The Dragon and the Blade Saint: This Isn’t Where We End, Vol. 1

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By garry and Taiga. Released in North America by J-Novel Club.

This is another of the winners of the Original J-Novel Club light novel contest, getting a runner-up prize. That feels about right, as while I enjoyed this book I felt it wasn’t quite as good as some of the others I’ve read. This is one of those titles where we go back and forth between the two protagonists. Unfortunately, it makes the book awkwardly balanced, as the author does not want to introduce the Blade Saint until nearly halfway through the book. This definitely makes me appreciate the dragon, as she’s a lot of fun, being a fish out of water sort, as well as an arrogant girl who can also back it up when she wants to. I was reasonably sure I knew where her story was going, but it was fun seeing her get there. As for the Blade Saint, most of his half of the book shows us his Tragic Backstory, and you can hear the capital letters as you read. Fortunately, the cause of said tragedy is dealt with here, so I’m hoping future volumes give him something to move forward with. (Like a dragon.)

Some time in the future, a dragon faces off against the human who’s about to kill her, the deadly Blade Saint. However, she uses a magical device to go back in time so that she can destroy him before he gets this powerful. She ends up at the ubiquitous magical academy that so many light novels have, where she’s quickly captured and collared – literally – by short but powerful mage Karen, who, after consulting with the student council president (a vampire who is more than she seems) and the headmaster, helps Mitaelshuroxa (now going by “El”) to attend school, provided that she can defeat enough people in the combat course she wants to join. This includes a beastgirl who’s fighting to give status to her family, an arrogant guy who wants to use SCIENCE!, and of course the Blade Saint, who is a teenager at this point, and who she dearly wants to kill.

El is fun. She’s annoyed that she can’t just fly everywhere, her lunch consists almost entirely of parfaits, and she has the brains and brawn to back up her attitude, though all three of her opponents give her trouble. Karen is also a lot of fun, and I wish that she’d been the other protagonist, to be honest. Ca’al is dealing with a lot. He’s a young man from a noble house on the decline, whose parents, when they aren’t screaming at each other, abuse him horribly. His sole happiness is going out to play with Soreya, a girl who unfortunately I found it hard to really like as I haven’t seen someone this destined to be a tragic backstory since Bridge to Terabithia. She’s fun, spunky, and “deserved” to be the next Blade Saint, but her death allows our hero to, after years of pain and nightmares, avenge her. There wasn’t anything wrong with this sequence, I just found it much less fun than El’s side.

This is a decent book, and I can see why it got a prize. I’d read some of the other contest winners first, though.

The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes, Vol. 10

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By Bisu and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Tensei Oujo wa Kyou mo Hata o Tatakioru” by Arian Rose. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Esther Sun.

It’s been so long with everyone in the cast adoring Rosemary that it’s sometimes a surprise to remember that there are those who don’t love Rosemary, and part of this is because she’s been kept in bubble wrap for most of her life. It’s only now that she’s married to Leonhart and has a few world-changing innovations under her belt that she can afford to move on to the really, really impossible tasks of shoujo light novels: the grand ball with catty nobility all present and correct. Fortunately, Rosemary is still so utterly gorgeous that almost everyone who sees her either falls in love or gives up. Oh sure, there’s the King’s annoying cousin, who fragrantly tries to get Leonhart to take his daughter as a mistress in front of Rosemary. But clearly he’s too stupid to love, so there’s no way that he’d actually be part of the main plot, right?

Now that Rosemary has used her protagonist powers to not be evil and executed, and to make sure that her family all love each other (well, mostly, the King and Queen still mostly exist as a political marriage), she has to deal with the fact that that family wants to protect her and see her safe, especially now that she’s pregnant.This means her mother wants to help her choose the proper dress for the ball, while her brothers, who want to help but can’t see her change, are left to fume outside. Even her father, who has lived his entire life under the rule of “it doesn’t matter if I’m an asshole as long as the end result is good” spots her exhaustion at the ball and deliberately screws up her hair to force her to leave early and not get sick. This is not even mentioning her husband, or bodyguard, or any of the 80,000 others. Boy, you’d have to be REALLY DUMB to try to go after her!

The bulk of this book is Rosemary setting up a harvest festival for her nearby village. They used to have a big one, but it gradually petered out, and she wants to peter it up again. This is helped by her actually caring about the wives and grandmothers of the village and wanting to see what their traditional foods and crafts are. Speaking of crafts, we also see her interacting with her autistic jewelry designer Ayame (I usually try not to diagnose fictional characters, but sometimes it’s impossible not to) and Ayame’s childhood friend/minder Hiiragi, who would probably be married to her if she weren’t in love with Rosemary and making delicate jewelry pieces, in that order. Oh yes, and there’s even the son of Duke Evil, who is trying his best to save his family and domain from dear old dad’s plotting, and he ALSO falls in love with Rosemary while also seeing she already has the perfect husband.

With all this going on, it’s no wonder she doesn’t give birth in this. There’s no sign of Book 11 in Japan, either. Oh well, we’ve got enough adoration of Rosemary here for three new books. I do enjoy this, but hope you don’t hate perfect characters.

Betrothed to My Sister’s Ex, Vol. 1

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By Tobirano and Mai Murasaki. Released in Japan as “Zutaboro Reijou wa Ane no Moto Konyakusha ni Dekiai Sareru” by M Novels f. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Rymane Tsouria. Adapted by Zubonjin.

Ah, it’s time for another of my favorite genres. No, not Cinderella story, although this is that as well. No, it’s the classic shoujo light novel genre of “I am so horribly abused by my family that my self-worth is garbage and I will spend volumes trying to like myself”. Generally speaking, these books live and die on their heroine. Sometimes they suffer stoically, such as The Too-Perfect Saint (this will not be the last time I mention The Too-Perfect Saint in this review). Sometimes they are such pollyannas that the abuse doesn’t even register as such. And sometimes they just accept that they’re terrible and ugly and awful because that’s what their parents say, and live a life of quiet desperation. That’s where Marie is at the start of this book. Fortunately, we know that things will get much better for her, but the challenge, with someone like Marie, is to make her accept that she deserves to have good things happen to her at all.

The title may throw off the savvy reader, who sees it and expects an evil sister to go along with the evil parents. In fact, Marie’s sister Anastasia is the only good thing in her life, and the two of them get along great (Much like Too-Perfect Saint). Unfortunately, Marie’s parents REALLY despise her. They force her to do all the chores – yes, they have servants, but why use them when you have Marie? – and her 18th birthday party is hijacked and used as an excuse to get a rich husband for her sister. A proposal soon arrives from Kyros, a Count who’s going to be a Duke when he inherits. The parents could not be happier. Anastasia is, frankly, terrified, but she goes to his country… and dies in a carriage accident along the way. Now they have to send Marie, the “horrible” sister. (Again, Too-Perfect Saint, yes.) Marie, who is not only grieving for her sister but being told she’s only useful as a womb and that she should never have been born, meekly goes along. Fortunately, a series of misunderstandings mean that her welcome is much nicer than expected.

An anime of this has aired in the summer (so no spoilers for the second book in the comments, please), and everyone agreed that the absolute best thing about this title was Mio, Kyros’ head maid. They’re absolutely correct, Mio is indeed the best thing. She’s a badass, snarky, caring, and has an appetite for food that boggles the mind. She helps both of her charges, though finds herself exasperated with Kyros, whose screw-up (he met Marie at the party when she was hiding in the garden and fell in love with her, but assumed, as it was a party to engage the other sister, that she was Anastasia) led to all this. I also like what little we see of Anastasia, who loves to sew masculine outfits for women and wishes she were in a different type of shoujo light novel (the “my family goes under and I have to become a merchant” kind). As for Marie, well, her growth is the point, but I will warn folks, her self-hatred oozes from almost every line she has till near the end, and she cannot accept anything good happening to her. This is understandable, but readers might balk.

Not me, though. I want more of this. It’s like catnip.