Villains Are Destined to Die (novel), Vol. 1 by Gwon Gyeoeul: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads 

Villains Are Destined to Die by Gwon Gyeoeul

Villains Are Destined to Die is a Korean isekai reverse harem/dating game light novel set in a fantasy empire. A Korean college student gets hooked on a dating game where a long-lost daughter of a duke returns and wins the hearts of her five suitors despite the fake daughter, Penelope, trying her best to kill her. There’s also a hard mode of the game, where one plays as Penelope. But try as she might, she always dies on that mode.

And then she wakes up inside the game, as Penelope. Knowing that she’ll die, no matter what she does, she sets out to improve her odds of survival. It’s not easy for her though. Penelope’s circumstances are too much alike her own life as a reviled daugher by a mistress of a wealthy businessman. She’s angry even, having just fled her miserable life, only to land in a similar situation.

Step by step, she improves her life, like gaining the ability to say what she wants instead of having to rely on the game’s dialogue that always gets her killed. She needs to reach 100% affection with one of the five men for the game to end, preferably before the real daughter returns and ruins everything in a few months’ time, and some of the counts start at zero, or even below. She’s even more careful after she realises there’s no reset button in this game. If she dies, she’ll stay dead. And she’ll die if the affections of any of the five love interests drop below zero.

One by one, she meets the men. Two of them are her step brothers who hate her the most. There’s also an insane crown prince, a sorcerer, and a former slave she buys from an auction and makes her personal guard. All are difficult in their own way for her to make to like her, let alone love. On top of which, the entire household hates her and tries to make her life miserable.

This was a good start to a series. I’d read the first volume of the manhwa adaptation and liked it very much, but the book was better. It’s fairly fast-paced, well-written and engaging. The new Penelope is a very different person than the Penelope of the game, and little by little, she changes everyone’s perceptions of her.

I liked Penelope and all the love interests were interesting and potential end-games. I don’t know if she has to win over only one of them like in the game, in which case any one of them will do at this point, or if she’ll end up with all of them, which would be fine too. No one is a sure winner yet, even if her guard is in a lead, and it’ll take the whole series before 100% affection is reached. Looking forward to reading more.

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

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture (Light Novel), Vol. 6 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol 6 by Mikage Sawamura

Previous book marked a turn in the story: Naoya and the professor visited the festival of the dead where Naoya had been to as a child and which had led to him starting to hear lies. This book, subtitled Dark Reflections, starts a week after those events. Back at the university, Naoya tries to come to terms with their visit to the underworld, and wonders if it was worth it. He can still hear the lies, so nothing’s changed.

But Professor Takatsuki is so upset he falls ill. The entity inside him made him forget the entire journey, because he’d learned what happened when he was abducted, and he can’t accept it. Naoya tries to cheer him up and ends up promising he’ll be Takatsuki’s memory from now on.

In an effort to cheer up the professor, Naoya makes him take a case of a haunted house in an amusement park, where people have started to see an actual ghost. He thinks Takatsuki’s reluctance is caused by his upset, but turns out it’s because the professor has already figured out what’s going on and it’s not supernatural. But Naoya gets a fun day at an amusement park with Takatsuki, Kenji, and Ruiko.

In the second story, Takatsuki’s cousin Yuuko contacts him for the first time in twenty years. (Takatsuki isn’t allowed to contact his family except his uncle who raised him.) His fiancé insists she needs supernatural help for a growth on her shoulder and wants him to call Takatsuki. Turns out, she had attended as a child the tea parties Takatsuki’s mother held where she showed him around as a tengu, and had become obsessed with him. This story took an unexpected turn, but it wasn’t supernatural either.

But it did give Naoya a deeper understanding of Takatsuki’s family situation. He even gets to meet his mother briefly and learns she’s still in denial about Takatsuki and insists her son didn’t return, after Takatsuki didn’t let her show him around as a tengu anymore. The whole situation is upsetting for Takatsuki too, but at least he got to connect with his cousin again.

In the third story, a girl contacts them about a mirror that disappeared her mother. Her father insists she left with her lover, but when Takatsuki and Naoya investigate, the truth turns out to be something supernatural—for the first time. It triggers the entity inside Takatsuki to intervene even. Naoya has a chance to communicate with it, but it leaves him with more questions than answers. But he’s now sure the entity is causing Takatsuki’s memory losses.

This was an excellent volume in many ways. The narrative felt more mature, Naoya’s inner monologue was deeper and we get better insights into him and Takatsuki both; their friendship changes quite a lot (no romance), and there was an actual supernatural case. The theme of the book was mirror and it offered some good insights into Japanese folklore and human psyche. I’m a bit annoyed that the aftermath of Kenji seeing a real ghost was skipped, but perhaps we get a bonus story about that later. There was no cliffhanger ending or extra stories. There are three more books to come and I can’t wait to read them. Though I’ll probably gobble them down in one sitting like this one too.

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Vol. 1 (light novel) by singNsong: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint vol 1 by SingNsong

The original Korean light novel of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by SingNsong (a writing duo pseudonym) is finally available in print and ebook in English. I’ve read the manhwa serialisation on Webtoon (first seven volumes are also available in print in English), so I was familiar with the story and characters going in.

Dokja Kim (Kim Dokja in original Korean; all the names have been westernised for some annoying reason) is an unimpressive office worker in his late twenties. The sole solace in his joyless life is a serialised novel Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse, which he has read over a decade, most of it as its sole reader. After three thousand chapters, the book has come to an end, and just as he wonders what he’s supposed to do next, the world ends.

The end isn’t random or a complete destruction. Humanity finds itself as participants in a universe-wide reality show for the amusement of Constellations, god-like beings who observe the show through thousands of channels somewhere in the universe. The show is deadly and very unfair. But Kim Dokja immediately realises he knows how the show is run. Because he’s been reading about it the past ten years.

Armed with the knowledge of the story and the rules of the new world, he sets out to survive. And from the very first scenario given to humans through game interfaces, he starts to change the story.

The first volume sets the scene, completes the first deadly scenario and starts the second. The scenarios are run by goblins who are hosts of the channels, their sole interest to amuse the gods and making as much money of them as they can. The gods interfere by claiming favourite players and paying in coins for interesting events.

From the start, Kim Dokja gains the attention of the gods, not least because he knows how to game the game. He also gathers a small group of people around him who all will play a great role in the story later. He doesn’t do it solely for kindness though. He does it to survive.

The manhwa adaptation is fairly faithful to the light novel. Not much is left out. There’s not much to leave out anyway. The narrative is fast-paced and sparce. Kim Dokja’s thoughts are portrayed well in the adaptation too.

The only difference I noted from the beginning is the way the second main character, Yu Junghyeok (Junghyeok Yu in English version), the original lead of TWSA novel, is portrayed. He's a regressor who has lived through the scenarios many times over, starting from the beginning every time he dies and getting stronger and more inhuman in every round. Kim Dokja makes clear in his inner thoughts that he’s afraid of Yu Junghyeok and sees him as a monster, though he admires him too. We also get Yu Junghyeok’s inner thoughts, which we seldom get in the manhwa. It adds an interesting layer to the novel.

The bromance between the pair is a fan-favourite that’s absent from the manhwa. I don’t know if it’ll develop later in the series, but it’s not here yet. Yu Junghyeok is absent most of the story anyway.

This was a good, fast-paced read, and a morally very grey story. Kim Dokja is the hero, but he’s not heroic or good in a sense we expect heroes to be. Side characters didn’t really become their own persons here yet, but as we learned, Kim Dokja’s abilities and knowledge of the story gives him insight into them too.

The layout with several different fonts, one of which was very difficult to read, made it visually busy. I also missed character profiles at the beginning—or end—of the book, like in the manhwa. And I don’t usually judge the cover, but I think the publisher could’ve gone with a better one. This one doesn’t reflect the story at all. There’s a long way for the characters to go yet, and even though I know how the story goes, I’d like to read the original version too.

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

Manhwa cover of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. Art by Sleepy-C.

 

The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter, Vol. 3 (light novel) by Yatsuki Wakatsu: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter vol. 3 by Yatsuki Wakatsu

First up, beware: this is the last volume. I didn’t know it going in and wasn’t adequately prepared emotionally for it to end. It left me slightly upset despite the ending being good. But now you know and can read it accordingly.

Volume 3 of the light novel has a subtitle Magic Research Exchange Plan and that’s what the story is about with no side plots. An envoy arrives from a distant country to study Romany’s summoning magic. Seiichirou is roped in to guide the visitors, as the whole project is his idea. It’s about sending him and Yua, the Holy Maiden, back to their own world.

Leading the visitors is the country’s third prince, Lars, who shows great interest in Seiichirou. Not romantically though; he’s impressed by his efficiency and considers recruiting him to work for his country. Despite Seiichirou’s skills, the visit is a bit chaotic, as the group includes mages who are very excitable and have no patience for anything but magic. Seiichirou is kept busy and he doesn’t have enough time for his partner, Aresh.

Aresh has anticipated this though. For the welcoming party, he arranges a suitable attire for Seiichirou, complete with a brooch that declares he and Seiichirou are engaged. He just doesn’t think to inform Seiichirou about it. Seiichirou doesn’t take it well that Aresh does such a huge thing behind his back, as if he isn’t part of the relationship. A fight ensues and the pair doesn’t speak in days.

It doesn’t help that Aresh is summoned home by his parents. Lars is trying to arrange a marriage between his youngest sister and the youngest son of Idolark family. That’s Aresh. Seiichirou learns about this from other people and it adds to his upset. When he finally has a chance to ask Aresh about it, the other man goes into another huff. And then leaves to escort the envoy back to their country.

A weaker man might despair. Seiichirou isn’t one of those. He goes after his man. Matters are cleared between the two, including the biggest cause of upset for Aresh: Seiichirou returning to his own world.

This was a good book, but it read like another middle book and it came as a surprise that it ended. After all the hardships, the series deserved a stronger ending. The great magical feat of sending Seiichirou and Yua back was solved rather fast with a time jump. It left the reader to wish that at least some of it had been made into another volume, maybe about the days leading up to the reverse summoning. There could’ve been lot of drama about it, and we could’ve finally witnessed Seiichirou and Aresh settle into a happy life together. Seiichirou opened about his feelings only in the last chapter and I would’ve loved to read more about that. Even the epilogue was more about general story than the two of them.

After the epilogue there were two extras, one from Norbert’s point of view as he reports to the king, and another from Aresh’s, which explains his point of view about the spat. In the afterword, the author admits that some storylines were left open, but didn’t promise more stories. I don’t really need those; only the bit that was missing from this one. But it was a sweet story as it was, with some spice, and I’m happy with where the men ended up.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture Vol. 5 (Light Novel) by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol. 5 by Mikage Sawamura

In this volume, we finally get to what we’ve been waiting for: Naoya returns to the village where he accidentally entered the festival of the dead and gained (or was cursed with) the ability to hear lies. It doesn’t go well.

It’s the summer break of Naoya’s second year at the Tokyo university. He has no plans, as he’s estranged from his family and doesn’t really have any friends that he’s aware of having. When Professor Takatsuki invites him to participate in the night of one hundred horrors arranged at the university premises, he agrees, even if he’s not particularly interested.

The event is held at night in candle light. Every participant tells a ghost story until a hundred of them has been told. At the end, something supernatural is supposed to happen—and it does. But to Naoya’s surprise, Professor Takatsuki isn’t showing his typical enthusiasm for the event, which has to mean it’s fake. The mystery part of the first story is about finding out who and why, which is easily solved and isn’t terribly exciting.

Then it’s time for Naoya, Takatsuki, and KenKen to travel to Nagano and the small village there where Naoya’s grandmother used to live. He is warned against going by his new acquaintance who has also attended the same festival and gained the ability to hear lies, and by Miss Sae, the mystery woman who may be a mermaid. But Naoya needs to find out the truth.

The villagers try to keep them away too, but no one tells them why. No one wants to talk about the festival either. But Professor Takatsuki is determined to learn everything. They join a similar festival at a village nearby, and on their way back at night, they finally find what they’re looking for. Everything seems mundane at first, until Naoya stumbles into the real festival of the dead, held in the realm of the dead, and accidentally pulls Takatsuki with him.

There they finally learn why everyone wants to keep them away. The mountain god collects the people who return to the festival and keeps them forever. And this time, the price for being let out is steeper than it was when Naoya was a child.

This was a good volume. The first part wasn’t terribly spooky, despite the topic, as the ghost stories weren’t recited to the reader, and it’s mostly about Naoya observing people. The second part was great. We meet Naoya’s cousin who tells stories about his childhood, and in the realm of the dead, Naoya goes over his life in flashes, and we learn that he was very unhappy and lonely as a child. It almost makes him give up, but he also remembers the good things and friends he’s made at the university, which gives him strength to fight free.

But he’s not the only one remembering his past. Takatsuki does too. He finally remembers parts of what happened to him when he was abducted. But in a cruel twist and an annoying cliffhanger, before he can tell what it was, the entity inside him makes him forget everything—including the adventure in the realm of the dead they just had. I hope he’ll get his memory back in the next volume. It would be too upsetting if he forgets the first real supernatural event he’s witnessed. I’ll definitely read on.

In the extra story, one of Takatsuki’s graduate students reflects on the professor and why she’s not in love with him even though all her girlfriends assume she must be. It’s a nice addition to the character profiles so far.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture (Light Novel) vol. 4 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol. 4 by Mikage Sawamura

This series has become a comfort reading of mine, and I read the latest volume in one sitting. In my defence, these light novels aren’t very long. Volume 4 has a subtitle Thus, the Gates to the Spirit Realm Open, which describes the contents fairly well.

It’s April and Naoya Fukamachi has begun the second year of his studies at the university in Tokyo where he studies folklore with Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki. They’ve spent most of the spring break travelling together, but Naoya is still slightly anxious that Akira won’t need his help anymore in investigating supernatural incidents. He shouldn’t have worried.

There are only two—long—chapters. In the first one, a popular story to frighten children surfaces at a workplace. In it, one summons a hag or a curse or enters another dimension if they perform required things on April 4th at 4:44—number four being ominous, as it’s pronounced like death. Four people at the workplace have performed the summons and bad things have started to happen to them.

It doesn’t take Akira long to unravel the mystery, which once again turns out to have a mundane origin. But the case proves important to Naoya, because he meets another person like him who can hear lies due to similar events as his. Having someone with whom to talk about it makes a great impact on him. He also makes an effort to become more sociable, even if it’s only with one friend.

In the second chapter, Akira’s uncle comes to visit, and Naoya learns a lot about Akira and his past—although the reader doesn’t find out until during the extra chapter at the end. He’s the only family member who cares about Akira, and he’s relieved to learn that there are people looking after his nephew.

Together with Ken-Ken, the four travel to a seaside town where fishermen claim to have seen mermaids. It appears to be a hoax, until they meet a little boy who tells them that his mother has become a mermaid and returned to the sea. Dismissing it as a story first, they soon learn that things might be more complicated than they believed. And for the first time, they may have encountered a being who isn’t quite human.

In the extra story, we learn about Akira’s youth in England with his uncle. It’s a slightly sad story, revealing sides of Akira the reader hasn’t known before, but hopeful too, as Akira heals from his trauma with the help of his uncle and his found family. We still don’t learn more about the being inside Akira, or what happened to him when he was abducted, but it’s becoming certain that the mystery is supernatural in origin. I’m eager to read more.

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter, Vol. 2 by Yatsuki Wakatsu: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The Other World's Books Depend on Bean Counter vol 2 by Yatsuki Wakatsu

Volume 2 of the light novel has a subtitle Church Management Support Plan. Kondou Seiichiro, the Japanese accountant who was accidentally transported to another world with the young girl who was their Holy Maiden, has his hands full of work that’s mostly his own doing. But he doesn’t know how to rest.

In this book, Seiichiro is sent to audit the church. It’s a dangerous place for him as it’s full of magic that he’s deadly allergic to, and Aresh Indolark, the young commander who has made it his business to keep Seiichiro alive, isn’t happy. The two are now living together, thanks to Aresh’s high-handed manners, but while the commander has feelings for Seiichiro, the older man’s feelings aren’t clear even to himself.

Aresh is right to be worried. Things don’t go smoothly and Seiichiro uncovers an embezzlement plot that leads to a magical attack on him. But Aresh, the only person who can heal him, isn’t home. It may be that a young, handsome priest who resembles Aresh will have to step up for the healing. And, as those who have read the books know, that involves sex.

This was a fun volume. Seiichiro is much like he’s been, fully focused on his work and ignoring his health. He’s growing accustomed to Aresh’s healing methods, but as he intends to return to his own world, he’s not willing to start a relationship. But feelings get in the way, and even Seiichiro is unable to ignore them. There were some sweet and heated moments between the men, and the end left them in a new place in their relationship. Will that lead to Seiichiro deciding to stay, or will he want to leave home anyway?

There were some new side characters that were interesting, and the old ones, especially Norbert, featured too. There’s a chapter at the end of the book from his point of view as he continues to report to the king. The ending wasn’t a cliffhanger, but it left things in an interesting place and I’m eager to read more.

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter Vol. 1 by Yatsuki Wakatsu: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter by yatsuki Wakatsu

Volume one of the original light novel has finally been translated, a year after the first manga came out. I’ve read the first three volumes of the manga adaptation, and they cover most of the novel, so the story was familiar to me.

Seiichirou Kondou, 29, is an overworked accountant in Japan who on a rare day off comes to the rescue of a school girl who is being sucked into ground by a white light, and he’s sucked in too. They find themselves in an alternate world, where the girl, Yua, has been summoned as a Holy Maiden, whose job it is to save the world from a deadly miasma.

Kondou is a tag-along, who the kingdom feels honour-bound to protect, but nothing more. He could spend his days being idle, but he doesn’t know how, so he asks for a job and is pointed at the royal accounting department. He’s horrified by the lazy work-culture there, and in no time reorganises the whole place. But he doesn’t stop there: he needs to salvage the kingdom’s finances too.

There’s one problem: his body is unable to handle the magic the world is permeated with, and everything from food to air is slowly killing him. In an acute health crisis, he’s rescued by dashing Commander Aresh Indolark, who heals him with magic, which only makes things worse. Out of options, he needs to acclimatise Kondou’s body fast to magic. And that means having sex with him.

Aresh appoints himself as Kondou’s protector, making sure he takes care of his health. And every now and then, a healing is needed, which requires more sex. Their odd relationship is a matter of necessity for Kondou, but for Aresh, it gradually becomes more.

I read the light novel in order to get a deeper view of the story. In places, that happened too, but the manga adaptation is fairly faithful to the story. Kondou seems more driven and single-minded here. There wasn’t much from Aresh’s point of view, but he emerges as a slightly different figure than in the manga in the end. The side characters also have a more meaningful role. The world itself remains a bit vague, so the manga does a better job depicting that.

This was originally a serialised web novel, so every chapter repeats much of what has been told many times already. Apart from that, it’s well-written and easy to read. Translation works too. The story ends without a cliffhanger, but in such a point in the men’s lives that I absolutely have to read more.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture Vol. 3 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture by Mikage Sawamura

Volume 3 of Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture is called A Tale of Curses and Blessings. This light novel series of paranormal cozy mysteries is set in contemporary Japan. It follows Naoya Fukamachi, a first-year student at Seiwa University in Tokyo, and an associate professor of folklore, Akira Takatsuki, who specialises in urban legends and ghost stories. Naoya helps the professor to explore all sorts of paranormal incidents, all of which have had very mundane explanations so far, much to the excitable professor’s disappointment.

As the title tells, the third volume is about curses. Naoya’s classmate believes he’s been cursed because he didn’t forward a chain letter, so Naoya brings him to the professor who solves it in a very Takatsuki manner. Then the pair investigates a ghost story at a nearby library. The ghost leaves ciphers in books and whoever finds them is cursed if they fail to solve them. That turned out to have a lovely and sad explanation.

Third mystery takes Naoya, Takatsuki and his detective friend Kenji ‘KenKen’ Sasakura out of Tokyo to a remote mountain village. They’re supposed to be on a winter break, but Takatsuki has heard of a cave with a demon buried in it and wants to see it for himself. When they find bones that belong to a human, they suddenly have a mystery to solve. That too, turned out to be very sad.

The volume ends with a lovely bonus story from KenKen’s point of view, where he remembers how he and Akira first met when they were six and formed a friendship that’s lasted thirty years. It has a spooky ghost story too, that might shed light to why Akira is special—if only KenKen would reveal it to him.

In addition to mysteries, we learn more about Takatsuki. He hides a personal tragedy behind constant smiles and taking delight in all the small things, like hot chocolate with marshmallows. But the glimpses behind the scenes make the reader want to give him a tight hug and never let go. There is something dark in him too, which Naoya discovers to his horror, though it’s unclear yet if Takatsuki himself knows about it. Since Naoya and KenKen are determined to protect him at all costs, mostly from himself, neither of them will likely tell him.

Naoya, the point of view character, is more involved this time round instead of a mere observer that remains a bit distant. He realises that his time at the university has changed him, and that he might have made friends even. He’s not willing to admit it though, as all friends he makes usually leave him when they learn that he can hear their lies. He tells a few fibs himself, much to his distress. But best of all, he realises he’s become friends with Takatsuki beyond a mere student-professor relationship. Those looking for a romance will be disappointed though—unless the last line in KenKen’s story hints at that.

As always, I read this too fast and now have to wait for the next volume. Luckily there are several volumes to be translated still. I’m looking forward to reading them all.

p.s. If you’re buying this series on Amazon, there’s a glitch which directs to the manga of the series when purchasing the ebook. The volume number is the same, but contents obviously aren’t. Paperback links direct to the correct book. Other retailers don’t have the same problem, so maybe favour them. The problem isn’t unique to this series on Amazon; many light novels with manga adaptations have the glitch.

A Bright Heart by Kate Chenli: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

A Bright Heart by Kate Chenli

A Bright Heart has a familiar reincarnation plot from many Asian web novels, light novels, and mangas. The protagonist dies, but is given a new chance to make things right, or otherwise improve their life, by returning a few years (or decades) with all the knowledge of the first life. They’re usually fun and lighthearted stories where the small changes the protagonist makes on the second round often have large consequences.

Mingshin has helped Prince Ren to become the King, only for him to betray and kill her because he prefers her cousin and has only been using her. As her last dying thought, she wishes another chance, and is returned a couple of years back, right before she met Ren for the first time. She’s not about to waste the opportunity and sets out to destroy not only Ren but her cousin and uncle too.

Changes begin to happen almost immediately. Since Mingshin isn’t fooled by her cousin’s pretty behaviour anymore, she and her father move against Mingshin’s faster than in the original timeline. And Mingshin meets Jieh, another contender for the throne. She tries to keep her distance from him to not repeat the mistake she made with Ren, but decides rather fast that he’s the one who should get the throne. In the end, what took two years in her first life now takes place in a few months, with a lot of action towards the end.

I don’t quite know how to take this book. I went in hoping for a light-hearted, whimsical story in the style of light novels. They tend to be a tad messy, repetitive, and not very logical, not to mention the poor quality of translations, but there’s certain charm to them that keeps me reading them and giving them good reviews even though their literary merits aren’t all that high.

This wasn’t one of those novels. It’s relatively well-written, logical, and doesn’t repeat same things every few pages. But it also lacks the charm and whimsy, and instead turned out to be a bit of a slog to read.

It’s too long, for one. If it had kept to the length of a light novel, it could’ve concentrated on the revenge plot—and maybe the romance, though I didn’t find it necessary either. Now it added the plot with the emissary from the kingdom with magic that derailed the whole story and didn’t add anything worthwhile. Even the attempt to explain the reincarnation was unnecessary.

Mingshin, for all her determination, lacked agency and kept reacting to the changes from the original life. The romance was a typical YA affair where emotions don’t play much of a role, and felt an add-on too. I kind of kept expecting Mingshin’s friendship with the princess to blossom into something more. They had actual conversations, unlike with Jieh.

The setting felt a little off too. It’s Asian (names sound Chinese) but not entirely, or not enough to give a western reader a sense of being set there. It’s as if the author was so fearful to add details that might not be genuine (even though it’s a fantasy world) that the world never comes to life. Everything feels like it happens in a vacuum where nothing tastes, feels or smells like anything.

All in all, a bit of a disappointment. What the book gains in being better written than those it emulates, it loses in charm, heart and emotions. It’s not a bad book as such, and as an YA novel for younger readers it works fairly well. But I was left slightly bored.

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

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture, Vol. 2 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture vol. 2  Mikage Sawamura

The second book was as delightful as the first. It continues a month or so after the first, and again Naoya Fukamachi, a student at a Tokyo university, helps Professor Takatsuki, his folklore teacher, solve three cases that seem supernatural. All are interesting, but they all fail in what the professor finds most important: no real ghosts are involved. The last one is most heartbreaking and it brushes the professor’s past.

Naoya is still a very reserved charcter and difficult to get a hang of, even though the narrative is from his point of view. It’s difficult for him to let people close, even when he needs help. But when a bad flu makes him lose his ability to hear lies, he realises he doesn’t know how to be ordinary either. Professor Takatsuki is as delightful as ever, but the tragedy behind his cheerful exterior is starting to unravel. I’ll have to read more to learn everything.

Maiden of the Needle, Vol. 1 by Zeroki: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Maiden of the Needle by Zeroki

Maiden of the Needle is a Japanese light novel. A Tokyo woman finds herself reincarnated as a baby in a world with fairies and magic, with all the memories of her previous life. Yui’s new family has the unique ability to weave magic into clothes, but when it turns out she doesn’t have the ability, the family treats her like a slave.

At fifteen, Yui is sold to a man who is hated by her family. But he turns out to be a nice person and under his care she thrives and she’s finally able to show how skilled she is both as a seamstress and as a wielder of magic. Fearing for her safety, he instantly betroths her to the former king who can protect her.

This was a typical transmigration novel. The world is non-Japanese and organized like a video game, which Yui soon realizes. There are also elements of hero tropes, with labyrinths and the final boss that needs to be defeated. The bad guys are truly evil and good people are purely good. And the heroine turns out to be unique in her abilities and the saviour of the realm.

The story was light but interesting, and not in any way unique. Like most books in this genre, the narrative relied heavily on telling and was a bit all over the place, though I’ve read worse. The entire backstory is given in the first chapter, with random infodumps at odd times. Most of the book is from Yui’s first-person point of view, with occasional third person POVs by other characters.

The first volume has no romantic plot. Yui is fifteen, which apparently isn’t too young to become engaged. Her fiancée is in his fifties, which would’ve been gross—was a bit gross—but he gives to understand that the marriage will be in name only. All the other potential romantic interests already have their partners.

Unlike most light novels I’ve read, the first volume doesn’t end in a cliffhanger. It does set the story for the next volume though, and it sounds interesting enough to continue reading.

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

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture by Mikage Sawamura

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture is a Japanese light novel set in a university in present day Tokyo. Naoya Fukamachi is a first-year student trying to figure out college life and what he wants to study. What he doesn’t want are activity clubs and friends. If at all possible, he would stay away from people completely.

Naoya has a unique ability to hear lies. It’s a distortion of sound that is painful for him, so much so that if many people lie around him, he might faint. To survive, he hasn’t a single friend, and even casual acquaintances are upsetting, because he doesn’t want to know when they lie. Large lecture halls are a nightmare.

But they can’t be avoided. On a whim—or so he tells himself—he attends a course on folklore that specializes in urban legends, ghost stories, and strange phenomena. It’s held by professor Akira Takatsuki whose enthusiasm for his topic keeps the students glued to their seats—or it’s because he’s very handsome.

For extra credit, Naoya submits a story of a strange event that happened to him, and even though he doesn’t tell everything, Professor Takatsuki knows it’s real. He’s an eccentric person who gets excited fast, and so he decides to make Naoya his assistant, mostly because Naoya has common sense the professor lacks and can read maps. And then he learns about Naoya’s ability and it turns out that the professor has a similar story in his past.

The book consists of three cases the pair investigate. There’s a haunted house, a curse, and a girl who has been spirited away. They’re fun stories, though not particularly difficult to solve, with some exciting action too. And they are good windows to Japanese society and folklore. A lot of folklore. The author is either a folklorist himself, or a true enthusiast. Occasionally the book reads like lecture notes, but everything is always interesting—at least for a historian like me.

But the main mystery remains unsolved for now. What happened to Naoya and the professor when they were children. Were they genuine supernatural events or something more mundane. What they know is that both have been permanently altered because of it.

This was a good start for a series. The cases were complete and the book ends at a natural point and not with a cliffhanger. Naoya and Takatsuki were great characters and complete opposites of each other; the teacher student dynamic was occasionally upside down, which probably doesn’t translate well to western readers. For a light novel, the story had a more mature feel than I usually associate with them, and it reads more like a paranormal cozy mystery than a young adult novel. I’d very much like to read more and I hope the rest of the seven volumes are translated too.

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

Villains Are Destined to Die vol 1 by Gwon Gyeoeul & SUOL: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Villains Are Destined to Die by Gwon Gyeoeul & SUOL

Villains Are Destined to Die is a transmigration manga where the MC is transported to the game she’s been playing. In the easy mode, she was the heroine winning over the affections of all the men around her. In the hard mode, as Penelope, she dies over and over again, and everyone hates her. Before the player manages to crack the hard mode, she finds herself as Penelope, desperately trying to survive.

This was an excellent story. At first, I was leery of a game where the goal was to win male characters’ affection, but the story turned out to be much darker than these light novels usually are. There was also greater integration between the MC’s backstory and current life than is usual in transmigration stories. I haven’t read the books by Gwon Gyeoeul the manga is based on, but I have a notion the MC deals with her own trauma as the story progresses.

Both Penelope and the person playing her are orphans brought into a rich family, with two older brothers that hate her and a cold, distant father. In her real life, she’d just escaped to an independent life at the university, and now she has to live similar life in a game. The game controls are visible, showing her progress. The only thing missing is the reset button, which she discovers to her horror when she tries to die to get a do-over.

In the first volume, Penelope makes some progress in settling into her new life. It ends with her gaining some affection from four of the five male leads, but she’s a long way from reaching 100%. The fifth guy will show up in the next volume. I’ll be interested in reading more.

The illustrations by SUOL were full colour and beautiful, with the past life depicted in black and white. They were enjoyable to look at and added greatly to the reading experience. Translation was very good.

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