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Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter, Vol. 4

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By Reia and Haduki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Koushaku Reijou no Tashinami” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Andria Cheng.

One problem that a lot of stories brought over from Japan or elsewhere have is that by the time they are licensed, there’s already a known number of volumes out – and many, such as this series, are already finished. Now don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of fans prefer this as they don’t want to get trapped in a “Japan has cancelled your favorite series with no ending, ha ha” scenario, but it does mean that it’s much harder to be surprised. Everything in this book seems to be leading to an ending. Not necessarily a GOOD ending, especially if you’re a romance fan, but an ending. The traitors have been purged, the throne war has been resolved, and Iris and Dean have… well, resolved to live in agonized pain for the good of their country. But of course this is Book 4 of 8, and so there’s always something worse coming along just to make sure that even a bittersweet ending is not going to happen.

The book starts off relatively normally, with Iris inventing Worker’s Compensation and getting proposals from foreign princes disguised as their own messengers. Unfortunately, bad things are happening as well. Her friend Mimosa is engaged to a pawn of Yuri’s, and seems to be very fatalistic about it. The king finally dies, meaning that the succession crisis is happening right now. And there’s a massive flood, causing one domain to be reduced to destitution, and the crown is demanding that over half the recovery supplies be donated by Iris’ domain. Then, finally, Edward makes his move to put himself on the throne. After all, the first prince isn’t even around. What can he possibly do? As for Iris, she’s just missing Dean.

So yeah, Iris finds out what the reader has known for a while, which is that Alfred = Dean. She’s not as shocked as I’d expected, possibly as she finds out in a meeting of all the noble leaders, and also as she’s not the type to faint dead away, but it also fills her with bittersweet feelings. She doesn’t see a path in her life anymore where she is allowed to control her own destiny. If she marries Dean she’ll be happy, but she can only see her own reputation and that of her family getting in the way. (Self-loathing is something Iris just can’t seem to shake off.) If she marries the foreign prince, she’ll basically just be a wife and nothing else. Everyone is trying to tell her “do what YOU want, not what the kingdom needs”, but she just can’t listen to them. Fortunately, something comes up that will postpone all these breakups. Unfortunately, it’s a war.

So overall, quite a roller coaster book, and I didn’t even get into the decline and fall of Yuri, who by the end of the book has lost her mind, but at least no longer has to pretend to be the sweet otome game heroine. Next time I expect a lot more battles and a much higher body count (which is disturbing given this volume already had quite a high body count to begin with).

Manga the Week of 2/9/22

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SEAN: February still exists, despite all our best efforts. What manga is there next week?

ASH: It still does, doesn’t it?

SEAN: We start off with Airship, which has early digital editions for The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 6 and The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary 4.

Ghost Ship debuts 2.5 Dimensional Seduction (2.5 Jigen no Yuuwaku), which runs in Shonen Jump +. The manga club president is only into fictional girls. But wait… what if real-life girls cosplay AS fictional girls? This comes with a recommendation from the creator of One Piece, well known for his realistic body designs on women.

ASH: With the right creator that could be a cute premise.

SEAN: Ghost Ship also has Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time 7 and SUPER HXEROS 5.

Two light novel debuts for J-Novel Club. Fantasy Inbound (Isekai, Shuurai) is an MF Bunko J title, and this time around, the fantasy world is crossing over to Japan… to invade it! With the world in chaos and destroyed, can one man stand a chance to save it?

The other title is Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! (Seijo-sama? Iie, Toorisugari no Mamono Tsukai desu!), a Kadokawa Books series about a girl who SHOULD be the Saint who will help to guide the Church… but will that get her cute animals to snuggle? Will it get her fluff? No. Ergo, she must change jobs!

ASH: I can follow that logic.

SEAN: Other light novels are The Greatest Magicmaster’s Retirement Plan 12, A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life 2, and The Tales of Marielle Clarac 8.

On the manga side, they have Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight -Origins- 5 and My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! —AΩ— 3.

ASH: It took me a moment to fully parse how many titles you just listed there.

SEAN: Kodansha has some print books. Cells At Work: Baby! 3, The Hero Life of a (Self-Proclaimed) “Mediocre” Demon! 2, I’m Standing on a Million Lives 11, Lovesick Ellie 2, Perfect World 10, Shaman King Omnibus 7, Toppu GP 7, and The Witch and the Beast 8.

ASH: Seems like the first print volume of Lovesick Ellie was just released not too long ago; I need to pick that up!

ANNA: It is really good! I didn’t realize the second volume was coming out so fast.

SEAN: Two digital debuts. Falling Drowning (Ochite Oborete) is a Dessert series about a high school love triangle. (Sorry, sometimes they just sound like that.)

MICHELLE: I will probably be checking this out.

ANNA: It sounds like my kind of thing, but I’m terrible at reading digital manga.

SEAN: Fungus and Iron (Kin to Tetsu) is a sci-fi shonen series that comes from Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. A young man risks it all for love… but the risks involve mushrooms!

ASH: Okay, I’m curious.

SEAN: Also digital: Are You Lost? 9, Giant Killing 29, I Was Reincarnated with OP Invincibility, so I’ll Beat ’em Up My Way as an Action-Adventurer 2, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk 3, It’s That Reincarnated-as-a-Virus Story 2, Police in a Pod 9, The Springtime of My Life Began with You 5 (the final volume), and Tokyo Revengers 24.

MICHELLE: I really must catch up on Giant Killing.

SEAN: Seven Seas has Seaside Stranger 2 and Skip and Loafer 3.

SuBLime debuts Change World, a Dear+ title that is a sequel to Sayonara Game.

They’ve also got the special limited edition of Yarichin Bitch Club 4.

Tokyopop debuts Alice in Bishonen-Land (Shinkyou Alice to bishounen to bishounen to bishounen to bishounen to bishounen ~Otome Game Royale~), a shoujo series that seems to combine idols with trapped in a game survival stuff. Our heroine is a manager?

Viz debuts Deadpool: Samurai, a series which runs in Shonen Jump + but stars everyone’s favorite Marvel headcase. Will Deadpool meet the stars of Shonen Jump? I wouldn’t put it past him…

ASH: That could be fun.

ANNA: Truly, there is no way to escape Deadpool.

SEAN: Viz also has Call of the Night 6, Fullmetal Alchemist: Fullmetal Edition 16, the light novel Fullmetal Alchemist: The Abducted Alchemist, Hayate the Combat Butler 39, How Do We Relationship? 5, and Komi Can’t Communicate 17.

Yen On has three ‘delayed from January’ books: Baccano! 18, The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?) 8, and High School DxD 6.

And Yen Press gives us Combatants Will Be Dispatched! 6, Days on Fes 4, and In Another World with My Smartphone 4.

Can you make February go away with your MIND? Or with manga?

Slayers: The Dynast Plot

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By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

After the review of the last volume, I said that I hoped this one would be a bit lighter in tone. It is, but only a little bit. This is still a series where not being Lina or Gourry gives you a high chance of dying horribly or being turned into a horrible monster. Indeed, one of the surprises towards the end of this book is when some of the cast we’ve met along the way *isn’t* killed off. And we also have Luke and Mileena, who are back for this book but, let’s face it, are there to be off-brand Amelia and Zelgadis – indeed, a joke in the final pages has someone mention how much Lina’s companions have changed. But honestly… I don’t think Luke and Mileena have the plot armor that Lina and Gourry do. Still, the end of the arc is still three books away, so in the meantime we have “let’s look into bad things happening” on a more mild level.

After giving her report on the previous book’s events to a very disbelieving sorcerer’s council, Lina and Gourry are forced… erm, asked to investigate a bunch of lesser demon sightings. Much to their surprise, these turn out to have been taken care of by a “white giant” on the mountainside. then, as often happens with Lina and Gourry, they run into a corpse and the murderer of said corpse, who is rather doggedly trying to eliminate witnesses. The they run into Luke and Mileena, who are with a young man, Jade, trying to save his kingdom from a very familiar person who seems to be putting poison into the king’s ear. Can our heroes manage to solve things with a lower body count than usual? Who’s destroying lesser demons up on the mountain? And doesn’t the resolution of this book seem a bit too easy to be true?

I’ve talked before about the author’s total lack of romance in the series, which seems to stem more from an inability to write it well than anything else. This comes up near the middle of the book when Lina, in a rare moment that’s just her and Mileena, asks why Mileena is always traveling with Luke. Mileena’s response is “because I’m very awkward”, which may be the most romantic thing we’ve heard in the series to date. And that’s not saying much, as you can see. As for Lina and Gourry, all I can say is that when Mileena asks about their relationship, Lina likens her and Gourry to a sex worker and her “gigolo”, which made my jaw drop but I can see her thought process. Lina’s making all the money and Gourry is the “guardian”. It makes sense if you completely remove sex or romance from the equation, and it’s clear Lina has done that.

As noted above, our heroes win, but… they win pretty easily. Even Lina suspects something else is going on here. I’m sure we’ll find out more next time. Till then, hooray for me, who managed to write 500+ more words about some very short fantasy books that are mostly fights.

Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 7

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By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

As I was reading this volume of Progressive, I wondered why I was having so much trouble remembering what had happened in the previous book, then it hit me that it’s been two and a half years since the previous book. That said, it did not take long to get back into the swing of things, because as much as I sometimes can’t remember which ones are the two main rival guilds or which player killer we saw last time, as long as I remember Kirito, Asuna, Argo and Kizmel I’m good. This book deals with the seventh floor, a summer weather floor that also boasts a beach, some lovely restaurants, and a casino where you can win big… or lose your shirt. Asuna is not all that happy about having to get involved with the casino’s machinations, but when it turns out that this will also involve the dark elves, she and Kirito are quick to help. Unfortunately, after the events of the last book, they may not get a warm welcome from the elves.

The author mentions in the afterword that the main series has Kirito and Asuna separated in the current arc (Unital Ring), so he’s very happy to have them spend the entire book together like this. Indeed, it’s the bread and butter of the series, whose fans are reading it mostly to see the two be cute and romantic. We definitely get some of that here, as despite the death game aspects of the plot the start of the book could easily be a date by the seaside. We also see that when Asuna has trouble sleeping she goes to Kirito, and being next to him knocks her right out. She may not be verbally admitting anything, but her actions speak pretty loud. As for Kirito, he reminds us again and again that he’s 14, and it feels like it. For the most part he’s still thinking that Asuna needs a larger stage to shine on (i.e. one away from him), but he also feels the need to keep her at his side. It’s cute. Argo agrees with me.

As for the non-shippers plotline, we get more of the other purpose of this series, which is the idea that this is a real world that people have lived in for centuries, rather than a game populated by NPCs. This is not to say that the NPCs can’t be cliches also, as we meet the casino’s manager (a cool collected 12-year-old girl) and her battle maid. As for Kizmel, yeah, things not going so well. Not only is there a prison br3eak sequence, but they’ve got to find a way to get the keys back while at the same time dealing with the quests they have at the casino. There’s so much going on that it’s a surprise it gets fit into one book… OK, no, it doesn’t. There’s a cliffhanger, and we’ll have to wait for Book 8 to resolve it.

Fortunately, Book 8 is on sale this spring, so we will not be waiting another two and a half years. Till then, there’s lots to read about here, but mostly what we want is the cute not-yet romance. There’s plenty of that here.

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 4

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By Yuumikan and KOIN. Released in Japan as “Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andrew Cunningham.

I mentioned this in the review of Book 3, but want to go into greater depth here: the differences between this series and its anime counterpart are fascinating, and for once it’s not a case of “one is so much better than the other”. They’re doing very different things. If you were to ask me what genre the Bofuri anime falls under, I would likely say “comedy” very quickly. It’s filled with gags. The light novel does have funny moments, particularly when it’s describing Maple’s… Maple-ness, but for the most part it is an action series that just happens to be using a game as its setting. This volume has the Battle Royale between guilds that wrapped up the first anime season, and there’s quite a bit that’s changed or removed to make the anime pace snappy and funny. And yet… this volume is also quite a lot of fun. And… dare I say it (I’m always wary of saying this)… sometimes I appreciated the narrator explaining the gaming stuff to me.

There’s a new team event for this book. Each guild has an orb to defend, and has to steal orbs from other guilds. It’s an event that obviously favors the larger guilds with lots of players, and not small ones like Maple Tree. But that reckons without the fact that everyone in Maple Tree is a broken monster, and so much of the book is our heroes running rampant all over the map destroying everyone. That said, the top two guilds are made of stronger stuff, and when they end up fighting Flame Empire, with its hotheaded (and slightly embarrassed) leader and The Order of the Holy Sword, with self-proclaimed “rival” to Sally Frederica and the strongest player Pain, they actually have to expend a lot more effort. Indeed, is this where we finally see Maple’s defense not be enough?

I do enjoy the fact that we’re seeing a lot of folks playing and enjoying the game in a normal, sensible fashion, and it doesn’t really criticize them for it. Yes, a lot of folks now want to “think outside the box” the way Maple’s gang does, but they also seem to see Maple as an outlier that should not be counted. The main players that we see from both Order of the Sword and Flame Empire are overpowered as heck, but they’re overpowered in the normal, grinding for skills sort of way you’re supposed to do to get good in this game. That said, while Maple doesn’t get to do everything in this book (which tries to give everyone in the guild a chance to show off), she’s the reason people are reading, and in a volume where she doesn’t have an opportunity to gain new skills it’s nice to see her put her broken OLD skills to good use. She really is an excellent gamer, she’s just… a flake.

So now that we’ve caught up with the anime what new adventures await Maple and company? Should be fun to read. Though I also look forward to seeing what comedic antics will be enhanced in the anime whenever Season 2 rolls around.

Lovesick Ellie, Vol 1

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Lovesick Ellie Volume 1 by Fujimomo

I picked this up on a whim, and I knew I was in for something a little out of the ordinary when I saw the title of the first chapter, “#HoorayforPervs!” The Lovesick Ellie in question is a fantasy twitter account run by Eriko Ichimura, a girl who remains largely invisible to her classmates. She’s decided to dedicate herself to living her best life in her imagination and pretends to be secretly dating the most handsome and popular boy in school, Ohmi.

Lovesick Ellie Volume 1

One day Eriko overhears Ohmi talking in a casual way to one of their teachers, and she discovers that he’s nothing like the smiling polite facade he maintains around everyone else. He’s actually not all that happy about being singled out for so much attention. Eriko is discovered and she promptly runs away, leaving her cell phone behind! Ohmi picks it up and reads her tweets and finds them hilarious. All of this happens in the first few pages of the manga, and the rest of the volume shows Eriko and Ohmi striking up an unlikely friendship. Eriko gradually realizes that Ohmi’s actually lonely. He encourages Eriko to befriend another girl who is as obsessed with costuming as Eriko is with over the top fake date narratives. Eriko’s tweets appear here and there to contrast reality with fantasy. There’s plenty of blushing and over the top emotions in the art, but Eriko isn’t really believable as an invisible plain girl because all the character designs are generally attractive.

Eriko’s twitter asides are genuinely hilarious, as she will take a small detail like a misplaced jersey and spin it out into paragraphs of slightly perverted situations. For Ohmi, it seems like Eriko is one of the few people he can actually be himself around, and while he takes a certain delight in teasing her, he’s actually having some difficulties navigating his own emotions as their relationship develops. For a manga with such a goofy premise, it actually ends up being rather heartfelt. I found myself smiling multiple times reading Lovesick Ellie, which is a great shoujo title for anyone wanting something funny and romantic.

Pick of the Week: My Melancholy Baby

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MICHELLE: Although I’m excited about catching up on Yona of the Dawn, the cover of Hello, Melancholic! is just too dang cute for me to not pick it this week.

KATE: You had me at “tall but shy trombone players,” so I’m going to join Michelle and name Hello, Melancholic! as my Manga of the Week.

SEAN: Short of a Jack Teagarden manga series, this may be the closest we get to trombone supremacy. I too will go with Hello, Melancholic!

ANNA: I’m also excited for more Yona and Hello, Melancholic! sounds delightful. However I’m not going to pass up the chance to pick Knight of the Ice two weeks in a row, such is strength of my devotion!

ASH: While I’ve been enjoying both Knight of the Ice and Yona of the Dawn, my pick of the week goes to Hello, Melancholic!, as well. To be fair, I’ll give just about any music-related manga a try, but this series honestly seems like it should be great.

MJ: I’m going to have to go with the crowd this week and choose Hello, Melancholic! Trombone supremacy, indeed!

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 11

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By Kisetsu Morita and Benio. Released in Japan as “Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt.

I read this volume immediately after a volume of The Saga of Tanya the Evil, and I highly recommend it, because it probably made the book feel better than it actually is. That said, there are other reasons this is a very solid book in the series. First of all, the stories are slightly longer, which allows for a bit more depth to a series for which depth is eternally absent. Secondly, the side stories at the end move to focus on Laika, and I am far happier to read about Laika at Lillian Girls’ Academy (or whatever its name is here, MariMite is clearly what it’s supposed to be, though) than I ever was with Halkara. Seeing Laika wound up so tightly is both nostalgic and also a bit bittersweet – at least we know she has a peaceful future ahead of her. As for Azusa, well, she’s discovering that just because she’s resolved to take it easy and relax in her next life doesn’t mean she has to do that all the time.

Stories in this volume: our main cast has a moonlight picnic, which unfortunately leads to an existential crisis for the newest cast member Canimeow caused by our other newest cast member, Wynona; Azusa learns that, in fact, this world does have actual physical laws that she cannot break, so a trip to the moon is not happening soon; The cast take a day off by visiting the demon world’s main town, and help Fighsly raise a slime child… pet… whatever; after Azusa is paying too much attention to an injured Sandra, Falfa and Shalsha decide to run away from home; Halkara wondering what it would be like to eat a slime leads to a jellyfish that feeds off negative emotions; the aftermath of that, as Halkara, freed from her base desires, is super annoying; and the entire cast run a relay race.

The most interesting story was probably the relay race. Pecora has been reading yuri romances again, and declares that Azusa and Beelzebub have been “taking their friendship for granted” and not bonding the way that true friends do. Which Azusa is not going to be bonding with anyone anytime soon, she does come to a realization that she can occasionally try her hardest. Her past life doesn’t get a mention in this book specifically, but it’s clearly what has been driving her to sort of half-ass everything in this new life. She literally worked herself to death before. So of course she’s not going to want to do anything that goes near that. But at the end of the race, when she has to run faster and harder than she ever has before, she discovers that sometimes it’s OK. Sometimes you can try your hardest. Hopefully this is something that she can continue to teach her extended family in future volumes.

All this plus Laika at school, where we see her desperately trying to get out from under her sister’s shadow, and only partially succeeding. Despite the excitement of the race at the end, this is still a book for those who enjoy relaxed fare.

The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Omnes una Manet Nox

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By Carlo Zen and Shinobu Shinotsuki. Released in Japan as “Youjo Senki” by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Emily Balistrieri.

The start of this volume makes it seem like it’s going to be a breather after all the battles from last time, and to be fair there are fewer battles here, but breather is absolutely the wrong word. After nine books, it appears that Tanya and Colonel Lergen are finally on the same page. That’s not a good thing. Especially when they’re saying things like “hey, would you be OK with strafing the government and making it look like an accident?”. Then we get Tanya meeting with first Uger and then von Rudersdorf try to get Tanya to have actual, real human reactions to things and she simply… can’t. She is unable to see why people might be wanting to cry at the fact that the Empire is on the verge of ruin. She gets the danger, and in fact is already thinking of fleeing the Empire for another country, but… the combination of her previous life’s Eliezer Yudkowsky approach to everything and her current self’s being brought up in the Army literally most of her life have led to a broken person.

Now to be fair, after looking at the cover of this volume (whose Latin roughly means “the same night awaits us all”) you might be wondering what the hell I am talking about. But there is a very big difference between Tanya screaming and ranting in her head and how Tanya actually interacts with other people. The cover picture is probably meant to be her reacting to having to deal with Doctor Schugel, who has found a much better way to make mages into guided missiles than he did the last time. While most of the brigade has actual shore leave, Tanya’s core group has to go provide escort over the seas so that General Romel and his men and retreat form the South. Which means taking on a British fleet. Easy peasy. Of course, the ones left behind on shore leave are not having an easy time of it either, as the Commonwealth has decided to do a sneak attack, and the Navy is too incompetent to see through it.

Because I always talk about Visha, let me just say that I find it interesting that, while Uger and von Rudersdorf cannot seem to fathom the way Tanya thinks, Tanya feels the exact same way about Visha, wondering how she is able to blithely take care of things with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. Especially when our little team passes through “neutral” Ildoa, and has it ground into their faces how far the Empire has fallen in terms of offering even the basic staples. Just eating a delicious fish dinner is enough to nearly destroy Tanya, because she understands the message it’s sending. And this also leads back to the cliffhanger, where the Empire is being told to invade Ildoa – a seemingly impossible task. Just how many more seemingly impossible things will they be forced to do? After all, they’re soldiers, not politicians.

As always, this is the opposite of a light read, and as lengthy as ever, but if you can put up with Tanya sounding like she’s posting to “AITA?” on Reddit sometimes, it remains a rewarding series.

Forget Being the Villainess, I Want to Be an Adventurer!, Vol. 1

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By Hiro Oda and Tobi. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijou wa Boukensha wo Kokorozasu” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Kim Louise Davis.

A lot of these Reincarnated Villainess titles are deconstructions of romance novels and games. It’s baked into the premise, really. That said, some are more deconstructing than others, and it’s usually when we see the sharp edges of the original plot poking out that we get the most rewarding reading. Our heroine here is not as eccentric as other villainesses we’ve seen, and she has even revealed her secret to a few people. She’s doing all the right things. But there’s still something that’s really trying hard to have events go the way that they did in the book she read back in Japan. And if that involves breaking reality to “fix” things, well, that’s life. It ups the stakes a great deal. Especially when you realize that there’s a heroine here as well… and she’s not going to be falling in love with the villainess anytime soon. This heroine is going to get her happy ending if it kills her. Or, more accurately, if it kills our protagonist.

Serephione is a young noble girl who has memories of her past life in Japan, where she read a fantasy novel set at a magic academy. In this novel, the commoner girl heroine wins the hearts of everyone around her despite the best efforts of the powerful mage … Seraphione. Yeah. To prevent this, our girl decides she’s going to avoid the magic academy altogether. This is not as easy as it sounds. She’s loaded with powerful magic. She’s bonded with the Heavenly Beast of the West, a powerful familiar. All signs point to her following the book’s plot. But Seraphione is stubborn, and is not above asking her guardian beast to cheat the system. Now the “magicless” Seraphione is at the knight school instead, making friends and breaking all sorts of records because trust me, she’s hella strong too. But has she REALLY avoided her fate?

The other really good part of the book is Seraphione’s grandmother Erza. The Author mentions in the afterword that they had been taken to task in their last book for not giving the heroine a powerful female role model, and that’s certainly what Erza is. Indeed, the entire family seems to be known for being ludicrously OP, so one one is going to think twice about Seraphione being able to do things like one-shot knock out princes from another country with her mad combat skills. I also liked how the grandmother also starts training her other friends up, not wanting to see any knights who are unable to use both their combat power and their feminine wiles to get what they want. Though perhaps training everyone in poison resistance – by poisoning them ALL THE TIME – is a bit much.

I’m sure by now everyone who reads my reviews of Villainess books is rolling their eyes, but it really is a genre that I love. This one especially caught my eye because of the way that the narrative is trying to bend back… which may or may not be the fault of the seemingly naive and selfish “heroine” (who is named Maribella, which is not Maria but close). I’m adding this series to the stack.