Category Archives: reviews

True Love Fades Away When the Contract Ends: Music of the Flower Gardens and Heaven

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By Kosuzu Kobato and Fumi Takamura. Released in Japan as “Unmei no Koibito wa Kigen Tsuki” by Maple Novels. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Sarah Moon. Adapted by Max Machiavelli.

Last time I wondered if this (at the time) standalone book would be getting any more volumes. With this second one it’s very clear that the series is in it for the long haul, or at least the relatively long haul of a shoujo webnovel (the online version is about five volumes total). One way you can tell this is the case is that the ending of this volume is very unsatisfactory as a standalone. There is a conspiracy to replace the heir to the throne with a more amenable person, and that fails, with the politician behind it punished appropriately. But honestly, the reader has not cared much about that, and it always feels remote and irrelevant. What we care about is Fiona and Giles. And it has to be said, at the end of this volume they’re acting like Fiona is no longer under threat of being murdered if she goes out in the streets anymore, and I’m wondering… why? Because our bad guy is still the big bad guy.

Fiona has caught a rapscallion trying to steal her purse!… who turns out to actually be the one responsible for all the forgeries that have been floating around. He’s mad at Fiona because her catching the fact that that painting was a fake means he was summarily dismissed by Gordon, and is essentially now a street rat. That also means he’s a valuable witness, though, especially because, while identifying another fake, Fiona and Giles discover the fakes have planted evidence urging a rebellion against the crown… and they’re all being bought by the crown prince’s allies. Someone is trying to upend this country and foment rebellion. Is it the stuffy politician who is the leader of the opposition? Or is it the guy that Fiona shamed in the first book, who seems to be trying to ruin her in a much more dramatic way?

Fear not, the romance between Fiona and Giles is still very much at the forefront… well, as much as it can be at this point. Fiona is falling for Giles but doesn’t realize it, and keeps reminding herself that this is fake. Giles has fallen for Fiona and admitted it, but she’s still just a baron’s daughter, so he has a long way to go before he can make it reality. And he also has to get her to realize his feelings, which would involve… telling her. Can’t have that. The really surprising scene in this volume is meeting Giles’ father, who has always been cold and aloof with him, and finding, like a lot of dads in these shoujo romance novels, that he’s cold and aloof mostly as he’s bad at feelings, and that he actually is looking out for Giles in his own way. As for Fiona, well, she still loves art first, her uncle second, and Giles a distant third.

Still, a side story suggests her own engagement, which is currently “on hold”, might be falling apart naturally. At least I can be more confident there’s a third volume coming, if only as the bad guy got away. A solid volume.

Housekeeping Mage from Another World: Making Your Adventures Feel Like Home!, Vol. 8

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By You Fuguruma and Nama. Released in Japan as “Kasei Madoushi no Isekai Seikatsu: Boukenchuu no Kasei Fugyou Uketamawarimasu!” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

It’s been over a year since we saw the last volume of this series, so I was already struggling to recall what happened in the last book. For the author to them spring a major supporting character we had not seen since the first volume might be just a bit mean. But it ended up being a really good subplot, so I will forgive them. Honestly, this author is pretty good at mapping out the past, present and future of this world. We’ve gotten most of the past already, and we get another big chunk in the side story that ends this volume. The present, as always, is what’s taking forever, as all of the things that Alec and Shiori have to do at the end of the last book… they still need to do. And we get glimpses of the future all through this book, as we’re starting to see the “little did they know that in twenty years” narrative device used by authors who see an ending in sight.

Having finally gotten together with Alec *and* confessed about all of her past (including being from Japan), Shiori is now ready to move forward, which means teaching the other adventurers and mages in the city about her housekeeping magic. It’s harder than it seems, as most of them are either dealing with having to hold back or else simply never having had the imagination to think about such things. All these mages have is hammers, and Shiori is teaching them all the other ways to solve a problem besides nails. Unfortunately, her class is interrupted by a nearby avalanche, and they head to a nearby village to help… only to find that there’s also a magical beat on the loose… one that may have been engineered by the Empire.

So yeah, I wasn’t expecting to see Vivi again, mostly as I had completely forgotten about Vivi. Remember when those three girls abused Shiori back at the start of the series? And she used illusion magic to terrify them so badly that two fled back home and one ended up dead? Well, Vivi is one of the ones who fled back home, she’s had a heaping helping of humility, and she wants to apologize to Shiori, who graciously accepts it. (Of course she does. Were you expecting something else?) The interesting thing is that we them have Vivi attending Shiori’s housekeeping mage class, and also following to help with the avalanche. The extended focus on her POV not only allows us to see the depths of how much she actually has changed, but also demonstrates the dangers of using magic the same way every time (her left hand can now barely use magic since she always casts with her right) as well as how apologizing doesn’t always solve everything – the rest of the group are very reluctant to approve of her till after the disaster, when her actions help demonstrate what her words didn’t. I was very pleased with her entire subplot.

Will Alec and Shiori be any closer to marrying next time? Or will the building of the magic academy (oh no, not a magic academy!) take up all its time? Fortunately, we won’t have to wait another 14 months to find out – the next volume is out in the spring.

The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom, Vol. 1

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By Fuyutsuki Koki and Masami. Released in Japan as “Kanpeki Sugite Kawaige ga Nai to Konyaku Haki Sareta Seijo wa Ringoku ni Urareru” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Tiffany Lim. Adapted by Shaenon K. Garrity.

This one really took me by surprise. The first, oh, forty pages or so read like Saint by Numbers, frankly. We’ve read this story before. Our heroine, who is fantastic at magic and smart and pretty but perhaps overly serious, is shunned by her fiance the prince, and exiled from the kingdom – in this case, literally sold to another kingdom for cash. When she arrives at her new homeland, she’s rather stunned to find that everyone there is treating her nicely, happy to see her, and urging her to take breaks and enjoy herself. Something that, well, she’s not particularly good at, as she grew up as the abused eldest daughter you almost always see in these sorts of books. We also hear about the youngest daughter, also a Saint, who supposedly loves her sister, but is now going to end up with the prince instead. Uh uh, I thought. Cue evil sister. Oh, how delightfully wrong I was.

For the summary of the start of the book, see above. Philia is somewhat horrified by this, but having been raised since birth to have almost no sense of self-worth, she quietly goes along with it. That said, Philia is only one of the two protagonists in this book. Back in her old country, Mia, the younger sister, is equally horrified to hear that (according to everyone else, that is) Philia chose to run off to another country, leaving Mia as the sole Saint. What’s more, after a brief period of being devastated by his fiancee leaving him that lasts about three days, the prince is now proposing to Mia instead. She suspects something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and decides to play detective to figure out what’s really going on. (Hint: treason.)

So yes, the big reveal is that Mia is not only the co-protagonist but just as likeable as her sister. Mia was raised in a family of love, separated from her older sister (we find out why later), and is relatively well-adjusted, so is definitely the one to be trying to investigate the potential multiple assassinations happening around her. Philia, meanwhile, is “dull, unfriendly, and far too serious”, according to the prince, and he’s not really far off. She was raised in a household without love, her education ranged from strict to ludicrous, and basic human decency baffles her, to the point where she’s poleaxed when people tell her not to immediately go out and save the country but take a day to rest. And honestly, for the best she didn’t, as it turns out Philia is better suited to save the entire WORLD.

This isn’t perfect – as always with this genre, the evil nobles are cartoonishly evil, and Philia’s two potential romantic interests seem to be there only because this genre always has two princes both in love with the Saint. But its main conceit is terrific (it’s getting an anime in April), and even though it seemingly wrapped everything up in the first book, I’ll read Book 2, which doubtless will focus more on those romantic loose ends.