The God and the Gumiho (Fate's Thread, 1)

Warum redet keiner über dieses Buch? Ich hab‘s geliebt!

Eine mysteriöse Mordserie, eine Welt voller mystischen asiatischen Wesen wie neunschwänzigen Füchsen, Göttern, Dämonen und anderen Gestalten sowie eine Dislike-to-Love Romance, deren Banter mich oft zum kichern gebracht hat? Klingt für mich wie ein klares Highlight! ❤️ Es war einfach mal etwas so erfrischend anderes, besonders da beide Hauptcharaktere grumpy und absolut morally gray sind. Ich bin echt überrascht, dass ich vorher so wenig von diesem Buch gehört habe. Es lohnt sich wirklich! Das Ende war sehr emotional und ich werde auf jeden Fall den zweiten Band lesen ☺️

I was more than hooked on the story of Hani and the grumpy God, looved their attitude so much! still crying though

4,25 /5 Somehow, judging by the cover (which is just really a 10/10 cover), I expected something very different, but I have to say this was way better than anything I could have expected! Let me tell you, Hani and Seokga are kind of the best! Seokga, especially in the beginning, gave me old-50+ year old-grumpy-I am *done* with this-man vibes and the funny thing about this is, that the more the book progresses, the younger he suddenly becomes. But the star of the book was definitely Hani. She was funny, she was caring and she made sure to annoy the shit out of Seokga whenever she could. Gotta enjoy the little things in life. If you enjoy TV shows like Castle, The Mentalist, Sherlock and the like, you will have a blast reading about these two. The banter, the sarcasm and the way they treat each other is very much like the earlier and better seasons of those shows. And all of it sprinkled with korean culture and pop culture references makes it just all even better. I saw people comparing it to K-Dramas and maybe I’m just really out of the loop here (haven’t watched one in 2 or 3 years) but the only K-Drama-esque resemblance I saw was the more than average coffee consumption. The writing was super fun (like, literally funny) and very complementing to the characters’ personalities and story. I think the only issue/critique I have with this book is that it takes place over a span of I think two-ish weeks. If those were maybe 3 or 4 months, I think I would have found myself a taaaaad more invested, because it would just have made more sense to me in terms of the development of the romance. There is basically an open ending which is unfair because my heart can’t handle stuff like this (I obviously shed a tear. Maybe two. Or more). I need book 2 ASAP pls. Thank you to Hodderscape for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Read in: May 2024

K-drama in book form

I enjoyed this a whole lot more than I was expecting. If you like K-dramas and you aren't bothered by kitsch and some story tropes then you'll love this book. I was hooked through out the entire book and the ending is just the right kind of bitter sweet.

„The story of the god and the gumiho was an addicting drama.“

Es hat ein bisschen gebraucht, um reinzukommen, aber am Ende konnte ich das Buch nicht mehr weglegen 🥰. Und habe die letzten Seiten nicht aufhören können zu weinen 🥲. Sehr empfehlenswert 😉👍

Am Anfang kam ich ein wenig schwer rein in das Buch aber dann konnte ich es plötzlich nicht mehr aus der Hand legen. Das Ende hab ich so absolut nicht erwartet! Irgendwie einfach mal was komplett anderes. 🥹

4,4

Cute, aber etwas lang

Eine Freundin, die bereits etwas von der Autorin gelesen hatte, war nicht so begeistert. Auch wenn ich immer versuche mich davon nicht aufhalten zu lassen, hat mich das Wissen darüber etwas zögern lassen. Aber nichtsdestotrotz wollte ich unbedingt endlich etwas von dieser Autorin lesen. Ich bin nur nicht mit großer Hoffnung rangegangen. Direkt zu Beginn des Buchs aber war ich hin und weg. Ich liebe den Schreibstil der Autorin. Er ist easy going und voller Humor. Ich habe andauernd gelacht und mich total in die Protagonistin verliebt. Das Buch hat mich an ein K-Drama erinnert, welches ich geliebt habe. Zur Mitte leider empfand ich das Geschehen jedoch etwas langgezogen und das bremste mich aus. Es wurden mir persönlich zu viele unnötige Details und Szenen sehr fein beschrieben. Das Buch ist nicht super lang, aber ich bin der Meinung, anstatt 400 Seiten, hätten auch 350 gereicht, oder weniger… Ich bin noch unsicher, ob ich den 2. Teil lesen möchte. Trotzdem ein wirklich schönes Leseempfinden.

A detective and his assistent

The world of this book is interesting to read and comes with korean myths. Not 1:1 korean myths but near to them. That is also explained by the author at the beginning. I had struggels with the korean words. But the reading was not really affected. The story was easy to understand, but it was not very exciting, because most scenarios you could puzzle easily together. The love story between Seokga and Hani was cute. I think it worked very well, Seokga as the detective and Hani as the assistent. Nevertheless I could not give the book more than 3 stars. The book was good, but I think that I am not the correct type of reader.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole premise of this book. The settings were vibrant, the characters were all loveable in their own ways, and the inclusion of myth and folklore were brilliant. The writing flowed well, and the plot was fun, even with some coincidental bumps along the way. It was fun to see an early reveal into who Hani was, how she planned to deal with it and then another trouble was thrown in, forcing our endearing main characters to be together. I'm very open and looking forward to a sequel, whether it continues with Hani and Seokga, or moves onto others in the story. The only downside to this was that I did find it a bit difficult to engage with the abundance of Korean myth folk, purely because I wasn't 100% sure on how to pronounce their names, or were able to imagine what they looked like. It didn't take too much away from the whole book itself, but they weren't memorable. Definitely for lovers of kdrama, urban fantasy and mysteries!

ᨳ᭬ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ࿐ྂ „I still hate you,” he says softly, a smug little smirk playing on his lips. “I hate you, too,” she whisper-laughs. Seokga’s green eyes open and refocus on her, glittering. “I guess we’ll have to change that,” he murmurs.“ I don't know if any of what i’m writing here makes sense because i'm writing this with tears in my eyes because this shit hurts me a lot. I don't know when was the last time i read something this good, a fantasy book that was so good i couldn't stop thinking about it, a book with such a beautiful storyline, an incredible plot and really lovable characters. This was absolute perfection and i don't know when i will finally recover. „This is different from all the other times, for her and for him. Their lovemaking has a rhythm to it, like the rhythm to a favorite song—sweet and slow.“

When I tell you I ADORED this book, I totally mean it! First of, the cover: I know one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but come on how would you NOT want to pick up such a gorgeous book?! It totally gives me anime, fairytale / folklore bad-ass vibes. What intrigued me the most to pick this book up - besides its beautiful cover - was the Korean mythology aspect as I have never read a book with that topic before and hence found it very unique. Admittedly, in the beginning of the book I couldn’t quite follow what all these different Korean creatures were but this issue quickly dissolved into thin air. (Although it would’ve been nice to have a small written guide which shortly explains the meaning of each Korean being for quick reference). Another thing about this book that I really loved was the relationship between Hani and Seokga. They had quiet the banter going on between them and reading about them was so entertaining that I legitimately had to laugh sometimes while reading (which doesn’t happen as often as you’d think lol). Speaking of feelings: besides laughing these two made me giggle, gasp in shock, worry about what is gonna happen next and cry (THE ENDING !!!). This big secret between them (iykyk) and what would happen as soon as the other would find out kept me on my toes. It was also SO refreshing to read about a couple again where they were both evenly matched character-wise: confident in themselves and their own abilities, smart, quick-witted and both very powerful beings with Hani being a Gumiho and Seokga the fallen trickster god. I enjoyed this so much more than the widely seen couple dynamic being that one partner is the strong, confident and brave one while the other is smart but shy etc. I also loved both their background stories and found it super interesting to learn more about their past - though Hani seemed to have been the crueler one between the two throughout history. The ending shattered my heart into pieces - I literally cried because I couldn’t quite believe what I was reading. While it was a devastating ending on the one hand, I also think it’s a great testament to show how both Hani and Seokga changed throughout the book and how a relationship can shape you into a better version of yourself you would have never met otherwise. Despite the ending being cruel for a reader I also thought that it was quite beautiful as it also evoked hopefulness. As I was listening to the audio book for the most part of this book I have to say the two narrators did such a fantastic job! And in my opinion their voices matched so insanely well with Hani and Seokga to the point that they were a perfect fit! It seems like this was the first installment in a series and I can assure that I am going to pre-order the sequel the second I find out about its existence!!! Lastly, I‘d recommend this book to anyone who loves romantasy and murder mystery books as well as K-dramas!

Liest sich ein bisschen wie ein Romantasy-Krimi

4.25 ⭐️ Buddy read with iri <3