BOOK REVIEW — the Priestess and the Dragon by Nicolette Andrews
The story has some echoes of the beloved shoujo classic, Inuyasha with Kaito resembling Inuyasha’s hot temper and dangerous supernatural form, Kazue reflecting the regal, impassive and indomitable of will like Kikyo and Suzume, is as lively and spunky as Kagome.
The difference between Kagome and Suzume being that while Kagome is only tsundere to Inuyasha, Suzume is a tsundere character. There is a wide difference between the majestic, imposing, smouldering, capricous Kaito and the impulsive, hot-blooded Inuyasha. Kaito’s personality is closer to the cold and aristocratic Sesshomaru with glimpses of hot-blooded impulsiveness (mostly as a reaction to the hot-headed Suzume’s behaviour towards him).
The author has chosen powers that aptly reflect the character — the fiery and wilful Suzume wields fire as her element and the cold and aloof Kaito wields ice. The personalities of both these people reminded me of a couple, popular and beloved to fans from Wattpad — Mr. Rikkard Ambrose and Lillian Linton.
I visualized Kaito to look similar to the actor, Kazuki Kitamura’s role from Neko Samurai; Kazue resembling Japanese actress Meisa Kuroki and Suzume as looking identical to Japanese actress, Emi Takei.
The story begins with Suzume worshipping a stone dragon in a temple in some godforsaken mountains, faraway from the royal palace where Suzume was originally from. We understand that Suzume is a misfit for the life of a miko (shrine maiden) the minute we are introduced to her. She is a lively woman who seeks riches and a life in the lap of luxury and sticks out like a sore thumb among the droning puritanical Shrine Maidens surroudning her.
Suzume’s desire to escape the stifling confines of the austere life she was thrust into, comes through the form of the awakened stone dragon. A dragon which morphs into a lush-bodied and handsome man. The dragon-man is one of the Eight Immortals and revered across the length and breadth of the land.
However, the dragon learns that during his four hundred year old sleep, the other supernatural creatures of the world has replaced him with another one, who has usurped his pedestral of power. An enraged Kaito seeks to destroy his opponent who dared to challenge him. He drags an unwilling Suzume along with him in order to confirm if she is the reincarnation of the very woman who had imprisoned him in that stone statue.
On one hand, Suzume must deal with this imperious and forbidding dragon celestial and on the other, she must preserve herself against dangers from the yokai. The love-hate relationship and the bickering banter exchanged between the hero and heroine is very entertaining to read. Suzume has to hide any slight indication that she might be Kazue’s incarnation or Kaito will rip her to pieces as revenge for her past life’s actions.
Together, they encounter yokai monkeys, an old woman who shows Suzume visions of her past life, a mysterious farmer creates Meido Zangetsuha without Inuyasha’s Tetsusaiga sword, a giant spider yokai which weaves quite an unexpected spin to the tale. However, the most terrifying realization of all is the fact that Kaito’s powers had terribly weakened due to his imprisonment.
When Kaito and Suzume travel to a village, she wishes in the shrine of a wish-fulfilling deity if only Kaito could be better behaved towards her. Just as she wished Kaito,becomes lovesick for her and scares the wits out of Suzume. During this journey, they meet new companions such as the seductively beautiful kitsune named Rin. However, Suzume meets the wish-fulfilling deity and makes an impulsive and unfortunate wish that spells doom for her and Kaito.
They journey to a temple where priests who still revered the kami Dragon, Kaito, despite the changed times lived. A temple which held precious memories to Kaito and in which he sough to uncover Suzume’s true identity. It is here that Suzume trains to channelize Kazue’s powers coursing through ehr body and she met the brother, Tsuki and sister, Akira whose souls were trapped into one body.
Suzume has occasional visions of Kazue’s life of four centuries ago. Subsequently, they learn an extraodrinary story of Kazue and the existence of a five magical stones, each capable of controlling one of the five elements of nature respectively. [The concept of these stones with powers reminded me of the stones that were sought by Marvel’s Thanos to perform ‘The Snap’.] They have an encounter with a mysterious man, who has the power of controlling void and who is formidable enough to rattle Kaito and all of his companions combined.
The tale ends with Kaito’s love for his ex, Kazue, remaining unchanged and Suzume, now deeply in love with Kaito and yet unable to express it directly. On the other hand, they still have a journey to make — to stop this terrible being that was wreaking havoc and disorder in the world as the Eight Immortals, now Seven excluding the awakened Kaito were trapped in eternal sleep. The books ended on a high note and I have high hopes to read the next installment as our hero and heroine have a mission to stop the lethal anarchistic antagonist and to reawaken the sealed immortals.
