Reviews

Curse of the Nine-Tailed Fox by Adelaide Rowan

beckyyreadss's review

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I got this book during one of the Stuff Your Kindle Days and this book sounded interested and I saw that it was an LGBT fantasy book, and I was sold instantly. However, this book was a bit confusing, and it didn’t make sense.  

This is based on nineteen-year-old Kuroko, who is an orphaned kitsune and he has survived in the gang-ridden slums of Itazura by stealing. When he steals from Inari Okami, the Goddess of Foxes, her elite warriors thwart and capture him. The Goddess of Foxes curses Kuroko. As punishment for stealing from her, he must venture into the Underwood to reclaim her sacred blades. If he refuses or fails, she will imprison his soul for all eternity. She assigns Hikaru, the arrogant, perfectionist kitsune who captured him to be Kuroko’s guide. Their constant bickering walks a dangerous line between loathing and lust, but Kuroko can’t decide whether to kill the infuriatingly noble, principled male, or kiss him. On the path to regain Inari Okamis sacred swords, Kuroko bathes with a half-naked man, causes a divorce, starts a war and must decide whether his soul is even worth saving.  

Something about this book just gave me a headache throughout the book. I think it was the mystery of the name and the fact that he kept referring to himself as it throughout the whole book and everyone else was. The target audience confused me. At times it felt like it was a young adult especially with Kuroko’s thoughts and the way he behaved, but then at times it felt like it was going to be a new adult with the chemistry between Kuroko and Hikaru and that it was going to be a smutty LGBT book. The way that Kuroko describes things was like a 12-year-old trying to describe his day and like he had imaginary friends. I think the worldbuilding could have been done in more detail, it was a very short book, and I was wanting more. I was wanting more from the tails and how this world got to be this way. The way this was written as well, I didn’t end up caring for the romance where if it was written better, I probably would have cared more. 

The character that saved this book was Su. He was adorable and the one who saved the day. He was the only character as well that seemed to have a brain and have a plan on how to fix it. I would have loved it to be a multiple POV story with Hikaru to have a few chapters. I liked the aspect of found friendship and I liked the tropes listed, I was just hoping for more.  

I was really rooting for the author and for this book, if it was cleaned up grammatically and if the inconsistencies were sorted, it would have been four stars.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Cursing

Minor: Sexual content

momostark's review

Stopped reading at “my black fox ears twitched”

magentab43143's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Loved the imagery and story. Absolutely beautiful and also brought me to tears more times than I would like to admit. 

kittmonkey's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

andrea4's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

king_kai's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I really wanted to love this! The cover art is great, the concept is intriguing and I’m a sucker for a good MM romance. 

Unfortunately this book fell short. At points I thought I was losing it. There are so many inconsistencies (hair colour, age etc) and whole paragraphs were repeated. I also wouldn’t call this an MM romance, yes, there were some butterflies from the MC but that was it. I did enjoy him standing up for himself at the end though (if he didn’t, I think I would have thrown my kindle).

I didn’t DNF because I really liked the idea of the story but that was it. 🥺

yintigertally31's review

There was a lot of problems that I had with the book, mostly personal. But I really wanted to give it a chance, and it had a nice cover. But there was just something about the writing that didn’t sit well with me.

ciarams's review

emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

diredreamings's review

adventurous emotional funny reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

nmadiiii's review

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

2.0

While I enjoyed the overall story of this book, overall it felt like reading a friend’s rough draft. First, it appears that the editing was very sloppily done. Throughout the book there were lots of typos and whole paragraphs copied and pasted in different chapters, at least in the digital edition (and not the ones done as a literary device - those were fine and not what I’m referring to here. I’m talking about character descriptions that are copied and pasted from one chapter into another as if the author forgot we’d already encountered that character before). Dialogue was also confusing at times. For example, in one scene, one character catches up to another and then says “you came” .. like what? No, you’re the one who came in this instance. Throughout the book, I found myself having to reread parts to fully understand who was saying what. 

Additionally, there was a lack of relationship development and world building. Relationship changes don’t have much narrative support so it makes the story confusing. More world-building was desperately needed for a fantasy book - both on the magical and social end. Why are nine-tails important in this world? Where does the sacred word come from for those who aren’t our main character? In terms of this society’s norms, it’s clear there’s a class hierarchy and discrimination, but not enough background on why those things exist. 

Finally, I had an extremely difficult time visualizing the characters. Are they humans with fox ears and tails with their fur only on those parts? I would’ve envisioned Kitsune as described in Japanese myth but the MC mentions his visible skin so often that they can’t just be foxes.

Overall, I like the idea and story. I had fun reading it still despite the issues I mentioned above. I think given the rich mythology the story based upon, however, isn’t really lived up to by this book.