Lacey Longs for Freedom: The Dawn Witch’s Low-Key Life after Defeating the Demon King, Vol. 2

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By Hyogo Amagasa and Kyouichi. Released in Japan as “Akatsuki no Majo Lacey wa Jiyū ni Ikitai” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Alex Honton.

This book leans very, very strongly into Lacey’s introversion and tendency to rebuff all praise, and it’s the better for it, because the premise of the series is not really “will she get together with Wayne?” – this isn’t a romance, though there’s elements – but rather it’s “will she learn to love herself and accept that she’s a genius who comes up with amazing ideas no one else could think of?” And by no one else, I mean no one else in the magical land she’s a part of, living in a small village. Because honestly, scented sachets and insulated bags to keep things cool are things that seem obvious to us, a modern reader. But they take the country by storm – which is possibly not a good thing, as they’re getting far too much attention, and for someone whose wish to the king was that she wanted to be free, that’s bad news. Lacey is going to have to fight for freedom rather than just long for it.

Lacey’s opened her “Anything” shop, but she’s having trouble getting customers, mostly as the village saw the superpowers she used in the last book and don’t want to bother her with things that aren’t all that much. That said, when she hears Allen’s family talking about how they want cold drinks in the heat of summer, she comes up with an insulated bag to keep cool things cool and warm things warm. After this, her former party member Dana drops by, both to reconnect with Lacey and to consult her on the muscle and head pain she’s got from dealing with nobles too much. (The answer is: sleep.) Unfortunately, one of those nobles is rather desperate to get a hold of the creator of these super-popular inventions, and he’s not above kidnapping people – or, for that matter, murdering people – to get what he wants.

Lacey’s journey to self-confidence is slow, and still a work in progress, but she makes tremendous strides here. She’s helped by Wayne, who’s probably the weak point of the book – he’s basically the perfect boyfriend, patiently waiting for her to figure it out, and also helping her behind the scenes to make sure she’s happy. I wish he had more flaws. Lacey has plenty of those, as she constantly denies her own cleverness by pointing out how much everyone else contributed to her idea, and of course is still hiding her true identity because she feels she can’t live up to the Dawn Witch in everyone’s head. The running theme in this book is seeing her crouch down on the ground and pull her huge witch’s hat over her head to hide from anything that overwhelms her. By the end of the book, having stood up for herself and those she’s now vowed to protect, she doesn’t need the hat anymore, and it symbolically blows away in a scene that is (chef’s kiss).

So definitely still enjoying this. But I think the third volume only recently came out in Japan, so it might be a bit before we get more. Recommended for introverts who love to painfully identify with the heroine.

Disowned But Not Disheartened! Life Is Good with Overpowered Magic, Vol. 1

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By Riko Saiki and Baracan. Released in Japan as “Ie wo Oidasaremashita ga, Genki ni Kurashiteimasu: Cheat na Mahou to Zensei Chishiki de Kaiteki Benri na Second Life!” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Grant U.

Sometimes you get an author who doesn’t quite get why a thing is popular. They see that the Narou site has a lot of those “Cinderella” style light novels these days, starring a girl who’s been through a lot but things get better for her. Add a touch of isekai and otome game, and you’ve got an automatic winner, right? Except no, you actually have to put in the work. You cannot simply have three to four pages of tragic backstory and then have our heroine be absolutely fine the rest of the book. What’s more, you have to actually have a heroine. Plucky girl is not enough by itself, she needs to somehow grow and change throughout the book. Unfortunately, this is one of those books where the author did not get the memo. And as a result, we’re left with someone who would never be disheartened, because honestly, everything goes their way. What if Cinderella grew up with the prince?

When she’s three years old, Tafelina develops a rare mana destabilization… and then suddenly her hair and eyes change color. Naturally, her father reacts to this the only way he can: by strapping a three-year-old to the side of a horse and letting it run out of his territory. Fortunately, when we meet her, now nicknamed Lera, she’s been rescued by her uncle and has grown up in the earldom of Peylon, which she describes as being full of “meatheads” but is, in reality, filled with powerful monster slayers and magical geniuses… none more so than Lera herself, whose memories from her past life in Japan (come on, you can’t say you’re surprised) allow her to come up with amazing invention ideas that research teams can turn into money makers. Now she’s thirteen, and what do all teenagers do in books like these? They go to the academy, of course.

I kept being annoyed at the way this book did things. The Cinderella amounts to the prologue and one point in the main story where she’s shown to an attic by a prejudiced dorm head. Other than that, she’s got an adopted family who adore her, friends who admire her, and a knight who seemingly falls in love with her at first sight and is asking if she’s engaged yet. Those who dislike her are all evil cartoons, particularly the “other” Tafelina, who her father brought in to replace her after running her out of town on a mare. Most annoyingly, Lera doesn’t have enough of a personality to carry a book like this. She’s already super powerful, so doesn’t really learn much in classes, and she rarely gets angry or overexcited about anything, so we’re mostly left with a narrative “meh”. The one big conflict we’re promised, the downfall of her birth family, doesn’t happen, and is clearly being saved for Book 2.

Even the names in this book are annoying and hard to remember. Skip it.

A Cozy Life in the Woods with the White Witch, Vol. 1

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By MOJIKAKIYA and syow. Released in Japan as “Shiro Majo-san to no Henkyō Gurashi ~Saikyō na Majo wa Nonbiri Kurashitai~” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Amanogawa Tenri.

I wasn’t originally going to try this series – again, contrary to popular belief, I don’t read everything – but I decided to pick it up after I saw it was from the author of My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Ranked Adventurer, which I quite enjoyed. That one had the author trying out the “raise a daughter that they picked up somewhere” mini-genre, though thankfully without the “and then marry them” part of that same genre. This seems to have the author trying out another genre to write in, that being the “slow life” type, though there’s also a dash of “kicked out of the party” to start us off. It’s very good at the slow life too, for good and ill. Good because I’m not really a fan of “I try to have a slow life but have to keep saving the world” books. Bad because the first half is really pretty boring. And if you’re waiting for our protagonist to do something OP, keep waiting.

Tori is part of the Platinum Adventurer group the Muddy Four Horns. That said, he’s not really a fighter, so provides backline support for them, such as cooking and cleaning. When they decide to combine several parties into one big elite one, Tori is informed by the guild manager and the rest of his party (who seem a bit reluctant) that he’s fired. As he walks along after this, he runs into a huge elderly woman, the famous White Witch, who has literally come looking for him, in order to put her life in order. Despite attempting to be bitter and sarcastic about it, Tori is whisked away to her cottage… where he finds that a) the huge elderly White Witch is a disguise, and she’s actually young and cute; and b) she’s an utter slob and her cottage is a disaster area. But a job is a job, so he gets down to work.

This feels kind of like the gender reverse of a typical shoujo manga, where a bunch of men sleep, eat, fight and make messes until a girl comes into their lives, cleans up, and forces them to straighten up. Fortunately for us, there’s no harem antics here – mostly as Euphemia, the witch, makes it very clear to her other familiars that Tori is HERS. The love story starts off a bit forced, in my opinion, mostly held back by Tori’s self-hatred and Euphemia’s lack of emotional knowledge, but her solution to “how to get him to stay with me forever” not only drives the rest of the book but amused me. If you’re going to attract a man, go big and solve ALL his friend’s problems so he never worries about them again. The other surprise is that Tori is not involved in any of the action – there’s quite a few battles here, especially at the climax, but Tori really DOES have no really good combat ability, as opposed to others in the genre, and so he stays home, cooks, and cleans. And as a reward he gets a hot witch girlfriend. This is still a title written for teenage boys.

Theoretically, this could easily be a one-shot, as it wraps everything up, but there’s a second volume coming, so I guess we’ll see. This isn’t as good as My Daughter Left the Nest, but it isn’t too bad.