Otomen, vol. 1-10

Otomen, vol. 1-10
by Aya Kanno
Published by VIZ Media LLC

This series first came out while I was in college and I remember borrowing the first few books from a friend to read and found it hilarious. I recently went to the library and saw they had volumes 1-10 on the shelf so I picked up all of them and re-indulged. I was not disappointed!

The premise of the series is that Asuka, the main character, has immersed himself into Kendo, Judo, and several other manly endeavors. The truth is, he's an "otomen", a man that enjoys feminine things. He hides this from his mother who has drilled into him that he must "act like a man" after dealing with Asuka's father leaving, declaring that he's always wanted to be a woman.

What I love about this series is similar why I love Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun (Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun) is that most of the gender roles and character tropes are reversed. Asuka's love interest is a girl who is very cute, but was raised by her single father, a dojo owner.

So of course, hilarity ensues!

There's hardly a time where I read a volume and I don't laugh out loud. The art style is very appealing, and Kanno does a great job of keeping the flow of the story going and showing when Asuka is emotionally moved without making him too out of character.

I look forward to reading the rest of the volumes!

Honey and Clover, Vol. 1-9

Honey and Clover, Vol. 1-9
by Chica Umino
Published by VIZ Media

This is a series that I first read when VIZ published their collective magazine Shojo Beat. It was something that was hard to read in a chapter a month format, just because this manga is very slice-of-life.

The art style appealed to me, so I picked up vol. 1-9 (10 is the last volume in the series) from the library and dived in.

The story follows a group of art school students as they go through school and deal with the struggles of transitioning from students to adults, and dealing with expectations that are given to them by the people and world around them.

Hagumi "Hagu", a 18 year old girl who appears (and acts) as a child. Sheltered from her upbringing, she's brought to art college by her cousin and guardian, Shuji, a professor at the art college.

Takemoto, who deals with his place in not only art school, but the role he wants to play in the world.

Morita, who appears as a slacker but also a gifted artist, who has a tendency to miss his final exams and has to repeat and his relation to a mysterious man who shows up to offer him jobs with good pay.

Mayama, who is in love with an older woman that doesn't seem to notice his feelings, and how he has to deal with growing up and proving to her that he is capable of taking care of her.

Yamada, who is in love with Mayama, struggles with staying true to her feelings and wishing Mayama would love her in return.

Because this is a slice-of-life, the themes and point of views change with each volume, but each small snippet of story leaves you with a happy, bittersweet feeling. Some of the stories are cheerful, some of the stories are darker. There are love triangles, there are real emotions that you feel as you come to know these characters.

I haven't gotten to read the last volume in the series (because for some reason the library doesn't have it?!) but I might cave and get it as a ebook, just so I can know how everything ends. I would definitely recommend this for people who don't have the attention for long stories, but enjoy small separate stories with fun characters who learn and grow the more volumes you read.

Catspell

Catspell
by Colleen Shannon
Mass Market Paperback, 342 pages
Published Jan. 1, 2006
9780505526113
Book #3 in the Shelley Holmes, Werewolf Detective Series

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

Shelley Holmes was accustomed to the bizarre. Such phenomena as werewolves and vampires held no surprises for her. But in all her years of investigating the paranormal, she had never run across a case like this one ...

Beautiful Arielle Blaylock was a proper Victorian miss by day, but a daring wanton by night. In her dreams she seemed to enter another life, one where sorcery and sensuality held sway. But how was it possible that the happenings of that shadow world were beginning to manifest themselves in reality? What was the significance of the Egyptian cat amulet she wore at her throat? And of the two mystical beings who fought to seduce her, which was destined to be her lover ... the creature of light or the one of darkness? As her midnight wanderings became ever more alluring, Arielle found herself lost in a maze of danger and desire where one misstep might mean the end of love and life.

I'll be honest, I'm a fan of romance novels, especially if they're weird or cheesy. I picked this up from Goodwill for about $.50, just because it sounded so outrageous that I felt like I had to read it. I feel like it's very misleading being labeled as a romance, because it seems like that was secondary in the story. Yes, it was present, but not in the normal books that I read that are labeled Paranormal Romance. I'm used to reading Laurell K. Hamilton, so I feel like I expect a certain level of smut and this book did not deliver on that point.

I think this book had a lot of potential, but it skipped around with point of views a lot, and not done with a changing of chapter, which is typical to the genre. There would be paragraph breaks where it would take the scene to a secondary, or even a few times, a SUPER minor character which I still don't see the point of him.

This book  had an interesting premise, but it was lost with the Mary Sue heroine with no luster and the undesirable love interests. I found myself wanting more about Shelley and Ethan because at least they were interesting when they bantered. There was also such a focus on cats that there were a few weird scenes that I read and immediately after was like did the author REALLY write that?!

If you're a fan of weird romances you might find yourself being pulled into the story (it really wasn't that bad!) but again, it was less of a romance with a rather predictable ending.

Crimson Bound

Crimson Bound

By Rosamund Hodge
Hardcover, 441 pages
Published May 5, 2015
9780032224767

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.
Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?
Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption

 I thought this book was an interesting concept, but unlike Cruel Beauty, I was really put off by the main character. Her feelings flip-flopped a lot, which caused her actions to, and by the end I wasn't enthralled the way I had been reading the previous novel. I enjoyed the incorporation of a late 1700s France mixed with the author's own additives as the novel setting, but to me, the characters of this novel, along with the pacing, fell flat.

I don't think this was a bad book, I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened. I don't really feel like this one was a retelling/reimagining as much as the last novel was. In fact, there were a lot of ways it was very similar but the world was not correlated at all.

To be honest, I was very meh about the whole book. I liked the prose, and the secondary characters more than the main character, but this one was just lacking something and I still can't figure out what. I'll get back to you if it comes to me....

Cruel Beauty

Cruel Beauty
by Rosamund Hodge
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published January 28, 2014
9780062224736

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.
With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-poowerful, imoortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.
But Ignifex is not all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.
As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love h3er sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? with time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

I first saw this book at a Books-A-Million the year it came out, took a picture of it with my phone so I wouldn't forget about it, and wouldn't you know I did just that. While going through some photos, I saw it again, and decided to -finally- pick it up and start reading.

I love fairy tale retellings and I must say, I loved this one. Reading about the author, I saw that Rosamund is a huge fan of mythology, which is very prevalent in this book, especially that she creates a world that is based/loosely based at times, on Greek mythology.

One thing I absolutely loved, was that the main character of Nyx, was not sweet. She was full of spite, while readily accepting her fate, she cursed the people who did nothing to stop it. She resents her sister who is full of her father's favor, and regrets being the daughter that bore her father's face. She had character, she was angry, and she had a job to do.

Hodge's prose is very well written. Sometimes, there's more explanation given for things that didn't really matter that much in the book, such religion, because the things that are explained don't give much to the story.

I loved Ignifex's charm, and how through the characters, the reader still has a chance to decide which "monster" is the most cruel.

All in all, it was a great book and I found it hard to put down after I got past the first three chapters.

Romancing the Inventor

Romancing the Inventor
by Gail Carriger
ebook, 149 pages
Published Nov. 1, 2016
9781944751067

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Imogene Hale is a lowly parlourmaid with a soul-crushing secret. Seeking solace, she takes work at a local hive, only to fall desperately in love with the amazing lady inventor the vampires are keeping in the potting shed. Genevieve Lefoux is heartsick, lonely, and French. With culture, class, and the lady herself set against the match, can Imogene and her duster overcome all odds and win Genevieve's heart, or will the vampires suck both of them dry?

This is a stand-alone LBGTQ sweet romance set in Gail Carriger's Parasolverse, full of class prejudice, elusive equations, and paranormal creatures taking tea.

I received a copy of the ebook from the author in exchange for my honest review.

First off, I've read Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series, The Finishing School Series, and the new Prudence series. Basically, what I'm trying to say is "I'm a Gail Carriger fan". 

Romancing the Inventor was such a breath of fresh air for me. One of my favorite things about Carriger's books is the characters. She write such diverse and colorful characters and Genevieve LeFoux has always been a favorite of mine since she debuted in Changeless. The constant sadness that came along with her character made me always quietly root for things to turn out well. She became even more of a favorite after reading some of her childhood in the Finishing School Series. To finally get to read Genevieve's happy ending was just wonderful.

Imogene, the main character of the story is lovely. character. She's strong willed, a romantic, and optimistic. She's trying to find where she fits in the world during a time period where women are supposed to be with men (and that's that), where classes don't mix. She constantly is saying she isn't special, only that she's "good with sums". Yet, there's something fresh and sweet about her, especially when staying strong defending herself against those who think she's trying to move up in the Hive household.

I thought the budding romance between Imogene and Genevieve was sweet, romantic, and completely natural. This was not my first forray into an LBGTO romance, but it definitely left me with more of a sweet happy feeling after reading, because of how well these two characters fit together.

In my opinion, Carriger's done it again with creating a novel in her series that is a romance, but is sweet and realistic, and just a lovely piece of standalone work. 

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill
388 pages, published Aug. 9, 2016 by Algonquin Young Readers
ISBN 1616205679 

Synopsis (From Goodreads):

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. 

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule--but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her--even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.