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The Temptation of Marielle Clarac

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By Haruka Momo and Maro. Released in Japan as “Marielle Clarac no Saiai” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Philip Reuben.

There have been a lot of J-Novel Heart series by now, of various shades and types, and one thing that Marielle Clarac has over the rest of them is that it’s easily the biggest in terms of page length. These are all chunky books, a good 50 or so pages longer than the average light novel, and filled with lots of plot complications and twists. It’s nice to see the reader getting some bang for their buck. Especially as, as with previous installments of the series, we have to alternate between Marielle’s crime solving persona and Marielle being a complete flibbertigibbet, going on about romantic and BL-laced tropes while also sometimes missing the obvious. But that’s why we’re here, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Last time I said the wedding seemed imminent, and it still is (the next volume is called “The Wedding of…”), but first we have to deal with a bit of a crisis that might put a wrench in things. It’s hard to marry when your fiance is under arrest.

To Marielle’s horror, Simeon has been taken into custody for allegedly selling state secrets, and while it’s fairly obvious he isn’t doing that, she is ordered not to interfere in the investigation. As you can imagine, she does not obey this order at ALL, twisting around various vows and promises she makes with an increasingly frustrated Prince to try to see who is framing her beloved. Is it the childhood friend who seems to have a troubled past? Is it the gorgeous woman who wears pants and seems to be very friendly with Simeon indeed? (And does this mean that Simeon has had other women before Marielle?) Is it the gorgeous blond who looks like he stepped out of Rose of Versailles, who Marielle keeps getting saved by at odd moments? Is it Simeon’s puppy-like brother? (OK, it’s probably not.) Or is it the angry Naval commander with a vicious hatred of Simeon? The answer… is not TOO surprising, but well handled.

Now that Marielle and Simeon are a couple, and know of each other’s feelings, but are NOT married yet, there’s a lot of tension between them. Part of this is simply that they are really lusting after each other, and there are several almost kisses here, along with Simeon trying to exercise great restraint in not pushing Marielle up onto his desk and having his way with her. Balancing this is Marielle’s poor self-image, which continues to balance with her extroverted confidence – she’s accepted her plain looks, and so doesn’t get upset when they are pointed out. (Simeon does, as his brother finds out in a painful way.) This leads to some doubt and jealousy when she meets Rose, who also could have stepped out of the pages of Rose of Versailles. Among this is the usual thriller stuff, including a visit to a brother far shadier than the one Marielle usually sneaks into, and another wonderful conversation with Marielle’s nemesis Lady Aurelia, who will be best friends with her by Book 5 at the rate they’re going.

So another fun entry in the series, provided you can tolerate the heroine basically doing whatever the heck she wants with no regards to the consequences.

ROLL OVER AND DIE: I Will Fight for an Ordinary Life with My Love and Cursed Sword!, Vol. 1

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By kiki and kinta. Released in Japan as “Omae Gotoki ga Maou ni Kateru to Omou na” to Gachizei ni Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou Sareta node, Outo de Kimama ni Kurashitai” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Jason Muell.

Given the title, you’re probably expecting one of those slow life titles. Young woman is told she can’t be in the hero’s party, so she ends up living her life in the city as an H&R Block Accountant and getting into everyday troubles. Well, half of that is true. Unfortunately for Flum, this first volume definitely is not a “slow life” book, but a “gore-filled horror” book. There is yuri as well, of course, and that seems to be the main selling point for the book both in Japan and here, but for the most part the reader is here to read about graphic, somewhat appalling battles that our heroine is forced to fight in order to save her own life and that of Milkit, a fellow slave that she met while being tortured to death. Yeah, that’s right, it’s one of those slavery books as well.

As noted, Flum is part of the hero’s party to defeat the demons, mostly due to a prophecy. Unfortunately, Flum’s stats are all zero – and can’t be raised. This seemingly makes the entire party hate and turn against her, though most of this hatred springs from Jean, who decides to do something about it by selling her into slavery and abandoning her. Given that her stats are zero, she’s not a great slave either, so the slave owner decides to kill her (this is where she meets Milkit). Fortunately, the “cursed sword” part of the title comes into play here, and Flum discovers how her powers are really supposed to work. Unfortunately, after escaping, things are still not very slow life. She has to work as an adventurer to live, and ends up pissing off the local adventurer goons. Milkit has been so beaten down by slavery that she’s unable to think for herself. And, while trying to get a rare and illegal herb, she discovers that her name is far more important than she expected.

First things first, if you dislike death, blood and violence, drop this book like a hot potato. I was not kidding when I said this was a horror novel, particularly in the back half, where we meet up with a nigh unkillable scientific experiment. That said, the book ended up being quite readable. Flum is likeable and grows fast once she realizes that she CAN grow. I’m less happy with Milkit, especially her need to dress up as a maid call Flum her Master, but I will assume that her character arc is not yet finished and but it aside for now. (Their yuri scenes are all packed together at the end of the book, and are sickeningly cute). There’s also the start of the book, where we see Flum’s POV of the rest of the party, and she comes to the conclusion that they all find her a useless burden. The reader accepts this too, and when it later turns out not to be true, it feels a bit out of the blue.

All this and an adorable ten-year-old battle nun. (More nuns should use maces instead of rulers.) This is definitely not Adachi and Shimamura, but if you like your yuri filled with swordplay, magic and a whole lot of blood and guts, it could be right up your alley.

Altina the Sword Princess, Vol. 5

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By Yukiya Murasaki and himesuz. Released in Japan as “Haken no Kouki Altina” by Famitsu Bunko. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Roy Nukia.

We start things off in this volume with the the battle Altina and Regis came to at the start of the fourth book. They win, but it isn’t pretty, and there are a lot of casualties, which briefly devastates Regis, who until now has been fairly lucky in his plans having minimal fatal consequences. They also lose Eric, who gets an arrow to the shoulder and has to be left behind. But they are able to muster a force and set out to help fight against Brittania, whose main force are the villains we met last time – Oswald, the eccentric tactician, and Margaret, the bored and changeable queen, who are likely meant to be a dark counterpart to our hero and heroine. Regis and Altina both must deal with the other companies of soldiers looking down on and belittling them. Can they survive what turns out to be a fierce battle? And, most importantly, can Regis survive meeting up with his sister?

Meeting up with Vanessa is probably the highlight of this book for readers who aren’t here for the combat. She’s a lot of fun, and I love her husband (he’s a blacksmith who is tasked with fixing Altina’s massive sword, which she broke in the initial battle of this book, and he’s also a sword nerd who will no doubt make it 800 times better). That said, I was intrigued by the serious core of her story, as she reveals just how Regis got his superhuman lack of self-confidence. It’s rather sad, and fits very well with a twelve-year-old girl who’s trying to be the adult in the family but is still emotionally growing and does not take kindly to having a younger sibling who’s brilliant. It also shows that words matter, and things that you teach kids can leave lingering scars even after you no longer mean them.

As for the battle itself, it’s a classic case of “we are arrogant and will listen to our arrogant tactician’, which sadly leads to piles on piles of dead soldiers and a tactician who has his mind broken by events. Luckily, Regis is there to ave the day, though I think he’s going to need to learn how to think about battles that are not related to a fantasy book he happened to read a while back. And the battle is won at great cost, while the war is still going. I expect this war will continue into the 6th book. One interesting feature was showing us a brief look at a common soldier, charging into the enemy. He’s a farmer and sets off several death flags, including mentioning wanting to see his wife and kids back home. Imagine my surprise when he shows up at the end to be the one soldier who was not beaten down by the battle and who wants their fight to actually mean something. I wonder if we’ll see more of him.

It may be a bit – Book 6 has not yet debuted on J-NC’s site – but I will definitely be sticking around for the next book in this series, an underrated military history where the only fantasy element is that it’s set in “not-France”.