Prophecy by Ellen Oh

The Synopsis:
The greatest warrior in all of the Seven Kingdoms... is a girl with yellow eyes.
Kira’s the only female in the king’s army, and the prince’s bodyguard. She’s a demon slayer and an outcast, hated by nearly everyone in her home city of Hansong. And, she’s their only hope...
Murdered kings and discovered traitors point to a demon invasion, sending Kira on the run with the young prince. He may be the savior predicted in the Dragon King Prophecy, but the missing treasure of myth may be the true key. With only the guidance of the cryptic prophecy, Kira must battle demon soldiers, evil shaman, and the Demon Lord himself to find what was once lost and raise a prince into a king.
Intrigue and mystery, ancient lore and action-packed fantasy come together in this heart-stopping first book in a trilogy.

*A review copy was provided for me to read*

My Thoughts:
The first time I ever heard or saw anything about this book was on the Pitch Dark website.  If you haven't graced the beauty that is this site, I highly suggest you go visit there.  There are three websites that are run by HarperCollins and they do giveaways and these two amazingly entertaining bookworms do weekly video chats and stuff.  It's a great place!  Anyway, instantly, I was hypnotized by the cover.  I absolutely love this cover, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy of the book.

I admired Kira's character.  She was a strong, independent heroine that I found to be very relatable with.  The fact that she was revered and treasured by her family and friends, but treated as the social Pariah amongst her village people was extremely sad.  But I loved how she never let that get her down.  She didn't think herself above anybody.  If anything, she thought lowly of herself because she put others ahead of herself before she took care of herself.  Anyhow, she didn't let the bullying get to her.  She had more important things to do, but it was fascinating to watch her tuck those sad and inadequate feelings away to be the strong and brave person she was expected to be.  Plus, she's a badass demon slayer with yellow eyes.  Come on.  Of course I'm going to find her interesting.

I also found the book to be original because how many other YA Asian-fantasy-historical-fiction books do you see out there?  I didn't have that much of a want to travel to Asia, but after reading this book, guess what other destination I've added to my To-Visit List?  The culture in Prophecy was so rich and accurate, besides that fact that Kira gets to be part of the king's army.  But that's besides the point.  I felt like I was there, in the Seven Kingdoms, traveling with Kira and her friends.

There was so much action and adventure and death in Prophecy!  And with the vivid imagery, making me feel as if I were there with Kira, this book got plenty of bonus points.  My only complaint would be that I wish there was a little more meat to the story.  It was great, but I felt that some scenes could have been further elaborated.

Also, there wasn't a lot of romance.  Actually, there really wasn't any, and I liked that.  I mean, Kira's got a lot on her plate, so why add a complicated and distracting romance to the mix?  I'm curious to see how things will turn out with it in the next book, but I'm glad that Oh didn't really expand on the romance for now.  I am content.  So, Oh, kudos to you!

Prophecy was a fast and exciting read, filled with plenty of action and adventure.  The culture in the book was alive and the imagery was vivid.  The idea of a demon slaying, yellowed-eyed girl was original and very interesting.  I'm super excited for the next installment and I can easily see this book becoming a favorite amongst the YA community.  Fans of fantasy, historical fiction, demon slaying, action, and adventure will enjoy this book.