Immortal Fire

If you want your soul destroyed and healed again in the span of a single book, definitely pick up this series. Again, how come this isn't more popular? This series is nicely written and well-researched, plus it also has gradual, believable development for the main characters.

Emi especially has grown a lot since Red Winter. She started off as a sheltered miko who was understandably naive, fragile and prejudiced, but in this book she has really matured. Aside from gaining a lot of courage and determination, she also learned how to hold her ground and stand by her decisions, even though her situation is really restricting. Shiro, too, grew much more stable as his past and current selves start to blend together. The change is gradual, making the whole thing feel so seamless that Emi herself barely noticed.

There are a few things that made me go ? ? ? such as why a female character is named Saburo, which is a male name. But there's another character from the same group named Taro, so maybe it was intentional if they follow the Taro-Jiro-Saburo naming pattern? Anyway, it didn't really bother me. I just found it a little weird.

The ending is perfection. Maybe not really for you if you dislike truly happy endings, but Emi and Shiro have suffered so much through the whole series that I think the happiness is well-deserved. There is also a clever twist about Izanami near the end that links to her fate in the mythology, which was, again, a pleasant surprise even though I kinda saw it coming the moment they mentioned the place's name when talking about the Bridge to Heaven.

By which I mean Yomi, the land of the dead, where Izanami ends up in and Izanagi has to go down there trying to get her back, only to find out that she's rotting already.

It didn't get that grotesque, fortunately, but the first half does happen. I like how the author always links the seemingly small things together, it fits the actual legends while still keeping the story's originality at the same time.