Emiko left her place at home and in her family two years ago, leaving Tokyo and all the politics behind for San Francisco. However, when a death god calls in on a blood talon (a commitment for a future favor in exchange for services rendered) given by Emiko’s mother, Emiko finds herself answering the call to protect her younger brother. Someone has stolen the gate between the realm of the dead and our world, and Emiko has less than 2 days to get the gate back to protect her new city from ghosts or serve as the anchor herself.
While there are currently three novels out, I think this might be the first novel in an urban fantasy series rather than a trilogy. I would definitely be pro-longer running series, it seems like so many of the ones I have enjoyed have ended or slowed down on releases, and I haven’t found a new one in a while (or ones I thought would be new ones didn’t quite pan out).
Having said that, I think this one has a lot of potential though this novel in particular wasn’t quite as fast paced as I would like from an installment in an urban fantasy series but first of all, you can never judge a series by the first one and secondly, this one was doing the heavy lifting of setting up the world, the magic system and more.
It had a lot of the things I like, though – the loner heroine who is pulled into something bigger, the initial introductions of a wide cast of characters that will likely soon be a group of reoccurring supporters and allies (Freddie is my favorite), as well as set up for a long running antagonist/villain, people outside of the magical world who are surely going to be pulled in eventually, a few guys that have potential long term love interest written all over them, a human-feline shapeshifter (who may also be one of the potential love interests), family drama and cool pets. Oh, and there are definitely some big things that Emiko, the main character, does not know about herself or her apparent lack of talent or power.
Another solid 3.5 read, I would say.