must die. And the five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together to get the job done.
They all agree that God King Joon has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles have flourished, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined, or sold—something each of these five blades know a little bit about. From the hired hitman trying to right some wrongs, to the assassin who just wants to be free, to the prince who was banished for his cruel crimes, they’re all out for revenge.
While the quintet can agree on murder and treachery, they’ve spent a lifetime spinning lies. So trust among the group is hard to come by. But trust each other they must, for it’s the only way they’ll be able to take the crown.
Told from multiple points of view, “Five Broken Blades” is a story of a group of very different people coming together for a common cause. True, that cause is regicide (as well as fratricide in the case of one character), but Corland shows how those differences are not as insurmountable as you may think. Each character has their own backstory and history, and it’s fun to watch them slowly realize that others are more complex than they first seemed—just like people in real life, whose depths often go unnoticed.
One of the things I appreciated most about this story was how Corland has created one cohesive story, from many different perspectives. It’s not easy—especially when everyone has their one literal journey to get to the first meeting point. And it’s fun to see the team get to know each other and start to work together to achieve their goal.
Blood Over Bright Haven
By M.L. Wang
Del Rey, 2024
For two decades, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to studying magic, driven by the desire to become the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry.
And she does it. But when she becomes a highmage, her colleagues do everything they can to make her feel unwelcome, including giving her a janitor instead as a lab assistant. What neither Sciona nor her colleagues realize is that in another life, her new assistant Thomil was a nomadic hunter who lost his family on the deadly journey from the wild plains to the city of Tiran. And now he has the opportunity to understand what happened to his people, what drove them from their homeland, and what’s keeping the privileged in power.
As the pair work together, they uncover an ancient secret about how magic works in their city, and it has the potential to change the course of magic—and the world—forever. Except it could also get them killed.
For me, one of the marks of a great story is that it will make you feel something. And “Blood Over Bright Haven” will definitely do that—though it’s not always a good feeling. Although it takes place in a fantastical world, reading how certain groups of people are treated by others, simply because they are different, feels all too familiar in the world we live in today.
This is the ultimate underdog story. For their whole lives in Tiran, both Sciona and Thomil have been treated like second-class citizens (and often worse), simply because of their gender and where they come from, respectively. Because of this, they’ve been constantly underestimated, but their identities are exactly what makes them the right people to reveal the truth—which I love.
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