By Yu Sakurai and Kasumi Nagi. Released in Japan as “Tenseisaki de Suterareta no de, Mofumofu-tachi to Oryouri Shimasu: Okazari Ouhi wa My Pace ni Saikyou desu” by M Novels F. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Emma Schumacker.

Having spent most of the first book giving us the setup for the series in general, I was surprised at how quickly this second volume maneuvers to ‘slow life cooking novel’. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still political intrigue galore, but for the most part Laetitia is not being attacked herself, and she only has to break out her ‘scary smile’ once. She’s happy and content, and that means she has real smiles now. True, she’s still not managed to figure out the true identity of His Majesty, but that’s not really her fault, and all of the lessons that her brothers pounded into her about anything and everything come in very handy. Indeed, the only time she actually gets upset is when she realizes that she’s starting to lose her Japanese memories – she can no longer recall her own name, and various other things are going as well. This is a one-way isekai street.

The book is essentially a) Laetitia makes food, and b) Laetitia makes peace. We se her trying endless strawberry menu items, as well as inventing sandwiches, which she gives out to all the workers helping build a clearing a dog house… erm, griffin house, as well as to King Glenreed, who is finally learning to enjoy the wonders of food, especially once the queen brings the equivalent of a hotplate so the food hasn’t gotten cold by being tested for poisons before he eats it. Elsewhere, she’s helping Natalie, the disgraced queen candidate from the first book, slowly recover her status and learn how not to behave like a robot. She also meets two more candidates – Kate, a fiery catgirl who is every stereotype you could imagine when I say that, and her scheming sister Sienna, as well as I-Liena, who is savvy, smart, knows when to hold em and when to fold em, and is apparently lying about something, though we may need another book to find out what that is.

Laetitia is, for those who try to avoid this sort of thing, a bit too perfect here, if we’re being honest – but frankly, I think that’s what most readers want to read about. She’s kind to Natalie and Kate, she figures out Sienna’s tricks and helps to take her down, and she even exchanged one word with the mysterious 4th Queen candidate, who shows up in this book but does nothing and then disappears. I suspect her of being final boss material. She also gets to go riding on her griffin at one point, and is the very definition of “living the dream”. That said, she still thinks of herself as a figurehead queen, as does the nation, though I suspect very soon folks are going to guess that the King is starting to fall hard for said figurehead… which will lead to a lot of political fallout.

So yes, if you enjoy slow life cooking, this is a good read; if you enjoy women being polite to each other while scheming, this is also a good read, and if you just like seeing a sweet woman be really sweet to everyone around her who love her in turn, then it’s that as well. All the major angsty drama seems put off for future books – this is a comfy blanket sort of volume.

Oh yes, she invents pizza too.