While I struggled at the start because I'm not personally keen on Third Person, First Tense writing, I'm so so glad I kept going because this was SUCH a fun read! Perfect for the new adult/emerging adult crowd, this romance was fun and balanced with its mystery components. The college-aged crowd that loves supernatural K-Dramas such as Hotel Del Luna and Tale of the Nine-Tailed will absolutely eat this up.

4.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.
This book was so fun and I need a sequel immediately! Oh my gosh, I'm wrecked.
This book read just like a K-drama written on pages. It's about the fallen trickster god Seokga attempting to kill 20,000 Unruly monsters in order to be reinstated as a god and return to his homeworld. Ultimately, he is tasked with killing an eoduksini (nightmare demon type thing) and the infamous gumiho, the Scarlet Fox. Little does he know, the gumiho assisting him in his detective work is the Scarlet Fox.
This book was easy to read and hard to put down, especially in the second half. When I was about 70% of the way through I had to just read straight through to the end. The writing style worked well for the book; I could see things playing out clearly in my mind's eye. The growing and changing relationship between Seokga and Hani and each of their respective character growths throughout the book were so fun and well-crafted. This book contained a lot of tropes that I love, and they felt integral rather than thrown in.
I think if you like the shows Lucifer, Supernatural, or Oh My Ghost (among other K-dramas), or the book Daughter of the Moon Goddess, you should check out this book. Those were what I was reminded of while reading.

Kim Hani's barista job in Korea has a lot of downsides, but the worst is her least favorite customer, the arrogant Seokga the Fallen. A former trickster god, Seokga was banished from heaven after a failed coup, and he's stuck on the mortal plane until he can kill 20,000 demons as penance. But then Seokga gets an offer that could change everything: slay both a recently escaped demon and the mysterious gumiho the Scarlet Fox, and his sentence will be lifted early. Unfortunately for Kim Hani, SHE is the Scarlet Fox, in hiding for a hundred years after getting a little too enthused with consuming mortal souls. In order to thwart Seokga's efforts, Kim Hani signs on to be his assistant, hoping to point him in the wrong direction. The two work together to stop the deadly demon, but they also find themselves falling for each other as well.

The God and the Gumiho is a fun little adventure, anchored by a solid pair of devious, morally grey protagonists. Seokga is arrogant and haughty; the best parallel I can make is saying that he brings a lot of MCU Loki energy to the table, strutting about and expecting mortals to bend to his every whim, even though his god powers and station have been stripped from him. Hani, meanwhile, is unrepentant about her secret past as the Scarlet Fox. In her view, it's in a gumiho's nature to consume souls and she's not going to apologize for it. While both Hani and Seokga experience some growth over the course of the story, I appreciated that this wasn't a more classic pairing of a "play by the rules" and a "break the rules" kind of duo, but two people who have learned to draw their moral line in very different places.

On the whole, I had a fun time with the mystery adventure itself. I enjoyed the "creature" world that exists alongside the mortal one, with glamoured shops to turn away mortal eyes and agencies dedicated to cleaning up supernatural messes before humans get wind of them. Hani and Seokga's investigation takes them all over South Korea as they try to determine what human the demon has taken as a host, allowing many different creature encounters throughout the story. I did, however, think some of the mystery elements could have been better done; for one, our heroes are too easy to jump on a theory as the only answer and don't always interrogate if there's an alternative suspect or explanation.

That aside, I found The God and the Gumiho a charming time, particularly when it came to the execution of the two lead characters. I loved watching Hani interact with Seokga, using her own trickster ways to steer the investigation or simply to get under his skin. This book may also work slightly better for people more familiar with the K-Drama space that this book was inspired by. For me, it's a perfect comfort read of two crafty people solving crimes and falling in love along the way.

First of all... that cover art!? Amazing.
I really did love this story. The characters, the setting, the atmosphere. It ticked all the boxes for me. There were some areas I wish had more. I feel like there was some untouched elements regarding the fantasy aspect. But one can hope it'll be addressed in the next book. All in all a great fantasy.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the eARC!

This book is super fun, trope-y in an entertaining way, and kept me engaged and smiling the whole way through!

The God and the Gumiho follows the grumpy Seokga the Fallen, a trickster god trying to regain his godhood after a failed coup, and Hani, a gumiho who just happens to be the infamous Scarlet Fox. When Seokga is tasked with killing a demon and the Scarlet Fox in exchange for the commuting of the rest of his sentence, Hani takes up a job as his assistant to lead him on the wrong track. However, she realizes the demon is a bigger threat and works with him to kill it.

I really enjoyed the developing relationship between Seokga and Hani. They start out as enemies for a really banal reason (he's a jerk every time he comes into the coffee shop where Hani works). They're kind of two sides of the same coin, and the banter and the bonding that came out of that recognition of themselves in each other was super fun and sweet. They're both kind of terrible people, but they make each other better in a way that I found compelling and believable. That said, I do think the relationship develops way too quickly. The book takes place over about a week, and I wasn't totally convinced on how in love they were by the end. This was especially difficult for me to believe as they didn't experience any really significant obstacles or opposition during most of the course of the investigation, so it wasn't like they were bonding over shared trauma.

This relates to the issue I think exists in the second half of the book; the stakes jump really dramatically to "the world might end" which I don't think meshed entirely with the silly, light-hearted tone of the book overall. It felt like the book wanted to have its cake and eat it, too. That said, I really loved how dramatic and angsty the ending was, and the reconciliation that happens right before the epilogue was satisfying.

Overall, I had an absolute blast reading this, and while I have a few complaints about the timeline and tone, they didn't put that much of a dent in my enjoyment.. The book is clearly not taking itself too seriously and is just seriously fun. Highly recommend if you like enemies-to-lovers, witty banter, and a fun urban fantasy world. I will 100% be picking up future installments in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

This book was SO DISSAPOINTING.

It was marketed as an adult fantasy in the likes of a kdrama, the authors first, and I could tell. It is the authors first adult novel so I was trying to give her grace but the problems with this one was too much to ignore. My main gripe is that the writing was so juvenile so it felt that I was reaading a YA novel. And when adult themes happened I was unvomfortable because I was thinking of these immortals as kids. Overall, I am not sure that I will read the second book as the pacing was extremely slow and convulated.

Thank you to netgally and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't able to finish this book. I had restarted it multiple times before I finally just had to DNF. I love me a great enemies to lovers but this was not it for me.

I'm a mood reader so please don't let me stop you for giving this a try

Thank you NetGalley and Delray for a chance to read and review this eARC

3.75⭐️. This was a lot of fun, on the cozier side, and super cute! I had a fun time reading this. Gods and 9-tailed foxes, and reapers?! Sign me up! I mostly enjoyed this, but it felt like a little something was missing to make it a 4 full star read. I however would recommend as it is a good book! Just missed the might slightly for me personally..

The God & the Gumiho had a lot of great things going for it. I loved the world and mythology throughout the book and I was so ready for this story to sweep me off my feet. The first half was such a slog to get through, I had a hard time finding the motivation to read this and the transition of the two main characters from hate to love was stark and out of left field for me. I really didn’t feel any chemistry between Hani and Seokga until they were suddenly jumping each other’s bones. There was no real in between moments where either one began really questioning if their hate was real, there wasn’t a true friendly stage either. It went from “omg I hate this person, I can’t stand them ugh!!” to “omg he’s hot actually, let’s kiss and come out of it super into each other”. The second half and ending were definitely the best parts and saved The God & the Gumiho, in my opinion. I’m super bummed I didn’t like this as much as so many other readers.

Synopsis:
Hani, the infamous Scarlet Fox known for killing thousands of men in London, has been lying low and working as a barista and no longer raising a stink as a murderer. Seokga is a fallen god who was kicked out of the divine realm after staging a coup and is working through his punishment of hunting down 20,000 demons so he may ascend again. When a vengeful demon of darkness escapes their realm and the Scarlet Fox briefly reappears again, Seokga is approached to dispatch said threats and end his punishment early. However, Hani will stop at nothing to keep her identity under wraps, so she joins Seokga as his assistant to steer him away from her crimes. As they spend more time together, Hani realizes she may have made a grave mistake.

Thanks to Del Rey, NetGalley, and the author for sending me an early copy!

Pretty fun! Very kdrama-esque, though the urban fantasy aspects of the world-building took me a few chapters to get used to.

This felt like part k-drama, part buddy cop. For me, the story really started to get interesting around halfway through. Before that point, I was lukewarm on whether or not I wanted to continue with the sequel, but the ending definitely hooked me and I'm intrigued to see where it goes!

The romance felt a tad too underdeveloped for me in this, though I still thought it was cute, but the sequel has a lot of potential!

The God and the Gumiho follows a trickster god and a gumiho as they search for a demon in an urban fantasy version of South Korea in 1992. I really enjoyed learning about Korean folklore through the different demons/creatures and thought some of the demons were super creepy. My only complaint is that the main characters came off quite immature at times for being over 1000 years old. Overall I loved the banter and the ending and look forward to future books in the series.

I received an ARC from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving this ARC, and this doesn’t influence my review. This book wasn’t it for me, but this is not meant to deter anyone from reading it!

As someone who doesn’t read a lot of Asian-inspired fantasy (but wants to) I was excited but hesitant to read this. And the more I read this book, the more I fell in love with it! The plot develops intricately throughout this, the pacing is captivating, and the characters grew on me so much!

The stand-out aspect about this book is the unique inspired lore throughout this that works well with the murder-mystery plot that happens. We follow our two characters, one a fallen god, and one a gumiho trying to hide her identity from said fallen god hunting her. To keep this god off her scent, the gumiho inserts herself into the investigation, much to the dismay of the god who had come to hate the gumiho.

If you want a fun fantasy, enemies to lovers, an explosive ending and a story that will stay with you, I can’t recommend this one enough!

If you liked or loved this, or if you're a huge fan of k-dramas, romcoms, trad pubbed fanfic, look away.

Wow... What can I say about this that isn't totally critical and negative?

I did like the ending boss battle. I also liked the Korean mythology, however loosely adapted it was.

But other than that, I absolutely struggled through this mediocre and extremely juvenile novel that, for some reason, is listed as an adult read. It read like fanfic written by a teen who doesn't have the life skills to understand how adults act in professional settings. Or how adults act in general. Yeah, adults can be childish, but this novel took it to another level. Was the romance between Hani and Seokga supposed to be cute? It was so damn cringe.

Take a shot every time Hani acts like a petulant child. You'd pass out.

And the worst part was, these characters were supposed to be hundreds/thousand year old gods. It was giving Shanghai Immortal, another book which was also very childish.

Maybe I would've liked this better if the actual mystery/thriller aspect didn't feel like set dressing for the romance. I've never read anything that was so blatantly an excuse to publish an author self-insert x Marvel Loki fanfic, where the author is ~The One~ who melts his cold dark heart. What in the Wattpad/AO3?

You've got everything Loki, including the emerald-colored magic, black suit, black hair. Even Seokga's personality was very similar to Loki's. Oh, and don't forgot the older brother/king/obvious stand-in for Thor. Oh, and Hani's claws went "snick" when she pulled them out. Wolverine would be offended.

So original.

I did like how their father was the evil one though, so I'll give the author props for that little twist.

Overall, I'm just absolutely disappointed in this. It was an anticipated read for me that ended up being so juvenile, I wanted to DNF multiple times, but pulled through because it was an arc and a buddy read.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for this arc.

A fallen god turned detective, who is desperate to regain his powers... and the only way to do so is to hunt down and kill the infamous Scarlet Fox and a powerful demon that has escaped from the underworld... the only problem? Said Scarlett Fox is actually is actually his new assistant and she'll do anything to make sure he never finds her... yet being together for so long despite their dislike for one another... something else begins to grow between these unlikely too... but can it last with a demon on the loose and secrets between the two people who normally would only care about their own needs? Kim Hani was the Scarlet Fox, a famous gumiho who consumed thousands of souls and got away with it.... and now she works in a cafe, despite hating coffee, and her greatest joy is ruining a very grumpy god's coffee order every single time she see's his arrogant, smug, and cold face. Seokga the Fallen, he was a trickster god before he staged a coup against his brother and was banished... and now the only way to get back his godly powers is to kill thousands of demons... and working as a detective has definitely helped. Seokga hates everything about earth, the only thing he actually likes is it's coffee, yet his barista, a certain snarky, rude, and gets under his skin gumiho refuses to make him a good coffee. Seokga is nowhere near the number of monsters he needs to get rid of to get his powers back, so when his brother offers him a deal: capture and kill both the famous Scarlet fox that has come back, and a new powerful demon that has escaped the underworld in 16 days and his powers will be reinstated. Seokga takes the deal, but the only way he'll actually accomplish it is with the help of his new assistant... who turns out to be Hani. Hani is determined to thwart Seokga from ever finding her true identity, and if it means working as his assistant and throwing his case, she'll do it. Despite how much they both get under each other's skin, they both know they have to stop the evil demon on the loose before it brings about the apocalypse and destroy everything. The more time they spend together the more they begin to realize that what they use to find annoying about each other might actually have been them realizing that they are completely perfect for one another... yet Hani is still hiding her secrets and how can she expect to tell Seokga the truth if he is going to sacrifice her for his own powers... or will he ? Can they survive both the demon and each other? This book was the PERFECT mixture of kdrama, romance, adventure, and everything I could ever want. SOMEONE MAKE THIS INTO A KDRAMA NOW PLEASE. I adored Hani and Seokga so much, they both irritate and tease each other, yet care so much for one another. The moment they realize they like it each other, it was absolute perfection. The book has a bit of an open ending and I WOULD LOVE A BOOK 2 PLEASE. I AM DESPERATE FOR MORE HANI AND SEOKGA PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. I had a blast with this book and absolutely devoured it, I could not put it down at all. It's the ultimate grumpy x sunshine read, Seokga is a trickster but cold and grumpy while Hani is a mischievous trickers who is sunshine and smiles. They both are so much fun as characters and this book just perfectly captures the magic of kdramas and mythology and romance. Seriously, you need this book!

*SPOILERS: The demon reveals the truth and Hani dies trying to kill it. she makes a bargain with Seokga's brother before she dies: if Seokga kills her or the demon he'll get half his powers back for each one. Hani sacrifices herself and has Seokga stab her so he can get his powers back and kill the demon, he does but he mourns Hani. He admits that he knew all along and would never have hurt her. Seokga is a god again but he begs his brother for a new bargain, to have Hani reincarnated, he doesn't care what he has to give up to have her back. His brother agrees, in exchange for Hani being reincarnated Seokga must remain loyal (no more coups) or the bargain is over. He tells him Hani could be reincarnated any day and that he has to wait. In 2018 he finally sees the red thread of fate on his finger and he begins to follow it towards Hani.

Release Date: June 4, 2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This was so much fun and so enjoyable! This book is a dual POV with Hani (the gumiho, or a fox-like creature who devours men's souls) and Seokga (the god). Hani is currently on haitus from her soul-devouring days as the infamous Scarlet Fox and is instead working as a barista. She has a bit of a nemisis in Seokga, because he has complained one two many times about the way she makes her coffee. Seokga is a fallen god, and he works as a detective trying to find redemption. Hani learns that Seokga is attempting to find this Scarlet Fox, and she joins his team as an assistant, despite their dislike for each other, to throw him off the trail.

This story is based off of Korean folklore (though the author tells the reader up front that this is her take on the story), and the Korean culture SHINES through. I have heard many people compare this to a k-drama. I have never myself watched a k-drama, but I loved it! This Kim clearly loves her Korean snacks, because the numerous references had me craving my local Korean grocery store!

This story is quirky and cute. While this is not necessarily a literary masterpiece, I had so much fun listening to it and would highly recommend it. This is my personal favorite form of romantasy. It is very much a romance-based story, and the fantasy elements are straight forward enough that it doesn't get bogged down either way. I have seen this book get mixed reviews but I would definitely recommend this as a fun, easy read!

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really really enjoyed this book! Thank you to Sophie Kim & NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC.
The first few chapters were a little tough for me to get going. It starts a little slowly, and I have to admit I am not a fan of third person, present tense. It took getting used to and then again when I’d start reading again the next day. However, I was totally hooked once the mystery and deceptions all started. I loved the twists and turns to get to the end and I found the framing between the prologue and epilogue to be very clever. I liked the hopeful ending…even if I could have gone for the full Disney HEA 😆

<i>First, a thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC of this book.</i>

I agree with the advertising that this is like a K-drama; my one criticism there is it does fall a bit short since they kiss (gasp) before the very end of the book and have sex (double gasp) which is not something you typically see in K-dramas (they’re all about the forlorn longing!).

When I decided to not take this too seriously, I found I enjoyed it a bit more; but I do feel like this would have done better as an episodic story - no idea on suggestions of how to do that, but I feel like the pacing would have been better in bite-sized pieces.

For me, I could either take it or leave it - I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t love it, either.

Eat a liver? Brew some coffee. Steal a soul? Relax with a romance!

THE GOD AND THE GUMIHO is the goofy, but dark, romantic, murder-mystery k-drama that you need in your life!

Hani, our trickster Gumiho, leaves her coffee house job to assist Seokga the Fallen at the precinct. He doesn't know, of course, all that Hani is hiding. The secrets and mystery make for an exciting fantastical read!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a galley of this read!

Thank you NetGalley, Sophie Kim, and Random House Publishing for the copy of this ebook. This is my voluntary review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What originally drew me to this book was the cover. It's absolutely gorgeous and so beautiful. And then of course I read the description and I thought that it would be a fun read. Boy was I wrong.... Now don't get me wrong, it was a very fun read and I enjoyed so much of it. But it did have a lot more dark elements and death than I expected.

I also don't usually like incredibly old characters (like over 1000 years old) acting immature, but the banter was just so funny for me. Maybe I'm just sleep deprived from binging this book and everything is funny at the moment, but I had so much fun with it.

And of course, that ending broke me and then put me back together. Sophie Kim, my hero, ma'am, genius author extraordinaire, I'm going to need an announcement for the second book ASAP so that I can add it to my TBR and create a count down until it is released and I can read it. I need to see what happens next. Please and thank you <3

Now of course not everything was sunshine and rainbows during the read. I am rating this as 4 stars due to more work being needed on the romantic aspect of this story. One example was the one bed trope being thrown in here. I am a sucker for this trope, I mean, who isn't? But it did seem to fall a bit flat for me in this story.

It should be noted that I am familiar with the Korean language and folklore, so these aspects of this book didn't cause any confusion for me. However, I can understand how people who are not familiar with these things would have a hard time getting into this book.