Manga Review: Black Bird, Volume 15, by Kanoko Sakurakouji

Rating (Out of 5): ~4-4.5

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 17

Spoilers?: Yes, majorly.

Goodreads Synopsis:

  

He loves her blood, but does her love her?!Reads R to L (Japanese Style).

There is a world of myth and magic that intersects ours, and only a special few can see it. Misao Harada is one such person, and she wants nothing to do with magical realms. She just wants to have a normal high school life and maybe get a boyfriend. But she is the bride of demon prophecy, and her blood grants incredible powers, her flesh immortality. Now the demon realm is fighting over the right to her hand...or her life!
Sho's death should have meant a return to peace for Misao and Kyo, once they came to terms with their guilt. But instead Misao finds herself displaying strange new powers she can't quite control. Is this just the next stage for her as the Senka Maiden, or is something more sinister going on…?

Available on Amazon.

Review:

This series is almost over, you guys. There are only two volumes left, and probably six months between those two volumes’ release dates (ugh). I could tell, with this volume, that there are only a couple volumes left, and while it will probably be sad to see the series end, I’m looking forward to seeing how it happens.

Oh, this review is going to have some major spoilers, just to let you know.

For the first, maybe, two volumes, the story is pretty light-hearted, aside from some worrying about what’s going on with Misao. They find out that she is killing the creatures that come up to attack her, and they’re assuming that she’s doing it herself, and has somehow gotten powers. But, at the same time, she’s also been feeling a little under the weather, always tired and having weird eating habits.

At the same time, she’s also thinking about what she wants to do with her life. Everyone around her is deciding, but she has no idea. All she’s ever wanted, and all she still wants, is to be with Kyo, and she cant think of anything else. And then she decides, and talks to Kyo about how, she wants to be his bride. There’s a lot entailed in being a house wife, and that’s what she wants to do. He’s at first a bit hesitant, wanting to make sure that she’s sure that’s what she wants, but he accepts. Now, I understand that this is what she wants to do, and that it is all some people want to do, but I have a hard time being happy about it. I mean, she should aspire to something bigger. But I can accept it, I guess.

And then she realizes that it’s been a while since her last period.

Now, I wasn’t expecting this turn of events, not particularly up to the point she found out but that the story was heading in that direction from the start of the volume, but I wasn’t all that surprised. It makes some sense.

Anyway, she talks to Kyo immediately (which, good, she didn’t take forever thinking about it first), and he’s very supportive to whatever she decides (also very good. This, along with the making sure she knows what she wants, and giving her time, and taking such good care of her, have enforced my feelings for him. He's a great boyfriend). Of course, she’s very worried, but decides she wants to keep it, and everyone is very excited. Then they talk to her parents, and that goes over rather well; they even mention telling her parents that Kyo’s a demon sometime in the future, which should be interesting.

From then until the last chapter things are going rather well; they’re happy, teasing, making out, going to the beach, including a very cute scene where Misao falls and Kyo catches her, and Kyo and Misao talking with Misao's friends. And then there’s an attack on Kyo’s house. It doesn’t go very well, but they capture someone, and it's what he tells them that ruins all their happiness.

I’m not going to ruin what is revealed to them (gotta keep some secrets), but it’s not good, and you can probably guess.

I kind of love this series, and I’m really excited to find out what happens, to see what they do about it, how the series ends. I’m sure it’ll have a happy ending, but I’m looking forward to seeing how it happens. The wait is going to be horrible, but not much I can do about that.

Manga Review: King of the Lamp by Takako Shigematsu

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Publisher: Go! Comi

Volumes: 1/One-shot

Spoilers?: Some.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Be careful what you wish for Long ago, the king of a far-away land made too many enemies by expanding his massive harem. Punished and sealed away in the form of a genie, the lecherous former-king can only end his curse by helping 1,000 girls find love

Available on Amazon.

Review:

As I’ve stated before, I always hope to really enjoy these types of books. I’m always looking for one-shots, and especially for smutty ones, and always if it's from a company that I like, which I am a fan of Go! Comi, and was upset when they closed (particularly since there was no warning, they just kind of disappeared [as far as I know]). This one I wasn’t aware was smutty until I got it, nor was I aware that I had read some of the author's other series (one and two, both of which were much better than this), but I had been wanting to find it. And, after reading it, I’m a little disappointed.

Firstly, I had thought there was going to be a love story with the genie, but there wasn’t. Why wasn’t there? Instead, he got to kiss and maybe grope the girls he was working for, and I don’t see why they all let him. They’re supposed to be devoted to the guy they love, and yet they’ll make-out with the genie? That bothered me, but whatever.

My main problem with this book is how the romance was portrayed. Every time, the girl went after the guy, they got a genie to help them get his affection in some shallow or dumb or cowardly way, and there was always a scene where the guy that the girl ‘loved’ got violent or angry and pushed her around. That part annoyed me every time; it was always for some stupid reason, but the guy would get upset about something and push her down, force himself on her, and she just took it, usually weakly exclaiming 'no' or something similar. Usually it was interrupted in some way so the girl could explain to him how she felt and what had happened to calm him down, but the girl never got angry or fought back. That’s… wrong. Now, I don't know about any one else (although I don't think you should think differently), but if some guy tried forcing himself on me, whether I liked the guy or not, I would not want anything to do with him, ever again. So, to me, that’s the wrong way to react to that sort of situation.

There was also one scene from one of the stories, the first one, Ryoko’s Situation, where the girl confesses to him and he asks why he should go out with her, and she tells him because she’s more experienced and can teach him a few things. Aside from the fact that this is a lie, and lying about that it dumb, I can’t like the guy because of the fact that he asked “What’s in it for me?”, and yet she’s for some reason in love with him and trying to act more experienced. And then at the end he says that he’s in love with her and always has been; well, then, I don’t care if he was nervous, that was an asshole thing to say and he shouldn’t have said it.

Now, saying that, there were a couple of stories that I did actually like. The concept of Mayu’s Situation was interesting, even if the way she went about it, asking to be turned into a little kid to get closer to him, was dumb. Hinata’s Situation, where the boy is temporarily blind, was alright. I didn’t like how the girl pretended to be her sister, and the ending seemed cliché and/or rushed, but their relationship and their getting close wasn't too bad.

I did quite like I’ll Kill You With A Kiss; it was interesting, a little different, and I liked the characters and what happened. That one was probably my favorite, even if the girl was a bit dumb at times. The last one, Chicken That Flies in the Sky, is obviously a much earlier work for the artist, and there wasn’t much to it, but it was kind of cute.

The smut was pretty good, even if it was at times rushed, and I didn’t like the forceful parts of it.

This book was not horrible, but it was not really even close to being one of my favorites.

Novel Review: Easy by Kerry Cohen Hoffmann

Genre: YA Contemporary

Rating (Out of 5): ~2-2.5

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Spoilers?: Minor/Vague?

Goodreads Synopsis:

Easy. At the ripe young age of fourteen Jessica has discovered that getting the attention she wants is just that—easy. It’s not the attention of a divorced mother who spends all of her time grieving over a broken marriage. Nor is it that of a father with a new girlfriend who’s moving on with his life. It’s certainly not the attention of a clueless older sister or a best friend since grade school who still acts like she’s in grade school. No. For some reason being noticed by her friends and family seems to have become almost impossible. Boys—and men—are a different matter altogether. With the right clothes and attitude, Jessica realizes that she can get all the male attention she wants.

What she doesn’t realize is how easy it is to get more than you’re ready for.

In this compelling and often harrowing novel for teen readers, first-time author Kerry Cohen Hoffmann delves into the mind of a teenage girl as she attempts to replace the shifting relationships with friends and family with sexual exploration.
With candid storytelling rooted in years of personal experience, Mrs. Hoffmann offers a searing look at how easy it is to take a wrong turn in search for the right answers.

Available on Amazon.

Review:

I didn’t have too high expectations for this book, but I did think it would be better than it was.

I didn’t like Jessica very much, and while I kind of understood where she was coming from, that she wanted attention, I didn’t like it. I kind of feel like she could have gotten attention from the people already around her, had she tried to get closer to them, but instead she went somewhere else. Instead, she decided to go after guys, and generally guys that were not good for her. And then, I didn’t like how she treated her friends, or what she did about the guy she liked, or generally just the people around her. And, really, the way she handled the guy she liked just drove me crazy a couple of times. It was kind of dumb, and I didn’t like it, even if there’s maybe a very tiny bit of sympathy thrown toward her as well, just because she didn’t know any better, and she needed to grow up but had to do some things to get there.

And then I didn’t really like the resolution near the end. The whole ‘slut’ thing. I just don’t feel like she learned quite the message that she could have. Yea, she grew up and decided she didn’t need men anymore and got closer with the people around her, but she didn’t really learn to move past the slut thing. I believe that she still considers what she did a slut kind of thing, and I’m not even too sure if she moved past that word when it comes to Tiffany, the 'school slut' just because her breasts grew big earlier than everyone else.

I actually would have liked to know more about Tiffany; I don’t feel like her character got as expanded as it could have been. I would have liked to know more about why she showed her breasts, and how she handled it afterward, and what kind of ‘slutty’ things she’s actually done as opposed to what everyone around her ostracizes her for.

I did, however, like the ending. The boy she meets at the end sounds cute, but beyond that, I like that she has decided to focus on her friends and family, not ignore them like she did before. That was good for her.

At first, I felt like her getting over the whole boys thing happened too fast, without enough reason or showing us that she really understood, but thinking back on it, I actually think it went about all right.

Lastly, her family. I like that Jessica got closer to her father and his girlfriend. I understand why her sister is mad at him, and yea her father is to blame for that, but they need to move on at some point. And, I don’t like their mother very much at all. I understand that she’s upset over what happened, but she needs to move on, get over what happened, and stop being such a crybaby that needs her kids to take care of her. The way she was always crying and Jessica’s sister was always there to take care of her drove me crazy; that’s not how a parent should be acting, and she deserved the harsh words that Jessica gave her.

Also, it’s kind of pointed out that their mother might have even been aware of the affair while it was happening but chose to ignore it, and if so, then she should have done something about it earlier and not been in denial about it, because that might have lessened the pain a bit.

This book kind of angered me at points, at several points, but it wasn’t completely horrible. It definitely didn’t keep me glued to the pages, as I didn’t even want to read it at a few points, would have put it down without sorrow, but maybe that’s just me. Maybe someone else will enjoy it much more than I did.

Teaser Tuesday[28]: The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year that I Truly, Completely Lost It by Lisa Shanahan

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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Hey there! So, the holidays are over, school is back in session, stores are already stocking up for Valentines Days. I am not ready for any of this. Why is the break over already? How did it go by so fast? Why am I back in school already, taking all these classes with all this homework and crap like that? I don’t like it; got to deal with it either way, though.

Kind of slowly reading at the moment, but here’s this moment’s book:

The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year I Truly, Completely Lost It by Lisa Shanahan

Genre: YA Contemporary (I think Romance, maybe?)

Publisher: Random House (Delacorte Press)

Publish Date: 2006 in Australia, 2007 in the U.S.

Goodreads Synopsis:

IN MY FAMILY, when anyone rides the wave of their emotions, we say they're chucking a birkett. When the emotion drives out all common sense, we say they're chucking a big one. The telltale signs are: flaming cheeks, shortness of breath, bulging eyes, and a prolonged illogical outburst.

Gemma Stone is convinced that it's always unseemly to chuck a birkett and that it's actually insane to chuck one in front of a complete stranger. But that was before she fell for a boy who barely knows she exists, before she auditioned for the school play, before she met the family of freaks her sister Debbie is marrying into, before the unpredictable Raven De Head took an interest in her, and before she realized that at the right time and for the right reason, a birkett could be a beautiful thing.

Excerpt:

“I pushed the trolley forward. It veered right and clipped the edge of the shelf. One after the other, like bricks in a crumbling castle, cereal boxes popped out and tumbled down.

‘Help,’ I said, crouching and covering my head against a barrage of cereal.” (Hardback, pg. 164)

That was surprisingly hard to find a (at least somewhat) good quote, but there you go.

Go ahead and let me know what you’re currently reading, or how excited you are that school is back in session (if that affects your life at all), or anything else you want to say. Hope you have a good Tuesday (or whatever day it is that you’re reading this)!