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Reviews

Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home!, Vol. 6

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By You Fuguruma and Nama. Released in Japan as “Kasei Madoushi no Isekai Seikatsu: Boukenchuu no Kasei Fugyou Uketamawarimasu!” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

I’ve talked before about how we’ve been edging closer and closer to Alec and Shiori confessing each other’s tragic backstory, and while we’re not QUITE there yet in this volume, we get the next best thing, which is an extended flashback showing us what happened with Alec, his brother, and his first love. Unsurprisingly, it turns out to involve emotionally immature people making poor decisions, and feels almost nostalgic. It also helps the reader to understand how much more balanced and mature Alec and Shiori’s relationship it – indeed, while it dances around being explicit, the two of them bathe together, and it’s implied some other activities happen. If you define lovers as “stick it in”, they’re not there yet, but they are in every way that actually counts. And they’re also there to help each other with mental trauma, which is good, as this is a very bad book for Alec on that account – and that’s not counting the flashback.

Alec and Shiori have moved in together, and experimented with the “There Is Only One Bath” AO3 tag, but there’s an issue. The hand cream that Shiori uses to make her scarred hands less stiff needs mandrakes, and Nils is out of them. So a group of adventurers goes to a cave to find some mandrakes, avoid their horrible shrieks, and also deal with – I swear I’m not making this up – Brain Suckers, monsters that apparently look like aliens form Mars to Shiori, but who also cause traumatic hallucinations if they touch you. Alec gets touched. After this, Alex makes a decision to finally set up a meeting with his brother (and former lover if she’ll come) so they can bury their past together. That said, he and Shiori have something big to deal with before that can happen: a ridiculously long extra story at the back.

I appreciated the flashback, as it showed us how much Alex suffered, and what’s led him to tend towards “everything is my fault” in his post-royal life (to be honest, a trait he shares with Shiori). I also liked that Rebecca was not some stock villainess but a teenager who sees a chance to get everything she wants and forgets all about what that would mean other than “be with the man I love”. I appreciated that her punishment was, in many ways, the best thing that ever happened to her. As for the side story at the end, it reminds you that ghosts, wraiths and phantoms are very real things in this world, and need to be dealt with – but it also reminds you that nothing in this world is quite as scary as the average Japanese ghost story, and Shiori’s imaginative yokai is pants-wettingly terrifying.

I’m pretty sure the next volume is, if not the final book in the series, at least the payoff, with Shiori finally admitting she’s from Japan and Alec finally admitting he’s a runaway prince. This remains a nice romantic fantasy.

Hell Mode ~ The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing, Vol. 3

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By Hamuo and Mo. Released in Japan as “Hell Mode – Yarikomi Suki no Gamer wa Hai Settei no Isekai de Musō Suru” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Taishi.

This book is a very different beast from the first two, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. it’s good in that we get a lot less of Allen, on his own, spending pages and pages experimenting with different combinations of summons while fighting off monsters, which was in my opinion the weakest part of the books to date. He’s gotten so strong that the narrative can either quickly elide his tests, or else it shows him just instinctively knowing what to do. On the down side, this volume is a combination of two of the isekai fan’s least favorite genres: dungeon crawl AND magical academy. On the up side, this means the rest of the cast, especially Krena, has more to do. On the down side, Allen really is the standard OP protagonist now, so scary he can take out the most powerful hero in the land and terrify royalty. Basically, yeah, this is a light novel, all right.

Allen and Cecil are now ready to head off to the Magic School that they need to attend before being sent off to fight in the war against the Demon Lord. Joining them are Krena and Dogura, newly arrived from Allen’s hometown. On arrival, after yet another “your stats are all E, you fail, get out!” fakeout, which is a bit tedious by now, they settle in and buy a 20-room mansion that’s close to their real goal: dungeons. School itself is an afterthought here, what they want is to go through each dungeon, level up, gain skills, and get stronger and stronger. By the end of the book the cast, Allen and Krena especially, are so powerful that only the best in the world can really take them on. Which is good, because, having terrified the aforementioned royalty, they’re being sent off in Book 4 to the front lines.

It’s rather astounding (and honestly welcome) how this series does not care about romance at ALL. You could argue the kids are 12/13 years old, but that hasn’t stopped other books in this genre. Krena and Cecil meet up, and just become friends and allies, no issues. Later in the book they add an elf who I thought might have a crush on Allen, but no, she’s just worshiping him as the one chosen by the prophecy. Romcom is just not what this author is here for. Gamer nerdery *is* what they’re here for, and I assure you that despite what I said above, there’s lots of “let’s look at everyone’s stats here” for those who adore it. The party expands rapidly here from “Allen and a token girl” in the first two books to “Allen and his party of the most powerful students in the country”, including an elf princess, the son of the antagonist of the second volume, and a dwarf girl who gets nothing to do, but we’re explicitly told that she will eventually. And Allen, who COULD do all this by himself, but thankfully does not.

So yes, better than the first two books, and recommended for those who enjoy all the things that the louder light novel fans say they don’t enjoy. Next time: Allen Goes To War.

Hazure Skill: The Guild Member with a Worthless Skill Is Actually a Legendary Assassin, Vol. 2

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By Kennoji and KWKM. Released in Japan as “Hazure Skill “Kage ga Usui” o Motsu Guild Shokuin ga, Jitsuha Densetsu no Ansatsusha” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash.

Oh my God this book is garbage. This is not necessarily me saying the book is bad, though I would not recommend it to anyone except the most ridiculous fan of OP bullshit. But it’s like criticizing a sex comedy for having sexual humor in it. Garbage is what the writer is aiming for. In fact, I’m a bit more impressed with this writer than I was when I read the first in this series a year and a half ago. He also writes The Girl I Saved on the Train Turned Out to Be My Childhood Friend, which is a dead-on high school romcom sort of book. I haven’t read Drugstore in Another World: The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist, but I assume that it’s a fantastic example of a slow life series. And then we have this, which is a fantastic example of “what if the lead was always cool and awesome and all the girls wanted him and the men envy him?”.

The book mostly is a series of “ZOMG Roland is awesum!!1!”, with two larger stories that help to show that in greater detail. The first has the king asking Roland to accompany the Princess (who was party of the demon lord hunting party, and is madly in love with Roland but is one of the few women he hasn’t slept with) to a neighboring kingdom for a marriage interview, which goes about as expected till the prince of that kingdom tries to mind control his way to a marriage deal. In the other larger story, we meet one of Rila’s old demonic allies, Dey, a vampire. She seems nice-ish, and Rila vouches for her, but at the same time adventurers have been disappearing. Is Dey responsible? Or is it that smug-looking noble with a torture basement using (again!) mind control?

I emphasize once more – this book is garbage. I laughed a lot while reading it, but trust me, I was always laughing at it. Roland solves the mind control problem in the first and second instances by simply dispelling it, which works almost instantly but is amazingly anticlimactic. The prince’s aide just seems to sleep with Roland for no real reason other than the book needed another sex scene here. (I say sex scene, but it’s not – this book is full of sex that is elided but not shown, so it’s not even good for horny masturbation material.) We also get (surprise, surprise) slaves! Roland frees them by killing the man who broke their spirits, but the slaves (all hot young women of various races) decide they’re going to stick around and try to get into Roland’s pants. This series really just BOGGLES THE MIND. Oh yes, and he resolves the vampire plot by discovering that the noble with a torture basement is torturing people in the basement, so he decides to torture the noble to show him what’s what.

Roland’s deadpan, somewhat baffled “what is normal” attitude is part of his charm, the other part being he treats women as actual people despite his tendency to fuck everything that moves. The book ends with the guild getting blown up, meaning the next volume will be going to a different kingdom. Bet I know what’s going to happen, though.

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer, Vol. 9

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By MOJIKAKIYA and toi8. Released in Japan as “Boukensha ni Naritai to Miyako ni Deteitta Musume ga S-Rank ni Natteta” by Earth Star Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

For a while I thought that this was going to wrap up all the plots, and that the 10th volume would just be an epilogue/victory lap. Alas, one of the villains got away, so we’re going to have a final confrontation back in Belgrieve’s village. Which makes sense, as that will allow us to bring in the rest of the cast who have been absent for this arc. This arc definitely wraps up here, though, solving most of the problems by hard work and sword/magical battles. We get to see Ange using the smarts she was taught by her father, and we also get to see her and her father fighting back to back, something that fills both of them with glee even though it’s a life-or-death situation. That sort of sums up the book, really – even though there’s a lot of gore and death, you end up feeling good. Everyone’s back together.

When we left off, everyone was headed to where Ange and company is, there to try to rescue Satie. This involves splitting up, of course. Touya and Maureen handle their own subplot, taking on Hector and revealing the true reason behind Touya’s revenge. More importantly, Ange is captured by the fake Prince, getting thrown in a time space prison where escaping her cell is quite easy but escaping the prison itself proves much harder. As for Satie… well, she’s captured, because this is the sort of book where the message is “you can’t do it alone, rely on others to help you”, so her philosophy of “I have to do this all on my own” is not going to work. Will Bell be able to save Satie? And is Satie finally the woman that Ange has been looking for… someone to be Belgrieve’s wife?

There is a plot twist near the end that is so stunningly schmaltzey that I would be annoyed if it weren’t so sweet. It also helps tie in to Ange’s own birth – we’ve known for a while that she’s part demon, but it’s never really been clear just how that is going to tie into the overall story. The earlier books implied that it would slowly turn her evil, but honestly, apart from being a bit jealous of her dad’s easy way of making friends with everyone, Ange simply is not going to go that route. As for Belgrieve and Satie, their plot resolution is “blink and you’ll miss it”, but that fits the two of them. These are two people who have wanted to reunite and admit repressed feelings for years, so while it’s frustrating that we don’t get a more explicit confession, hey, at least they’re definitely married now.

That said, we have one final book to go. This one will be coming out after the anime starts, so it will be interesting to see what people who are new to the series think of it all. Honestly, I suspect we’ll be back to where we were at the start of this series: reassuring fans that this one ISN’T going to turn into incest.

Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade, Vol. 5

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By Maito Ayamine and Cierra. Released in Japan as “Shinigami ni Sodaterareta Shoujo wa Shikkoku no Tsurugi wo Mune ni Idaku” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Sylvia Gallagher.

This series does have, amidst its themes of “war is hell” and the like, a love triangle at its core. This is part of the series’ annoying sub-theme of “all the aides are in love with their commanders” that I dislike, but I’ll ignore that for the moment. Claudia is easiest to understand, she’s a classic tsundere who’s in love with Ashton but refuses to admit it to herself or others. Ashton is in love with Olivia, though it’s not clear if it’s romantic or just a shining ideal, but he is otherwise a classic romcom harem lead, with a few “could these women actually like me?… naaaah” monologues under his belt. And then there’s Olivia, who loves Ashton and Claudia, but I suspect the author is not intending us to be thinking “yay, polyamory”, but rather that we’re supposed to think that Olivia is not quite human and doesn’t understand romantic or sexual attraction. It’s a bit of a mess.

The start of the book features Olivia and company headed to the Holy Land of Mekia, there to meet up with its leader, who has taken a shine to Olivia. They try to lure her to their side with promises of using their resources to find out where Z is, which makes Claudia curse, as this had never even occurred to her to try to offer Olivia, and Fermest can’t do it very well as they’re at war. Still, an incident involving Ashton’s near-death… again… convinces Olivia that she’s not going to change sides for now. In the meantime, the empire continues to have a very bad time, which is what happens when your grand vizier… pardon me, chancellor… is evil and your empire is secretly run by a death god. When the Kingdom comes calling, with Olivia at its vanguard, who will rise up to meet her? And will it be enough?

We get a nice little flashback in this book to Olivia’s parents (though she was originally called Caroline) and are reminded that her mother is of Deep Folk descent, which is leading to a lot of subplots converging. Still, she may have human/deep folk as birth parents but her upbringing is all Z, and that’s what really makes her as inhuman as she seems at times in the series. She has no real fear of monsters that would kill anybody else, and when asked where she grew up, points to the middle of a forest that has a reputation so bad that anyone who tries to investigate it finds their investigators dead. That said… Olivia is also gradually getting more humanity in her, and that’s entirely due to Ashton and Claudia, who are definitely a calming, soothing influence on her, even if they can’t actually stop her from doing what she wants. This series is not going to end with polyamory, but if it *did*, it would be great.

It might also end with most of the cast dead, admittedly. After all, war is hell.

Peddler in Another World: I Can Go Back To My World Whenever I Want!, Vol. 4

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By Hiiro Shimotsuki and Takashi Iwasaki. Released in Japan as “Itsudemo Jitaku ni Kaereru Ore wa, Isekai de Gyōshōnin o Hajimemashita” by HJ Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Berenice Vourdon.

It’s pretty astonishing how much authors think they can get away with provided their hero is mild-mannered and polite. Shiro already has the ability to go back and forth between his world and Japan – something most isekai’d folks don’t get. He gets magical translation, teleport abilities (sort of), and currency conversion. He doesn’t need to learn how to make mayonnaise because he can just go buy it at the local Inageya. He has, hovering around him at various points: his grandmother, who looks like a young girl; his twin high school age sisters who alternate between being mean to him and sucking up to him; a young girl who worships him and her hot widowed mom; a powerful fairy who’s tsundere for him; the mayor of the town; and (in this book) we add a dragon. He has to have little to no personality for this to work. If he had any notable character traits at all we’d despise him.

We pick up right where we left off last time. Shiro’s twin sisters Shiori and Saori have found the door to the other world, and there’s no way they aren’t going through it. To his surprise, instead of leading to his shop it drops them in the middle of the forest where he started way back when. While there, he finds a huge egg, which the twins insist he carry with him. Eventually, all is explained and the twins decide to start their OWN store dedicated to clothing and makeup, the egg finally hatches… and inside is not the minor monster they expected, but a dragon. A very powerful dragon. Who quickly morphs into a young girl and imprints on Shiro heavily. Now they have to figure out what to do with her… especially because demons are also apparently looking for the egg, and would likely destroy the entire town to get at it.

As with previous books, this is not great. Elianna the rabbit girl continues to be the most annoying character ever, and not in a fun way as the author is clearly intending. The twins are also annoying but that works better because it’s in the typical bratty sibling way. As for the plot itself, despite the threat of imminent death and the supposed murder of 3/4 of the cast, everyone is fine. This remains a slow life book at heart, so it’s no surprise that this manages to be one of the murderous demons who knows that murdering humans is not the right thing to do now. Not to mention that she has a very good reason to want the egg… and the whole thing ends up being undercut massively, because the whole reason for this plot turns out to be something she could just have bought at Shiro’s store. The sad trombone noise is almost audible.

All this plus we finally get “I am your slave” in this isekai. Shiro’s not going to be down with the whole slave thing, but I doubt he’ll really protest too much, because mild-mannered and all. If you like beautiful twins, cute dragon children, and hot demons… there are still probably better books with them in it.

My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!, Vol. 10

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By mikawaghost and tomari. Released in Japan as “Tomodachi no Imouto ga Ore ni dake Uzai” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alexandra Owen-Burns.

This is a flashback volume, as Akiteru explains to an increasingly despairing Mashiro exactly how he first met Iroha and started the game company. As such, as you can imagine, Mashiro barely appears in it, though she does get many of the funniest moments. Just as the “main” series ends each chapter with a conversation between Akiteru and Ozuma, this one ends them with a conversation between Akiteru and Mashiro… as Mashiro stares in disbelief at the fact that the boy she loves was starring in a wacky harem comedy long before she ever came back into his life. I’ve talked before about how the series seems to abuse her for the laughs, especially since she’s clearly not the winning girl, but there’s no denying it’s funny. Also funny are Akiteru’s deadpan reactions to all of this. Past or present, Akiteru is hopelessly, incurably earnest – and as the cliffhanger ending shows us, that may end up being his downfall in the long run.

As you might be able to tell by that cover, Iroha was not always the teasing girl in love with her sempai that she is today. Akiteru has become friends with Ozuma, which means he naturally meets his little sister as well. The siblings… don’t NOT get along, but definitely seem off – they barely interact with each other. Unfortunately, Akiteru also finds out that Iroha might be interested in joining a gang, and, because that’s the sort of person he is, resolves to try to stop this so she can stay on the straight and narrow. Things immediately go wrong when he runs into the gang’s leader… Otoi, who obviously has a deeper meaning to what she’s doing but finding out what that is will require more investigation… as well as pretending to be Otoi’s boyfriend.

The big surprise here might be that we meet a brand new supporting character, she plays a major role, and then we basically never see her again, as she does not appear in the main series. Asagi is a girl with major musical talent but comes from a very poor family, and being in Otoi’s “gang” allows her to be loaned an expensive guitar with which she can ply her trade on the streets busking. Her personality seems very familiar… deliberately, as it turns out, and she makes a nice contrast with Iroha, who is (rightly) very mistrustful of this friend of her brother’s who seems to be stalking her and far too invested in her life. That said, you can also clearly see why she falls for him – his earnestness is attractive as well as creepy, and also he’s basically found a way to make her dream come true (with the help of Otoi, who fills the deus ex machina role in this book handily). Iroha has genuine talent, and I think even her mother has to admit it.

The question is, will her mother destroy Akiteru’s dreams in order to advance her daughter’s? Stay tuned, because we’re caught up with Japan, and there’s no new volume there just yet.

Honey Lemon Soda, Vol 2

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Honey Lemon Soda Volume 2 by Mayu Murata

Shy girl in love with popular boy is a fairly common subgenre of shoujo manga, but with the second volume, I do think that Honey Lemon Soda is pulling it off better than most manga. Uka is still adjusting to her new school, and fighting through her instinctual reactions to situations and other kids that she developed when she was horribly bullied during middle school. Fortunately in her new environment she keeps being pleasantly surprised by her classmates, who are generally very kind. When she shows up in full hiking gear to a trip that everyone else knew was a low key walk in the woods, her classmates are perplexed, but not cruel. Kai, the object of her affections, finds her gaffe sort of adorable because Uka is showing up for events with everything she’s got.

Honey Lemon Soda 2

Uka ends up being a defacto leader of the group when they accidentally go off trail, and her giant hiking backpack has enough snacks to take care of everyone. She slowly starts trusting her classmates more, but she also starts getting a sense of Kai’s popularity. Murata’s art continues to be stylish and a little quirky. I especially liked the way she portrayed Uka and Kai’s smiles and attitudes towards each other as documented in other students’ photos of the hiking trip, it gave a little preview to how their relationship might eventually develop.

Raven of the Inner Palace, Vol. 3

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By Kouko Shirakawa and Ayuko. Released in Japan as “Kōkyū no Karasu” by Shueisha Orange Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Amelia Mason.

This volume delves deeper into why everyone insists that the Raven Consort always be alone. Throughout the book we see Jusetsu just generally being nice to people and helping them with their personal trauma. She’s a good egg. And she’s also gaining another bodyguard here, even though he may be a spy (or a double agent… it’s that kind of book). She might even get in more ladies-in-waiting, though I think Jiujiu might have something to say about that. She’s growing closer to the emperor, though I don’t think she really realizes what those feelings are yet. (It doesn’t help that she has to have jealousy explained to her, and doesn’t get it.) That said, the end of the book is worrying. Having good friends is fine, especially as the emperor is going to work on saving Jusetsu. But the way some people are reacting to her actions is beginning to look a bit like worship. And, as we see in this book, new gods are not always a good thing.

As with the previous books in this series, there are four chapters, each of which has a self-contained “mystery” but each also adds to the larger narrative. A lady-in-waiting is being haunted by a ghost, but the ghost is just standing there and not doing anything. An ancient ghost wanders the inner palace lamenting… but if the ghost is so ancient, why has it only started appearing this last week? A scholar new to the palace has a ghostly arm pulling on his sleeve, trying to stop him from… something. And, as is traditional with this series, the book ends with one of the consorts near death, this time because of a cursed item that was actually meant to kill Jusetsu. Throughout all this, Jusetsu takes care of the problem while struggling to come to terms with her need for people around her.

The best part of the book is its emphasis on the fact that people have more than one side to them, and that just because you had a bad time because of something that someone else did does not mean they meant you to have a bad time. The lady-in-waiting;s ghost was upset with her for fleeing while they were left to die… but they also told her to flee out of love. This also allows Jusetsu to come to terms with her mother’s own sacrificial actions, which were meant to save her even as they also made her suffer. As for the horror part of the book, there’s less of it this time around. It was a bit eerie how one of the supporting characters was revealed to not really exist and just smiled and said “Yup, bye”. And the resolution of the third chapter was basically “well, now I know why I have a ghost, but I can’t stop what I’m here for, so welp”, which is realistic but unsatisfying.

The book overall remains an excellent read for fans of “emperor’s palace” books and dark mysteries.

The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist, Vol. 1

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By Ito Iino and Kinokohime. Released in Japan as “Haraiya Reijō Nicola no Komarigoto” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.

I am always going to be on board with grumpy young women who are on the verge of going “tch” all the time but end up helping everyone around them anyway. It’s a type I really love, and it meant that I really loves the protagonist all through this book. It helps that she’s surrounded by other stock types. There’s the childhood friend who is so handsome that all the girls fall madly in love with him, who unfortunately only has eyes for Nicola. (She’s asked him not to go near her when anyone can see him, and to his credit he gets why and agrees.) There’s also the prince who’s seemingly casual but in reality quite a hard worker, and who loves the fact that Nicola literally gets a royal decree that she can be rude to him if she wants. In fact, I had such fun with the characters that the actual plot twist took me entirely by surprise, even though it shouldn’t have.

Nicola is, yes, reincarnated from Japan. In her previous life she could see spirits, and was taken in by a mentor to become a top-class exorcist… at least until she was sacrificed by some unknown assailant. Now she’s Nicola von Weber, a low-level noble who’s just starting at the academy. Already there, two years ahead of her, is Sieghart, who she met when they were both kids and who has attached himself to her like a lamprey. Sieghart, you see, is SO pretty that spirits haunt him constantly – and Nicola still has the exorcist powers that she had back in Japan, so she can help to, if not get rid of them, at least minimize them. Unfortunately, it turns out he’s not the only one beset by spirits, and now she has to deal with Prince Alois and his grumpy bodyguard Ernst.

First of all, a minor grump. I realize that authors and artists can’t always communicate well, but if your text constantly has Nicola be the usual “woe is me, I am so flat-chested and envy the large breasts of others”, perhaps convey that better in the art. Other than that, I love Nicola, a young woman who clearly *is* in love with the gorgeous Sieghart, but refuses to admit it to herself due to their status difference and her own stubborn embarrassment. She starts off basically thinking of herself as the only sane person surrounded by unthinking men, but as the book continues it becomes apparent that she’s the one who’s in the most danger of haring into danger at the slightest provocation. Sieghart is also well-handled, being a standard shoujo pretty boy but showing a lot more intelligence than most in that genre, as well as actual trauma from his constantly being haunted that affects a lot of the things he does.

This felt like it was written as a one-shot and then the editor demanded the ending be rewritten to allow for a continuation. Disappointing for romance fans, but I do admit I want to read more of this.

The Reincarnated Villainess Won’t Seek Revenge, Vol. 2

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By Akako and Hazuki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shita Akuyaku Reijō wa Fukushū o Nozomanai” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by JCT.

Sometimes authors have to admit that they have certain strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult for the author themselves to be able to spot what their weakness actually is. Trust me, I’ve yelled at far too many light novel authors who think that falling over into someone’s tits is “funny”. So, I will state up front: the author of this series is not all that good at writing romance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the book. But I basically enjoyed all the parts of the book that were Mary and Albert waffling around trying to figure out their love a lot less than I did things like all the action sequences, close encounters with certain death, and seeing deep into the mind of our very disturbed antagonist, who is taking game theory far more than it really needs to go. Now, in the end this book remains a romance novel, so you can argue it failed. But the middle bits ARE really good.

The day has been saved, the new king is on the throne, and the need for vengeance (mostly) no longer lies in everyone’s hearts. Sure, Queen Tia is still missing and presumably at large, but that’s a problem for a future date. That said, Mary is trying to decide what to do now, return to the place she grew up or stay as a handmaid to the knights. Then she gets waylaid by Albert, who proposes on the spur of the moment. She clearly has feelings for Albert, but she has fear as well – she worries that he loves Rosemary, and just sees her as a vessel for her soul. So she can’t say yes straight away, but she doesn’t want to say no either. And then, unfortunately, everything collapses as Rosemary’s funeral detail, with Reynaldo guarding her coffin, is attacked by bandits, and Mary herself is facing an assassination attempt. Guess we really do need to concentrate on Queen Tia.

Leaving aside its flaws, the author does some things very well indeed. The dramatic sequences in this book sing, moving at a very fast clip and showing a genuine sense of tension and menace, particularly whenever Queen Tia shows up. We get to know Tia a lot more in this second volume, and she’s just as unpleasant as you can imagine, but unlike a lot of “villainess” books content to make the antagonist rather shallow and one-note, we go deep into Tia disturbing psyche and see how much she truly enjoys seeing others suffer. It’s thus both cathartic and rather disquieting when we also focuses on the moments before her own execution, when she realizes that she won’t be able to manipulate her way out of this one. The one bit of the romance that did interest me was Reynaldo and Mary’s stupid plan to have Mary pretend to lose all of Rosemary’s memories, a scheme thankfully interrupted by the person who should most be dealing with this.

This is the final volume, so happy ever afters all around. Usually I say that a book starts great but tails off, or starts slow and then picks up. This is a rare book where you read it for the middle.

I’ll Use This Do-Over to Become the Ideal Lady’s Maid!

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By Saki Ichibu and Cocosuke. Released in Japan as “Yarinaoseru Mitai nano de, Kondo Koso Akogare no Jijo wo Mezashimasu!” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

This is actually a very good book once you get past the rather odd premise. I am aware that Japan has a sort of maid THING, in all sorts of ways. And yes, I am sure that this also extends to the fantasy worlds that they write about, such as the one we see here. It just seems a bit weird to me to have the heroine, a noble lady who has the power to manipulate time and works for the royal family, saying that her goal after graduation is to go be a maid for some rich girl. Now, of course she imprinted on her own maid as a girl and wants to follow in her footsteps, and the maid described here is also a bodyguard and butler and every other thing you can think of. But it’s still kind of like someone graduating from Yale and deciding, instead of getting their doctorate, to go to a vo tech. That said, that’s fine too. She knows what she wants.

Emma Seagrove is rather startled to wake up one morning to find she’s got to get ready for her first day at the magical academy. She’s startled because, while she has time travel powers, she’s not supposed to use them to change history, and she did NOT deliberately go back in time! No matter how much she wanted to. Because she’s from 4 years in the future, after she graduated, and the night before she was dumped by her fiance publicly at a party so that he could marry her best friend. (You know, the usual Villainess plot.) Still, now that she IS here she might as well make the most of it. After testing things to see if she CAN change the future (yes, she can), she dedicates herself to making her original dream come true that she had to abandon the first time around: become a maid!

Once you get past the premise, the book itself is quite well done. The “bad guy”, her ex-fiance Bernard, is used very sparingly, mostly because he’s the only character in the book who is truly vile. I was a bit worried about Annette, her best friend, who is someone who “excels at getting others to take care of and spoil her”. The author’s other series, Formerly the Fallen Daughter of the Duke, has a very annoying character who runs along similar lines. But Annette surprised me near the end of the book with a plot twist that I should have seen coming but did not. And of course there’s also a romance here as well, but it takes a back seat to Emma trying to get out of her engagement and learn maid skills – something that is actually MUCH HARDER because, in this new go-round, she has far more magical power than she used to. Emma is a very likeable heroine, and you want her to succeed.

This is a single-volume series, so I definitely recommend giving it a try, as it won’t become a potential financial and time burden. Hope you love maids, though. But who doesn’t?

Lovestruck Prince! I’ll Fight the Heroine for my Villainous Fiancée!, Vol. 2

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By Shakushineko and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Betabore no Kon’yakusha ga Akuyaku Reijō ni Saresō nanode Heroine gawa ni wa Sore Sōō no Mukui o Ukete Morau” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Mittt Liu.

As with so many of these books that are written as one-offs but unexpectedly become popular, the subtitle to this second volume is inaccurate. The “heroine” of the first book is still being emotionally tortured by sadistic magic expert Raphael, and doesn’t figure into this volume. A more accurate subtitle might be “I’ll Fight the Foreign Prince for My Villainous Fiancée!”. As with the first book, Elizabeth is about as villainous as a wet rag, but due to plot circumstances we do get to see her acting the part near the end. This is actually the funniest moment in the book, as she’s absolutely terrible at being bad, even if it’s for good reasons. As for the series itself, it remains “decent”. There’s nothing overtly wrong with it, and the main couple are sweet, but unfortunately it also lacks that certain something to make it stand out from the pack.

Things are mostly going well for Vincent and Elizabeth. The young lady plotting their downfall has been dealt with in a vaguely creepy but also pretty permanent manner. The guy who was also antagonizing them is now under house arrest. And they’ve even managed to confess to each other in the shyest, most adorable way possible. What could possibly go wrong? Well, for a start, Lord Lars is back, and he’s now a dragon. A tiny dragon the size of a cat. And seems to have very little memory of being Lars except a vague “I am imprinted on Elizabeth” sort of way. More importantly, there are visitors from the neighboring kingdom of Orion, which is currently undergoing a bit of a throne war. In that case, why is Second Prince Leohardt arriving to study at the academy? And why is he bringing along a baron’s daughter who can barely string two sentences together without screwing up?

The most interesting part of this book is how they set things up so that Lecia, the aforementioned baron’s daughter, can marry the First Prince. Normally the status difference would be far too great, so everyone assumes that the second prince is going to unseat his brother from the throne and thus make it OK for him to marry Lecia. But no, Leohardt is craftier than that (a lot is made about his demonic smile throughout the book). The plan they have instead is a bit of an ass pull (it’s fortunate that a mere baron’s daughter can punch out all that magic after simply seeing one traumatic event) but I’m OK with the handwave, especially as it allows our “villainess” to show off her absolutely terrible acting chops. Leohardt is also very interested in Elizabeth… supposedly, this may also be a lie… but by now she is very firm at rejecting other suitors. We even get a few more scenes from her POV, which were welcome.

There is a third book in this series, and judging by the wedding outfits on the cover it’s the final one. Given that Vincent can’t even bring himself to kiss Elizabeth on the lips, they likely need to third volume to build up the nerve. Recommended for those who like adorable dorks being dorky.

Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters!, Vol. 1

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By KAYA and Naru. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shōjo wa Mazu Ippo kara Hajimetai: Mamono ga Iru toka Kiitenai!” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Amy Osteraas.

Just because a series is trying to be “Slow Life” does not mean that it can’t make things difficult for our protagonist. We can’t all get magical farming implements and a harem of young girls, or find that we have the power to control slimes that can do virtually anything. Sometimes even OP is not enough if you don’t know how to use it, and are in the middle of nowhere. This does, though, make it rewarding, for those who can tolerate a book starts starts very slowly, to see Sara slowly figure out things like how not to immediately get eaten by wolves, or which magical herbs will net the most cash when her mentor/older sister figure takes them into town. And then even that is taken away from her, and she’s forced to go on a perilous journey to find her guardian, make friends, and deal with the worst of isekai enemies: that jerk from that one guild.

Sarasa has spent her entire life in Japan feeling drained of energy, just lethargic all the time. Then one day, coming home from work, she ends up in the realm of a goddess, who explains that the reason she has so little energy is her body was designed to run on mana, which our world doesn’t have. The goddess proceeds to reincarnate her in a world which has TOO MUCH mana, where Sarasa (shortened to Sara) can be a mana sponge. Sadly, she’s dropped in the middle of nowhere on a mountain surrounded by dangerous animals. But there is one young woman there, a mysterious hunter named Nelly, who will help Sara get accustomed to things, give her a textbook on how to learn magic, and help her build up the stamina needed for a five-day trip into town. Which she will need, as after two years or so of slow life cabin living, Nelly doesn’t come back one day, so Sara goes to search for her.

I enjoyed most of this book, so let’s start with a quibble. I get that for most writers now the isekai is just a necessary evil to get readers to start the book, but don’t be so half-assed about it! The goddess handwaves the fact that Sarasa isn’t even run over by a truck, saying “I’ll explain things to your family”, and Sarasa just sort of shrugs? Other than that, this i a solid fantasy. Sara is very likeable, which helps get us through the first third of the book or so, which is mainly her slowly learning how to use magic. The second half gets her into town, where she meets a best friend, who has his own issues, and together the two of them deal with prejudice against those who were not already born into privilege, and we discover that Nelly was absolutely not a normal everyday hunter… and Sara is also far from normal as well.

So yeah, another book to throw on the decent isekai pile. Plus it has a great running gag! I love great running gags, especially if they involve wolves.

The Mythical Hero’s Otherworld Chronicles, Vol. 4

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By Tatematsuri and Ruria Miyuki. Released in Japan as “Shinwa Densetsu no Eiyū Isekai Tan” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by James Whittaker.

“Well, well, well, look who’s come crawling back.” Yeah, I know. My last review of this title said I was dropping it for being too dark, but here I am. This is what happens when you forget to cancel the preorder. But I mean, I felt like a military book, so I thought fine, why not? And I mean, it is still dark. The young woman on the cover has a collection of the heads of all of her family in her tent, just so that she remembers who killed them as she goes after her quest for vengeance. The “heroine” (always a dangerous word to use in this series which enjoys making its heroines badass but also damsels them a lot) pends the entire book being abused despite her status as a prisoner of war. And, of course, our hero proves that he is one dead friend away from losing it entirely, to the point where even the cool semi-sentient weapons of this world are sending prophetic dreams saying “could you all talk this goombah down PLEASE?”.

Hiro gets back to the capital to find bad news and worse news. Liz has somehow been taken prisoner by the enemy, and the guy in charge of her is delighting to see how far her blessing goes before he can destroy it and assault her. Aura is holed up in a fortress, surrounded by enemies, and with no real way to rescue her. He has to choose who to save and who to sacrifice. Hiro being Hiro, he chooses to save both of them. This he does by being as arrogant and powerful as possible – he’s got the power to back up his words, to the horror of everyone who tries to take him on. He manipulates, he lies, and he coerces, and his army are also super powerful, so it works even though they’re severely outnumbered. Unfortunately, there’s a new enemy yet to be accounted for, and she bears a weapon called Gae Bolg and is named Scáthach. Yes, that’s right, we’re finally crossing over with the Fate universe.

OK, not really. Scáthach is merely a former royal who had to watch as her entire enemy was butchered by the Empire – the Empire, that is, that Hiro and Liz are part of. She recognizes that Liz, at least, is not a monster like those who killed her family, but this does not stop her from using Liz as a giant popsicle to try to discourage those on the Empire’s side. It will not surprise you to find she’s pledged herself to Hiro by the end of the book. As for Hiro, thank God he’s not a real isekai hero. I mean, yes, he is, this book began with him in Japan and he got transported to another world, but you know what I mean. Hiro’s thoughts and attitude are informed by his past life here, and Japan basically never comes up, meaning he lacks the bland potato-ness of many of those heroes. One might argue this makes him something of a monster, but that’s why Liz is being told by her sword to calm him down.

That said, the Emperor and some of his family are definitely not the good guys here, so I feel we’re going to get pretty throne war-ish soon. Will I keep reading? I dunno, if I’m in the mood for more military battles, which take up the bulk of this book.