By Ehito and Koyukomu. Released in Japan as “Konyakusha no Uwaki Genba wo Michatta no de Hajimari no Kane ga Narimashita” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Chris Craigo.

Lately I’ve really been getting blindsided by picking up Volume 2 of a series and discovering that the series actually ends there. It makes sense. Especially in the genre of books we see with J-Novel Heart, long-runners are not the norm. Romance novels don’t really need three-volume tournament arcs to drag things out, and those that do run forever, like Bakarina, tend to be popular for reasons other than who Katarina will end up with. On the down side, this means we are essentially done with Sophie’s old kingdom, and we do not return to see how they manage to fix things now that Sophie has abandoned it. On the bright side, this means we get a lot more of the two eccentric characters we met last time, and find out exactly what their deal is. As you can imagine, things are very fraught and complicated. Fortunately, Sophie is finding that she’s not only a magic powerhouse but also enjoys sociopathy. In small doses.

Yes, that’s right, as the cover shows, Sophie picks up a new animal familiar, and they’re huge. As Sophie, Livio, Vyce and Lunetta make their way out of the town that had the monster attack, they come across an injured monster bear, and Lunetta asks Sophie to heal it to see exactly what her magic potential is. When Sophie manages to do so, it turns out that the injured bear is really an injured god, and it’s now content to get named by Sophie and become her cuddly but powerful bear familiar. Sophie and Livio want to go to the country of not-Japan, off to the East, so that they can eat delicious food. But Vyce wants them to stop by his kingdom first, partly as Sophie is making her first friend with Lunetta, who is making her first friend with Sophie, but also has he wants to recruit them. Unfortunately, we may have to deal with Lunetta’s tragic past first.

This is not quite as good as the first book, mostly as it does not have the sheer lunacy of Sophie’s family and royalty back in her old kingdom. Vyce and Lunetta are very likeable characters, but they’re also very familiar types, so there’s far fewer surprises. Even Lunetta’s tragic past, which turns out to go back many, many generations, is less about how awful it was and more about allowing Lunetta to show real emotions and let off some steam so that she can stop being an emotionless magic nerd drone. The main reason to enjoy this series, like the previous book, is the absolute syrupy sweetness of Sophie and Livio’s love affair, which is just sugary as hell, deliberately so, and also to see Sophie gradually start to accept that she does in fact have positive qualities and is not in fact a terrible person, which, given she’s about three weeks away from a lifetime of abuse, is slow going.

Now, the webnovel is ongoing, so certainly more volumes could be in the cards. But I dunno, this feels like the end of the published version. For fans of really schmoopy couples and bear gods who are not named Shardik.

By Ehito and Koyukomu. Released in Japan as “Konyakusha no Uwaki Genba wo Michatta no de Hajimari no Kane ga Narimashita” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Chris Craigo.

This book was all over the place, frankly. In terms of the pacing and structure – we start where a lot of villainess novels start, but then circle back over and over to pick up the backstory, most of which is shoved into the “side stories” after the bulk of the book. In terms of the characterization – Sophelia and Livionis may be the only two people in the book who are not completely bananas, and that’s only by a matter of degree. And in terms of tone, where we’re shown the wretched and soul-crushing life that Sophitia has had to date, but we also get a love story so utterly cheesy that even the narrator turns into Tearmoon Empire’s narrator halfway through and starts mocking them. Hell, even the horse is sick of them. The horse, by the way, gets a narrative POV for a bit. As I said, this is all over the place. I loved it.

Sophitia von Lotus, the fiancee of the Prince Regent, screams loudly as she comes across her fiance in bed with her younger sister. Except this all appears to be part of a master plan that everyone in the world is in on (except, perhaps, the fiance and the sister) to rescue her from her crappy life. Especially her knight, Livionis Warrion, who has been madly in love with her for several years, ever since the traditional “meet while hiding at a tea party” childhood moment. Now there’s no time to lose, as they fake their death and flee the country. While the rest of the country deals with the fallout, Sophie and Livio (as they rechristen themselves) find themselves dealing with something neither of them were prepared for – they’re both adorable dorks embarrassed at the slightest thing.

As I said above, the main plotline is only about 2/3 of the book, with the rest being side stories that fill in the backstory. Which tells us that the king and queen are sociopaths, but good guys, Sophie’s family and fiance are sociopaths, but bad guys, and every single knight in the regiment has been drafted into the Sophitia fan club, because it turns out the king was not raising her as a fiance to be a good little wifey, he was raising her to run the kingdom as he knew his son was a prat. Everyone else also knew this, but no one else bothered to tell Sophitia, so she gradually ground her sense of self-worth into spackle. The main reason to get this volume is the sheer chasm that separates the way that everyone treats this young woman with the goopy schmoopy romance she ends up in with her gorgeous knight (we’re told he’s gorgeous every three pages, so I feel I can bang it in here). Special mention must go to the king and queen, whose relationship I can only describe as “toxic (affectionate)”.

I have a feeling that the next volume will be a bit more normal, though the addition of a runaway king (different king) and his magic-obsessed fiancee will help keep it from just being days of nothing but blushing. Fans of villainess books should definitely check this out.