Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Ibuki
AUTHOR: Kathryn Sommerlot
PUBLISHER: NineStar Press
LENGTH: 70 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 29, 2018
BLURB:
Ibuki: the gift of healing through breath. Chiasa has possessed the ability since childhood and shares it with her father as they care for their Inuru community. Chiasa has never doubted the stability of her simple life. That is, until Namika, a water-gifted priestess, shows up outside the Ibuki shrine gates with information promising Chiasa’s doom.
With Namika’s help, Chiasa is determined to find the secrets behind the ritual that will claim her life, but her growing feelings toward the other woman reach beyond her control, adding to the confusion. Time is rapidly running out, and Chiasa can’t seem to sort out the lies woven through the magic of Inuru and its emperor.
Caught in a tangled web of immortality, betrayal, and desire, Chiasa must find the right people to trust if she hopes to stop the ritual—or she will pay the consequences.
REVIEW:
This is a good example of an excellent story that would be better suited for a full-length novel rather than a novella. The characters are intriguing, the romance blossoms quickly, and the backstory/worldbuilding is super unique—but the story itself is just too short!
Things happen so quickly that we’re onto the next scene before we can process the previous. Namika comes to Chiasa with news that shakes the whole foundation of their spiritual code, and Chiasa simply goes along with it and immediately believes and trusts this woman she just met…and then she’s kissing her a few pages later. I’m usually 100% on board with ladies kissing whenever possible, but at some points when things started getting steamy between Chiasa and Namika, I could only think, you two should really be focusing on finding proof to take down your murderous emperor. If this was a longer book, there would be more opportunities for love scenes between plot and exposition scenes rather than at the expense of them.
Fantasy stories that are set in Japan that aren’t fetishizing or appropriating of Japanese history and culture can be hard to come by, but I think this one hits the mark pretty well. The influences of Japanese culture, geography, and mythology are felt throughout, but the fantasy elements of ibuki and the other elemental gifts feel wholly original. It’s a setting that drew me in right away and made me want more. I love fantasy books with recognizable worlds that are made magical in some special way.
The plot and conflict in this book are really quite good. The stakes are high and there’s a mystery that needs to be solved with urgency. But 70 pages just wasn’t enough to make me truly invested in Chiasa’s plight to save a way of life that we hardly know a thing about or in a romance that has hardly even began.
I’d read this one for the originality, but you’ll be disappointed when you’re left wanting so much more.
RATING: 
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