Category: Book Reviews

[Manga Monday] My Girlfriend Gives Me Goosebumps!

Stitch

Title: My Girlfriend Gives Me Goosebumps!

Creator: Shunsuke Iino

Demographic: Shonen

Themes: Psychological, Thriller, Drama, Romance, Slice of Life, Stalking, Yandere

Status: Ongoing (with English Simulpub) 

Published By: MangaPlus/Shueisha

LINK

Official Summary:

Meet Haruka Kawatsuji, a young boy who miraculously survived a fall from his apartment’s balcony as a child. Unfortunately, despite his best efforts to find that same thrill in sports and horror movies, he’s never quite managed to feel as alive since. However, that may all be about to change in a fateful encounter with one very eccentric girl!

Thinky Thoughts

I don’t have a ton to say about this as I’m reading it right now. Like as I write this, I have my phone on my bed and I’m powering through the chapters. Normally, I try to recommend things I’m thinking about for a a while or in some serious depth but… with this? I had to recommend it because this series is fully a freak for freak relationship of a kind I rarely see outside of R18 media or seinen series.

Read More »

[Manga Monday] Godchild

Stitch

Title: Godchild

Creator: Kaori Yuki

Demographic: Shojo

Themes: historical fiction, European setting, crime and punishment, murder mysteries, supernatural, incest, romance, horror, fairytales, mad science, and tragedy

Status: Complete and fully translated

Published By: VIZ (North America), Hakusensha (Japan)

LINK

Official Summary:

Deep in the heart of 19th Century London, a young nobleman named Cain walks the shadowy cobblestone streets of the aristocratic society in which he was born. Forced to become an Earl upon the untimely death of his father, Cain assumes the role of head of the Hargreaves, a noble family with a dark past. With Riff, his faithful manservant, and Mary Weather, his 10-year-old adopted sister, Cain investigates the mysterious crimes that seem to follow him wherever he goes.

Thinky Thoughts

The sequel to the original Earl Cain series (first published in 1991), Kaori Yuki’s Godchild is one of the single most formative pieces of media in my life. Honestly, between this and Angel Sanctuary, Kaori Yuki’s body of work has actually shaped a huge portion of my interests and personality. Even my early writing as a tadpole owes to her brilliant worldbuilding, capable writing, and gorgeous art. 

Read More »

[Manga Monday] Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator

Stitch

Title: Brutal: Confessions of a Homicide Investigator

Creator: Kei Koga (Original Story) and Ryo Izawa (Art and adaptation)

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: crime and punishment, serial killers, thriller, horror

Status: On indefinite hiatus but fully translated 

Published By: Tokuma Shoten

LINK

Official Summary:

There is a man who delivers the most painful death to hardened criminals the law can’t judge: Hiroki Dan, Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division. The son of the former commissioner, he seems to be on a solid career path. But in secret, he’s a serial killer who’s murdered over 100 criminals. An eye-for-eye murder suspense story begins in this spinoff of “Trace: Forensic Scientific Researcher’s Recollections.”

Thinky Thoughts

I nearly bit through my hand while reading the first chapter of Brutal.

Read More »

[Manga Monday] Don’t Blush, Sekime-San!

Stitch1 Comment

Title: Don’t Blush, Sekime-san!

Creator: Shigure Tokita

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: first love, contemporary, high school romance, romcom, classmates

Status: Completed and Fully Translated

Published By: Shueisha

LINK

Official Summary:

His girlfriend is super popular, but he’s the only one who sees her turn bright-red! A rom-com about a boy and his over-embarrassed girlfriend!

Thinky Thoughts

Don’t Blush, Sekime-San! sits at the same table as Komi Can’t Communicate and The Dangers in My Heart. All three series are those contemporary male fantasies where a short semi-loser and a tall girl that’s just a little weird (or a lot weird, in Anna Yamada’s case in the third series) wind up in a warm relationship after some trouble. The difference between the three series is that Don’t Blush, Sekime-San!… isn’t about an easily overlooked guy or a loser. (I say this with warmth because I like Tadano from Komi and Dangers stars a Junpei Yoshino-looking little freak that I adore.)

Read More »

Manga Monday: An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess

Stitch

Title: An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess

Creator: Shiki (author) + Natume Hasumi (illustrator)

Demographic: Shojo

Themes: villainess, romance, fantasy, comedy

Status: Completed + Fully Translated to English

Published By: Alpha Manga

LINK: Kindle (3 Volumes) + Full series on Alpha Manga

Official Summary:

Because Prince Cecil is extraordinarily intelligent, life is boring for him. His days are without much excitement, but he becomes engaged to Bertia, the daughter of a marquis. The first thing she says to him when they first meet is quite baffling. She claims she is the “villainous heroine” in the story of his life!! According to Bertia, she has memories of her previous life. In a certain “romance game” she played in her life before, she played the character of the “villainess.” Her purpose in her new life is to become an exemplary villainess and ruin the prince’s engagement. In order to achieve this goal, Bertia does one outrageous thing after another and brings chaos and confusion into his life. A unique “love” story with a twist!!

Read More »

Dealing With What Docile Doesn’t

Stitch21 Comments

This is not actually a review of K. M. Szpara’s Docile.

Not really.

It’s a review of what the novel doesn’t deal with and what people are clearly getting out of it in publishing and fandom spaces.

Docile is a near-future dystopian work of erotic science fiction where people in debt sell themselves into something that’s in-between indentured servitude and the horrors of the historic slavery in the United States. The book revolves around Elisha – who sells himself into debt so that his younger sister won’t be subjected to the traumatizing effects of service – and Alex – the trillionaire who buys Elisha, tries to break him, and then… quelle suprise… falls in love with him. 

The novel reminds me of Captive Prince and Ai no Kusabi, two series that deal with male/male relationships and sexual(ized) slavery in one capacity or another within the main story… and the fandom responses to both of those things absolutely reminds me of Docile’s intense early defenders who’ve already shown up to fret about “antis” coming for their slavefic. 

(And when the antis in question include Black people and anti-racist allies simply annoyed at yet another white author going “look at this thing that happened to Black people, what if something similar happened to my white main characters”… Yikes.)

Read More »

A Little Queer-Lady Rec List

Stitch

This rec list highlights some of my favorite reads for stories focusing on a queer female main character. I also tried to get a good balance focusing on diversity among authors and their characters!!

Title: Bloodbath

Author: Stephanie Ahn

Why You Should Read This Hella Gay Book:

I adore Stephanie. ADORE. Stephanie is an up and coming urban fantasy writer who takes trope and genre subversion to a whole other level with her Harrietta Lee series. I’ve reviewed Bloodbath and Deadline before and a constant across both reviews is how much I can’t stop loving Harry’s ridiculous ass. I don’t know if I want to be her bossy friend or gently kiss her face (or both??).

Read More »

Bloodbath (Harietta Lee #2) by Stephanie Ahn

Stitch2 Comments

Bloodbath Cover

I spent a lot of time reading Bloodbath (Harrietta Lee #2) and wondering how on earth Harry manages to make it from one day to the next. To be fair, I’m pretty sure that she has no idea how she’s managed to survive as long as she has either.

In case y’all somehow missed me talking her up, Stephanie Ahn is currently my favorite urban fantasy writer in the game.

Her first book, Deadline, left me stunned by how amazing it was. My introduction to Harry, a dashing and disgraced witch booted from her community after making a bad call and dabbling in some demonic magic that led to the death of her mentor, really changed the way that I flat out looked at the urban fantasy genre.Read More »

[Book Review] Em Ali’s Graham’s Delicacies (+ Aesthetic)

Stitch

Pretend this review went up uh… yesterday as I lost track of days again… Please and thank you.

Graham's Delicacies Cover

Em Ali’s Graham’s Delicacies is a super cute follow-up to her previous book Soft on Soft. This collection is home to a trio of interconnected stories about the various intimate relationships between the people work at the titular bakery.

I got a copy of the collection from the author in exchange for an honest review and the chance to read a book about non-binary cuties, so let’s get started by diving into the stories!Read More »

[Small Stitch Reviews] Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7)

Stitch

Note: This short review contains some spoilers for the previous book in the series.

lies sleeping cover

Lies Sleeping, the seventh novel in Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series, is so good that I stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning – on a day I had to wake up at 5:30am – to finish it. Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series is one of my all-time favorite urban fantasy series and the list of things I love about it would take up several single spaced pages in one of my notebooks.Read More »

[Book Review] Once Ghosted, Twice Shy (Reluctant Royals #2.5) by Alyssa Cole

Stitch5 Comments

Note: I received a copy of this novella from the publisher as part of my participation in the blog tour for Pure Textuality  in exchange for an honest review. (Pure Textuality is also hosting a giveaway of a paperback of the first novel in the series! Yay giveaways!!)

Book Cover - One Ghosted Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole.jpg

SUMMARY

Alyssa Cole returns with a fun, sexy romance novella in the Reluctant Royals series!

While her boss the prince was busy wooing his betrothed, Likotsi had her own love affair after swiping right on a dating app. But her romance had ended in heartbreak, and now, back in NYC again, she’s determined to rediscover her joy—so of course she runs into the woman who broke her heart.

When Likotsi and Fabiola meet again on a stalled subway train months later, Fab asks for just one cup of tea. Likotsi, hoping to know why she was unceremoniously dumped, agrees. Tea and food soon leads to them exploring the city together, and their past, with Fab slowly revealing why she let Likotsi go, and both of them wondering if they can turn this second chance into a happily ever after.

 

REVIEW

At this point in my life as a romance reader, I can safely say that I love Alyssa Cole’s writing more than I love naps. If you know anything about me, you’ll how much time I spend sleeping at the most ridiculous parts of the day and how much napping is part of my “routine” Me saying that her writing is better than the naps I take at least once a day? Now, that is a serious claim to make.Read More »

[Book Review] Minimum Wage Magic (DFZ #1) by Rachel Aaron

Stitch

Minimum Wage Magic - Cover.jpg

Fantasy writer Rachel Aaron has had one hell of a year in publishing. She’s teamed up with her husband Travis to write Forever Fantasy Online (the first in a trilogy of fantasy novels), published Garrison Girl, an original novel set in the Attack on Titan universe, and opened up the year by releasing the fifth and final book in her amazing Heartstrikers series, Last Dragon Standing.

Her newest release, Minimum Wage Magic, returns to the Heartstrikers series main setting, the Detroit Free Zone (DFZ for short) with a new cast of main characters and a DFZ that is the most stable it’s been in a while. Set twenty years after the original series, this novel revolves around Opal Yong-ae, a freelance mage that works as Cleaner in the city, who fumbles her way into a mystery when she finds the dead body of a mage in one of the apartment she’s supposed to be cleaning.Read More »

[Review] A Duke by Default (Reluctant Royals #2) by Alyssa Cole

Stitch2 Comments

A Duke By Default Cover.jpg

I only recently bought Alyssa Cole’s A Duke By Default so I missed out on months of basking in this glorious and delightful novel (because my local library never got around to purchasing it on my request). But I have read this book and it is everything I’d hoped it’d be.

Now, I’m a diehard Alyssa Cole fan. I seriously stan her because she’s a wonderful writer, a fellow Caribbean islander, and she always manages to get me super invested in her characters. She’s another writer that could write a grocery list and have me pleading to read it because it’d be art on scratch paper.

So it can’t be a surprise that I genuinely loved the second book in her Reluctant Royals series, A Duke by Default.Read More »