The Poppy War

 The book is set in a fantasy china at the beginning of the 20th century. We follow a girl as she gets into the military academy and discovers that she can calls on the power of the phoenix god, making her a shaman. She has power of the fire, but the phoenix god tries to take over her body. A war starts with the mugenese ( the japonese ) and she needs that power to fight them off.  

 It's a page turner. It's not badly written and it's kinda of a classic tale. Some things can be guessed ( like who her master is ) but some other things are surprises.