My reading year 2025

I had an excellent reading year. I set out an ambitious goal of 250 books on Goodreads Reading Challenge and ended up reading 260 books. Of those, 47 were novels and 209 were manga that I actually finished, on top of which I reviewed four novels that I didn’t completely finish, for whatever reason, which brings the total to 260 for the challenge, 256 for my personal tally.

A little over half of my reading was reviewing copies, 138 titles in total. Manga came mostly from Edelweiss and novels from NetGalley. Much of the rest was manga too, mostly online, and the rest were novels either from a library or purchases. I’ve reviewed the novels on this blog, with monthly recaps of the rest, until September when publishing of Season to Be Witched took my attention and I didn’t pick up the habit later.

Most of my reading for pleasure was Chinese BL romances, which there are finally plenty of on offer, and I’m woefully behind on them. But there were other novels too that made an impact. There were two new additions to Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor world, a surprise novella The Orb of Cairado and The Tomb of Dragons. Both were excellent like always.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture by Mikage Sawamura, light novels and manga both, kept delighting me as well. There was a new series starter from Anne Bishop, Turns of Fate, which might be my new favourite from her, and a great historical crime novel with gay romance from KJ Charles, The Copper Script. But the true gems were missing from my reading this year.

From the abundance of manga rises some titles, like Sanctify by Godsstation, which was in three volumes; Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite by Julietta Suzuki, of which I read vols 2-6 this year, the excellent Solo Leveling by Chugong & Dubu, of which I read everything from vol. 4 onwards online, and also binged the anime on Crunchyroll. I binged the entire I Ship My Rival x Me by Pepa online, which is good, because the official publication keeps pushing back. 

There were vols 5-10 of The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity by Saka Mikami, which is always delightful—and now also an anime on Netflix. I also binged Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun by Izumi Tsubaki, 13 vols so far. The whole long series is silly and fun. But my absolute favourite manga this year was The Apothecary Diaries by Nekokurage and Natsu Hyuuga, 15 volumes so far. Also available as an anime on Crunchyroll. On top of these come the numerous review copies and online series I didn’t have energy to review.

I’m trying to read a bit less next year, especially review copies, mostly because the deadlines keep stressing me out, and I’m always behind. But I’ll be definitely reading for pleasure. That’ll never change. And I’ll try to keep you up to date of my reading on this blog.

 

Blind Date with a Werewolf by Patricia Briggs: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Blind Date with a Werewolf by Patricia Briggs

This is an in-between story to Briggs’ Alpha & Omega series and follows a side-character Asil Moreno, aka The Moor. He’s an ancient werewolf who has all but lost the ability to control his wolf and has lived with the Marrok’s pack for years so that the alpha can end his life should his wolf get free. He’s basically expected to die ever since.

But his ‘concerned friends’ think he has more to offer than hunting rouge werewolves. They’ve set a challenge for him and made it so he can’t easily refuse. He has to attend five dates of their choosing, with certain requirements about the duration of the date and number of bodies allowed at the end of it, which is zero.

The book consists of five short stories depicting each date. Some are new, some published earlier. I hadn’t read any of the latter and I think they’ve been reworked a little to form an organic whole for this book. Asil’s friends have been very creative in finding suitable dates for him and he can expect pretty much anything. He goes with open mind to each, so when one woman turns out to be a man—a prank by the boy’s friends—he’s not fazed and simply sets out to create a lovely evening for them both.

But one after another, the dates turn to some kind of carnage. There are vampires that he has to kill so they can’t prey on innocent people, black witches who have a reason to kill him, and damsels in distress to save. By the fourth date, he’s fairly sure there are larger forces in play than merely his concerned friends trying to liven up his life. And too many seem to have some kind of connection to his greatest enemy, his late foster daughter Mariposa who destroyed his life. Everything culminates in the final story, which puts him against a powerful vampire from his past.

But it’s not solely a carnage for him. The dates lead to a truly unexpected result: a woman whose mere presence calms his wolf. It makes him hope for the first time in centuries that he might not lose control of it, and that he might have a lovely future ahead of him still. If the vampire doesn’t kill him first.

This was a delightful, fairly fast read. All dates were interesting, except the second one which gave us only the aftermath. Asil turned out to be an intelligent and wryly amusing character who was a victim of his complicated past. The love-story suffered a little from the short form, as did the epic battle at the end, but that was only a small issue. All in all, this formed a great whole and a fun book.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki's Supernatural Parade by Mizuki Shigeru: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Yokai: Shigeru Mizuki's Supernatural Parade by Mizuki Shigeru

Mizuki Shigeru (1922-2015) was one of the founders of Japanese manga after the WW2. But he was also a life-long student of Japanese folklore and especially yokai, the supernatural creatures, spirits and other phenomena that he held to be the integral part of Japanese (or any) nature. He wrote several books and encyclopaedia of them during his long life, and they had a deep impact on his work as a manga artist.

This is a collection of some of Mizuki’s yokai art edited by Zach Davidson, translator and folklorist. The book consists of horizontal, full-page, full-colour original images by Mizuki, with brief explanations of each yokai and some personal anecdotes of those yokai Mizuki had encountered himself.

The art is absolutely gorgeous. They combine folkloristic images of yokai, sometimes in traditional Japanese woodcut style, with comical manga images of humans encountering them. They’re highly imaginative and full of details that a reader can spend ages studying, always finding new things. I absolutely loved them. I wish they’d chosen one of the colourful images on the cover too, instead of the rather bland two-tone image.

From the editor, I would’ve needed a little more information. There’s a brief biography at the beginning of the book that concentrates on Mizuki as a folklorist rather than a manga artist, which somehow manages to leave out the detail mentioned in the back copy bio that Mizuki lost an arm in WW2. Which arm, and did it affect his work as an artist? I would also have liked to learn how this collection was edited. Is it an existing book or did the editor make a selection? How was the selection made? Based on images, editor’s favourite yokai, or potential reader interest? Are the descriptions Mizuki’s original, abbreviated from originals, or editor’s own? I would also have liked a table of contents or an index that would’ve made searching for a particular yokai easier.

These technical details aside, this is a delightful collection, a perfect coffee table book, and a starting point for anyone interested in Japanese yokai and Mizuki’s art.

I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop

Turns of Fate starts the Isle of Wyrd, a new urban fantasy series by Anne Bishop. It’s set in modern US, though the exact time or location aren’t given. It’s a great start, but a tad difficult to review.

A town of Penwych stands by a river, closest to Isle of Wyrd, which is a weird, supernatural place where the arcana—the fae, maybe—live and interact with humans in Destiny Park. During the day, they look like human, but they’re anything but. People visit the Destiny Park to have their future read or to bargain with the arcana to change their fate. You pay the price, which is seldom money, and if you betray them, you’re punished according to your fate.

Sometimes the punishments catch up with them on the human side of the river where they are investigated by the 13th precinct, which consists of people who aren’t afraid to visit the island and its odd and scary occupants. Beth Fahey is the newest detective there, and she’s thrown in the deep end from the start. But to her captain’s surprise, she gets along with the arcana surprisingly well. Suspiciously well. She’s sort of the main character, although she’s mostly on the background, her story unravelling slowly.

This was an episodic novel consisting of several cases that the 13th precinct investigates. There’s a case of a ghost gun, for example; bullying teenagers disappearing in the island, and a woman fleeing an ex. All were about abuse in some way, parental abuse, bullying, spousal abuse etc. It made for a heavy reading at times, even if the details weren’t dwelled on. The cases are told from several points of view, the perpetrators included, and while they conclude in one manner, they affect the other cases too, or are returned to at a later stage when the fate catches up with the perpetrators.

All cases were interesting, even if they weren’t traditional mysteries as such. The arcana emerge more helpful than humans believe them to be, although they are thoroughly alien in their nature, and they never help in a straightforward manner. The bad people are always humans. The atmosphere is similarly dark and mysterious as in Bishop’s The Others series, where humans are a small minority at the mercy of ancient gods. The conflict between humans and the arcana isn’t imminent here, but I’m guessing that’s where the story is headed to.

The episodic narrative worked, but it also meant that the story had several smaller high points without a larger arc, and it ended kind of abruptly, at the conclusion of one of the cases. The main characters were interesting, and the stories never went where I thought they would go. There’s no romance, but maybe a possibility of one. Beth found new things about herself and her past, but her story is only beginning. I’ll definitely continue.

Peerless vol. 5 by Meng Xi Shi: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Peerless vol. 5 by Meng Xi Shi

Volume 5 of Peerless ends the story of two imperial agents, Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao, from competing agencies in Sui dynasty China. They’ve been on a trail of a secret organisation the Thirteen Floors of Yunhai, and have managed to reduce their numbers to only the leader, Xiao Lü.

The last volume continues from where the previous one left, the aftermath of government officials swindling flood aid. Both men are in poor health, Cui Buqu for his chronic illness and Feng Xiao for his battle with Xiao Lü. But they’re called back to the capital and must haste there. Xiao Lü is ready for his final move and he has new allies with a horrible weapon that causes people to hallucinate and kill each other. To defeat him, both men come close to ruin and death.

This has been a great series. The investigation has been all over the place and at times impossible to comprehend, but the enemies to lovers story of Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao has been absolutely delightful to follow. But the last book wasn’t nearly as good. Too much space was given to unimportant characters and their points of view. Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao worked in the background, and the reader wasn’t privy to their investigations and cleverness until everything was set for the final confrontation. It made for a very unsatisfying and even boring read. Not even the final battle brought a completely satisfying ending.

The love story at least had its moments. There were kisses, jealousy, and attempts to wring confessions from each other. But the story ends kind of mid-scene without proper resolution to the romance, and the several epilogues and a bonus story merely continue with the hunt of the Thirteen Floors and doesn’t really bring anything new to the romance. Definitely no happily ever after moments, or a glimpse to the men’s future.

Overall though, I’m left happy with the series. I can imagine the men continuing as they’ve been, bickering, scheming and one-upping each other in public and loving each other in secret. Cui Buqu and Feng Xiao will definitely remain one of my favourite danmei couples.