Wicked Fox Review

               

GoodReads:

A fresh and addictive fantasy-romance set in modern-day Seoul.

Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret–she’s a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who must devour the energy of men in order to survive. Because so few believe in the old tales anymore, and with so many evil men no one will miss, the modern city of Seoul is the perfect place to hide and hunt.

But after feeding one full moon, Miyoung crosses paths with Jihoon, a human boy, being attacked by a goblin deep in the forest. Against her better judgment, she violates the rules of survival to rescue the boy, losing her fox bead–her gumiho soul–in the process.

Jihoon knows Miyoung is more than just a beautiful girl–he saw her nine tails the night she saved his life. His grandmother used to tell him stories of the gumiho, of their power and the danger they pose to humans. He’s drawn to her anyway.

With murderous forces lurking in the background, Miyoung and Jihoon develop a tenuous friendship that blossoms into something more. But when a young shaman tries to reunite Miyoung with her bead, the consequences are disastrous . . . forcing Miyoung to choose between her immortal life and Jihoon’s.

My Review

This admittedly hooked me from the start, it had all the nostalgia of some of my favorite Shoujo manga from my teen years and all the amazingness of a great K-drama.

Seriously, so much goodness from the first page to the end.

I enjoyed Cho’s writing style, it was really crisp and addictive and just super all the way around.

There’s such a lovable cast of characters with our tough Miyoung and the cinnamon roll that is Jihoon, and not to mention a great cast of side characters as well.

Jihoon and Miyoung start this sort of tentative friendship which is really just Jihoon wanting to be Miyoung’s friend, and Miyoung just wanting him to buzz off but secretly needing and wanting a friend. SERIOUSLY HOW CAN I STRESS HOW AMAZING THIS IS?!

Miyoung can act as disinterested and bored as she wants, but at her core, she’s still a good person, she saves Jihoon from a goblin, exposing herself as a gumiho [though she didn’t realize she’d be seeing Jihoon again] and proves that she’s a cinnamon roll equal to Jihoon.

Saving Jihoon though came with a higher price than Miyoung realized, losing her fox bead, her gumiho soul in the process. Now Miyoung has to juggle not only hiding who and what she is, but also trying to locate her fox bead which her mother insists doesn’t exist. This also leads to Miyoung seeking out a shaman for help.

I loved the development of the interaction between Jihoon and Miyoung and I loved how they both had their own parental issues to deal with, though I mean, whoa when it comes to some of the stuff that gets revealed at the end with Miyoung’s parental issues.

But, while Miyoung and Jihoon both have their own and different ‘mommy issues,’ Jihoon has had the love and support of his halmeoni. The relationship between Jihoon and his halmeoni was also something just completely tugged on my heart strings.

Jihoon also has his friends, and I adore them too, obviously I just adore everyone in this book, almost everyone. Those I don’t, well you know who you are and what you did. *Glare*

There were some twists I didn’t see coming and that definitely kept me on my toes combined with the swift pacing. The chapters were also really fast and kept me invested, sometimes when chapters are too long I just get sidetracked by, Idk, life, mail, things.

Overall this really felt like a standalone in a lot of ways at the end of it all but it’s not over yet and I can’t freakin wait to dive into Vicious Spirits this month which I am reading for my Vietnamese Iced Coffee prompt for #TheCoffeeReadathon.

4.5 HUGE cups of coffee from me, and you can bet this is a 2020 fave read of mine.