The Sword of Kaigen by M.L.  Wang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Some minor cursing; an off page rape; off page killing of children during a battle, their bodies are mentioned and briefly described. 

A mother struggling to repress her violent past,
A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?

Wow, just wow! This book really blew me away. I wasn't expecting to love it this much at all. It started out a little slow with some history lessons on the world, but once I hit chapter 6 it started to take off. By 30% in it was impossible to put down. Is it perfect? No. The modern day setting combined with the old world feeling of most of the book threw me a little at first, and the glimpses into Misaki's past life felt a little more urban fantasy than the rest of the book, but those were minor things compared to everything else that was so amazing.

One thing that I really loved about this book is that it delivered everything I was hoping it would deliver. Every time I wished for something it would eventually end up happening. Another thing I loved about this book was the elemental magic. It totally reminded me of Avatar, the Last Air Bender. This, combined with the sword fighting, made the battle scenes pretty epic. Those scenes also kept me on the edge of my seat.

I also love when a book gives me a perspective of a character that I did not see before, and this book did that brilliantly with one character that I really disliked. I ended up understanding that character later on, and no longer disliking them. The thing I loved the most about this book was the way the characters grew and developed.

 
    “You learn over time that the world isn’t broken. It’s just… got more pieces to it than you thought. They all fit together, just maybe not the way you pictured when you were young.”
 

This book packed such an emotional punch, and anytime a book makes me feel the way this one did, it's guaranteed to get 5 stars from me. I'm pretty stingy with 5 stars, so this is the first book I've given 5 stars to in over a year. If you enjoy reading epic fantasy I highly recommend this book. It will break your heart and put it back together. It will have you staying up at all hours of the night reading it. It will have you crying at 2 am. It will give you all of those feels that you have come to love from epic fantasy.

 
    “Wholeness, she had learned, was not the absence of pain but the ability to hold it.”