Manga Review: Princess Jellyfish, Volume 3, by Akiko Higashimura

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: 2016

Volumes: 17 Volumes/9 Omnibus.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 2. 4.

Goodreads Synopsis:

CHIC COUNTER-ATTACK

Inari, the aggressive vixen of redevelopment, ramps up her efforts to buy out Amamizu-kan, where Tsukimi and her friends live. But Kuranosuke has a fabulous plan of attack--turn Tsukimi's jellyfish designs into a reality! Will becoming real fashion designers be more than Amars can handle? Meanwhile, Shu's interest in Tsukimi drives Kuranosuke to confront some feelings he's never dealt with before...

Review:

It's been a while since I read the last volume, and I'm not quite sure why I waited, but now I definitely want to catch up.

Halfway through this volume is where the anime ended, so most of this was new content to me, and it was very exciting. I'm so glad we finally get to see more of the story, how things are really going to turn out.

Now that the possibility of Amamizukan being torn down is more plausible, we're getting more of the story. Originally, I wondered why it was such a huge deal—why couldn't the owner just buy a new rental/house with the money she's given? She'd probably still make a profit.

But, now I see that the owner is Chieko's mother, who has been letting them live there despite their being NEETs, and I see that she's sick of supporting them. And, that, I completely understand. They shouldn't really get to live there if they can't afford it; they should just get jobs. I'm not sympathetic to that, honestly.

And still, I don't see why they can't just find somewhere else to live. This might be a great deal, but they can find something else.

Despite all that, it looks like they're working hard to make these jellyfish dresses a real thing, and I respect that. The dresses are really pretty, and they're a very good idea. The work they put into it is also admirable, and I like seeing Kuranosuke help and push them and make them grow for this.

I really love the crazy characters in this series. Mayaya is still one of my favorites, and I love seeing her be bribed to model. Jiji kind of bothers me. We met a new doll-obsessed girl, who is very odd, and a little disturbing as well. Then there's Tsukimi and Kuranosuke, and Shu, all who I really like. I'm really enjoying the development between those three, in particular.

This series is crazy and so much fun. I'm excited to read more.

Review: I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan

4.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic)

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Here Comes the Bride — If She Can Pass Chemistry.Eighteen-year-old Bronwen Oliver has a secret: She's really Phoebe, the lost daughter of the loving Lilywhite family. That's the only way to explain her image-obsessed mother; a kind but distant stepfather; and a brother with a small personality complex. Bronwen knows she must have been switched at birth, and she can't wait to get away from her "family" for good.
Then she meets Jared Sondervan. He's sweet, funny, everything she wants — and he has the family Bronwen has always wanted too. She falls head over heels in love, and when he proposes marriage, she joyfully accepts. But is Jared truly what she needs? And if he's not, she has to ask: What would Phoebe Lilywhite do?

Review: 

I love this book. I love it so much. Everything about it, really, even the parts that almost made me cry. (Which is something of a feat, I will admit, because I don't cry easily.)

Bronwen Oliver is the main character. Only she doesn't want to be Bronwen Oliver, she wants to be Pheobe Lilywhite, or Bronwen VanHorn, or maybe Bronwen Sondervan, She doesn't particularly get along with her mother, which is understandable because her mother doesn't try very hard and doesn't like to talk about things. She got along with her step-father at one point but is mostly just a little distant with him now. Her father died when she was little, but she isn't stuck on it even if she misses him. And she sees Jared Sondervan again, who is an old friend of her brother. Oh, and her brother Peter is Jesus, at least in her mothers mind.

Bronwen is trying to find herself, and accept who she is and trying to deal with that her mother won't accept who she really is. I'm a bit more cynical than she is, or a lot, really, but I still felt a connection with her. She's already figured out the relationship thing. You know, the one that says relationships are always good in the first few months, and you don't really get to know a person until that phase is over, and so you shouldn't say you love them until then. In the beginning of the book, she goes through this type of thing with Chad Dykstra, who just wants to have sex with her and so claims to love her. She doesn't fall for it, and I liked that.

She has a best friend, Kirsten, who gushes over everything with her. She's also very wary about Bronwen and Jared's relationship, and she talks about it with Bronwen. It might cause some problems between them, but I still liked this about her. Because she's a really good friend. (And, yea, I'm a bit envious.)

A big thing goes down near the end with Bronwen's Mother and Whitt, her step-father. Her Mother is kind of really terrible. I have a mother somewhat similar, not nearly as bad, but similar in the not listening thing. But I kind of hate her, especially because of what she did to Bronwen and Whitt. Whitt, however, is kind of awesome. He's sweet and he cares and he's funny. And it's not his fault for what happened, it's her Mothers.

Now, Jared. I love Jared. So much. He's so very sweet. And he loves Bronwen. They get along so well, too. The conversation between them is so easy, and he just goes along with all of her jokes and makes his own. They're just so cute together. He holds back kissing her for a while, and he wants to get to know her, and he loves her and wants to marry her. I love him, and I love their relationship. I want their relationship. As well as Jared's family. They care and are fun and love Bronwen like she's their own.

This book is very much about finding love as it is finding yourself. Because Bronwen finds herself, accepts herself, and she falls in love with Jared. There's a part near the end with Jared that almost made me cry, because it's so sad and I love them and they need to be together, but I know it was coming and it needed to happen because they weren't ready. But it's still heartbreaking to read.

The writing in this book is in Bronwen's point of view in the future, so she's talking about it all as she remembers it. It adds to the element of her learning all of these things. It's very smooth and calm and a bit heartbreaking.

I love this book. So very much, as I've already said. I have a bit in common with this book, and I would love to have even more in common with it. (Like Bronwen and Jared's relationship.) I think just about every teenage girls should read this book, it is that good.

Sidenote: One thing that bothered me about this book, was what it says on the back cover/inside flap, about 'if she can pass chemistry', because that's very misleading. School has very little to do with this book. It starts at the end of her junior year, then goes into the summer, and then through her senior year, and yea there's a bit about her going to college. But that doesn't have a whole lot to do with her relationship with Jared. Where she's going to college does, but she's already pretty set on that, and there isn't anything about her not passing. Very little of time is spent with her even at school. The cover is cute, though, even if the books don't have a lot to do with the story.

Review: Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner

 3/3.5 of 5 Stars

Publisher: Harlequin

Goodreads Synopsis:

Teen Genius (and Hermit) Carrie Pilby's To-Do List:1. List 10 things you love (and DO THEM!)
2. Join a club (and TALK TO PEOPLE!)
3. Go on a date (with someone you actually LIKE!)
4. Tell someone you care (your therapist DOESN'T COUNT!)
5. Celebrate New Year's (with OTHER PEOPLE!)
Seriously? Carrie would rather stay in bed than deal with the immoral, sex-obsessed hypocrites who seem to overrun her hometown, New York City. She's sick of trying to be like everybody else. She isn't! But when her own therapist gives her a five-point plan to change her social-outcast status, Carrie takes a hard look at herself—and agrees to try.
Suddenly the world doesn't seem so bad. But is prodigy Carrie really going to dumb things down just to fit in?

Review:

I was really surprised by how much I liked this one. Probably because the cover (even if I do like it,) and the headline doesn't give a very good insight as to what it's about. The synopsis doesn't give as good of an idea as it could, either. The headline and the list on the back makes it look like it's going to be a book about a teenager trying to fit in at school or with a certain bunch of people. Which is not what this book it about.

The book is about Carrie Pilby, a nineteen year old girl, who has already graduated from Harvard. She's a prodigy and she's disappointed with all of the people out there who are not as smart as she is and who all act like idiots, at least in her opinion. And because of this, she doesn't want to go out and see people.

I liked how much she thought, because she thought about a lot of things and it was all very philosophical. I had quite a bit in common with her, because I think about things like she does, (for example, when she's talk about fate).

I liked her talks with her psychologist, and with her co-workers, and it was good of her to get out. I didn't much like her relationship with Matt, although I understand that she needed to have it. It gave her someone to be with and made her grow up a little bit, since she'd skipped a bit of high school. I didn't agree with it, but I understand the meaning of it. And, after her relationship with her professor, I see why she had it.

Her relationship with her father, I kind of understand. I sympathize, a little, why she was mad at him, because she felt that he lied to her, but I think it was a little dramatic for her to be. But, I guess, she was expecting more from people after all that he'd told her, while I have more of a realistic view of it. Still, it seemed a little ridiculous of a reason.

I did like the relationship that she'd started near the end of the book, and wanted to see a little more of it.

This book took me a little bit longer than most to get through, (about a week,) and that's probably because of all the thinking that she does. But overall, I enjoyed it. And it gave me quite a bit to think about.