By Shinten-Shinchi and Tokima. Released in Japan as “Goblin Reijō to Tensei Kizoku ga Shiawase ni Naru Made: Konyakusha no Tame no Zense Chishiki no Jōzu na Tsukaikata” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Geirrlon Dunn.

I am noticing that a lot of these light novel romances, particularly in the “J-Novel Heart” line, tend to wrap up in three volumes. It seems like a natural ending point, and I’ve grown very used to seeing the classic “couple in wedding gear” cover on that third book. We don’t get that here, because Gino and Ana are already married (instead you get one of their few moments of downtime in the book), but I am pleased that the author has realized this is the time to stop. Mostly, it needs to stop before it becomes a shonen manga. As Gino reveals more of his true abilities, and Ana learns just how powerful her magic really is, they are forced to go up against the king, and also go to war with another country. The book ends with Ana being named a literal saint. Where does one go from there? Best to wrap it up.

Gino and Ana have been gifted new territory… which just had the most important people leave it. Yup, he’s being set up to fail again, so that they can justify having him divorce Ana and getting her properly married to a prince. This is the danger of curing your wife’s condition and showing off the beauty she always had. Fortunately, they’re both very clever and are able to get the territory running smoothly. And then the king is, supposedly, tragically killed on a coach journey. And the queen and crown prince are, tragically, also supposedly dead. Which means the first prince is now the king. He’s already sent assassins to try to kill Gino, that didn’t work. Now he’s going to send Gino to fight in a pointless war. Does this happy couple ever get to relax?

As with so many other romance novels, the unstated message here is “communicate with your spouse!”. Despite growing increasingly more powerful and confident, the pair are still beset by doubts constantly, and therapy can only do so much. Ana, in particular, has PTSD from Gino dumping her in the last book, and is convinced it will happen again if she ever disobeys him. This despite the fact that she was the top military strategist in their school, and also has enough magic power to reduce a battlefield to molten lava. Fortunately, they both get over it by the end of the book. I also liked the subplot with Lady Francess, which reminds people that, as much fun as it’s been seeing Ana’s mother be the power behind everything in the country, sometimes women want to actually run things. I’m not sure that I buy not executing her with the rest of her family, but hey. I also appreciated, once again, the crown prince becoming a better person through the power of therapy. More therapy in light novels!

All this and references to Sailor Moon, Naruto, Jesus, Buddha, and magical stuffed animal bodyguards that will make readers think of Bookworm. This was a solid series, I’m happy to have read it.

By Shinten-Shinchi and Tokima. Released in Japan as “Goblin Reijō to Tensei Kizoku ga Shiawase ni Naru Made: Konyakusha no Tame no Zense Chishiki no Jōzu na Tsukaikata” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Geirrlon Dunn.

So this book, like the first one, is overall a good, solid volume, and I really like some of the character work within, as well as some of the writing choices. Unfortunately, as with the first book, some of the writing choices made me want to claw my hair out. I’ve talked before about a lot of shoujo light novel titles starting with an “eat your vegetables” section, where we have to see the low ebb of our heroine before we get to the good stuff. In this book, the vegetables are the main course, and the middle third of the book is just a never-ending stream of me screaming at the male lead “GODDAMMIT, DO NOT DO THIS, YOU DUMBASS!” Spoiler: he does it. In fact, not really even much of a spoiler, as it’s one of the scenes chosen for color pages. Fortunately, the wraparound makes it worth the slog. Just.

Gino and Ana start off the book blissfully happy. She’s grown more confident thanks to having the love of her fiance. He’s dutifully researching the way to find a cure for her curse. The research leads him to lean more strongly towards this world being his own far in the future, rather than an alternate world. The two of them are even able to watch Gino’s tomboyish and somewhat ditzy sister manage to find the fiance who’s right for her, rather than picking whatever appeals to her at that moment. Unfortunately, a chance conversation with Ana’s father, and Ana trying to avoid offending the royal family in public by giving vague answers, leads Gino and Ana to play “I hate myself” and “no, I hate myself more” for the next 120 pages.

I’m going to ignore everything about Gino breaking up with Ana, torpedoing his reputation, and fleeing to a dive bar, as I never want to think about it again. Instead, let’s talk about the good things, most of which are more character than plot driven. For all that I absolutely hated Gino’s choices, the book is very careful to lay out in great detail why his upbringing in his previous life led him to have the kind of mindset that means this was the first thing that came to mind for him. I also loved the fact that, after six months and much anguish, the two are reunited… and Ana begins seeing a therapist, in order to get help from the mental anguish she’d been in. More light novel therapists, that was great! I also loved the scene of Ana at the singles dance, being very carefully railroaded into becoming the first prince’s concubine and even more carefully managing to get out of it. Yes, a lot of it was her mother’s plan, but it was brilliantly executed.

You may have heard me say this before, but here it is again: this book ends with the second volume, except there’s a third. I don’t know if it will be short stories or if it will continue to try to throw our now newlywed couple into annoying situations (please don’t end with them being the King and Queen, I beg of you). That said, I will grit my teeth and read more, because I do enjoy this series. Except when I don’t.

By Shinten-Shinchi and Tokima. Released in Japan as “Goblin Reijō to Tensei Kizoku ga Shiawase ni Naru Made: Konyakusha no Tame no Zense Chishiki no Jōzu na Tsukaikata” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Geirrlon Dunn.

Before we start, I really enjoyed one of the big twists in this book, and am going to have to discuss it, but I’ll put it after the cover image, so spoiler FYI.

And since I’m going to be talking about something I love as a spoiler, let’s start the review with something I loved less. This is, for the most part, a very good book, and I enjoyed both lead characters, their cool families, and their battle maids. But it does have a plot that I have always hated whenever I see it in both Eastern and Western books, TV< movies, manga, etc., which is the "if you're being bullied, the best thing to do is to get mentally stronger". Now, this isn't quite as bad as some – Ana's appearance is not, as of this first volume, something she can control, and we're given a real reason she doesn't simply tell an authority figure (in this case her mother). And the bullies do get theirs. But they only get theirs after Ana steps up and stops acting bullied. That leaves me conflicted.

Our protagonist is Ginorious, aka Gino. The fourth son of a viscount, he’s a commoner merchant due to being unable to inherit the title. Fortunately, he’s able to rely on his past memories from when he lived in Japan to help his business take off. Then one day his family get a marriage proposal from a duke’s family – i.e., they can’t turn this down. The family want him to marry their daughter Anastasia, who, due to a curse, has a lumpy forehead, long pointed ears, and green skin. She looks very much like a goblin, and has acquired a nasty nickname. Her other marriage partners were disgusted with her and treated her horribly the moment they were out of parental range. Fortunately for her, in his past life in Japan, Gino also had a terrible facial appearance, and spent his whole long life alone and unloved. So like hell he’ll let that happen to her.

So yeah. Let’s face it, when you hear “reincarnated from Japan”, you expect it to be, well, OUR Japan. And nothing in the first seventy pages or so says otherwise, except the occasional hint that Gino wears a mysterious ring. But as it turns out, the Japan he’s from is filled with magic, golems, etc. In fact, he was a golem engineer in Japan for most of his previous life. And what’s more, in Japan they knew a lot more about exactly what Ana’s curse is – it means she’s got far too much mana. Unfortunately, this isn’t Ehrenfest, and Ana cannot simply pour mana into various instruments until she’s better. Indeed, this world doesn’t really “get” mana that much. But it does mean that he knows a possible way forward. This was a great twist that helped distract me from “of course this will end with them curing her and she’ll be gorgeous”, which seems to be the actual long-term plot.

for the most part, this is really sweet and syrupy. It’s less good in the second half, not just from the bullying and more that I’m a bit sick to death of the school full of nobles by now. But it’s still a strong debut, and I will happily read a second volume.