Manga Review: An Incurable Case of Love, Volume 1, by Maki Enjoji

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: October 2019

Volumes: 7.

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Nurse Nanase has striven to once again meet the prince of her dreams, so how is it he’s become such an aggravating doctor?!

After witnessing a handsome and charming young doctor saving a stranger’s life five years ago, Nanase Sakura trained to become a nurse. But when she meets the doctor again and they start working together, she finds Kairi Tendo to be nothing like the man she imagined him to be!

Review:

I'm a fan of Maki Enjoji, so I was excited for more to be licensed. I'm definitely going to be following this one, and I hope we get more from her and more josei in general.

Sakura thought she found her prince charming five years ago, when Tendo stepped in to save a mans life. Now that she's finally become a nurse and is given the chance to work with him, she's discovered that he's terribly rude in real life.

She immediately gets a different impression of him when she gets to work with him, but thankfully she's also found a passion in being a nurse. And he's also a good doctor, so she has to prove that she can be competent in her job, as well, and decide whether she wants to work in his department.

I found the hospital aspect of the story interesting, and I don't mind it—I have watched some medical dramas. I think some story lines were a little rushed, or maybe forced, more than went smoothly, in this volume. And even their relationship wasn't quite hitting me, I'm not sure if it was the chemistry or the characters.

This volume was just okay to me, which is a little disappointing. I hope that it gets better, as I really want to like it more.

 A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!

Novel Review: Break by Hannah Moskowitz

Genre: YA Contemporary

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Simon Pulse)

Spoilers?: No.

Available at: Amazon.

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Jonah is on a mission to break every bone in his body. Everyone knows that broken bones grow back stronger than they were before. And Jonah wants to be stronger—needs to be stronger—because everything around him is falling apart. Breaking, and then healing, is Jonah’s only way to cope with the stresses of home, girls, and the world on his shoulders.

When Jonah's self-destructive spiral accelerates and he hits rock bottom, will he find true strength or surrender to his breaking point?

Review:

I was a little bit surprised by this book. I rather enjoyed it, but it wasn’t fully what I expected.

Jonah, the main character, is determined to break all of his bones. His parents are always fighting, he has a new baby brother who is always screaming and crying, and his one-year younger brother is allergic to everything, plus there are some girl problems added to the mix.

Before reading this, I hadn’t taken into account all of the casts and disabilities and hospital visits and actual breaking of the bones that go with what Jonah is doing. I don’t know why--it seems pretty obvious--but I didn’t think about it. But jesus, Jonah is constantly in a cast, and after only, like, a week or two, he’s ready to break another bone. He’s addicted to it, and it’s horrible. I was even wincing and wanting to skip ahead (I didn’t, but I wanted to) at one scene, when he was getting ready to slam a door on his hand (just thinking about it is making me grimace). It was horrible. But I’m squeamish, and there wasn’t even quite as much description of blood or anything, so other people could probably handle all of that better than me.

I felt bad for all three of the kids because of their parents. Their parents need some freakin’ counseling or to separate or something. They are not good together; I wouldn’t be able to stand it. I also felt bad for and because of the baby, what with it always screaming for no reason (that they can find).

I really liked Jesse, Jonah’s younger brother. Jesse was sweet, and I felt bad about all of his allergies. That would suck. And not only for him, but everyone around him. And it would suck having to have someone, like Jonah, to take care of things that he can’t be around when it’s constantly around him. I would have liked seeing more of Jesse, actually, and liked the stand he took at the end of the book.

A couple of things happened with Jonah that I wasn’t expecting. Some good, some not. I do feel like he had grown a bit by the end of the book, and that’s good. I like what happened with him and the girl by the end of the book.

I don’t feel like the ending was very good. There’s just… not enough closure or something. I feel like there should have been more with the parents, with what they’re doing next, with maybe them separating or trying to work through things. And then there’s the fact that Jonah broke out of this place, and I don’t understand how they wouldn’t be looking for him or wanting to send him back in. I feel like there are a couple of loose strings that I wanted finished.

I liked the writing style, and most of the chapters were rather short, which helped in making this a pretty fast read. There were a lot, and I mean a lot, of short sentences in a row all the time. It made the reading feel a little choppy, which is sometimes good, and it did grow on me, but it bothered me a bit at first.

Overall, I did quite enjoy this book, and am looking forward to reading Moskowitz’s other books.

Review: The River Between Us by Richard Peck

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Puffin (Penguin)

Goodreads Synopsis:

The year is 1861. Civil war is imminent and Tilly Pruitt's brother, Noah, is eager to go and fight on the side of the North. With her father long gone, Tilly, her sister, and their mother struggle to make ends meet and hold the dwindling Pruitt family together. Then one night a mysterious girl arrives on a steamboat bound for St. Louis. Delphine is unlike anyone the small river town has even seen. Mrs. Pruitt agrees to take Delphine and her dark, silent traveling companion in as boarders. No one in town knows what to make of the two strangers, and so the rumors fly. Is Delphine's companion a slave? Could they be spies for the South? Are the Pruitts traitors? A masterful tale of mystery and war, and a breathtaking portrait of the lifelong impact one person can have on another.

Review:

 

I actually rather enjoyed this book. I wasn't expecting to, since I am usually not too big a fan of historical novels (or much of history in general), and I was only reading it because of book club. But this was actually pretty good.

There are separate beginning and ending parts that are in a different point of view, which are pretty good. I liked them better at the end, but that's only because I actually knew who the people were. The middle is in Tilly's point of view, the sister of Noah, who goes into the civil war later in the book. And her family takes in these two girls, who they assume are from the rebels side and who they don't really know the origin of but guess on.

I liked Tilly, and it's written as she's telling it to the boy from the beginning and end (which I didn't understand at first, but should have), which makes it more interesting than if it were just written in present or past tense. Because she knows that things are going to happen and is telling him ahead of time, that things are coming, and sums up some things with the war or when someone does something. It made it easy to read.

And the rest of the characters are rather well written as well. I liked Delphine and found her really interesting, and enjoyed reading about her. As I did Calinda and Cass, even if there wasn't quite as much of them. And Noah.

And I didn't even mind the civil war parts. Which is probably because Tilly mostly heard about it, and when she did get to be kind of a part of it, she was in the hospital parts. And so I did enjoy those parts as well. I also like reading about how they lived back in 1861, how everything we have cheap now was very expensive, and how they rarely had mirrors, things that I hadn't really thought about; that was interesting.

So it was pretty good, and I did enjoy it quite a bit (at one point, I even found myself wanting to read it instead of doing something else).